Try and make a long story short. I live in Eglisau but use the Huntwangen (just across the river) train station for most trips. I had company visiting and we decided to take a trip to Lucerne. As I needed to renew my 1/2 tax card we went over to the Eglisau train station as it still has an office for these types of things. After getting the 1/2 tax settled we purchased round trip tickets to Lucerne.... note.. the ticket said Eglisau to Lucerne (I was distracted and forgot to say Huntwangen).

We went home and ate breakfast and walked over to the Huntwangen train station and caught the train to Zurich. As luck would have it we were checked by the train ticket guy () and he told us the tickets were only good from Eglisau.... now mind you Eglisau is about 1000 meters from the Huntwangen station and is in the same ZONE .

I explained my mistake and he was as rude as could be ... I then argued with him and told him the price was the same (which it is) from Huntwangen or Eglisau....not only that we had a group of 6 people with more than 200 Franks in tickets + my ticket + my newly purchased 1/2 tax card, 2 years - 250 Franks and this ass is giving us a hard time about boarding at Huntwangen .... In the end..he let us go with a warning but it really made a bad impression on me and my friends.

Normally I buy my tickets from the machine and it prints zone numbers and or a zone and destination.

Where do I file a complaint?

Fully agree, total a-hole

It really depends on the person it seems, for I once had mistakenly bought a class-upgrade ticket instead of a extension-of-zones ticket at the machine. Cost was about the same and the code to be entered was similar. He just pointed out my mistake and admonished me to be more careful next time

As for filing a complaint, I didn't find a complaints number, you might try:

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Found it here:
http://mct.sbb.ch/mct/en/reisezeit/r...it_kontakt.htm

It all depends on the person doing the ticket inspection as to how well they treat situations like this. Some inspectors I've come across have been quite reasonable about misunderstandings whilst others are complete b*****ds.

I suspect that he would have been within his rights to fine you for not having the correct ticket though - even if they did cost the same. Definitely not worth complaining about if you didn't end up losing any money over it.

actually I travel with a multirider between two stations regularly - one multirider but used in both directions. Usually I don't get a second look but just the other day an inspector I can only assume was a trainee had a good look at it.

The routes around either side of lake Zurich can be a giggle too - you need different tickets to make what is effectively the same journey between the same stations

Within ZVV (Zürcher Verkehrsverbund) a zone system is used. But as far as I am informed the tickets are being calculated by kilometers for longer distances. So this guy might have been technically right. But since the price is exactly the same (chf 28 2nd class one way) - even using the kilometer system - he was not only rude but also stupid. I think you should complain. It might help them to improve education.

I'd suggest to mail to contact@zvv.ch or write to ZVV-Contact, Postfach, 8040 Zurich.

I can't quite get why a Bumpliz-Loryplatz ticket is a KS (SFR 1.80), while the return trip is a 1-2 zone (SFR3.60). The stops are closer together by about 10 m on the return trip...

I'm sure a complaint will get you nowhere other than getting it out of your system. It's true that sometimes there is an agreeable inspector but generally they have a set of rules that they expect paying customers to follow. Also, a lesser point, this country is statistics mad. Your ticket will show a trip made but actually wasn't(and vice versa). That's a no-no!