January 14, 2022
SINGAPORE – The scramble to secure bus tickets via the land vaccinated travel lane (VTL) between Singapore and Malaysia hit a snag on Wednesday (Jan 12), after some customers had their bookings cancelled.
This comes after Singapore bus operator Transtar Travel released tickets under the quarantine-free travel scheme on Wednesday for trips from Feb 10 to Feb 28 on its website and Shopee virtual store.
Since Dec 23 last year, it had been selling VTL tickets across the Causeway one day at a time. On Wednesday, however, it abruptly released tickets for a period of 19 days.
A Land Transport Authority spokesman told The Straits Times (ST) that the move to open up trips between Feb 10 and Feb 28 will enable people to better plan their travel and leave arrangements.
But some eager customers were plagued by cancellations soon after tickets were released.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday night, Transtar Travel said it had been alerted through customer service and social media that some orders were cancelled, despite customers checking out and entering their travel particulars within a 30-minute grace period.
It traced the issue with Shopee to an online form used to collect the particulars.
Transtar Travel said the large volume of submissions on Wednesday caused the form to freeze. That resulted in customers being unable to submit particulars, and orders with no particulars being automatically cancelled after 30 minutes.
While the form “gradually recovered from the surge of submissions”, some customers still had their bookings cancelled, it added.
It has temporarily frozen ticket sales on its Shopee store until a “reliable fix” can be found. The bus operator apologised, saying there was “no overselling” and that affected customers would get a refund.
While Transtar Travel’s Facebook post has since been removed, a similar notice on its Shopee store remains as at 2.40pm on Thursday.
Transtar Travel’s Facebook post has since been removed. PHOTO: SCREENGRAB FROM TRANSTAR TRAVEL/FACEBOOK
Speaking to ST on Thursday evening, Transtar Travel managing director Elson Yap said the firm was unsure how many customers had their tickets cancelled.
He said all the operator’s tickets from Feb 10 to Feb 28 have been snapped up and that customers can next book tickets for March 1.
Causeway Link and Transtar Travel are the only bus operators plying the route under the Malaysia-Singapore land VTL.
A notice on Transtar Travel’s Shopee store remains as at 2.40pm on Thursday. PHOTO: TRANSTAR TRAVEL/SHOPEE
Demand for tickets remains brisk as many rush to make trips via the land VTL over the Chinese New Year period, with all 7,560 for Feb 7 to Feb 13 selling out within about 30 minutes when Malaysia operator Causeway Link released its tickets on Thursday (Jan 13).
Administrator Ong Yiyin, 29, teared up as she told ST that her plans for her and her husband to reunite with their one-year-old daughter in Jementah in Johor might be dashed because the tickets they bought on Shopee from Johor Baru to Singapore on Feb 27 had been cancelled.
The couple have been trying to nab return tickets since Jan 5, in a bid to visit their daughter and parents.
If they are unable to get return tickets back to Singapore, they will have to shelve plans to go to Johor Baru.
Ms Ong said: “In December last year, I managed to get tickets for both of us to return to Malaysia after using three devices, but since then, I haven’t been able to get tickets to come back to Singapore.
“On Wednesday, I was so happy when they said my booking from Johor Baru to Singapore on Shopee was successful at around 11am, but later I got a notification to say our booking was cancelled.”
Ms Ong has called customer service several times but has not received a reply.
She added: “Please give us tickets rather than a refund. My husband hasn’t even seen our daughter because I returned to Malaysia to give birth to her alone in 2020 and my daughter has since been looked after by her grandmother there.”