S'porean woman takes car to JB for servicing, workshop loses key, she pays S$1,500 to tow car & replace key

A Singaporean woman took her car for servicing in Johor Bahru (JB), but ended up spending more than S$1,500 when the workshop lost her car keys.

She ended up arranging for her car to be towed back to Singapore from JB as a result.

However, the workshop — NK Car Care — allegedly refused to compensate her for any of the expenses.

In response, the workshop manager accused the woman of being "uncooperative".

Lost car keys

Speaking to Mothership, Chua said it was not her first time getting her car serviced at that particular workshop in Malaysia.

On Dec. 29, 2024, she brought her car to the workshop for an oil change and to check the air-conditioning compressor.

She parked her car near the workshop, handed over the car key at 3pm, and left.

But at around 9pm, just before the workshop closed for the day, the staff called her to inform her that the car key was lost and no servicing was done.

They allegedly told her that she would have to wait until the next day to re-open the car, as it was a Sunday and the locksmiths were unavailable.

Hoping to get the issue resolved that night, Chua decided to find a locksmith on her own.

Stayed until midnight

At around midnight, the locksmith arrived, but was unable to unlock the car.

He explained that the settings were "different from Malaysia", given that the car was a Singapore vehicle.

Chua then asked for the car to be towed back to Singapore instead, where she could get the key re-issued at the authorised dealer.

But the workshop staff refused.

Instead, they asked her to return to Singapore to get her spare key, which they would then duplicate.

"But I had never once mentioned having a spare key," she said.

"And even if I did, I should not be giving it to them. Because they wanted to replicate the spare key."

She further explained her refusal to comply with the request: "This means that the key that they lost would be a 'third key' that could unlock the car."

They apparently insisted that she returned to Singapore to get a spare key.

But they allegedly refused to compensate her travel back and forth, with Chua saying their reason was that "all expenses in SGD (Singapore dollars) are not allowed".

The workshop also apparently refused to pay for her car keys to be re-programmed — in other words, for the car's lock to be "changed" so that the missing key would no longer work on the car.

"They said that because it was their fault for losing the car keys, [I] as a Singaporean was trying to 'carrot' them by servicing it on purpose with the dealer in Singapore," she added.

Chua asked: "It's for my personal safety and for my family's safety... what if one fine day, they suddenly find [the lost key]? And if I drive in to Malaysia and my car was to go missing, who will take responsibility?"

Car towed

Unable to reach a resolution, Chua returned to Singapore at around 6am on Dec. 30, 2024, one day after bringing her car into the state for servicing.

She continued liaising with the workshop, but was unable to reach a satisfactory conclusion.

Finally, she decided to engage a tow service to tow her car back to Singapore.

This cost her RM900 (S$271).

On the tow company's advice, she commuted back to Malaysia to lodge a police report.

On Dec. 31, the staff from the tow company arrived to take her car back to Singapore.

Over the two days without access to her car, Chua — who is a new mother of a seven-week-old baby — said she had to use ride-hailing services to get around.

In total, she spent over S$1,000 on the tow services, the re-programming, the re-issuing of her lost car keys, shuttling between Malaysia and Singapore, as well as on her ride-hailing transport during those two days.

"All towing expenses, loss of transport, et cetera, have been paid for from my own pocket," she said.

She added that she has since filed a notice of demand with the workshop to get her money back.

Workshop said woman "uncooperative"

In response to Mothership's queries, a representative of NK Car Care did not address all the media queries put to them, but said Chua had been "uncooperative".

The representative said in Mandarin that he had asked Chua to find and bring over her spare key to resolve the issue, but "she didn't want to".

Mothership asked if she told the workshop that she did not have a spare key, to which she said “I have never responded to them on this”.

The car workshop's representative added that Chua had left her car parked in front of another store — a car wash business — over the two-day period.

"She didn't want to cooperate so we could move the car away. And because she didn't want to open the car, the other store owner reported it to the police," he said.

The representative added that Chua had also "made a big fuss" out of the situation.

"Do you think she has any sense of reason? She's acting very unreasonably," he said.

Top image from Chua