RATP headquarters — Local services in Paris

BEWARE The Paris Metro scam. Walk everywhere, no Metro. Agents cooperate to trap tourists.

We just arrived in Paris towing our luggage to our hotel. We purchased Metro cards at the Opera machine. The cards malfunctioned at the gate. We went to the Customer Service Station nearby.

The person kindly took our cards, swiped them through a machine, gave them back. She assured us the cards would work now. As we went back to the gate, another employee opened the large metal gate and told us to go through it. We thought it was kindness and thanked him.

We were immediately attacked by two people in uniform who yelled that we had not paid our fare and now had to pay a fine 35 euros each. We explained. They kept yelling at us. I asked them to go with us to talk with the Customer Service woman who had modified our cars. The screaming agents refused. She made rude comments about our nationality and questioned why we even come to France.

We asked to talk to someone calm and professional and she yelled she would call the police. We asked her to do that. She never did, she was just threatening and intimidating.

We again asked for a calm person and one finally came. He understood what had happened and walked with us to the Customer Service woman. That Customer Service woman looked at us and denied she did anything to help us.

Clearly, all of these employees were cooperating. The machine did not give us a receipt and later I learned machines are not required to give receipts in France. (search "Fin du ticket de caisse obligatoire au 1er août 2023")

As I said, we had just arrived and this was our welcome to Paris. Gross misbehavior by Metro staff. I paid the fine so we could go to our hotel.

If you have a Metro problem, their website can be hard to navigate. With much searching, they have chatbot dot ratp dot fr slash contacts slash client That I completed in French. Updates will be posted if...

They have many unethical ways to fine foreign people to get their money! We bought a ticket to the airport from Port de Vanves. We asked at the info desk if we can validate this ticket at the tram at the Port de Vanves. He said yes and that we do not need another ticket. We tried to validate it at the tram, it didn't work. Next stop before we get out to try and see what we can do, a control came and asked to collect a fine of 35€ for each person because they said that we should have a separate ticket for the tram. We explained, they didn't care! They got our id's and they were not giving them back before we pay on the spot, because we are not French residents. They violated EU citizens rights and they blackmailed us by keeping our id's. They count on the matter that you need to catch your flight and you don't have time to call the police or stand for your rights. Then we arrived at the train and the ticket validation machines didn't work! People were entering the station without been able to validate their tickets. We lost 15 minutes to go up again to the info desk to validate our tickets (they put a stamp and a handwritten date! Welcome back to the 70's). When we arrived at the airport another control came! All the other people in the train, except us, paid a fine for non validated tickets! We complained that this is unfair and that the machines didn't work, but the control employees didn't care at all. They were just saying that our tickets are fine and we shouldn't complain about the other passengers. All in all it seems to me that they have a serious deficit and they cannot make it with the normal fare, they need to find other ways to get more money. This Summer Paris is hosting the Olympic Games. Are you ready to go and get ripped-off? Not me....

I am a tourist passing through France, and was travelling with my young daughter, who was sick and vomitted multiple times while waiting to book tickets at Gare Lyon for our next destination. As there were no more available tickets for today, 18th July, I bought train tickets for next day and decided to stay one more day in Paris.

When we entered the metro station to go to the hotel, the gate was already open when we placed the navigo cards on the scanner, it showed green. So we passed. I believed our cards were accepted and walked through to help my daughter, who started throwing up again.

We were stopped by inspectors before bording the next metro and were told the cards were not validated. I showed the cards, but I was told they were not valid. I tried to explain what happend with my daughter and that I thought the cards were validated when we placed them on the machine, but my explanation was not accepted.

I really don't know what happened at the other gate. I had not intention of fare evation. I was in a stressful situation with a sick child and unfamiliar with the validation system when the gate appeared open and green sign.

Although the inspectors saw my daughter was sick, they showed no consideration, making my situation more difficult to manage. My daughter's situation worsened and started throwing up again in the metro. A very stressful time and a very unfare and unjust fine that...