Father outraged after ECP bike rental shop charged girls S$15 each for 40-minute late return

A three-hour bicycle rental costs S$20.

Ashley Tan | July 05, 2021, 01:43 PM

A father in Singapore has taken to Facebook to express his anger over what he believed to be an unfairly-priced bicycle rental fee.

His daughter and her friends, who had rented bikes to cycle at East Coast Park, were charged a late fee that was three-quarters the price of the three-hour rental fee they initially paid.

Apparently overcharged for returning bikes late

Ken Chew shared that his 12-year-old daughter and her three friends of the same age had rented bicycles from a shop, Coastline Leisure, at East Coast Park.

A three-hour rental costs S$20, as seen in the photo of the receipt Chew attached in his post.

However, according to Chew, one girl experienced issues with her bicycle's gears while cycling, and needed help fixing it. This caused the group to return the bicycles 43 minutes after the three-hour mark, and as such, were charged a late fee.

Chew's main gripe was the quantum of the late fee, which he claimed was not in accordance to what was stated on the receipt.

Notes on the receipt indicated that overtime surcharge was calculated as such:

  • If the bikes are returned between 10 to 30 minutes late, the surcharge would amount to half an hour of the original rental price.
  • If the bikes are returned more than 31 minutes late, the surcharge would amount to one hour of the original rental price.

According to this clause, Chew's daughter and her friends each should have paid around S$6.70 (S$20 ÷ 3 hours).

Instead, each girl was charged S$15.

Overnight bike rental costs less than what each girl paid

Chew exclaimed that the total amount for the late fees paid by all four girls, which was S$60, could have been a "child['s] whole week allowance".

"The reason I was upset is because I don’t think this is RIGHT! To OVER charge 4 innocent young girls! 2 times MORE!" he wrote.

Chew added that the girls were "worried and terrified", and that three of them did not have enough money on hand. The girls had to walk to McDonald's, where Chew was, in order to get the money needed.

He also shared that a friend who previously rented a bike overnight paid S$24, as compared to the S$35 each girl paid for three hours and 43 minutes.

In response to Mothership's queries, Coastline Leisure has clarified the late fees, and countered Chew's accusations. Read more here.

You can read Chew's full post here.

Top photo from Ken Chew and jobin / Google Maps