The $5 Issue

right, i got cheated by SMRT today..for $5.

even though it may not a an amount of enormous proportions, nevertheless, i will write down my encounter today.

i came back after training, and the value on my ez-link card was -$0.10.

i wanted to top it up by $5, but because i had only a $10 note, i went to the card office to top it up, instead of going to the machine, like i normally do.

so that woman inside confirmed with me that i wanted to top it up by $5, and then she passed me a $5 note in change, together with my ez-link card.

i decided to walk home instead of taking the bus like i normally do, because i was feeling a little full, and hence decided that walking home will help in digesting my lunch.

i went out later in the afternoon, and guess my shock when i tapped my card on the card reader and the words 'insufficient card value' (or something like that) appeared on the screen, accompanied by the usual, irritating beeping sound. i had no choice but to pay by coins.

when i reached the station, i went to the machine to check the card value, and true enough, my card still had the value of -$0.10. i did not approach the woman at the card office, as it was already a different woman.

well, even if the same woman was there, i would not have approached her either, and here's why:

- i do not expect her to remember me as she tops up god knows how many cards a day
-it is practically impossible that she will add the missing value on my card, and i do not blame her for that, because she cannot add value to anyone's card just because that person claims that she had forgotten to do so when he had gone to top up his card (even though in my case it would be genuine but i did not bother trying)

there has been a lot of hoohah about the recent fare hikes, and how the bus companies are still over-charging. but here is a classic case of how these companies can earn extra bucks, and quick ones at that, with simple and basic human errors.

in my case it is not so bad, because my $5 is the minimal fee for the top-up of any fare card. but there are many people out there, especially adults, who top up their cards by the tens. and i am pretty damn sure that my case is not the isolated case, considering the fact that such incidents can happen just by the woman forgetting to press a key on the keyboard.

can u imagine how much more SMRT will earn, simply due to the carelessness of it's staff??


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on a side note, training these days are slack. i like. haha.