Ez-Link Reload

Last year and before, I used the Citibank SMRT credit card which doubled as an ez-link card. If offered the auto-topup facility (at a price of $0.25 per auto topup) and the credit card gave you a 1.7% rebate on the total topup amount.

All was well until somebody wanted to make more money and forced everybody to change to the new card. That's when my nightmare started.

For some reason, my SMRT card was replaced. The new card came with an auto topup amount of only S$30. It makes no financial sense for me to have that topup amount. I will have more number of topups and pay more convenience fee. I called up Translink to tell them I wanted to change the topup amount. They happily informed me that they couldn't do that because they were going through the ezlink card replacement exercise. I had to wait from March to July, then I could change the topup amount. When July came, they told me September. Finally when September came and the credit card company issued me a cepas compliant credit cum ezlink card, Translink asked me to contact ezlink to settle that, not their business. When I contacted ezlink, they asked me to deactivate it and reapply through their website after 7 working days. I did exactly that, and 2 days ago, I found out my application was rejected!

What the f**k! I again called them up, the lady there happily informed me that I reapplied earlier than the 7 working days as required. I could only reapply after 19 Oct. Hello, when I called them, it was already 24 Oct! And I was very sure that I reapplied only after 7 WORKING days! I wrote to their feedback unit.

This morning, I received an email notification saying my application has been approved. In the afternoon, an email from their customer service saying my application had been approved. Sorry for the inconvenience. SOP replies.

What is very unacceptable to me is their manner of treating their customers. I called them up, I was put on hold as all operators were engaged at the time. Fine, I can hold, I can even hold for an hour, 2 hours, no problem. Guess what, after some time, the automatic answering machine told me to leave a message, and then hung up the phone!

I am really frustrated with ezlink, and I has just written my feedback to LTA. I don't know how useful my feedback will be, but then at least I have voiced my opinion. Ezlink's current service standard is below standard.