ATAF fine,
Having travelled all over Italy throughout the years with no issues regard public transport we found ourselves in a similar position to the above concern. We arrived in Florence for our first time a week past Sunday. We bought 4 tickets to get back to the airport (the ones that last 90 minute duration) - 2 tickets for the bus and 2 for the tram, we were leaving Florence to fly home and as we were staying further up in st Lorenzo and had cases we decided not to walk to the train station/tram service as there were too many tourists and a lot of the pavements are narrow. The bus is a very quick journey about 10 minutes maximum.
My husband put our 2 tickets into the machine on the number 7 bus to validate, the machine clicked but we failed to check the ticket to ensure it was stamped, failure to check they were stamped was our fault but due to the fact we had 2 suitcases, 2 hand luggage and I also had a handbag plus the driver drove away before we were sitting and I almost fell with the jolt+and we had to hold our luggage to avoid them falling over leav8ng us with no free hands it was practically impossible to check them in such a short space of time also , (the day before I did fall backwards and hurt myself falk8ng onto the hard part of the back seat due to the driver moving off before we were sitting/stroke holding onto bars) . Anyway we would never have thought to check if they were stamped as we heard the clicks.
We were almost at the bus terminus when 2 inspectors came on the bus. They approached me and I told them to go to my husband on the opposite side of the bus adjacent to me as he had the tickets which they did accordingly. They checked our!! tickets and one of them approached me holding the tickets up to my face and said the tickets hadn’t been validated.
We told the inspectors the tickets were put in the machine, we heard the machine clicking each time and as the machine was right beside the driver and he was our witness. Instead of approaching the driver with us going with them to speak to the driver both inspectors got off the bus with our tickets and told us to stay on the bus, they were off the bus for over 5 minutes?? Standing talking on the pavement, they came back on then told us to get off the bus and said we had to pay a fine (didn’t mention the cost).
However I asked them to speak to the driver as he was a witness to my husband putting the tickets in and to also check if the machine was working. Regarding asking him to speak to the driver as a witness for us the inspector said this has nothing to do with the driver ( off course it isn’t technically but I wanted to hear him asking the driver to confirm he saw us putting the tickets in the the machine). To me that is a valid request.
Anyway they asked for 100€ in cash (we did not have that money in cash as it was well spent in Florence, he the said we had to pay by card now which we felt we had no option to do so and no time to discuss further because we were in a hurry to get to the airport. I notice in the above post that you have 15 days to pay and can appeal if you haven’t paid (we weren’t advised that either)
I asked him who we should complain to and he said go to the office 8&9 tomorrow as it’s closed on Sunday and they might give us some money back. I pointed out that he could clearly see we were going home(he could see that anyway due to our suitcases and bags), I asked for contact details who to complain to when we were home and he pointed to a url on the back of the ticket.
I also pointed out why would we do this when we were leaving Italy and the tickets would be of no value or use to us after we left. We felt the inspector knew by that point we were genuine but still went ahead with the fine.
I feel we were set up and we have been robbed as we found it very odd that the inspectors got off the bus with our tickets (the bus wasn’t full) they could have easily walked up to the driver on the bus) with bus in tow.
it was also clear we were leaving Florence and why would we not get the tickets stamped when they were no use to us afterwards.
I noticed on another forums an American lady who was traveling with 10 other members of her family claimed she put all 11 tickets into the machine and they were also not stamped and was facing a fine of €1100 but when the inspector saw she had an Italian surname the fines were dropped.
We are so disappointed and due to this we don’t think we will ever come back to Florence ever again, this has spoiled our holiday and in fact it has put us off Italy altogether now. I have emailed
segreteria@ataf.fi.it ( I hope this is the correct email address).
Me and my husband are law abiding citizens, have never broke the law, never been fined till this ridiculous situation occurred. Also they were so busy picking on us the rest of the bus from the middle to the drivers end didn’t get checked. Is there any other advice or help anyone can give us, we saved hard for this week holiday and it was ruined by this experience and if not fixed we will never step foot in Tuscany ever again. This seems to be happening to quite a lot of people
Thanks in advance