Puspakom tightens refund policy to curb false claims

Puspakom is tightening its appointment refund policy in a bid to curb false and excessive appointment bookings, where large numbers of appointment bookings for vehicle inspections have been found to originate from individual MyPuspakom account holders, the firm said in a statement.

The decision was made as a result of Puspakom’s investigations that found the bulk of refund requests were from account holders who were found to have made false appointments, or account holders who made mass appointment bookings which were subsequently cancelled.

Inspection fees at Puspakom range from RM20 to RM90, depending of the type of vehicle and type of inspection being carried out. A processing fee of RM3.50 will be applied for each successful appointment booking, according to a Puspakom representative.

The firm’s investigations found that certain MyPuspakom account holders have made between 100 to 500 online bookings for appointments in the span of one month, however these account holders did not turn up for the vehicle inspections on the booked time slots.

These appointment slots through the official MyPuspakom channel have been oversubscribed as a result, and this is believed to be the work of middlemen or runners who resell the booked slots to actual customers intending to carry out vehicle inspections, particularly those looking to have the inspections carried out at centres in the Klang Valley, according to Puspakom.

To curb the practice, MyPuspakom account users that have been discovered to have a certain frequency of rescheduling or cancelling appointments and subsequently requesting refunds will be monitored and automatically blocked by the MyPuspakom system, the firm said. The tightening of the refund policy is to eliminate abuse of the booking system by irresponsible parties, says Puspakom.

From October 10, refund requests will no longer be entertained if the customer fails to be present for the vehicle inspection on the appointed date, if the inspection fails to proceed if documentation is incomplete, if the customer brings a vehicle that is different to that stated on the appointment confirmation slip, or if the customer fails to fulfil other stipulated terms and conditions.

To this end, Puspakom will cap the maximum allowed number of appointment bookings for inspections of private vehicles to three bookings per customer, per day.

The firm is confident that there will be a greater number of appointment slots becoming available through the MyPuspakom platform, be they for private or commercial vehicles, and guarantees slot availability in ‘no more than’ three working days, compared to the seven or more working days required previously.

Puspakom also urges customers, especially new and used car dealers not to engage the services of unethical runners, and to stop purchasing inspection appointment slots from these parties. Customers may call 03-2052 8989 or e-mail [email protected] if they are contacted by middlemen or runners offering these inspection slots, which are typically resold at high prices, said the firm.

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