I find it amazing how the bus companies can go on about how much
revenue they're losing to fare cheats when they are potentially
ripping more off passengers who, on alighting, are unable to tap
their cards for one reason or another.
While there's no doubt one could always approach any Transitlink
office to file claims for overcharging, the bureaucracy and red
tape involved (not to mention some of the lesser-educated folks or
the elderly may not even be aware of such procedures) would more
than deter many from actually filing such claims.
Assuming you had purchased a concession and the card is actually
retained through no fault of your own (ie.if the card/card-reader
proved faulty), what happens to the period - a period which is
supposed to be covered by your concession pass - between the
retention of your card and you redeeming it when you're actually
denied your right to utilise your concession? I'm pretty sure
there's nothing on their books that guarantee you'd be compensated
for the period where you've been denied access to your
concession.
On the issue addressed above, actually one solution to the problem
would be to refuse to hand over the EZ-link card (rightly indicated
by the bloke who wrote the letter). As a matter of fact, bus
drivers dealing with such matters are advised to contact their
operations control centre for help when passengers refuse to comply
in such instances. It's indeed ludicrous there's little to clarify
the ambiguity surrounding the circumstances under which such
EZ-link cards could be retained.
