LAST week, I wrote a complaint about the many (more than 20) huge privately-owned garbage dump trucks that have made a long stretch of the concreted Ma-a road near the Cenro office their nightly garage. I still see them every night there when I drive home.
That's our public road; it should not be used as private garage of businesses. Considering the huge profits that they are getting from their garbage hauling contract with the city government, they should be required to find a private parking place that will not affect the traffic flow. There are so many vacant lots in Ma-a that they can rent.
*****
While we're at it, here are more reminders to the police. Last year, I complained of the difficulty of finding parking spaces on Monteverde St. and other heavy traffic streets in the city. It is aggravated by store owners who block the streets in front of their stores with chairs, stools and similar things.
Obviously, it's meant to reserve those parking spaces for their private cars and their customers. But those are public roads, paid for by our taxes. So what makes them think that they can allocate them for their private and commercial parking purposes? Parking should be first-come-first-served basis. Walang reserve reserve.
More than a year has passed since I wrote it and I still see the same things. I wonder if the police read newspapers. Or baka naman kumikita sila sa mga store owners na yun kaya pa blind blind na lang sila. Tsk tsk.
*****
Some companies just can't stop overcharging their captive customers. Chevrolet Davao seems one of them. Last week, I was trying to have the stencil of my Chevrolet Captiva's engine and chassis taken. Due to the very unusual design of the engine system, the "stencil boys" at the LTO area could not find where the engine no. is located (three of them searched one-after-the-other for an hour to no avail!).
So I was forced to go to the Chevrolet service center for assistance. Lo and behold, I found out it's located under the engine that’s very difficult to locate if you don’t know where it exactly is; but not at all difficult to stencil using carbon paper and scotch tape if you know where it is.
The "stencil boys" at the LTO area normally charge P20-P30 for stenciling services. But I thought, this is a casa so I won't be surprised if it will be P200 or thereabouts.
However, my jaw dropped when they charged me P720 -- for a 15-minute menial job not requiring any specialized skills or equipment! Could it be that they have very highly-paid shop personnel there? Mas mahal pa sa doktor?
Even the other customers in the office joined in criticizing the price when they heard me complain of the extravagant amount. But no way, the office insisted it was the price. So I had to pay grudgingly. Is that what they call customer service over there?
*****
Email comments and reactions to: idtabije@gmail.com