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Comment by expertentipp | Hacker News Reader

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_of course_ you can cancel a subscription. Einschreiben, Rückschein, Fristgerecht.

Only if you want to quit during a subscription period (say you went for annual, and after four month you go "nah"), only then you need to show you no longer live there. That's like the physical phone line. when you moved out you can cancel the contract early. if you still live there, you can cancel in the normal subscription period. and of course you can cancel an annual ticket by the end of that subscription period (one year), again: _problemlos_ (no problem)

Yeah, that sounded super illegal. Turns out they were being generous by letting people out of the contract early.

Do you think the controllers in the field are the one making the rules or are you just casually racist

They are not… nice. I’ve never had to deal with them, but the way some of them treat people makes you wonder how little power it takes to turn some people into mini-dictators.

I’m not taking sides in this matter. We should all pay for the services we use, etc.

I have no doubt this is the case for some of these ticket controllers. The problem however was with the "Turkish and Arabic punks" part, not the "some ticket controllers are assholes and BVG collection practices are terrible".

I agree with you, but many (most?) of the controllers are indeed from that demographic. Of course the language wasn’t the best; unless you like punk >.<

> you just casually racist

Please don't pretend that North African and Middle Eastern criminal clans do not exist in Germany and in Berlin in particular. Yes they exist and they infiltrate and corrupt various institutions.

The ticket controllers were really the worst for a while, fortunately they fired the previous company and started running their own people. There was one poor guy who got beaten to an inch of his life just because he didn't have a ticket with him. What great advertisement for the city of Berlin.

Oh man, this impossibility to cancel SEPA-Lastschrift based subscription should be criminally charged.

As a workaround I was buying annual ticket from the ticket machine at the platform, which then printed all 12 tickets in advance... but hell... why every alternative has to be so obnoxious.

You might want to check your online banking portal thoroughly. I stumbled by accident over a semi-hidden place in mine that listed every SEPA Mandat and let me revoke them

This doesn't cancel the subscription. Now get ready for a furious avalanche of increasingly threatening letters and accumulating fines.

> The "ticket controllers" are oftentimes some Turkish and Arabic punks.

Could you explain what you mean by this?

Yes this seems racist, but the ticket controllers with an aggressive, violent bully attitude in berlin are a real thing. These are mostly kids of Turkish and Arabic immigrant workers. Nobody in their right mind is arguing that this is a genetic predisposition. The discrimination and lack of opportunities in our country play a major part that these kids wanna be gangsters. But we also cannot ignore the fucked up patriarchal culture they grew up in. On that note you also have to realize that the people migrating from these countries back in the day were mostly workers, not intellectuals. Then of course there is also the idiotic local traffic authority, that put these delinquents in a position of power. In the end I think this is mostly a homemade problem, but we also shouldn't bullshit ourselves out of fear of seeming racist.

> The discrimination and lack of opportunities in our country play a major part that these kids wanna be gangsters.

Yes, this is the problem, not the culture and background they grow up with. \s

As if they've had public transport in their countries? Or as if they even seen their home countries at this point?

haven't seen a country without public transport yet tbh

He's racist :)

The typical everyday racism that is directed against black people in the USA is largely directed against Arab or North African people in Germany. Imagine he had said that black people are incapable of adequately checking tickets.

Just call him a right wing conspiracy Nazi nut and be done with it...

The people responsible for checking tickets of the passengers. Their culture, patience, and refinement oftentimes is inadequate towards commuters who simply left the electronic card of paper ticket back home.

Even the authorities are minorities in my waterpark ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4Tbji8ZsN0 )

What's the relation between their culture, patience, andrefinement and their ethnicity?

Wouldn't EVERY dodger just "forget" their ticket if ticket checkers were patient?

Maybe you could just have said "punks".

The reason for that is most people don't just "forget" their tickets at home.

Is it possible that North Germans who would quite happily submit to angry, sarcastic and rude questioning from another North German as long as he had a badge and a peaked cap, feel that it's below their dignity to be treated in exactly the same way by someone of 'Mediterranean appearance'?

I don't think it's fair to say that an entire race is somehow inferior.

Maybe it's just that in your experience that most Turkish controllers express these traits.

He meant I think that the ticket controllers were often Turkish and Arabic punks. Which bit of that did you not understand? He could have just as easily said they were often northern European punks if they had been. Would that have been better or worse in your opinion? Racism is wrong. Political correctness is just as bad...

> Which bit of that did you not understand

Its relevance.

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