Touch n Go Rapid KL - consumers at losing end

My recent experiences with Touch n Go is infuriating experience. TNGSB is a private limited company whose shareholders are CIMB Group Holdings Berhad, MTD Capital Berhad and PLUS Expressways Berhad. They are cash rich and earning super normal profit and very much a GLC way of thinkig and working.

http://www.touchngo.com.my/?pg=aboutus&subPg=background

 

Firstly it is about its fancy myrapid card.

Behind the smiling promotion face, there is a little hidden secret that consumers are taken for a ride and their FAQ would not dare to disclose:

http://www.myrapid.com.my/myrapid-card

The card has to have a minimum stored value of RM3 before a customer is allowed to take a ride. For example, a card holder needs to take a RM0.70 ride and he has only RM2.90 left in the card. He has to fork out RM10 which is the minimum top up value.

Sounds fair when you counter that the extra RM9.30 can be used for future ride but the RM3.00 is as good as lost because everyholder have to top up or get barred when the stored value hits below RM3.00.

This is in substance, a RM3 fare that you will never get to use.

RM3 is a small sum? But when you have the following impressive statistics,

http://www.touchngo.com.my/?pg=aboutus&subPg=achievement

That is potentially either RM27.6 million (9.2million X RM3) or RM 39million (13million X 3) fleeced from the rakyat for services need not rendered.

CORRECTION:
Subsequenty, I realised that the above are for Touch n Go, not MyRapid hence the above projection may not be close to actual MyRapid Card in circulation. However, the principle of RM3 sunk fee still applies

Another hidden and unfair term to the customer concerns the rabbit card

A customer has to pay RM1.50, I was told when I purchased mine. Rightfully, I paid for it and I owned it.

However, a minor incident today revealed another rip off scheme. You can convert this top up card into a monthly pass, i.e. pay RM100 and enjoy unlimited access onto LRT and Monorail. I have 2 cards and have been using only one. I passed the one I have been using onto my family member who started taking LRT and took out the spare one which I did not use for about one and a half years.

 I went to the LRT station and paid the required RM100 to get it converted from a top up card to  monthly pass code. The clerk at the counter took my RM100 and could not get it converted like it should be. She told me that my card has been “blacklisted”. I can’t get my money back and I have to pay extra to go to KL Sentral, the only place to resolve this issue. (Why can’t this monopoly provide this service in all LRT stations is an indefensible fault)

Ihad to paid RM10 to top up the other Myrapid card and got to KL Sentral. On 3^rd September 2012, at approximately 1:05pm, the lady at counter 1 of the Touch n Go service centre informed me that a card that has not been used for a year is blacklisted. I told her that this was not explained to me at time of purchase. Her meek reply was upon purchase, a receipt would carry that caution and I asked her how many people would notice and why can’t this be explained verbally when the card was being promoted and praised to the consumers? She could not answer.

Omission of material fact can be considered as misrepresentation.

Besides, since I paid for the card at RM1.50, it is my property and why TnG blacklist me within just a short period of time. In this globalised economy, it is very possible that a person who take rides on LRT might be sent to overseas posting for a year or 2 and upon his return, Touch n Go blacklist him?  On a personal note, the incompetent front service person, despite being told by me that this was suppose to be a monthly pass and I have paid the required RM100 for it, issued me a replacement card without informing me that I still need to go to the LRT counter to get it converted.

As I was rushing back to my workplace as the lunch hour is almost up, I notice to my horror that the fare for this needless journey was deducted from my card. I had about RM102.00++ with the top up and upon reaching my destination, the card balance was RM99.50. I cannot add RM0.10 because the minimum top up is RM5 for this card.

Therefore I wasted RM15 for this hidden, unexplained and unnecessary blacklist procedure. Touch n Go has not explain why the need for blacklisting and from where my biased and pissed off point of view, I can only see consumers are being fleeced off individually, which collectively, constitute nice and cheaply earned revenue for the haves, while the have nots are just plain lambs to the slaughter double. Then the corporate motto is as good as Take N Go

 People talk about corporate responsibility, being a good corporate citizen, rakyat diutama all those catchy terms but as far as Touch n Go is concerned, it is probably just about raking in rakyat’s hard earn moneys via obscured procedures