Man Did Not Get His EZ-Link Refund Until He Wrote A Letter To TODAYOnline

Sadly, some of us would be very familiar with the incompetence of certain companies in helping us with our requests.

You could call every day, yet the customer service staff will only tell you the same sentence over and over again, like a broken record. They’re probably dreading the time of day when your daily call comes in too.

Sigh.

But what to do when you’re already at your wit’s end and your problem still isn’t solved? Desperate times call for desperate measures.

So… why not bring the issue up to a larger national level like this guy so they simply can’t ignore you anymore?

Not An EZ Refund

Timothy Low Chun Yuan, a particular “victim” of such a situation, decided to write in to TODAYOnline on 11 December in hopes of raising awareness and expressing his “disgust” about EZ-Link’s refund process.

He wrote that his problem began in April, when he accidentally transferred $350 to an EZ-Link Fevo card and subsequently submitted some forms online to request for a refund.

It was stated on the form that refunds would take about 14 to 21 working days to be processed, but he did not receive any further updates about the situation then.

Three months later, in July, Mr Low called EZ-Link about it and was told to resubmit his request forms, which he grudgingly agreed to do.

Okay…

After hearing no news from them yet again, he called them on 6 September, 10 September, 11 October, 10 November and 3 December to chase for his refund. He probably has EZ-Link’s number on speed dial by now, honestly.

However, each time they told him the same thing –  that “they would ‘escalate’ the case and get the relevant department to ‘expedite’ it.”

The last straw came during his 3 December call, when a customer service officer said he would call Mr Low back by the end of the week yet did not. Upon calling them once again at the end of that week, he was told that a request would be sent to the appropriate department to speed up his refund.

Imagine having a refund dragged out for eight entire months – anyone would go positively insane with anger just thinking about it!

Mr Low also said that the company’s incompetence has caused him much unhappiness and inconvenience, and hopes that the letter will find its way to someone who can help.

EZ Link Finally Responded

Well, it worked, for EZ-Link must’ve gotten scared that his letter documenting the case had been published by the media where everyone could see it.

They subsequently put out a statement on TODAYOnline, apologising for the delay in processing Mr Low’s refund and thanking him for his patience, stating that they had contacted him on 9 December to close his case.

As of 11 December, Mr Low has finally received his refund.

Wow, they did what they couldn’t do in eight months within two days when faced with a publicity crisis.

“We apologise for the lapse in our communication in ensuring a smoother journey for our customers and will continue striving to improve our refund processes,” EZ-Link added.

Perhaps we’ll see an influx of online complaints after this to corner companies into processing their requests fast. But oh well, at least it works most of the time.

Here’s to lesser incidents like this, and may all companies do their best in customer service!