Beware the BKK Bus Police in Budapest

On our last day in Budapest, 6 of us decided to take the bus from Pest to Buda and return the same way. We bought our tickets for both ways and proceeded. Upon our return, we boarded the bus only to have it travel 2 blocks to the announced “end of the line - everybody off the bus” (in English). We told the bus driver we needed to go back to Pest, to which he pointed and said “across the street”. I asked, “Do we need a new ticket, or can we use this one that only took us 2 blocks?”. He specifically told us “That one is okay”. So we crossed the street and waited for the bus to take us back. The SAME bus driver crossed the street to drive the bus that we boarded - we used the same ticket and boarded (as he had told us to do). About 6 stops later, we were approached by the BKK bus police who asked to see our tickets and told us to immediately get off the bus (one block before our intended destination). We complied and tried to explain, to no avail...and to deaf ears. They were extremely rude and said “Pay cash now or we call the police to have you arrested”. We told them we didn’t have enough money to pay, so they kept threatening that they were going to have us arrested and then we would have to pay an even larger fine. They made comments such as “We have rules here, not like in YOUR COUNTRY”. When we pulled out all of our cash to show them we didn’t have enough, they said, “Fine, we will only charge the 3 men and let the women go free”. The fear tactic they used of us ending up in a Budapest jail and missing our flight home the next day worked - we gave them all of our cash just to escape any chance of incarceration.
We are all professionals, 2 lawyers (one in law enforcement), 1 doctor, 2 teachers, and 1 contract administrator - we spend thousands of dollars in Budapest (for hotels, dinner, and shopping) and in no way would have tried to trick the bus company by avoiding a payment of $2 for a bus ticket. The fact that the bus driver told us it was okay to use the same ticket made us wonder if he was in on the scam to charge us instant cash with the threat of an arrest. After a call to the Ritz, Our concierge from the Ritz ran over to argue with them (in Hungarian) and said that they were unscrupulous and often target tourists who are unclear on the bus rules, often offering the “discount deal” to let you avoid arrest.
Upon my return to the hotel, I googled the Budapest bus scam and found hundreds of complaints about this very incident (didn’t google it before we left, b/c it never came up in my research). I really feel that Tauck should have known about this and given us a warning - since they travel this route so often, it must have been an issue before it happened to us - but I never saw it on the forum. Anyway, I’m putting this out there so that nobody else on this tour gets caught up in such a fiasco to ruin your trip. Safe travels to all.

Comments

  • I have never heard of this scam. I am so sorry, it must have been frightening! I do know of someone on a trip to Moscow who was ‘arrested’ and taken to an ATM where they were made to empty their bank account. Others reading this, the trip from Pest to Buda is extremely walkable, that’s what we did, I don’t remember it being very far.
  • That is awful and glad you survived. Thank you for sharing this so others will be more aware. We loved Budapest and sorry to hear of your experience there.
  • edited September 2018
    Better idea. Next time take a taxi. Actually, two taxis, six people, probably cheaper than bus fare. I also have walked from Buda to Pest and back. But, if we needed transport I would have the hotel concierge arrange it. As described, public transit in a foreign country can be confusing. On a Tauck trip and taking a public bus? Lawyers, doctors, teachers, and no one had bus fare? Perhaps you shouldn’t have spent all those thousands in Budapest. Sorry, my ** light is flashing.
  • Sealord,
    Either you didn’t read my entire post, or you enjoy antagonizing others. We did purchase the tickets, we did validate them. Yes, we could have taken a taxi, but wanted to experience riding with the locals - a decision we regret. Sorry you don’t seem to have any empathy for others when they’ve had a bad experience.
  • Sorry about your bad experience...but you can't blame Tauck for every problem when you are out on your own. Unfortunately scammers and bad experiences can happen anywhere



  • edited September 2018
    dolciani wrote:
    Sealord,
    Either you didn’t read my entire post, or you enjoy antagonizing others. We did purchase the tickets, we did validate them. Yes, we could have taken a taxi, but wanted to experience riding with the locals - a decision we regret. Sorry you don’t seem to have any empathy for others when they’ve had a bad experience.

