Just want to record down my experience of a refund of 5 euros from Berlin Transport subway operator, BVG. I am very impressed with the Berlin transport authority. The Germans there are extremely efficient & they carry out their promise of what they will do for you!

I was there during the first Arctic cold snap in late November 2010. For some reason that day, the BVG subway ticket machines in the Kaiserdamm U Bahn refused to accept euro notes of any denomination. I was going back & forth between 2 ticket machines and after was seemed like trying to insert the 5 euro notes for like the 8th time, one of the ticket machines decided to chomp it up & refused to return my note despite pressing the cancel button numerous times. So there was no choice but to exchange some coins from a willing vendor at the station. Thank goodness, there was a vendor there willing to do so.

The ticket machines were working perfectly the previous day before the cold snap hit as I managed to receive change in coins when I inserted the 5 euro notes into the machine. So yes, the machines do work. So I am wondering whether the very cold temperatures affected the mechanism of the ticket machine adversely.

As Kaiserdamm U Bahn is an unmanned station, I hopped over to Zoo Garten station to find the BVG kiosk to fill up a refund form. As I am an overseas tourist, I was very skeptical that I would get a refund. So yes, today, my local bank statement came in showing a FULL REFUND of 5 euros converted to my local currency WITHOUT any commission charges even though it was a telegraphic transfer.

I know for cetain that my home country's transport authorities would NEVER give a refund via telegraphic transfer and even if they do, they will deduct commission charges from you.

So thank you BVG & to Germany with all my sincerity.