TransitLink Claim Follow-up

As promised, here’s the follow-up to my previous post on my TransitLink Fare Refund. I’m delighted at the effort it took to process my refund of 65 cents in the form of a cheque sent by post. The accompanying letter was hand-folded, and signed by a real person (i.e. it wasn’t a printed on signature). The cheque was entirely handwritten, except for the stamped worded amount. It was signed by two persons, both different from the one who signed the letter, and also different from the one who filled in all the blanks in the cheque.

So at least four people were involved in getting the refund written out. Probably more.

I saw a bus with the “Pay Cash” sign lighted up the other day. I guess the fare card system was spoilt. With our government trying to push cashless payment systems, and all of us are now so used to using EzLink cards or cash cards, it suddenly seems so inconvenient to dig around for coins to pay for the bus fare.

I’m just thinking… the bus ride ought to be free. I suppose it doesn’t make sense to pull a bus out of service just because of a fare card system problem. So, instead of making passengers pay in cash, get inconvenienced, have to pay more (because cash fares are higher), be unhappy, make a claim, etc… yah, just make the whole bus ride free?