Cabby Mr Goh received a call from ComfortDelGro’s customer service hotline, asking if he had short-changed a customer of five cents.
The phone operator confirmed the details of the trip, which happened last Tuesday at around 11am in the morning from Tuas to Clementi Avenue 3.
The operator then told Mr Goh that the fare was S$17.65, and asked if he had counted out the exact change for the rider.
The passenger had apparently called in to complain that he gave the driver S$20 and only received change of S$3.30, short-changing him of five cents.
Yes, five cents.
The passenger also pressed ComfortDelGro’s customer service hotline and insisted that the usual policy was for riders to be charged five cents less, instead of rounding the figure up.
The phone operator also reiterated to the driver and reminded him of their policy to charge five cents less.
At the end of the call, Mr Goh expressed his surprise for such a complaint and added that these days, five cents was considered such a small value that even if it were on the floor, that no one would pick it up.
The entire conversation between the cabby and ComfortDelGro’s phone operator was shared on Facebook page ‘ROADS.sg’ and received 11,000 views, almost 200 shares and almost 200 reactions.
Singaporeans were very surprised at the extent a person would go to in order to reclaim their change of five cents.
One netizen shared this irrefutable logic:
He said, “Because you are not a millionaire if you only have $999,999.95?”.
Fair enough.
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obbana@theindependent.sg