After wasting countless hours on customer service calls; and visits to the police station, train station garage, and my local Gemeente (juridisch loket) - I have consulted a law firm now.
I'm very glad to hear someone is finally holding NS accountable for this mess. Hopefully it will help force them to resolve it.
In your experience, is there a simpler way to resolve this issue?
Unfortunately many complaints on this very community indicate NS is unwilling to cooperate with reasonable solutions.
Thanks @Olav93 for the message! It’s because they are operating like a monopoly, with no accountability what so ever.
You could go to the police and report NS for falsely accusing you of not having returned the bike.
Did the law firm say anything useful?
This just unlocked a new fear for me. Knowing that just randomly, I might be accused of stealing a bike after having returned it and accepting no evidence to the contrary sounds like a nightmare. To think NS has the unilateral power to just do this at any time is really worrying. I'm curious on hearing how will this continue after you file a legal complain
What a pity that this happen. Unfortunately I cannot indicate here what exactly happened. It is therefore very important to keep in mind on whether the bike rental has ended at the right way. We will always send a reminder after 72 hours, 1 week, 2 weeks and 3 weeks if this didn't happen. If you have returned the bicycle and still receive a reminder, please contact us immediately. We can then check whether the bicycle is still there.
I don't see a malfunction on that date that could have caused this. What exactly did my colleagues say about that day or place of rental?
@rvdborgt I have just started the process. They will get back to me soon. For now they have accepted the case. I will keep everyone posted here.
@Erryt NS NS has sent me a written confirmation that they will rectify the 1st mistake of the “extra bike rental” on October 15th. This confirms that there was indeed an error in the system on that date and time, if not a complete malfunction. I am quite sure I did not receive any notification emails from NS. Also, someone can mistake a notification email with a marketing email and not read it. Or it could also be that someone does not have access to their inbox for a few weeks. In any case, that time has passed - we have to resolve the issue with whatever information we have NOW.
NS is cleverly trying to put the burden of proof on me. They have to prove that I stole the bike. Which they can easily do by contacting the parking garage and analysing a 30 minutes video recording of that time window. What they are expecting from me (and everyone else in this situation) is that we drop everything in our lives and start an investigation adventure to prove our case.
Btw besides all of that, I did finally get hold of a proof today. The employee of the garage who was working that day, actually is willing to testify that he saw me return the bike. Because I had a chat with him after returning the bike. I asked him if I was going to be charged for one day or two days. NS is still unwilling to call the garage and ask that employee to verify what I am telling them.
… @Erryt NS btw besides all that, I did finally get hold of a proof today. The employee of the garage who was working that day actually is willing to testify that he saw me return the bike. Because I actually had a chat with him after returning the bike. I asked him if I was going to be charged for one day or two days. NS is still unwilling to call the garage and ask that employee to verify what I am telling them.
@rvdborgt I have just started the process. They will get back to me soon. For now they have accepted the case. I will keep everyone posted here.
Please do (keep us posted) because this is a (frequently) recurrung issue. I replied to a private message from another ‘victim’ just yesterday (translated from Dutch):
@nielswback 1 day ago:
Hi Robert, I see that you have contributed to the discussion about public transport bikes and the fines you can get for them in many places. See my message about this: I unfortunately had the same experience. Bike neatly returned, still fine, and now have to (falsely) report it to get a reduction in the fine (but still 70 euros). Do you have any tips based on the discussions you have been involved in? Many thanks in any case for your active contribution to this and hope to hear from you. Greetings, Niels
@Robert B 1 day ago:
Hi Niels,
Unfortunately no tips except that you have to insist to NS that they should look for their bike themselves, for example by checking whether it has been rented out again later.
They should also report the theft themselves, because it concerns their bicycle and the police usually do not cooperate in reporting the theft because no criminal offence has been committed against you (after all, the bicycle has been handed in and if they cannot find it anywhere, it has been stolen through no fault of your own).
I would definitely take legal action, but unfortunately the NS is very annoying and if you don't pay the fine, they will also simply terminate your train subscription. Perhaps you can also go to the Disputes Committee after your (false online) report or report the theft of your money by the NS to the police, because that is in fact what happens.
It is possible to rent 2 bicycles. Therefore, it does not necessarily have to be a malfunction, but perhaps a mistake in selecting exactly what you wanted. Returning a bicycle or renting a new bike. Was this at a self-service spot or one that is operated by a colleague of mine?
What makes it so difficult is that the bicycle is probably no longer in the shed and you, as the last renter, are then liable according to the conditions. Another thing you could do is check at the municipal depot to see if the bicycle is there, but you are of course also free to follow the legal route.
I do understand the situation.You have to understand that we hear such stories very often. This applies to both OV-fiets and fines on the train. I would be happy to see what I can do for you. Would you like to send me a private message?
Thanks @Erryt NS I am sending you a private message now. By the way, according to the invoice, for a few days, I had 3 bikes rented under my card. So that’s another proof of the error. I can share the invoice with you in the private chat.
And it was a self-service spot.
And it was a self-service spot.
Was that one with ‘electronic’ locks (without a key)? Then the rental period should end when locking the bicycle within range of the shed’s Wi-Fi or Bluetooth network.
Anyway, if that didn’t work it's still a fact that you returned the bike (have NS prove you wrong!).
If there is any doubt about that, there would be camera footage in case of a law suit.
NS says that only the police can request camera footage, but the police don’t care and the cameras are owned by NS… 
@Robert B it’s with the electronic locks without a key. We actually asked the police if they can access the cameras. They were like we have nothing to do with it, and NS should be able to access the cameras. The police also let us know that it is ridiculous that they are asking us for proof. It’s their property, they have to prove or file a report if they think a bike has been stolen.
I'm still working on this case. I can't give an update right now.
Thanks for sharing. I also got issue with the bike recorded as return even though it was parked outside of the station and not in the return area. They should just go back to the previous way of rental.
UPDATE:
Finally, after some excellent customer support from @Erryt NS, I have received the good news that both the mistakes have been rectified. I have also received the confirmation that “all the fines” will be refunded to me in due time. Thanks again @Erryt NS! I have also asked my lawyer to close my case file for the time being.
So…the lesson here is that maybe it’s better to file similar complaints here, “before” you start to lose your peace and mind with the call center.
Glad to read you (and Erryt) sorted it out.
The problem with NS is that when the return of a bike is not registered properly (but you did return it) and NS cannot find the bike in the shed…
They (the system) immediately think it’s you who stole it (so never returned it or forgot to lock it) 
CCTV footage would prove you returned it (and someone else stole it), but they claim they cannot access their own cameras (only the police can) 
@Robert B 100% agree. They should access their CCTV for such cases. It would only take a few minutes to handle the case. Instead they end up costing themselves 10s of hours of customer service on a single case. Which is super expensive. Also I don’t understand why they don’t install gps chips in their bikes. I don’t think it could even be a privacy concern. When you rent a car, you almost always have gps trackers in them. Or an even simpler technology similar to Apple air tags or something. It’s NS’s responsibility to make the system error-free, if not completely fool-proof. Until they are able to achieve that, they should definitely go back to a more manual system.
