DUO Travel Product Fine: What Now?

Questioner

I was entitled to travel for free with the DUO public transport card until the end of June. My public transport chip card had an expiry date of 3 July 2015. After that date I could no longer travel with it and I could no longer cancel my student product. So I thought that my student travel product would be automatically canceled. To my surprise, I received a letter from DUO last week with a €194.00 fine for not cancelling the travel product. After a lot of searching, I was finally able to cancel my travel product online on 22 August. I was not aware that it was also possible this way, otherwise I would have cancelled it much earlier. I have had email contact with DUO about this matter. But I get the standard response that it is the student's own responsibility. Is there anything I can do about this and does it still have a chance of success or is it just bad luck and should I just pay?

Lawyer

The travel conditions most likely stipulate that the user must stop the product themselves. The NS assumes that you have taken note of this and will take action. Now that you have failed to do so, the fine will be at your own expense due to improper use and you must still pay the fine.