Thursday, August 8
Black market swimming: Security staff caught reselling outdoor pool tickets
This summer, Berliner Bäder-Betriebe, the Berlin swimming pools operator decided to trial a new system at five locations. In order to speed up entry times and reduce queues, the outdoor pools at Neukölln, Kreuzberg, Steglitz-Insulaner, Pankow and Humboldthain would exclusively sell online tickets to visitors after 10:00 each day. In practice, the new ticketing method had a different outcome: in at least one location, security staff began to resell tickets to the pool at the door for almost double the original price.
A report in the Tagesspiegel describes how in July several prospective swimmers at the outdoor pool in Steglitz-Insulaner found themselves unable to buy tickets digitally (payments can be made with PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Mastercard and Visa – but not with an EC card). Then, standing at the door, the security staff offered to sell them a ticket “under the table” for the price of €10, almost double the regular entrance fee of €5.50.
Approached for comment, the Berliner Bäder-Betriebe confirmed that some security staff had engaged in these black market practices, stating that “appropriate personnel-related consequences” had since been taken.
