Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Touch n Go 10 years Life span

Today i received an email from my friend. The content as below:

************************************************************************
Please be informed that each Touch n Go card has a life span of 10 years
from the issuance date. In your case, the card was bought in September 1998 and
will expire soon. To avoid untoward incident, we advise you to replace the card
at any Touch n Go Sales and Reload Counters before August 2008 and it is free
of charge. Please bring the card to the following counters :

1) PLUS EXPRESSWAY · Kedah : Alor Setar (U), Sg Petani (S) · P.Pinang :
Jawi, Juru, Sg Dua, Penang Bridge Sdn. Bhd. · Perak : Bidor, Bkt Tambun (S),
Ipoh (S), Jelapang, Taiping (U) · Selangor : Kajang, OBR Sg Buloh, Batu Tiga, Sg
Besi, Sg Rasau, Subang, USJ, Seafield, KLIA · Kuala Lumpur :Damansara, Jln Duta,
Kota Damansara · N.Sembilan : Bdr Baru Nilai, Senawang · Melaka : Ayer Keroh,
OBR Ayer Keroh · Johor : Ayer Hitam, Kempas, Skudai, Yong Peng (U), Lima Kedai,
Tmn Perling, Tg Kupang 7.30 am to 7.30 pm , Mondays to Sundays (including Public
Holidays).

2) RSSB POS : Head Office - Faber Towers Taman Desa KL 8.30 am to 5.00 pm
Mondays to Fridays 8.30 am to 1.00 pm Saturdays

3) KL SENTRAL HUB : 10.00 am to 8.00 pm Mondays to Fridays, 10.00 am to
3.00 pm Saturdays. We hope we have addressed your concern adequately and thank
you for you support.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact our Touch n Go
Careline Centre at 03-7628 5115 (7.30am to 7.30pm : Monday to Sunday). We will
be glad to assist you.

************************************************************************


I have a doubt about it, i sent an email to enquiry whether the touch n go 's card only has 10years life span. Their Customer Service response my email within an hour, which is considered very FAST response! THUMB UP! Malaysia's company should learned about this.

Touch n Go representative confirmed the info above is real. Regardless which date you purchase the Touch n Go, it will expired in the next 10 years. When the time come, you need to go to their authorized branch to get a replace card FOC.

Anyway, based on their statistic

No. of Touch n Go users: Around 3 million cardholders
No. of MyKad holders with Touch n Go facility: Around 1 million cardholders

If said 300k(just 3 millions/10 years) growth of user increase every year, soon or later the limitation of "10 years LIFE SPAN" would be a great problem in coming future that their touch n go card cannot pass through the toll machine and caused the long queue behind. Definetely not all users will cautions about this info, neither they know about when their card going to expired or when they bought the card.

I not sure about how their mechanism works, but i would suggest that
  1. Take out the control of the 10years life span, i believe they can change their system. Make it never expired. Why they should make it expired and isnt it will be added more cost of making the same card, unless the card they will added in new features! Just like our mobile phone simcard from 32k upgrade to 64k for better storage.
  2. If the 10years life span is a must, then at least print out the expired date on the Touch n Go card itself. Just like what Credit Card and all other member cards.....
  3. Post that notice ad to the all the major newspaper about this issue
  4. Create a web page which allow people to check their expired date by key in the serial number, so that the user no need purposely call and ask to check the expired date one by one, this will caused more troublesome jobs to Customer Service.
  5. At least post this info to http://www.touchngo.com.my/, no one would know if no one tell. Who will know the card they holding and paying for got expired date.
  6. Etc...etc...i believe they can think of other better ideas of what i thought of.

If any of you bought the card long time ago....please remember to contact their customer service through email or phone number to check your touch n go expired date.

Touch n Go Customer Support Email Address: touchngo_careline@rsegar.com