There are various ways to purchase a ticket for the train in Vorarlberg. You can buy the ticket from the ticket machines at the train stations or you can use the “fairtiq” app. In the app, start is pressed at the beginning of the journey and stop at the end of the journey. The app automatically calculates the cheapest tariff and debits the amount using the saved payment method.
On her journey from Götzis to Lindau, Carolin Schuller purchased her ticket via this app and pressed start at the beginning of the journey. At Hohenems, Schuller was checked by an inspector. When she tried to show her ticket on her cell phone, the app displayed an error message. The inspector then said that Schuller had to ensure that the app worked. As a result, she received a fine of 135 euros.
Trouble with ÖBB ticket
If you travel by bus or train, you need a valid ticket. So far so clear. It gets complicated if a ticket was bought via a mobile phone app, but the app is not working during the check. Like Carlin Schuller from Klaus, who should have paid a fine of 135 euros and then contacted us. “Vorarlberg today” asks.
Valid ticket purchased
Schuller writes an e-mail to the ÖBB and does not pay the 135 euros because she can prove that the ticket was actually bought via the app. She gets the message from “fairtiq”: “I can confirm that a ticket for 8.60 euros, valid for two hours, has been charged.”
Shortly following the check, the app worked once more and Schuller took a screenshot of the ticket. However, the ÖBB is not impressed by this, they write in an e-mail: “Regarding your request, we inform you that the additional fare claim was issued correctly in accordance with the tariff. Tickets that are not personalized must be presented during the journey or during ticket inspection. In a subsequent check, it is not possible to clearly assign this ticket to a traveler. The claim therefore remains valid.”
A penalty became a processing fee
“Vheute asks” confronted the ÖBB spokesman with the case. Especially with the question of why the claim remains valid despite the subsequent proof of a valid ticket and received the following answer: “After consultation, the app worked very well in the period in question, one cannot explain the technical error. Since we now have further documents from the ORF that confirm Ms. Schuller’s statements, we offer her, as a gesture of goodwill, to reduce the additional fare claim to a processing fee of 10 euros.”
The ORF Vorarlberg did not provide the ÖBB with “further documents”, but only the same documents that Carolin Schuller had already sent them.
AK expert on problems with the ÖBB app
Karin Hinteregger from the Chamber of Labor consumer protection is a guest in the studio. She talks regarding problems for consumers that are increasingly occurring due to digitization. Problems are currently occurring with the ÖBB app in particular.
Lack of understanding among consumer advocates
From the point of view of Karin Hinteregger from consumer protection at the Chamber of Labour, ÖBB issued the additional fare claim correctly because Schuller was unable to produce a ticket at the time of the check. It is incomprehensible to Hinteregger, however, that the ÖBB did not book the additional fare claim immediately, despite the submission of the evidence for the ticket purchase. According to Hinteregger, problems with ÖBB’s “fairtiq” app would only occur very rarely.
If you have a climate ticket, as a personalized ticket, and cannot show it at a check because you forgot it at home, you will also be charged a fare surcharge. You can appeal once morest this and if you then show the ticket, the fine will be reduced to a processing fee of ten euros, explains Hinteregger.