    Look dolciani, Sealord is an experienced traveler and often offers really good information. People here have said unkind things about some of my posts. It does not mean we are not sympathetic, but maybe Sealord has a point that six of you did not have enough cash to pay for bus tickets. And yet you brag you spent thousand of dollars in Budapest, what on earth were you buying? After all, on most Tauck tours there is very little opportunity to shop, it’s not a Tauck priority.
    I have just quickly read about ticket inspectors in Budapest, I will read more, but this is the first one I found

    https://welovebudapest.com/en/2015/11/10/kontroll-issues-budapests-public-transport-ticket-inspectors/

    You were indeed misinformed about your tickets but it appears that there is general confusion and cheaters about tickets in Budapest. Our Tauck tour director on the land tour was fantastic, one of our best. He never mentioned ticket scams. I await to see if anyone else on the forum has experienced this. If I had not walked from Pest to Buda I would have probably used Uber. Though I can’t remember if it is a availabe there, I have used it in many countries.
  • edited September 2018
    First of all, I never said we didn’t have the cash to buy another ticket - please read the posts carefully before you reply. I said that I asked the driver if we could use the same ticket or should we buy a new one since we reached the end of the line so soon after boarding. The driver told us to use the same ticket. What we didn’t have was enough foreign cash to pay the unreasonable fine that was being asked of us by the BKK police.
    Also, I never blamed Tauck; I said I wished they had warned us, as I am warning others through this post. And FYI, Uber is not available in Budapest.
    Why the insults? How is this following the guidelines on this forum about being respectful? We extended our tour in Budapest and paid extra for our stay, our meals, other tours - yes with a large group that adds to thousands of dollars - why is that in question?
    It is frustrating when someone hijacks your post and changes the facts. Just because you post here often does not allow you to insult others for their posts and experiences.
  • It sounds like an unpleasant experience. Your initial post had me confused as I'm sure it did others here when you said the BKK Police told you to, “Pay cash now or we call the police to have you arrested.” You never mentioned they were talking about a fine and you didn't mention the amount. I and probably others thought they were asking you to pay for the return fare which is reasonable.

    Public transportation in many European countries works on the honor system, you are expected to buy a ticket from a machine and have it validated with time/location often at another machine. In Munich, Germany a few years ago we only found out about this procedure after the fact. Fortunately transit police were not around so it was not a problem. It can be scary being in a foreign country where there might be a (real or perceived) language issue, but I have never heard of any country attempting to levy a fine on the spot - a hint that it might be a scam. Whether it be for parking, transit, moving violations, etc. etc. those kinds of fines are usually levied by a very low level (traffic) court at most and most often handled with a mail-in fine as opposed to an appearance. If you can believe the posts on TripAdvisor on the spot payment of a fine is an option, but in hindsight (Monday morning quarterbacking) I think it might have been wiser and actually safer to call their bluff and call the police. I'm sure the regular police outrank a pair of scamming glorified meter maids.
  • AlanS wrote:
    It sounds like an unpleasant experience. Your initial post had me confused as I'm sure it did others here when you said the BKK Police told you to, “Pay cash now or we call the police to have you arrested.” You never mentioned they were talking about a fine and you didn't mention the amount. I and probably others thought they were asking you to pay for the return fare which is reasonable.

    Public transportation in many European countries works on the honor system, you are expected to buy a ticket from a machine and have it validated with time/location often at another machine. In Munich, Germany a few years ago we only found out about this procedure after the fact. Fortunately transit police were not around so it was not a problem. It can be scary being in a foreign country where there might be a (real or perceived) language issue, but I have never heard of any country attempting to levy a fine on the spot - a hint that it might be a scam. Whether it be for parking, transit, moving violations, etc. etc. those kinds of fines are usually levied by a very low level (traffic) court at most and most often handled with a mail-in fine as opposed to an appearance. If you can believe the posts on TripAdvisor on the spot payment of a fine is an option, but in hindsight (Monday morning quarterbacking) I think it might have been wiser and actually safer to call their bluff and call the police. I'm sure the regular police outrank a pair of scamming glorified meter maids.


