PETALING JAYA: It is perhaps the much-awaited news for most Malaysians. Touch ‘n Go Sdn Bhd will be making two massive changes this year.
All Touch ‘n Go parking surcharges, which have always been a bane among consumers, will be taken away by the first quarter this year.
By the end of 2021, customers can also opt to purchase Touch ‘n Go cards that can be reloaded directly from their phones using the Touch ‘n Go eWallet.
These two matters have been among the top grouses raised by Touch ‘n Go customers.
The company, which is emphasising on a more customer centric approach as it moves forward, has decided to make these developments possible.
Newly-minted group chief executive officer Effendy Shahul Hamid said Touch ‘n Go has planned to do all these because of customer feedback.
“We’re listening to what customers want. Customers want to reload the cards from their eWallets, we’re giving it to them.
“Customers don’t want the parking surcharge, we’re listening to them.
“Customers are starting to give us feedback in terms of what are the things that we can do and we’re starting to engineer the company around that, ” he told StarBiz in an exclusive interview, three months into his new role.
The following are excerpts from the interview.
Q: When can we see an end to the 10% parking surcharge?
A: I’m very happy to say that by the end of the first quarter, we’ll take away all parking surcharges.
It requires innovation and some sacrifice on our side, but I think it’s the right thing to do.
Basically, we’ve been able to convince our parking operator partners and ensure the surcharge is removed by the end of the first quarter
Q: What about the 50 sen fee for card top ups?
A: The first thing to understand is Touch ‘n Go does not receive any of the reload surcharge when cards are reloaded. The surcharge has historically been levied by our reload agents to defray the specific cost of providing the reload service. And when you reload your card, we actually pay the agent that reloads the card for you.
We are working intensely with our agents to move this towards a zero-surcharge model. It is work in progress. Today, some of our agents already do not impose any reload surcharge, like Watsons, Guardian, Caring Pharmacy, Giant and selected Petronas and Shell stations, to name a few.
Q: Many users have also complained about slow refunds.
A: We’re encouraged to do refunds in 30 days. But for me, I agree 30 days is too long for a refund process and it’s something that we’re working on internally to improve and we’re definitely shooting for refunds in less than 30 days which will be implemented within the next six months.
Check out StarBizWeek for Effendy’s plans for Touch ‘n Go
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