I have lived in Berlin for almost a year, and I am still confused about the train bus or whatever system.
I always have my monthly tickets, there is a after 10 tickets which costs only 60 euro per month. The ticket allows you to drive after 10 am and within AB zone.
Berlin train is separated into ABC zone, while C zone is basically out of Berlin. But i never knew from which station it is C zone, anyway all my friends, clubs and bars everything is in AB zone. I am a freelancer and unfortunately one day i had to work at a spot which lies in C zone while i didn't even think about that. Once the train is out of B zone, a group of ticket control just popped up, which was the first time i saw ticket controls in Berlin. I showed my ticket to them with confidence but they just said ID please, i followed them out and I tried to explain the ticket control i am just one station off the zone and i showed him the pile of monthly tickets and the single tickets which i used in the morning, but still i gotta pay 60 euros....
Meanwhile i saw another guy who didn't have a ticket at all also got caught, but as soon as he's out of the train he just ran away....
I felt so stupid looking at all the tickets i bought, but that's not the end of story.
Two months ago i went on a long travel and there were like 3 days between the expiry date of my last monthly ticket and my travel time, so i bought a few single tickets for these few days. Unfortunately I saw the ticket control on tram again while I forgot to validate my ticket on a sunday morning after party...
i got a fine ticket and he didn't say anything more about how to pay the bill, so i asked my friends to help me translate that fine ticket which is all in German. And i realized that i have to write my bank number and send it back to their office. So i did so and thought it was done.
And yesterday i checked my account balance and found that the transaction to BVG was not done yet, so i tried to call BVG. After some hard time changing line and shit they charged me 1 euro to get me into a special hotline which i can talk with a human instead of computer. And the guy just told me to go to the office.....
So i was in the BVG office in Alexander platze, spent half an hour waiting and the lady just told me this is not the place for paying fine, i asked her where should i go but she just said she doesn't know.... So i went online ask google "how to pay a ticket fine in berlin" and then i found this article which says he went to Ostbahnhof
https://withberlinlove.com/2016/06/11/getting-caught-without-a-valid-ticket-on-berlin-public-transport-my-first-s-bahn-bvg-fine/
so i went there ask the service centre he pointed me to the ticket office of Deutsche Bahn. I took a ticket and waited 20 minutes there, the lady just told me to go upstair instead... after another 15 minutes waiting there the guy just told me to go to BVG office in Janowizbruche... So i spent some more time to get to there and find the office, the BVG office is closed already... because they close at 2 pm on friday....
So i was super annoyed and when i drive home i got caught again because it has been more than 120 minutes since i validated my tickets..........
Maybe I should buy a pair of good shoes instead of tickets....