    The link I found and posted above does indeed say that you can pay a fine on the spot and that is half the cost of paying it later. You must ask for a receipt. The rules say one ticket is for an ‘uninterrupted’ journey and I guess dolciani’s journey technically was not. It obviously was not a scam, but just a misunderstanding by his group and the previous bus driver. Lessons learned for us all I guess. If I go again i’ll walk between the two cities same as last time.
  • Aside from all of the back and forth comments, I think Dolciani brings up an excellent point about the Tauck director warning guests about possible scams. It doesn’t matter that this group was extending their journey, there are plenty of occasions within a tour where one goes out and about in a city. While recommended restaurants and things to do lists are nice, there are two things I want to know: the tipping procedures and transportation ( whether public or taxi). I recall our TD in Turkey forewarning us about taxi scams where they drive you around unnecessarily, and I believe it was in Prague where you have to look for a taxi with a number ( could be wrong here). On our last few tours, the TD’s have been lax about both of these.
  • Joyce -- Totally agree. When we did Essence of South America our TD told us on day 1 how important it was to guard our personal belongings. He reiterated the point throughout the trip. He said "What do I mean by personal belongings? Anything you want to be taking home with you after the tour." Most people left jewelry etc. at home -- but those who didn't left everything in the room safes before going out. Many times we saw the doormen at the hotels stop people who were leaving and wearing necklaces -- had visible phones -- etc. -- and telling them to put them away. An ounce of prevention.......
  • judy05 wrote:
    Most people left jewelry etc. at home -- but those who didn't left everything in the room safes before going out.
    Be aware that room safes aren't very secure, either (but better than carrying stuff on the street or leaving it out in your room). There is a code the hotel can use to unlock a room safe. If a ne'er-do-well has that code... Google it and you'll read lots about that.
  • edited September 2018
    British wrote:
    The link I found and posted above does indeed say that you can pay a fine on the spot and that is half the cost of paying it later. You must ask for a receipt. The rules say one ticket is for an ‘uninterrupted’ journey and I guess dolciani’s journey technically was not. It obviously was not a scam, but just a misunderstanding by his group and the previous bus driver. Lessons learned for us all I guess. If I go again i’ll walk between the two cities same as last time.

    I apologize to one and all for my seeming lack of sympathy ... for a couple lawyers, a doctor, and some teachers. When I read this post the first time, (not British’s post but the original) I thought it was SPAM. What I thought was ** was simply naiveté. Budapest is not the only place with this type of transport system, nor the only place where they might demand a fine payment for not complying with the rules. It does pay to know the rules. In the case of Budapest, the instant fine amount is 8000 HUF ... that is $28.62 in US currency. Personally, I never ‘hit the streets’ in a foreign country without at least $100 dollars in local currency. If you are being chaperoned by Tauck, that is different ... sometimes no local currency. If you are out on the local economy, and you are not carrying an appropriate amount of local currency, and you are not sure how the public tansit system works ... that is “naivete”. It took only a minute or two on TripAdvisor to find out all about the Budapest transit sytem. I would expect that lawyers and teachers (don’t know about the doctor) should be able to do that research in a foreign city before hitting the streets with an empty wallet. (;-).

    By the way, the “Hop On Hop Off” bus in Budapest is about $26 bucks, it will take you almost everywhere, and it has a night cruise option.


  • Sealord,
    Please don’t bother to apologize if you are going to end your post with more insults. You obviously have a chip on your shoulder for one (or all) of our professions since you find the need to poke fun and call us naive. While I am sure that you are happy to go home with $100 worth of Hungarian Forints in your pocket at the end of a trip, we had just completed our last day in Budapest and had made the good effort to get rid of most of our cash (forints) since they are of no use to us in the U.S. And FYI, I DID research the buses and knew that I needed a ticket for each trip. We had already purchased tickets for both ways. But, what we didn’t know is that the bus didn’t loop around, rather it came to the end of the line 1 block after we boarded......which is why I asked the bus driver if the ticket was still any good or should we buy a new one. As I said in my original post the driver told me it was okay to reuse that ticket. My mistake was in believing the bus driver, who in fact, escorted us to board the new bus, which he also boarded and drove. One would think that the bus driver knows all the rules - who knew he would turn out to be a liar?? As we approached our hotel, we saw a taxi driver with a tattoo on his forearm: “Don’t trust anyone” - an appropriate motto for that day in that city.
    The thing that was most annoying was the attitude of these BKK bus police. They were rude and surly - tried to be sarcastic (like you, Sealord) and made derogatory comments about Americans, such as “We have rules in our country, not like your country - we follow the rules”. They continued to try to bully us with the threat of arrest. It was truly a very uncivil way to act toward anyone, and we gave them no reason to treat us that way.
    Again, my purpose in posting this is/was to warn future travelers so they don’t fall into the same trap. It is nice to see that some of the posters appreciated the info.
  • before I left for our trip to Budapest a few years ago, I was warned about con artist that were impersonating as Police Officers on same con.
    their suggestions to ask for an uniform officer to settle the issue. Most people in an other country are nervous to question authorities . That is what they count on.
    I saw no description on these BKK on these post or how fine was collected (bet it was cash on the spot)
  • It was cash only - if we didn’t have the cash, they were going to call the police and then the fine would be doubled. They finally agreed to take a combination of Forints, Euros, and American dollars - basically all the cash we had in our pockets. My husband, an ex prosecutor, wanted them to call the police so we could plead our case to them....but another couple in our group had spent 2 years in Mexico where they experienced and witnessed the authorities/police intimidate tourists by threatening arrests for minor infractions unless they paid cash on the spot to “undo” the deed. Their experience with corrupt police in Mexico convinced us that we might be better off trying to pay the fine without involving police - we were scheduled to leave early the next morning and didn’t want to risk that the BKK’s first cousin was the police Sargent who would come to arrest us.
  • You got the last word as far as I’m concerned. (;-)
  • Friend of mine recently got shaken down by a crooked cop in Mexico City.

