SMRTgangsters

In October, after I got off the SMRT train at Marina Bay MRT station, I asked the SMRT staff for directions to Marina Square as I was looking to go there to buy some stuff.

The two staff were terribly rude. They called me 'bodoh' and 'gilah' from the beginning.

They hid their name tags by wearing jackets over them. And when I asked them for their names they deliberately hid their names from me.

They challenged me to a fight soon. Feeling outraged at such behaviour, I took out my phone to record a video of them. Upon seeing me take out my phone, one of them rushed at me like a rugby player with her hands out trying to grab my phone from me. I barely had a second to keep my phone before she snatched it from me. I asked her for her name. She then yelled that I am not allowed to take videos in the MRT station. All that time hiding her name tag and refusing to tell me her name when asked. She was obviously trying to prevent her behaviour from being recorded on camera.

The Rapid Transit Systems Act as well as the Public Transport Council (http://www.transitlink.com.sg/pdf/annex/Annex_B.pdf ) seem to state that Transport Officials should show their ID cards when asked when carrying out their duties.

So two SMRT staff were so rude to a passenger (scolding me 'bodoh' and 'gilah'), challenged a passenger to a fight, did not let a passenger know their names when asked repeatedly despite the law saying they must do so (and hid their name tags under their jackets when they saw me looking at their name tags) and obviously abused their powers as Transport Officials under the Rapid Transit Systems Act.

I wrote in to SMRT, and it seems like these two staff were not fired. Unbelieveable.

When will these dictators ever be fired? How does SMRT chooses its Transport Officials and why should untrained and unqualified people be given so much powers under the Rapid Transit Systems Act to abuse at will without any checks and balances?

1. Letter to SMRT (Sent in October)

Re: Rude SMRT staff who challenged me to a fight.

Hello Sir/Madam,

I took the SMRT train to Marina Bay MRT station on 14 of October 2012 at night to go to Marina Square to buy something. I tapped my card, walked out of the gantries and looked at the map in the station looking for Marina Square. I couldn't find it. So I approached the office next to the gantries to ask the SMRT staff kindly if she knew where Marina Square is. She was totally rude to me in terms of the way she spoke and behaved. She said 'It is at City Hall lah bodoh'. Her colleague next to her called me 'bodoh and gilah' as well. The two staff are two plump girls -- Fizal and Liz -- from the North East Line section. I asked them 'Why are you so rude?'. Then they starting yelling at me 'Bodoh' and started behaving very rudely...gesticulating at me etc.

From what little Malay I understand, I think 'bodoh' is Malay for stupid. And 'gilah' is Malay for crazy.

I was frankly appalled at their behaviour. I think I must have walked away a few steps before returning to the counter to find out their names. Both of them were not wearing name tags or were hiding their name tags under their jackets when they saw me glancing at their chests looking for any name tags. I then asked them for their names and IDs. I asked 'what is your name?'. They continued gesticulating wildly and yelling at me. At this point, I took out my mobile phone thinking I probably should take a picture/video of them behaving in this manner and show it to their manager etc. Before I could even aim my phone, one of them ran out of the small office/booth hurriedly and rushed at me...yelling at me arrogantly that taking photographs is not allowed. She charged towards me like a rugby player and stretched out her arm in a motion to signal she was going to snatch my mobile phone from me. At no point did she tell me her name, showed me her card, or even stopped to tell me properly that taking photos is not allowed. She then threatened to call the police. She was obviously unhappy that I was taking my phone out to take a picture/video of her misbehaving so she is abusing her authority as a staff of SMRT and making police threats in an attempt to scare me and to stop me from videotaping their behaviour. I asked her what is her name and she ignored me.

Seeing her arm reaching out, I kept my phone in my pocket in case she snatched it. It all happened so quickly I didn't even have time to point my phone to press the record button. I have just checked the Rapid Transit Systems Act as well as SMRT’s website and the website says taking videos is perfectly fine for personal use...while the Rapid Transit Systems Act does not even list taking pictures of videos as an infringement. The only reason I had to use my phone in the train station was to record the two staff and not any other things in the train station... because I felt the two staff were terribly rude and unprofessional.

I think both the Rapid Transit Systems Act as well as the Public Transport Council (http://www.transitlink.com.sg/pdf/annex/Annex_B.pdf ) state that Transport Officials should show their ID cards when asked when carrying out their duties.

