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

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I received the same email yesterday as well. I tried to go access touchngo website but can't get any features to check the expire date.. I'll try to email them to get my card expire date.

BillyTong said...

Why would you care about expire date?
There are higher chances that your card spoil earlier than 10yrs.

All I know is if you have not use touch & go for a certain period (if not mistaken 1yr). It will be deactivated.

Even if it is expired it is only less than RM100. Which I dont really care that small amount of money.

YSLim said...

Anonymous,
ya, i did search in their portal website and they doesnt mentioned anything at all about it...anyway, i just added their email address in my post.

Billytong,
Actually, it is not about the money issue, and it is more about troublesome that we have to go to their branch and change the new card. Maybe next time when you queue at the toll though touch n go or smarttag lane, someone in the most front not able to pass through it because of this expired date issue (obviously you wont know abt what happening in front there)...then you might start to cursing that wasting of your time to waiting behind...

3 million cardholders, this is not a big deal for now, but it would become a big problem sooner or later.

BillyTong said...

Like I said, ur card will more likely to spoil first b4 it expired after 10yrs.(according to ur post), you will still need to change your card b4 expiry date.

You still have to stuck in the lane if your card spoil the moment u pass it.

So whats the different between worrying the expiry date compare to worrying your card someday will spoil?