Let's get Political...
Once again, I'm kicking my heels in the Com Lab waiting for Candle next to me to finish her work, so here I go...
I've decided to talk about something more [intellectual] today than my usual crap. Today I'm griping about the EZ Link card.
Yes, dearies, the humble little tap-as-you-go EZ Link card. Yesterday's news announced that they were gonna raise the non-refundable deposit on the card from 5 to 7 bucks. Why would this affect you, you might think, since the price of the card remains the same?
Well, the main effect is that then, you paid $15 for a card with a stored value of $10, refund deposit of $5, and a non-refundable deposit of $5. Now, you pay $15 for a card, with a $7 stored value, and the non-refund deposit of $7. [the figures might be a little wrong, but essentially, the non-refundable deposit increases and the stored value decreases]
How did this happen? The supplier of the EZ cards is a monopoly in Singapore. [Yes, bizad darlings, we all know what happens when someone gets a monopoly] Their method of earning revenue is when people use the cards, but not when people buy the cards. Essentially, some dumb spark in EZ Link got the idea that "Hey! Every fool in Singapore using the MRT is gonna use our cards at least twice a day! We're gonna be rich if we charge these suckers every time we use the cards!" He sold the idea to the CEO, the CEO loved it, and they plugged it to LTA.
Now what that dumb spark didn't realise, is that people buy more than one cards. How he didn't realise this, I don't know, because all he had to do was look back at, oh, maybe 10 years of SMRT consumer usage patterns? Gee, was that too little data for him to go on? What most people do is buy a card to use, then buy one as a spare, another one in case the spare gets lost, and why the heck not, one for Grandpa if he decides to go out. Most Singaporeans don't buy just one card to use, they buy spares. It's called kiasu-ism. [Hey, dumb spark in EZ Link, heard of that word?]
So now that they've realised what a dumb mistake they've made, they're trying to cover as much of their ass as possible by shifting the extra costs onto the consumer. "Like hey! I need to eat! I can't go one day with earning at least a billion bucks from all them hapless dumb-as....I mean informed consumers!" What this extra cost means is that we're being punished cos one guy in the Marketing Dept. at EZ Link didn't do his homework properly. [Should've taken some hints from us. hahaha!]
So what can you do about it? Revenge is a very, very easy course for us. What every one should do is buy as many as the damn cards as possible. Yes, go forth and purchase. For the sake of free-market principles, everyone in Singapore should go forth and buy an extra EZ link card for yourself, one for your mother, one for your father, your brother, your sister, your uncles, your aunties, your grandparents, your maid, your dog, and the girl/guy across the street whom you've always tot was cute but never had the guts to approach. It doesn't cost very much, just $15 and all you have to do, is buy some stickers, [Comic Connections sells stickers for the EZ link cards with popular manga characters on them], decorate them really nicely, and give 'em away as xmas presents!
You can do your part, to bring down this monopoly power with a really bad Marketing Dept. If you collect too many EZ link cards from people with a power, you can make a collection for the excess EZ Link cards, collect 'em all in a box, and write on the box: "This is What We Think of Your Non-Refundable Deposit!" Then dump the boxes in front of the EZ office, together with the rest of the boxes that other disgruntled people are gonna send. We can let 'em know what we think and we can bring down the company at the same time, paving the way for people who actually know how to conduct business!

[BTW did I ever mention to you guys that I really admire Michael Moore and the stuff he does? Heh.... ]