When the ticket machine on the tram was taking peoples’ money without giving them a ticket this morning, the people seated near the machine - myself included - warned passengers of the problem before they put their money in the machine. One guy thanked everyone for their warning then put a $1 coin in the coin slot anyway only to have it jam in the coin slot entrance. Fortunately for him, he was able to retrieve the coin by using a key to drag it back out of the coin slot.

At that point I used a sheet of paper to cover up the coin slot with the notice “MACHINE NOT WORKING” written in 2″-tall letters. A new female passenger entered the tram and sat down opposite me whilst she rummaged for change in her purse. I could see that she’d not noticed the sign yet (it was still quite easy to miss unless you were looking at the machine ready to buy a ticket) so I leaned over and mentioned the machine was not working and so not to bother finding the coins.

She looked a bit surprised but, since she had just found the correct coinage anyway, stood up and went to the machine. Two people sitting beside it quickly spoke up and said the machine was not working. She then saw the note which covered not only the coin slot but one of the buttons she needed to press. Looking around at the two people who had just advised her that the machine would take her money without giving her a ticket, she then lifted the piece of paper out of the road … and dropped in a $2 coin which, being smaller than a $1 coin, was not able to be retrieved. She was very miffed at this turn of events and angrily slapped the machine before sitting down in a huff, complaining to those who would listen that the machine had stolen her money. No, dear SPOTD, with three verbal warnings and a written notice, you can’t consider that theft…

Categories: SPOTD