December 2, 2025
Tap-to-pray nation
A Bus Ride and the (At Least) 3x UX FAILs
Bus app chaos: Riders hit 'Unknown error' as fans yell 'just tap'
TLDR: A Norwegian bus ticket failed twice when Vipps, the default pay app, forced a “politically exposed person” check and update, blocking payments. Comments explode: half demand tap-to-pay and no zones like Stockholm, half blame strict banking rules; everyone mocks the dreaded “Unknown error” pop-up.
Norway’s bus ticket reality show: a veteran BSD blogger tried to buy a fare in the Skyss app, picked Vipps (Norway’s default pay app), and hit the dreaded “Unknown error.” Twice. Then Vipps itself hijacked the screen with a “politically exposed person” compliance quiz and an upgrade demand, blocking all payments. Cue two unpaid rides and a looming fine — and a comments section that turned into a UX cage match. Stockholm fans swaggered in, bragging about one zone and tap your card once, done, while Norwegians begged for anything that isn’t “download three apps to pay 41 NOK.”
Fintech engineers showed up to defend Vipps, saying the PEP prompt is a legal thing to catch corruption and money laundering, not some evil pop‑up — but they also admitted the rollout was a user-hostile brick wall. The rest? Pure comedy. People compared this to Microsoft Authenticator’s “install the app from inside the app” loop, joked that Unknown Error is the new ‘computer says no,’ and turned PEP into “PEP talk” memes. The vibe: stop making public transport a boss fight. Give us tap-to-pay, kill zones, and keep compliance out of the bus aisle. Riders want simple, fast, and boring payments.
Key Points
- •Attempts to buy a Skyss bus ticket via Vipps on Android repeatedly failed with an “Unknown error.”
- •The author took two bus rides without successful payment, noting a ticket cost of about NOK 41.32 and potential fine of about NOK 950.
- •Initial suspicion was a network handover issue from home Wi‑Fi to Telia’s 5G; retries still failed.
- •Later, the Vipps app presented a mandatory politically exposed person (PEP) prompt and then only an “Update” option, blocking transactions.
- •The article highlights UX failures: non-informative errors, dependency on third‑party payment app compliance prompts, and update-gated payment flows.