Octopus users lose $140,000 as railway EPS add-value services go wrong
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Octopus cardholders using EPS add- value services at MTR and KCR stations have had more than HK$140,000 deducted from their bank accounts in 571 transactions over the past two months even though the transactions did not complete, Octopus Holdings said Friday.
All add-value services through EPS will remain suspended at all stations of the two railways till an independent consultant appointed by the company is able to establish the cause for the wrongful deductions.
Octopus apologized for the incidents, and promised to refund the sum wrongfully withdrawn from the affected cardholders within three days.
ADVERTISEMENT
A company spokesman said it has no idea when service will resume at the 268 EPS machines at MTR and KCR stations.
Announcing the preliminary findings of an investigation launched early this month, the company believed the problem is related to a recent network upgrade between EPS and the add- value machines at the stations.
It may take several more months to analyze completely because of the complicated web of hardware, software and networks involved, Octopus said.
On February 3, Octopus announced it had suspended EPS add-value services at railway stations after the second complaint of a wrongful deduction in less than a month. The company, since then has reviewed more than 500,000 such transactions. STAFF REPORTER
Trademark and Copyright Notice: Copyright
2005, The Standard Newspaper Publishing Ltd., and its related entities. All
rights reserved. Use in whole or part of this site's content is
prohibited. Use of this Web site assumes acceptance of the
Terms of Use
and
Copyright Policy.
Please also read our
Ethics Statement.
