On 5 November 2014, Hailo Singapore released a clarification status update on their Facebook page on the removal of credits from users' accounts. These credits are earned from promotional codes circulating around by word-of-mouth and forums such as CITI1, CITI2, CITI3, CITI4, CITI5, CITI6, CITI7 and STAR1 for $20 credits each. Plenty of users took it up to the Hailo Singapore Facebook page with their discontent as they mistakenly took cabs under the impression that they still had credits but were charged to their credit cards.
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| Hailo Singapore Facebook page status update |
The plug was pulled from the credits with only 1 day away from the expiry date of the promotional codes (6 November), without a comprehensive notice to all users and taxi drivers. With "tens of thousands" paid out to allegedly unauthorized users, it seems like the costs are too much to bear if this goes on for another day. Why are these promotional codes not limited to certain users only if it's not meant for public usage? That is one big mystery. You really can't rely on users to dutifully not use credits meant for employees only when the system allows it, especially in Singapore where everyone loves freebies like these.
When I was using my credits yesterday for a ride, I was having a conversation with the taxi driver who remarked that there were "a few people with credits of up to $300 stored in their account when he picked them up". Another taxi driver told me to try a new promotional code "CITI8" that was rumoured to be activated on 5 November, but it obviously didn't work anymore.
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| A screen capture of an email sent to a Hailo user |
In any case, Hailo promised to run run regular, transparent promotions and giveaways for passengers for us to look forward to. Their customer service is quite responsive - they replied one of my questions quite quickly within hours, but they must be swamped with queries and complaints right now. Meanwhile, we can switch back to taking public transport... or, Uber? Grab Taxi? Easy Taxi?
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