Up until recently, have been using Contactless payments to tag on and off buses and trains in Auckland City in an attempt to take advantage of the $20 daily fare cap (Not available for AT Hop card, instead AT HOP has a $50 weekly fare cap which I’m not able to take advantage of), however the system occasionally (but frequently enough to be aggravating) screws up despite me carefully checking for a green light and a “tag success” message at the tag station each time

Seems their system in the back end often failing to pair up the tags correctly resulting in cascading erroneous “missing tag” events and multiple “Default fares” subsequently being charged.

The process to query these has been very mixed. Sometimes I get a refund in days, sometimes it takes weeks or even months of back and forth like this latest case.

The common trigger pattern for me at least has been when a trip has involved a quick transfer at any point. For example: You tag off at the train station gates and then quickly tag on to a nearby waiting bus.

Given the friction and in spite of increased fuel costs – Have decided to curtail my use of Auckland’s Public Transport until Auckland Transport pull their finger out and fix the system. The risk of AT’s system error’ing out weighing in my mind and the subsequent arduous process to obtain a refund has drastically reduced my willingness to take Auckland Public Transport in the meantime.