a few problems

for one...tranport fares have been adult for me...
for the past 5 mnths
and the worst thing was -
i didnt know about it

till a few weeks ago
realised that i've been paying a LOT for my travelling fares
went to check - alas! it's true!

i dont believe it...
$$ have been draining from my mom's bank account
to reduce the hustle of putting in $20 into the card every other week, my family decided to trust smrt and do giro instead to make matters easier and simpler.

so i decided to approach station staff with the problem
they smiled, and when i asked whether a refund is possible, they smiled again and said yes.

but i got a shock when a call came few nights back
they said that i cannot get a refund
its a lot of money
my parents did a calculation, came up to over $200, that is because i argued that i couldnt have been $500 which my mom still insists it is!

they told me that
'we've made an announcement, publicly, that all students are to extend their ez-link cards at transport stations from...may not get a refund after jan....'
i was shocked

firstly, i didnt hear whatsoever about any form of announcement, whether was it through sch or through posters because i never saw one...
maybe im not observant
maybe im ignorant of the things around me
but in the first place
whose job is it to make the announcement evident and easy to be noticed?
whose job is it to make sure that I got to know about such an announcement?
so if any stupid ignorant, unobservant student were to not know about this - i for being one - for till the end of the year...how much would these students be paying excess without knowing?

seconldy, its not so much for the money in this case. its about integrity. i feel that i've been robbed of my $$, imagine trusting my sch with giro, and they siphon $$ from my account like nobody's business without informing me first.for this then how much trust should i put out nxt time?

i say its a grey area in the system of giro. the transport ppl may have not been aware of this problem. the thing is that its difficult on my part and my parents to check our account deduction every month and keep track because i do travel a lot and we assumed that its because of this that deductions have been a lot. we were not aware of this error. how then should we be better informed? that we keep track? then we might as well not have giro in the first place!

the thing was that i was aware that transport was deducting adult fare during february because my friends pointed it out to me. they told me to slot it in the machine to extend it. so i happily willingly did as told. and the machine did say that they'd extended the card. so i walked off happy, thinking that i've saved my parents some trouble.

little did i know that this problem would pop up again now...5 months after i've successfully 'extended' my card

i insist on the refund because,

firstly: i am a student, and i have the right to travel as a student, and pay fares of a student

secondly: $$ was deducted behind my back, and if were to continue to trust our transport system, i wish that we rectify this matter immediately

thirdly: it was tranport's responsibility to make it easily and more evident about the compulsory extention of the cards. if i had known about this and not extend the card, i would have taken full responsibility and instead try to pay my parents back for my mistake and error.


i hope with these 3 reasons, i will get my refund back. it is impt
i would write to ST forums if necessary and fwd this to CASE.


thank you.