The staff then went back into her small booth/office and both of them continued yelling, glaring and gesticulating wildly at me. I went back to the booth for a very short while to see if the manager is there and to see if I can spot their names on any signs on the glass plane etc. There were no names to be seen. I switched on a small hidden video camera at this point. Please view the CD included in this package. I started recording but it was too late as it did not capture most of their behaviour and it was pointing slightly upwards...but you can still hear them threatening me to a fight in the video. In the video you can hear them yelling at me 'why you stand there? not happy go outside la' (i.e. challenge me to a fight outside.) You can also hear the tone of their voices...they have been hurling abuses at me in that tone for some time before I switched on my hidden camera.

I then walked away, took the train to Marina Square to purchase my item, and took the train back to Marina Bay MRT an hour or two later, where I met with the a station manager and told her briefly about what happened. I got a feedback form from her and managed to find out from the other station manager (who was in charge of the two staff) that the names of the staff are Fizal and Liz. I asked for their real names from him but he refused to tell me their real names. I am not sure why.

I am writing in to you because such behaviour by train officials cannot be condoned. They have utterly abused their authority as SMRT officials (under the Rapid Transit System Act apparently even those two counter staff have the authority to detain people in train stations, and ask them for names, addresses etc), threatened me, and challenged me to a fight outside.

I doubt I am the first person whom they have treated like this anyway...there must be other train passengers whom they have treated like this. I am not sure if they have good relationships with their managers or if there is any 'you scratch my back I scratch yours' going on...but surely such staff must be dismissed for gross misconduct and blatant abuse of authority as SMRT officials.

I am willing to go down to Marina Bay train station with you if required. I am also more than willing to meet with you in person or talk to you on the phone if required.

Could you please let me know via email what is the outcome of this and what are the names of the two SMRT staff?

I have attached the video in a CD behind. Please ignore the date stamp in the video it is wrong because I did not set the date in my camera properly.

Yours Sincerely,

Alvin

Email from SMRT (2nd of Nov)

From: SMRT Corporate Communications <CorpComms@smrt.com.sg>

To: Alvin

Sent: Friday, 2 November 2012 5:52 PM

Subject: Re: Rude MRT Staff Who Challenged Me To A Fight

Our Ref: MM-CP-1210-0044

Dear Alvin

We refer to your letter to us regarding the incident which occurred at Marina Bay MRT Station on 14 October 2012, and we are sorry to learn of your experience.

In order to facilitate our investigations, please provide us with the following details:

1) time of incident

2) your 16-digit EZ-link card number

Thank you, and we look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely

Lynette Sng

Customer Relations

Corporate Marketing and Communications

SMRT Corporation Ltd

Privileged/Confidential information may be contained in this message. If you are not the addressee indicated in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to such person), you may not copy or deliver this message to anyone. In such case, you should destroy this message and kindly notify the sender by reply email. Please advise immediately if you or your employer do not consent to Internet email for messages of this kind. Opinions, conclusions and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of SMRT shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by it.

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My email to SMRT (3rd Nov)

From: Alvin Alvin

To: SMRT Corporate Communications <CorpComms@smrt.com.sg>

Sent: Saturday, 3 November 2012 5:45 PM

Subject: Re: Rude MRT Staff Who Challenged Me To A Fight

Hello Ms Lynette Sng,

Thank you for your email.

I have three EZ-link cards in my wallet. They are not mine but belong to a family member of mine as I have just returned from New Zealand hence I just got the cards from my family. I can't remember which card I used on the day itself to go to Marina Bay MRT but it is probably one of these three.

Their numbers are:

1000 0800 1079 xxxx

1000 1100 0120 xxxx

1000 0800 3364 xxxx

As for the time of the incident, sadly I can't really remember now. It was on the night of 14 of October 2012. Most probably between 8pm-10pm I think.

I have also sent you a video as evidence along with my mail. Have you received it?

Warm Regards,

Alvin

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SMRT's email (10 December)

Our Ref: MM-CP-1210-0044

Dear Mr Alvin

We refer to your letter to us regarding the incident which occurred at Marina Bay MRT Station on 14 October 2012.

