Thursday, July 29, 2010

Angry At The Bus Driver!

The other day.. I was sending Ace to school and something very irrtating happened...

Cannot be bothered to recap the details again and here how things happened as per my complaint letter....

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Dear Sir

I am very disappointed with the level of service shown by your bus captain.

This morning, I was trying to send my 5 year old son to school and we boarded the bus service 222 at the bus stop outside of Blk 180 along Bedok North Road at around 9.40am in the morning.

As my son is old enough to tap his card, I asked him to get his ezylink card ready, let him tap his card first and made sure I heard the beep before I tapped my own card. I was also careful to make sure that I heard a beep sound and I only moved on when I heard a beep sound and saw the screen come up with details about how much there is left in my ezylink card…

Because of safety concerns, I decided it might be easiest and best for us to seat near the exit door and so we walked all the way in and set right behind the exit doors.

Strangely, for some unknown reason, the bus driver did not move the bus and drive forward even though all passengers have already gone on the bus. I thought he might have been waiting for someone but after waiting for sometime, he still did not move the bus. I looked up and noticed he was gestulating and he was talking… and I can see his face in the mirror.

“Are you talking to me?” I asked him.. and he continued to gestulate a rectangle and saying something about the card and I sort of made out that he was saying that I did not tap my card. “I already tapped..” I told him as I was sure that I already heard the beep and saw the words “NEW FARE” come up the machine

But the bus captain was not pacified and gestulated me to go over to his side.

I walked to him and he told me that I had to tap my card again. I asked him why I had to tap my card twice and he said I did not tap my card… “But I already tapped my card what…” and at this point he made an accusation and said that I had used my son’s ezylink card to tap instead of using my own card and insisted that I tap again…
Thinking that I could prove that I had already tapped the card if I tapped again and it said something like end of the trip or something, I did.. but was surprised to find that it said, “NEW FARE” again… “Now it is right already…” he said and he drove off.
When I walked back to my seat, I was burning because the whole bus was looking at me and thinking I am using my son’s ezylink card on purpose now because of his accusations..

I was really furious because the bus driver had caused me to lose my dignity and my face in front of the public and in front of my son by making ACCUSATIONS aloud that I did not tap the card.

So after I sent my son to school, I went to the MRT station to check my past transactions my ezylink card and I found that the bus driver did not only made me lose face in public and in front of my son but also made me tap twice and PAID MY FARE TWICE. As there is no way to print out the transaction record, I used my handphone and took a picture of it. (Should you need this piece of evidence, I can email to you)

Why is your bus driver penalizing me when he is at fault? There are two machines and how can he be so sure who did or did not tap the card? If he cannot see who tapped and who did not, how can he rely just on his ears and just guesswork and make accusations like that? Even in court, a person is considered NOT GUILTY until proven otherwise.

My sister who was with me on the trip said she has seen quite a few bus drivers shout loudly at people, “Eh, you never pay money” when their card did not pass through. While the job of a bus captain may be tough work and I do agree they will also meet annoying people who are trying to take a free bus ride, how they handle the case makes a difference to how the INNOCENT people feel when they have genuinely missed the card beeping.
With the bus fares increasing (out of 10 people that I asked, all 10 said their fares increased.. so please don’t tell me 75% of the people are paying lesser fares like the government), I would expect also an increase in the service quality of your bus captains. They are called Bus CAPTAINS and not just BUS DRIVERS for a reason, right?
I am sure this is a common scenario and am shocked that your bus drivers are never taught how to handle this (the bus caption involved is old and I presumed he has been bus driver for many years) sort of situation discreetly and POLITELY.

And also, if the bus driver gets the passenger to tap again at the ezylink machine, why would be that when I tapped the card again about a minute later.. it did not signal either end of the trip OR that the card has already been tapped… but it just said “NEW FARE” and deducted money AGAIN from my card? If the machine had done either of the things I mentioned aboved, I wouldn’t have been blamed or been made to look like I am some cheapo. And I guess the bus driver might have been able to apologize to me on the stop.

Also, I would have been ready to forgive an old person for his mistake because they might not hear or see so well had he been humble or nice and said something nice like “I think your card did not go through just now..” I might not even have bothered to check my last transactions in that case.. and would have let it pass… But I am very upset that he told the whole bus that I was using my son’s ezylink card. How would that make me look in front of my son?

Because of this, I find it very difficult to be forgiving and understanding in this instance and am so angry initially that I have good mind to go to my friends in the press and tell them my story. I am sure this is not a one off situation and story and it might probably start a debate on the service quality of bus captains in Singapore.

But in view of the fact that it might have been an honest mistake of a bus driver who is not well trained enough in the area of customer’s service and in view of his age, I have decided to just feedback to you in hope that you will improve the service level of your bus captains further.

Also, I would like to ask to be compensated for the extra that I paid and in addition, I would also like an apology from the bus driver. I do not think that is too much to ask for considering I also teach my 5 year old to say he is sorry whenever he makes a mistake.


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I wrote this letter on 19th July and till now, I have not recieved my apology :S SBS sucks.. a week later after i wrote the letter, i read TNP and realized that there are alot of people who are complaining about having been in the same situation as me too...

Anyway, after I walked back from the bus driver, I told Ae that I am really very angry at the bus driver for saying that I did something even though I did not do it and i also told Ace I am going to complain the bus driver and ask for an apology from him.

Every now and then in the journey, my son would ask me, "Are you still angry, mummy? Are you still angry at the bus driver?"

And when after some time, he realized I was still angry, he started to try to be funny by asking me, "Are you still angry? Are you still angry? Are you still angry? Are you still angry?" while he tried to make funny face to make me happy..

SO I told him I am much better already and he smiled sweetly at me and told me, "Ok.. I like to be funny.. because I like to make people happy.." Hmm... tat sounds like the role of a charmer.. oops..

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