Singapore Transport Woes - Bus Chapter II

This is a continuation of the previous posting on the Public Bus condition. I received a comment, that correctly pointed out that the person who responded to my first feedback was a standard customer service officer, who did not know what else to write, other than following what is given in the manual. Somehow, in this world that follows guidelines and guidelines.. there seems to be lesser and lesser chance for people to exercise their brain and creativity.

Recently, there is a second incident that occurred to me in relation to the Public Bus system in Singapore.

In weekdays, I need to travel on public bus, to my destination. To do that, I need to take two buses, both are charged at Fare A. The cost for one way of the trip is $0.71 + $0.71 - $0.40 (rebate) = $1.02.

Few small complaints of the bus are: (1) irregular waiting times. Sometimes, I have to wait for more than 20 minutes for 1 service number, which is stated the longest waiting time is 15 minutes. (2) over-crowded bus. This is very much associated with (1), because of the long waiting time, hence more people accumulated.

The incident occurred on one evening. I was taking the SMRT bus number 855, as usual the bus was crowded, that I was standing near the driver. At the bus stop that I am supposed to alight, I was still trapped in front. Well, I can get off from the front door also, so I tapped my ez-link card. Interestingly, the card reader read "new entry". What? I tapped my card there 7 minutes ago, it was "new entry" and now it is "new entry" again?

Now, for those from other countries, who do not know how the bus charges fares here, let me explain a bit. Each passenger carries a small touchless smart card called "ez link". Each person supposed to tap this card at the entry, and when exit, tapped it at the exit card reader. The entry is supervised by the driver. The exit is up to you. If you don't tap, you will be charged maximum fare.

After I saw the 'new entry' wordings, I tell the driver. Hey, I am trying to get off the bus, why it shows 'new entry'. He scratched his head, and after one second thought, I tapped my card there again, it read 'entry ok'. Then the driver said, you want to exit right.. can exit now.. no problem..

What no problem.. I said to myself, I felt something is not right. But I was tired from a long day at school, so I get off the bus anyway, and waited for the next bus to bring me home. When the service 105 arrived, I get on and tapped my card, and realized, that I had paid for more than $2.5 for the usually $0.71 trip.

Now.. now.. 2.5 dollars is a small amount. But it is definitely not small for someone who is earning nothing like me. For the company, this small mistakes/glitch/negligence/faulty service does not cost them anything, but earn them money. I have witnessed a lot of people who, upon getting off the bus cannot tap the card reader, because of faulty card reader. And guess, who paid the penalty for the bus company, who failed to provide a good system? => the passengers.

Anyway, I continued my trip and reached my home which is near an MRT station. I joined the queue at the MRT station ticketing station, and complained about the 'double' 'maximum' received that I received earlier. The officer was a malay lady.

"What is the problem sir"

"I want to report that my card was over-deducted"

"I have checked your card, there is no problem sir"

"why do you say there is no problem? I was being charged twice for the service 855 in 10 minutes period. For each of the charge, I was being charged maximum"

"you traveled for 7 bus stops, and it is CORRECT for the bus to charge you $1.33"

"Are you sure that the 7 bus stops qualifies for $1.33? I have been doing this daily and it charges me only $0.71, show me your bus guide and I will show you how to calculate the bus fare"

*at this point, the malay lady probably realized her mistake. 7 bus stop does not equals to 7 bus stage. Even 7 bus stage only qualifies for Fare B = $0.93 cents. But again, these are just lowly paid service officer, who probably never calculate much, or know how to do things other than pressing a few buttons that there are trained to do*

"ok, so you say you are overcharged. I will raise a claim for you. Show me your ezlink card please"

After 1 minute or so, I received a piece of receipt-like print out. I was pleased and left the station. As I read the form, I noticed that my ez-link card number has 1 missing number. Furthermore, in the reason section, 'blank' was provided. I was thinking, what? no reason? then how will this claim go through.

I was quite agitated. But I don't want to return to the officer again. One who does not know how to type and cannot put down a reason for claim properly, probably will not satisfy my further complain of her either. I return home and searched in the internet. I went into the SMRT website and found a place where I can file my case. All reasons provided and I sent the form online.

10 days later, I received the response from an officer through email. Mentioning that they recognized their fault. They will be sending me two free bus tickets that I can use for bus travel.

The reply was not tactless, and I could complain further, but I did not want to pursue the matter, so I take it as case closed.

To date, I have received the two bus tickets and have fully utilized them as well.

*moral of the story*
no moral of the story lah.. just to record down an interesting experience...