The incident where a Touch 'n Go user was charged many times more than the usual toll fare was an ‘anomaly’, said Touch 'n Go Sdn Bhd CEO Syahrunizam Samsudin.

While apologising over the incident, Syahrunizam assured that both Touch ‘n Go and the highway concessionaire Plus Malaysia Bhd were working to improve their services.

“We would like to reassure you that your experience is indeed an anomaly out of millions of transactions we process a day, and for that we do apologise,” he said in a Facebook post.

The Facebook post was shared privately and it is unclear when it was published. However, Touch 'n Go made the postings public through screenshots posted through its own Facebook account on Sunday.

Syahrunizam’s apology was directed to a Facebook user who identified himself as ‘Sai Yew Lee’, who related the incident through a Facebook post on June 3.

Lee said that while travelling from Jalan Duta to Rawang Selantan on June 1, he noticed that the stored value in his card had dropped from over RM100 to over RM50 as he was passing through the exit toll booth.

This means he was charged about RM50 for the trip while he was using a SmartTAG device. According to Plus’ website, the trip should have cost RM2.90 for a passenger car.

“I immediately called Touch 'n Go and later Plus Highway. Both companies gave me the same answer which sounded like this ‘Oh… this is very common… as the magnetic reader might be faulty… you may go to any Plus office to get an immediate refund’.

“This doesn’t sound good to me. I asked both companies that if I didn’t notice the wrong amount being deducted from my card, what will your company do? And their answer was ‘If you don’t complain we won’t know and there will be no refund’.

“I think I have shared enough,” he said, while raising questions on whether Touch 'n Go and Plus were doing enough to protect consumers’ interests.

He said the incident made him think of previous occasions where he noticed that the stored value of his card had dropped substantially, but had given little thought to it at the time.

He complained he was given no option by Plus and Touch 'n Go except to go to their office for a refund, and questioned whether this was fair.

Based on a purported photo of the refund receipt Lee posted, he was given a refund of RM43.80 by Plus on June 3.

His postings had gone viral on Facebook over the past few days, and was shared 25,145 over the social media site as of 2.55pm today.