Being early means priority over walk-in customers only

Today
28 Jan 2009

WE REFER to the letter “Too early for your own good” by Mr Ben Yuen (Jan 6)

The e-Appointment system is designed to process appointment-holders in slots of 15 minutes for passport collection. On average, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) handles more than 120 e-Appointment cases for each 15-minute slot at the Passport Unit.

Barring a surge at the same time, the aim is to complete transactions within15 minutes of the appointment time. Those who turn up outside of their appointment time will be given special queue numbers and enjoy priority over general walk-in customers without appointments.

Our electronic records showed thatMr Yuen had made an appointment to collect his family members’ passports at 2.30pm on Dec 20, 2008. They were issued with two queue tickets when they arrived at the ICA at 2.12pm. The e-Appointment system recorded that they had turned up more than 15 minutes early for theire-Appointment and thus allotted them special queue numbers with priority over walk-in customers.

Although the ICA experienced a high volume of customers that day, Mr Yuen and his family were attended to at 2.50pm. This was20 minutes from their appointment time.

Our staff who attended to Mr Yuen could have handled the situation better and provided a clearer explanation.

We have since contacted Mr Yuen to explain the situation.

The e-Appointment system is still relatively new and we will certainly explore if and how we can improve further over time. We thank Mr Yuen for his feedback which would be useful in this regard.

Letter from Chia Hui Keng
Head, Public & Internal Communications
Immigration & Checkpoints Authority

Too early for our own good?

Today
6 Jan 2009

ON DEC 26, I went online to make an appointment to collect my family members’ passports. My appointment was set for Dec 30 at 2.30pm.

On that day, I arrived at the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority building and collected a queue ticket at 2.12pm. The appointment time of 2.30pm was clearly stated.

At about 2.45pm, when my queue number had not been displayed, I sought advice from the person at the information counter. He told me that they were then clearing those who had appointments between 1 and 2pm and said that it would soon be my turn.

At about 3.10pm, my queue number was finally displayed. I asked the staff why I had to wait so long. To my surprise, she said that I collected my queue ticket too early, and hence was placed in the walk-in queue. According to her, I should have collected my queue ticket 10 minutes before my appointment.

I asked to speak to the manager, who reiterated that was how the computer system worked, even though I pointed out that it was acknowledged on the ticket that my appointment time was 2.30pm. His reply: “You people came too early.”

How fair is it that those who arrive early for appointments are penalised?

Letter from Ben Yuen