Based on our investigations and after viewing the CCTV footage, please be assured that we have taken disciplinary action against the said staff, as all staff should be mindful of their behavior to the public, and we certainly do not condone unacceptable behavior.

We wish to apologize for your experience with our staff, and thank you for highlighting the matter to us.

Have a pleasant week ahead.

Yours sincerely

Lynette Sng

Customer Relations

Corporate Marketing and Communications

SMRT Corporation Ltd

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My email to SMRT (13 Decemeber and unanswered)

Dear Ms Sng,

May I know what is the disciplinary action that has been taken? A verbal warning, demotion, pay cut, or sacking of the employee?

Also, you have the CCTV footage. Can you send it to me please I would love to take a look at it. Surely it captures her screaming at me and rushing at me depending on the angle.

Thanks,
Alvin

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My emails to the PTC after SMRT stopped replying

From: Alvin
Sent: Tuesday, 25 December, 2012 9:27 PM
To: PTC Office (PTC)
Subject: SMRT staff challenged me to a fight

Dear Sir/Madam,

On October 14, two SMRT staff called me a 'bodoh', 'gilah', challenged me to a fight, and abused their powers as Transport Officials to try and snatch my mobile phone from me, while repeatedly hiding their names from me and not letting me know their names (or see their cards) when asked.

I have written the entire event at http://smrtgangsters.blogspot.sg/ as it is much easier attaching things to a blog than to an email.

Can there be anything done to the company or the staff?

Yours Sincerely,

Alvin

---------------------

From: PTC Office (PTC) <PTC_Office@ptc.gov.sg>
To: Alvin

Sent: Friday, 4 January 2013 10:48 AM
Subject: RE: SMRT staff challenged me to a fight

Dear Alvin,

We are currently looking into your feedback and you will hear from us in due time. Thank you for your patience.

Regards,

Agnes Ng

Public Transport Council

---------------------

From: Alvin

Sent: Sunday, 6 January, 2013 2:00 AM
To: PTC Office (PTC)
Subject: Re: SMRT staff challenged me to a fight

Dear Ms Agnes Ng,

Thank you. I am looking forward to see what you guys can and will do about this.

There should be checks and balances so public transports officials cannot abuse their powers and their organisations cannot just ignore it.

Yours Sincerely,
Alvin

---------------------

Dear Alvin,

We refer to your email dated 25 December 2012.

We are sorry to hear of your encounter with the two SMRT staff on 14 October 2012 at Marina Bay MRT station.

We would like to take this opportunity to clarify that SMRT staff may be appointed by the Public Transport Council (PTC) as Public Transport Officials (PTOfficials) to conduct ticket inspection and penalty fee enforcement duties onboard the buses/at train stations. The PTC expects PTOfficials to perform their duties professionally and display the appropriate mannerism and conduct at all times when interacting with commuters.

We also wish to share that as a service provider, SMRT is directly accountable for their service delivery to the customers, and this includes ensuring the professional competency of their staff in terms of proper conduct and discipline at all times. We understand that SMRT had responded to you on 28 December 2012 regarding your feedback and they have provided the assurance that they do not condone behaviour from their staff that does not meet SMRT’s internal service standards and they have since meted out the appropriate disciplinary actions against the two staff.

We take a serious stance in this matter and have shared our concerns with SMRT. We thank you for bringing the matter to our attention. Please be assured that we will closely monitor the performance of these two staff in their role as PTOfficials.

Regards,

Agnes Ng (Ms)

for Secretary

Public Transport Council

---------------------

From: Alvin
Sent: Sunday, 24 March, 2013 9:39 PM
To: PTC Office (PTC)
Subject: Re: SMRT staff challenged me to a fight

Dear Ms Agnes Ng,

I went to Marina Bay station today and it seems like the staff who have been counseled or whatever have not changed their ways but have become even more bent.

I have already called the police regarding today's incident. I will charge the woman in court.

Please view this video and let me know what your department is going to do with PTOs like these who abuse their powers. It seems like even the station manager does not know their basic responsibility which is they must produce their ID cards when asked as it is the law.

I would hazard a guess that there are many PTOs out there like these. I have not emailed SMRT regarding this yet.

Please view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnzpxMblNyA

Story at: http://smrtgangsters.blogspot.sg/

I await your response.

