If you’re offered something for free, you’d expect to not have to pay for it, right?

Well, if you’re Transperth, not quite.

Despite offering free public transport throughout the holidays, Smartriders require funds to be loaded to be scanned: no money on your card means no trip, as teenage listener Hayley recently discovered to a bus driver’s chagrin.

“It wouldn’t go through and he could have made me leave the bus, but instead he shut the door in a bad mood and accelerated, which made me lose my balance a little bit,” she said.

Press PLAY to hear more on the bus fare debate