PETALING JAYA: Motorist Sasha Lee was frustrated when it took almost two months for her to order and purchase a SmartTag device.
“It’s ridiculous that it took so long. I tried visiting Touch ‘n Go (TnG) kiosks in petrol stations and enquiring at the TnG hubs and PLUS Malaysia Bhd office, but to no avail.
“It took me several attempts before I was able to buy two units online,” she said.
The Klang Valley-based business executive said she needed to use the SmartTag as her work often required her to use tolled routes and using the device would have saved her time from queuing at toll plazas.
Lee paid about RM132 per unit, including shipping charges, for the SmartTag purchased via an e-commerce site.
She added that a colleague had seen SmartTag units being sold at a night market in Petaling Jaya, though he was unable to verify if the devices were genuine.
A check online revealed that SmartTags were available on several e-commerce sites.
It was only recently that StarMetro called the TnG customer service number to be informed of the availability of the SmartTag.
At that point, the customer service attendant said 200 units were available for walk-in purchases at the TnG hubs or online via e-commerce site Lazada, through the seller Touch ‘n Go Sdn Bhd.
The attendant also said the SmartTag was out of stock for several months due to high demand during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri festive season and because of the migration to the electronic payment system.
The official retail price for one Smart Tag unit is RM127.20 (not including TnG card).
Touch ‘n Go Sdn Bhd marketing & communication corporate sales head Aina Abdullah said the company was aware of consumers’ concerns over the availability of the SmartTag and took a serious view of the complaints.
She said the SmartTag stocks were back on track and was available for purchase at the following locations — online via Lazada, TnG hubs in Bangsar South and Nu Sentral Shopping Centre, Kuala Lumpur, and Wisma Nufri in Johor, TnG mobile sales units, and selected petrol stations.
“We advise the public to only purchase their SmartTAG device or other TnG products from our authorised dealers or merchants in order to ensure the originality of its source,” said Aina.
The Malaysian Highway Authority announced in July that only electronic toll collection (ETC) payments would be accepted at all 177 toll plazas nationwide from Aug 14.
ETC payment included TnG, SmartTag, PLUSMiles and MyKad equipped with TnG chips. The ETC system was reportedly 300% faster than the manual cash payment system.
ETC transactions via TnG took six seconds and SmartTag three seconds, compared to 15 seconds for manual transactions.