Thank You,

Alvin

---------------------

From: PTC Office (PTC) [mailto:PTC_Office@ptc.gov.sg]
Sent: Monday, March 25, 2013 5:31 PM
To: Alvin
Cc: SMRT Corporate Communications
Subject: RE: Feedback on conduct of SMRT staff

Dear Alvin,

We refer to your encounter with the SMRT staff at Marina Bay station on 24 March 2013.

As we have explained in our earlier email dated 21 January 2013, SMRT, being a responsible service provider, assumes full stewardship role in service delivery. Regarding your feedback on the conduct of the SMRT staff, we will bring it to the attention of SMRT’s higher management. We trust that SMRT will take a serious view of your feedback and follow up with you on the matter accordingly.

Thank you.

Regards,

Agnes Ng (Ms)

for Secretary

Public Transport Council

---------------------

From: SMRT Corporate Communications <CorpComms@smrt.com.sg>
To: Alvin
Cc: PTC_Office@ptc.gov.sg
Sent: Wednesday, 27 March 2013 5:59 PM
Subject: RE: Feedback on conduct of SMRT staff IFS:0000050003196

Our Ref: MM-CP-1303-0062

Dear Alvin

We are sorry to hear of the unfortunate incident that you had experienced with our staff at Marina Bay MRT Station on 24 March 2013.

We note that you have since reported this incident to the Police and you can rest assured that we will render our fullest cooperation to the Police if they approach us for assistance in their investigation.

With regard to the behaviour of our staff, please be assured that we have since highlighted this incident to the Station Manager of Marina Bay Station. Should the station staff be found to have not complied to our service standards, this incident will be logged under their records and will be taken into consideration during our staff performance reviews.

As a service provider, we take a serious view of matters pertaining to service delivery. To foster a service culture amongst our staff, we conduct regular dialogue sessions where we remind them to be conscious of how they interact with passengers and to be mindful of their tone, mannerisms and demeanor when carrying out their duties. We send our staff members for service courses and where appropriate, disseminate tips on providing good service. Supervisors will also issue gentle reminders to their teams on the importance of providing good service, always. Staff found infringing our service standards will be disciplined in accordance to our HR guidelines.

We sincerely apologise for the unpleasant experience and thank you for highlighting this matter to SMRT.

Yours sincerely
Calvin Sid (Mr)
Customer Relations
SMRT Corporation Ltd

---------------------

From: Alvin
To: SMRT Corporate Communications <CorpComms@smrt.com.sg>; PTC_Office@ptc.gov.sg
Sent: Friday, 29 March 2013 9:35 PM
Subject: Re: Feedback on conduct of SMRT staff IFS:0000050003196

Hi Mr Calvin Sid, Mr Henry Lim (Senior Manager of Customer Relations/ SMRT ), and Ms Agnes Ng (representative for the Secretary of the Public Transport Council)

Thanks for your reply.

Here are the facts as evidenced in the video (from the beginning of the video to the end):

Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnzpxMblNyA

Story at: http://smrtgangsters.blogspot.sg/

1. The female SMRT staff both had negative body language and were rude.

2. The female SMRT staff both tried to cover up their name tags when the very purpose of SMRT making it compulsory for them to wear name tags, I would suppose, is to inform the public of their names.

3. One of the female SMRT staff was not even dressed in uniform while at work.

4. The female SMRT staff who rushed out of the control station had entirely negative body language -- she was yelling at me, and her body language was entirely aggressive, threatening and meant to intimidate.

5. The female SMRT staff rushed at me, assaulted me, used criminal force, and committed theft by grabbing my mobile phone. These are serious criminal offences under the Penal Code (Chapter 224) . At no point did she attempt to talk to me respectfully prior to committing these offences. Your staff do not have any legal right to do these things hence they are entirely illegal and criminal. Your staff do have the right under Section 24 (F) of Public Transport Act (Chapter 259B) to ask someone who is made to pay a penalty fee (for evading fares etc) for his/her name and address, and if the person fails to comply, they do have the powers to arrest someone without warrant. But clearly, in this case, I was never made to pay a penalty fee for evading train fares, I was never asked for my name and address and therefore, all her actions were clearly illegal and criminal. Criminal actions of a staff who thinks she is above the law and has zero respect for fare-paying commuters.

