Phone died with ticket purchased on App. Still got a ticket - 100 CHF.

Hanon

I know many people have experienced this, but such a stupid situation to deal with. Surely with technology advancement these days, they must upgrade this to link purchases in the app to swisspass. or at least allow for the card to be loaded with one day tickets that could be read by the scanners. Now I am likely to pay 30 CHF for doing the right thing and a hour extra to resolve. For now on, I will just buy the ticket with the bus driver or machine. That way I will have a physical ticket always - bad for the environment but good for my stress levels and finances.

Danhiel

Hello Hanon

This a risk with electronic tickets on a smartphone and this risk is assumed only by the travelers. But if you have a ticket on security paper and you lose it, you are in the same situation.

For international travels with an Interrail pass I have always a second smartphone with me, it would be possible to transfer the pass.

Kind regards
Danhiel

RolandP

Hello Hanon

Or having a charger or a power bank with you, … And being upset with the person that has discharged your phone 😀

Why claim others to be faulty when the root cause is actually you?

Kind regards,
Roland

Hanon

RolandP Thanks for the input.

Not every scenario is the same, everyone who travels are all always rational, never make mistakes, they never face unpredictable events, never have emergencies and all have the best most reliable equipment at hand that can handle unplanned time away from charge.

Although I do agree with you, I am at fault for this fine, setting aside the situational facts, I know there have been many events like this and people having to spend 30 CHF on top of their fare to resolve, as well as the cost of the phone call to resolve it.

All I am saying is for such a large organisation, they would have the resources to review the current digital framework and tweak it. traveller batteries will die, their phones can malfunction, they can have emergency situations. What they could do is allow for the ticket inspectors to do a search on the system that records the digital ticket purchases.

Hanon

RolandP And you make an assumption that I spent the battery and not thinking. I actually did no such thing. It was an emergency situation. It took much longer than expected which sometimes… you do not anticipate for. But thank you so much for your assumptions. Have a wonderful day.

RomanoS

HI @Hanon
Many thanks for exposing your experience and problem.
The main problem is to be seen correlated (also) to other situations.

I show what I mean in an example.

If each conductor have to wait till there is a potential other way to make you showing the ticket, there is less controls of tickets in trains or public transportation. We already have to handle the ticket control system with the ressources at our disposal and for a train that can be long up to 500 meters, that is not a easy one.

There is a point where the System cannot handle the personal responsability… there are 1.3 Mio passangers per day… but I see your point… there are different situation every day that can occur.

In my opinion and I’m interested to hear what do you think, in the majority of the cases ( I guess 90%) you are able to show the ticket because everything is running normally, correct?

Many thanks for this discussion and a lovelly day.
Romano

Hanon

RomanoS

Thank you for your thoughtful response and for highlighting the operational challenges conductors face.

I believe there’s a deeper issue that needs addressing: when a passenger purchases a valid ticket through the official SBB app but cannot display it due to whatever circumstances, they are still penalised with a 30 CHF administration fee and their time to rectify the situation—even though proof of purchase exists. It took me 20 minutes waiting (phone cost is charged to me) and the kind lady took 2 minutes to rectify. It would be interesting to see what the real cost breakdown is to justify this 30 CHF fee. I doubt that it would be 30 CHF for 2 minutes of work.

I understand the system cannot verify every ticket in real-time for 1.3 million passengers. But we’re not talking about every case—we’re talking about rare edge cases where someone did almost everything right and is penalized because the system has no fallback. As a customer, I do not get my time back if the train is 20 minutes late. Should there not be a balance in what is defined as fair for all parties?

So what are my thoughts. The current system does not allow inspectors to verify a ticket unless the barcode can be scanned—even though the purchase exists digitally and could, in theory, be verified through the app backend by name, email, or account ID.

Some possible solutions (with my limited information at hand) - Allow conductors to manually check a passenger’s name, email, or SwissPass ID in such situations. Add an offline “ticket wallet” that stores a local verification (like Apple Wallet). Implement a grace period (e.g., 24 hours) to submit proof of valid purchase before an administration fee of 30 CHF is applied,

I completely agree—in 90% of cases (maybe more closer to 95%) everything works fine. But the 5-10% that don’t shouldn’t lead to a penalty when the passengers intentions were sincere.

Thanks again for the open discussion. Such cases can be a stepping stone to transform a good system to a great one. And thank you for your balanced and constructive response.

RolandP

Hello Hanon

Some possible solutions (with my limited information at hand) - Allow conductors to manually check a passenger’s name, email, or SwissPass ID in such situations. Add an offline “ticket wallet” that stores a local verification (like Apple Wallet). Implement a grace period (e.g., 24 hours) to submit proof of valid purchase before an administration fee of 30 CHF is applied.

Besides the QR code, the ticket inspectors can find your ticket provided you know the ticket ID. The lattter is normally not the case since you cannot access the ticket. And, it would also cost a fee since it adds extra work. If the service would be free, people would not take out their phones and simply say: please check it manually. This is what @RomanoS explained.

For data protection reasons, it is impossible to search for tickets of a passenger by name, e-mail, etc. This is in favour of the passenger.

However, what I find very special in your case: why did you call SBB?
The passenger does not have to call SBB and spend money to verify the ticket.
In case the passenger cannot show the ticket during ticket inspection, the passenger is being registered, reason: e-ticket not available. The ticket verification is then done in the background. If a valid ticket has existed at the time of the ticket check, for the route and the passenger travelling, the passenger is paying CHF 30. If there was no ticket, the passenger pays the ticket cost plus the surcharge. In both cases an invoice is sent. Thus, the passenger does not have to take any action, such as spending phone expenses to call SBB.

Yes, the verification is done in the background and is manual work. This would not be different if you could hand-in the ticket within 24 hrs; someone still has to check it.

Imagine you are stopped by the police, and you are not carrying the driving licence with you. The charge to verify it is CHF 20. Or, you need an extract from the debt collection register; although you pay taxes and printing the document does not take more than 2 minutes, the cost is still 17 to 20 CHF for it. You could also call it the polluter-pays principle.

So from my point of view, we have two issues:

The surcharges, in your case CHF 30, are defined in the national tariff, that applies to all public transit companies. Alliance SwissPass is the organisation in charge. If you have an objection, you would to address it to them.
The phone cost to call SBB. This is to be addressed to SBB:
https://www.sbb.ch/en/help-and-contact/customer-service/praise-comments/reklamation.html

And, there is some positive news: the post-travel ticket verification process is soon seeing an improvement.

Kind regards,
Roland

Hanon

RolandP Thanks for the clarity. Much appreciated.

Good to hear about the post travel ticket improvement.

I was informed I had to call the centre by the inspector who issued the infringement. The inspector told me to make contact as soon as possible or the fine would apply. It would have been great for them to relay that to me at the time. I will make mental note however I do not plan to be in that position again.

Overall, I guess it was just a surprise and annoyed that there was no real solution to this. Like a disconnect on what is trying to be achieved by streamlining purchase process and the small gaps. However, if I had to choose between privacy and convenience I would choose privacy.

Much apricated and hope this thread informs others.

RomanoS

Hanon and @RolandP many thanks for the discussion.
So now we know and I would like to ask you @Hanon to set the best answer, that for me is the second one of Rolands.
If you set it with the “three point button”, other Passangers can profite from it 🙂

All the best to you and a nice day.
BR
Romano