AlipayHK’s brand sentiments dip after users report unauthorised MTR transactions

Alipay Hong Kong has seen a significant drop in brand sentiments after its users reported some unauthorised transactions involving the brand and MTR Corporation on 17 October. 

This comes after AlipayHK users revealed that their Alipay accounts had been continuously debited by MTR from midnight to 3 am yesterday (17 October), with the amount ranging from HK$1.8 to HK$15.3, according to HK01. 

Since then, the negative sentiment of mentions related to AlipayHK has increased from 15.2% to 46.1% over the last 24 hours, whereas its positive sentiment has dropped from 30.3% to 13.5%, according to media intelligence firm CARMA. As of 9am on 18 October, there had been more than 500 mentions regarding the incident. 

The majority of these mentions originated from LIHKG and Facebook, where users voiced their concerns about the incident, finding it unsettling, said Charles Cheung, CARMA’s HK GM. “Many affected users reported that the unauthorised transactions occurred at 3am, which falls outside of MTR's operating hours,” he added. 

Netizens drew comparisons between AlipayHK and other payment service providers such as Octopus and Apple Pay, noting that AlipayHK appears to be more prone to technical issues, said Cheung. It’s also worth noting that a number of netizens questioned the reasoning behind the victims' choice to use AlipayHK instead of Octopus as their preferred payment method for MTR, especially considering that the current public transport fare subsidy scheme exclusively benefits Octopus users. 

In response, a spokesperson from MTR Corporation told MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that it has a preliminary understanding of the incident that there was an error in the system settings of the company responsible for the fare collection system, which is Octopus Cards (八達通公司). “The company will continue to follow up on the incident and maintain communication with the settlement provider and QR code service provider, and arrange refunds for affected passengers.” 

While MTR is looking into the incident, commuters can continue to use the QR code on the AlipayHK app, but their fares will not be deducted until the QR code function is restored. The QR code payment function returned to normal yesterday evening. 

Meanwhile, AlipayHK said it is working closely with MTR to monitor the conditions of using the MTR QR code at entry/exit gates.  

“Currently, it is operating as usual. The MTR Corporation is handling the situation of repeated deductions and will refund the additional charges to passengers through the related digital wallets,” said the spokesperson.  

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