6. When I repeatedly asked to display her for her name and to show me her ID card, she was dishonest and lied to me she wasn't a staff. Section 25B of the Public Transport Act (Chapter 259B) clearly states that she has to show me her ID card. It is a basic fundamental legal requirement which I would think that everyone of your staff to should know and follow even before they start work.

7. The station manager came and I similarly asked him to show me his ID card as per Section 25B of the Public Transport Act (Chapter 259B). He too refused to show me his card, hence, failing to oblige to this very basic legal requirement of his job. He then continued telling me illogical nonsense to prevent me from exercising my basic right to use my phone such as 'I cannot take her video because I can do a lot of things with the video' and etc. The station manager clearly does not even know these tenets -- basic (legal and good-service) requirements and responsibilities -- of his job and is utterly clueless and barely coherent.

8. The female staff inside the control station then took a few pictures or videos of me using her phone (ironically as her station manager was trying to tell me the nonsense that I can't use my phone to film him). I was pretty happy to be filmed and videoed and I clearly told her that if she wants to take a picture of me, she should at least make sure I am smiling in her picture.

9. Baring in mind, the two female staff have acted rather similarly before before (yelling at me 'bodoh' and 'gilah' and attempting to snatch my phone) and I did write an email to the SMRT and the Public Transport Council and was told they will be counseled and presumeably their 'service' will improve etc.

PS:

- There is no service to speak of from these staff. Service are pleasant things that are above the bare legal requirements. These staff do not even know their basic responsibilities under the law and clearly think they are above the law and try to abuse a fare-paying communter in every way possible - criminally (by using criminal force and stealing my phone), by yelling at me, by flaring their (very flabby) arms, by staring at me aggressively, and then by feeding me all kinds of illogical and inaccurate stories to prevent me from filming them while they are doing these as evidence.

- These SMRT staff, and probably many others as well, clearly have zero honesty, respect for commuters, integrity and respect for transparency.

- The fact that these has happened to me twice and that even the station manager is so inapt and clueless about everything clearly suggests these poor attitudes, actions (both criminal and non criminal such as yelling at commuters (calling commuters 'bodoh', 'gilah' etc) or displaying rude body languages etc) are systemic in SMRT.
------------

The above 9 points (less those in the 'PS' section) are the facts , and can be clearly seen in my video.

Given the above 9 points of fact as evidenced in the video recorded, would you agree that this is a case of gross misconduct and the two female staff should be dismissed immediately and that having aspirations of being a responsible, transparent and upright organisation, that has been entrusted by the Singaporean Government to provide train services to citizens, that wants to provide good service to fare-paying commuters, SMRT (whom you and your management represent) will deal with them appropriately instead of trying to cover up for your own staff simply because of a 'you scratch my back and I will scratch yours' atttiude, sweep this under the carpet and deal with this entirely inappropriately and lightly by simply talking to them or by deducting their annual performance bonus increase like your previous email seems to suggest? The Station Manager clearly is not capable of making informed and reasonable decisions as evidenced from my video. He is barely coherent.

Please kindly note that I do not blame the actions of these staff on you or the management of SMRT. SMRT is a big organisation and there are always criminals and bad eggs in every organisation. However, once these matters have been discovered, a responsible manager/executive must address these matters immediately and dismiss staff who are clearly not worthy of representing the organisation. If SMRT's corporate department fails to act responsibly, adequately and transparently on this serious matter, which I have adequately addressed to you, then it would reveal to the world what type of organisation (as well as human beings) SMRT truly is.

The actions of the two female staff are clearly gross misconduct and more than adequate grounds for dismissal in all Human Resource departments in the world that care about their business, brand, customers and service. It would be sinister to find a HR consultant worth his weight in salt, be it from McKinsey or Booz, London or Japan, that does not recommend immediate dismissal for such gross and criminal misconduct caught on video.

I am glad that your previous email seems to imply that you are interested in upholding the service standards of SMRT and I look forward to your reply.

Yours Sincerely,

Alvin

SMRTgangsters

Sunday 24 March 2013

Incident on 24/3/2013 1.50pm finally recorded on video

Tuesday 25 December 2012

SMRT gangsters

When will these dictators ever be fired? How does SMRT chooses its Transport Officials and why should untrained and unqualified people be given so much powers under the Rapid Transit Systems Act to abuse at will without any checks and balances?

1. Letter to SMRT (Sent in October)