Students struggle with Snapper card renewals

Some students have had difficulties with renewing their tertiary concession for their Snapper bus cards. 

Fourth year student Rebecca said she was directed to Massey for any questions in an email from Snapper when her tertiary concession was about to expire. Massey’s student centre told her that all she needed to do was reapply, something that occurs each year. However, she found that Snapper's system wouldn’t allow her to renew the concession. 

“I went to reapply directly with Snapper, but it came up an error saying the card is already signed up for tertiary concession or something along those lines. So, I just waited for the concession to end, kind of hopeful it would automatically continue but it didn’t, and I had to reapply. This left me paying for adult prices for a couple of days,” she said. 

“In the big scheme of things, I only would have lost maybe max an extra $20 bucks. Which I just shrugged off like most of the small inconveniences that come with trying to sort out anything, especially in relation to studying and transport. But it is definitely a bit off a blow as a student, especially since I didn’t get my first StudyLink pay till after the extra cost.” 

Dave* has also experienced the same issue, which meant that they could not simply renew their tertiary concession in advance. They said that a member of the support staff they spoke with at Massey about the issue commented that multiple students had been directed to ask for help Massey by Snapper recently, but that Massey couldn’t do anything about it since the issue was on Snapper’s end. 

When approached for comment, a Massey spokesperson said that there is a Snapper machine on the Wellington campus for students to top up their cards, but they have not heard any reports of issues with that. “We are not sure why Snapper would send students back to Massey with issues surrounding the cards themselves,” they said. 

Massive approached Snapper for comment but they failed to respond in time for print.