    He was unaware of their Saturday no driving policy (to help the pollution problem - the fact that he was driving a Tesla didn't matter). His choice was pay the cop 5000 USD or his car would be impounded for 48 hours. He talked the cop down to 300 USD (all had in cash) and got out of Dodge.
  • why is it so easy to accept that a police officer ( no matter were ) would be corrupt. Just maybe they are not . Call a officer you can verify they are a true police authority
  • edited September 2018
    joycesw wrote:
    Aside from all of the back and forth comments, I think Dolciani brings up an excellent point about the Tauck director warning guests about possible scams. It doesn’t matter that this group was extending their journey, there are plenty of occasions within a tour where one goes out and about in a city. While recommended restaurants and things to do lists are nice, there are two things I want to know: the tipping procedures and transportation ( whether public or taxi). I recall our TD in Turkey forewarning us about taxi scams where they drive you around unnecessarily, and I believe it was in Prague where you have to look for a taxi with a number ( could be wrong here). On our last few tours, the TD’s have been lax about both of these.

    There are so many scams, even in the US for unsuspecting tourists. Example, in the last couple of years in the US we have been in taxis 3 separate times when the taxi driver has ‘forgotten’ to turn on his meter and wanting to charge us more for the journey than we know it costs. I do not know how common this is, but our British accents fool the taxi drivers that we are tourists when we are now long time American citizens. Fortunately Mr B had the sense the first time to refuse to pay up and offered the driver what we would normally pay for that journey and the driver took it with no problem. We mostly use Uber when traveling if it is available since bad feedback would not be good for those drivers.
    People should be vigilant wherever they are. We have been given written notes on our arrival information from our tour directors before we even meet him/her about being careful about various things Maybe we could all make a point of asking the tour director about the most common scams at the Welcome meeting. But you know, one of the most common warnings Tauck gives is not to wear expensive jewelry, and we always follow that ( says she actually wearing her expensive watch on her current US based tour!) in our experience the vast majority of our Tauck travel companions ignore this in the most third world of countries. We sometimes don’t even wear wedding rings, which amuses my sense of humor wondering if people think we are not married or having an affair. We were once being taken to an hotel room by a bellman in an elevator and he asked us if we were married. To which I replied, no, we just met.
  • Just a quick thought I had about the bus driver that "allowed you" to use expired tickets. Since he was the one driving the return trip bus, I think he might have just been doing you a favor by allowing "confused foreigners" to use said tickets and was just being nice and not part of a scam. This is something he could have been reprimanded for doing so he did not come to your defense when bus police asked for tickets??

    Another thought....did they check all passenger tickets or just your group? If they boarded and everyone was ready to show proof of current ticket, then obviously locals on bus thought this was routine and not a scam.

    I realize this doesn't help what happened but could be a possibility.

    Just curious, what was the total fine requested and what did you end up paying? They charged three fines, not four?

    We are visiting in a few weeks and want to make sure we are carrying enough cash on hand!!
  • The bus driver did not come to anyone’s defense, they took us off back of bus and he was at the front. He may or may not have been involved, b/c I was the one who asked him about the ticket and I was the only one approached by the bus police.....my 5 companions spoke up and deboarded the bus with me. I was wearing jewelry - could have been the bling that got their attention - stupid me...but I never take my wedding ring off.
    There were 6 of us - 3 men, 3 women. The original fine was 8000 Forints each (about $30 u.s.), which we would have had on any prior day, but we had just spent our last day in Budapest and had depleted ourselves of “unnecessary” Forints. So we had about $100 in combined cash among the six of us. When we showed them that was all we had, they decreased the fine to that amount and only charged the men.
  • edited September 2018
    BKMD wrote:
    Be aware that room safes aren't very secure, either (but better than carrying stuff on the street or leaving it out in your room). There is a code the hotel can use to unlock a room safe. If a ne'er-do-well has that code... Google it and you'll read lots about that.

    Exactly why we are very careful about what we take on any trip. A friend had money and jewelry taken out of her room safe on a Tauck China trip years ago. I don't even wear my real wedding band (the one I was married in) because I would be devastated if something happened to it. Why take unnecessary chances??

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