Exchanging damaged transit cards a pain: commuters

Beijing residents are up arms over how inefficient public transit personnel have been in replacing damaged transit cards, a service that is only available at limited locations. Although the process takes several minutes, some have had to wait up to seven working days to replace a card.

While it only takes several minutes to get a new card at any subway station in Beijing, just 60 service centers accept card returns. If more than 100 yuan remains on a damaged card, the service center at Xidan business hub is the only place that will replace a card. If a smart card is broken, a person has to return to the same service center twice to obtain their original balance.

At some service centers, the long lines have been attracting scalpers, who ask five yuan for each old card to those who do not want to wait in the long lines.

The Beijing Municipal Administration and Communications Card Company explained that card registrations and returns do not share the same system. However, an expert in wireless communication said a simple software upgrade can solve the problem to ensure one system is handling both card registration and return.

Days ago, an exit-entry officer in Hebei Province was demoted after China Central Television reported a man working in Beijing spent six months and traveled six times between Hebei and Beijing to get his passport.