May 2007

I found something I’d written down several years ago and after reading it again thought it might be worth writing about here, mainly for the amusement of gentle readers out there.

I was at a car workshop in Sunway one morning having my car tinted. It was an exceedingly tedious job and from the looks of it was going to take quite a while to complete. I’d walked over to Sunway Pyramid for lunch and basically kill time but by the time I came back in the afternoon the job still hadn’t been completed.

As I was idling about, I spoke to a chap who’d brought in a Mercedes S320 (the W140 model made from 1991-1999). We introduced ourselves and he told me that he was the driver to a certain businessman. I recognised the name of the businessman since his brother is fairly famous property tycoon in Malaysia (he’s the chap who basically developed a large part of Mutiara Damansara/Damansara Perdana).

The driver was explaining to me that this workshop was pretty good to come to since their prices were competitive. He elaborated further saying that one of the cars’ air-conditioning switches was dead and if he were to go to most authorised Mercedes workshops, it would cost about RM300-400, whereas by coming here, he could get one for about RM100.

What really struck me though was his next comment. He said his boss appreciated his forthright thinking in looking for the best prices when it came to fixing the car. And because he (the driver) believed that he’d done his boss a good turn, it was okay to add just RM10-RM20 to the final bill when claiming the sum back from his boss whenever he takes the car for repairs.

I was astounded that he’d reveal that he was padding the bills to me, a total stranger, and also somewhat aghast that he believed it’s okay to take a further cut from his boss for the work he’s doing.

So I wonder, do you gentle readers agree with the driver’s perspective? Or do you disapprove of his action of padding the bill?

So my trip out of town got cancelled (at the last minute of course) and I was twiddling my thumbs when I got a phone call from someone who owed me money for some work I’d done a long, long time ago. I happily met up with said person but was somewhat bemused when he paid me the sum in cash. So of course I headed to the bank to deposit it. Still I was happy overall since I’d been paid! I can move said sum from the “Bad Debts” column back to the other side.

I went to Maybank Bangsar (almost 4pm), and of course Maybank being Maybank, only one of their cash deposit machines was operational. And there was a fairly long queue to it. I joined in and started to wait patiently.

To my disbelief, the person who was using the machine at that time was depositing one note at a time! She’d put in a note, press the button to confirm. The machine checks that the note is valid and states it so (or spits it back out if it isn’t) whereupon she would hit the “Add Cash” button. In went another note, and the whole process kept going on and on.

After about the 10th note, some of those in queue were already grumbling (me being one of them) and a few people just walked off in disgust. I tried to tell her to just put the dratted lot in at one go but of course, she ignored me. After another minute, one of the bank guards noticed me staring daggers into her back and came to check what was going on. He proceeded to tell her she could put up to 99 notes in one go and she went, “Oh ya ka?”

Honestly, it’s people like these that make me want to climb the wall in frustration. She wasn’t some little old lady who was unsure of technology, she was perhaps in her late 30s to early 40s, and worked for a firm called “Genesys” as could be seen from the tag she wore around her neck. For goodness sakes, if you can’t understand how to use something, ask and learn or get a number and deposit the cash over the counter.

After depositing the money, I went home, my good mood recovering somewhat. Of course that was up until the point where I opened my mailbox and found a fairly large bill from my most recent excursion down south.

Oh man, when karma bites, it really bites. Receive something in the right hand, give it away with the left.