Auckland Transport (AT) has apologised after it accidentally notified more than 16,000 students that the tertiary concession on their HOP cards was no longer valid.
Every HOP card owner currently enrolled at the University of Auckland was sent an automated email on Tuesday telling them they would stop receiving discounted fares because they were no longer students.
AT spokesman James Ireland told Newshub that an error with a new system was to blame for the alarming email.
"We sent emails to people that weren't true, but we have cleared it up."
The database of HOP card users is connected with the university's database of students, notifying AT of those who have un-enrolled from study and are therefore not eligible for a tertiary concession.
"At this time of year, in the middle of a semester, we'll typically only get three or four cancellations a week," says Mr Ireland.
He says an error over the weekend resulted in the mass email on Tuesday.
In terms of whether it was AT or the university whose system failed, he says it's "a bit of both" but admits AT is at fault.
"It was an error on our side, but we're fixing it now."
Some 16,641 emails were sent out, which Mr Ireland believes means every University of Auckland student with a HOP card received the false message.
He assures students that each concession has to be manually removed, and that there was "never any risk" that their discount would be wrongfully removed.
"We apologise for the confusion."
Everyone who received the initial message has been contacted by AT reassuring them that they won't lose their concession.
AT is currently liaising with the University to ensure no further errors happen in future.
Newshub.
