My turn to rant on Petrol Hike!!!

Today is the second day of the petrol hike aftermath!!! I didn't want to do any post on the petrol hike because there has been many news and many rants on numerous blogs on this matter. I didn't want to post anything earlier because I felt that no matter what, the whole scenario is unavoidable. Today I wanted to do this post because I have not read this before in any blogs so I might as well do it (but probably someone I didn't visit might have said it)

There has been many conflicting billion of subsidy paid but as a normal citizen, like everybody else we don't really care about it, since we won't have the authority to question on them neither does the opposition

I really don't quite understand why the government fail to see it from our point of view. Did anyone of you ever known that we have been indirectly covering our own petrol subsidy? You see, whenever we buy our cars we are indirectly already paying for our own subsidy because of the high taxes (now they con us with the term excise duty la) Imagine how much petrol we can buy with that money saved!!!! I wonder when will the government realise that we are not all that stupid and even if they take away the subsidy we can still afford to maintain our livelihood provided they remove the extra we are paying on buying cars. I think it is still a win-win situation because the government can still use the money they made from Petronas while we can afford those better fuel efficiency cars at a lower price.

Did I mention money saved plus interest? Yeah, I think I forgot to mention that the money saved will have to add on interest too because it adds up to make our loan higher too.... Just imagine 10K @ 2.8% for 9 years will add an additional RM2.5K to your loan. Personally I think our excise duty is way more than 10K!!!

I have never wanted to fall into the government "watch out blog" radar but this hike is taking its toll on us parents. Any layman could do the maths.... we pay the car tax/excise duty so we should be getting our subsidy.... from the tax we had paid, what has it got to do with Petronas earnings???? Take the subsidy off, then refund us our money la!!!! And take the excise off the cars!!!!! I think it make good sense to all of us because we need to save money somewhere.... There is absolutely no point that the government keep taxing us on our cars as well as earning off Petronas and keep complaining how much they are subsidizing all of us!!!!

I wonder what would the price of a car and petrol would be when our little ones grow up....

Poor management

Just for the record I am writing this to remind myself of the occurrence and to let you know of how frequent the problem is.

Last night when I got back from work, I was greeted by 2 non-working elevator again. First thing I did was calling the service number, and was told that their technician is already there working on the lifts. Of course I was very angry and wanted to sell of the unit immediately but Elaine made me think otherwise because she really liked the place.

My nightmare started all over again because this morning, after 10 hours later, when we were ready to go to work, we were again faced with 2 non-funcioning elevators. I called the office to complain and inquire of the frequent breakdowns. I was only given the manager's handphone number to call. When I called him I was greeted by a man who sounded like he just woke up!!!!! He kept asking me if I have told the office of the problem. I really felt so stupid talking to him because with the lift breaking down at night, does he expect us to wait till the next morning to call the management office???

I guess I really have to write an official complaint letter to the board and the management. I might even want to get all the signatures of other tenants on my letter.

Bad management

I guess I have really been went "Missing In Action" for the past week. Since grandma has went to Penang, Elaine's and my hands have been very busy with taking care of Keith while we work. To make things even worse there are some people whom have added to our hardship. I have been on the edge of losing my cool now.

First of all I will talk about is my condo management. The other day I was just chatting with Chanel on MSN (it was the first time I chatted with her on MSN) and I even mentioned how bad the management was, especially with the lift breaking down often. A few days later the lifts really broke down and this time for an extended period. I am really wondering why this have to keep happening. Why the situation is always 2 lifts breaking down together? Why they don't repair it as soon as possible, especially when only one broke down?

This was what happened, on Saturday night after I got back from work, I was greeted by 2 of the yellow signs below.


Imagine walking up 16 floors, carrying Keith, baby bags, food and the laptop. The next day, Sunday, it was still not fixed, we had to take the stairs down as well as up again at night. I wonder what have they done for the whole 24 hours. We took the stairs down again on Monday because the lifts were only useable by 5pm on Monday. This is the second time I am ranting about this but between my first complaint post and this post, we have taken the stairs umpteen times already.

I would consider that we were very lucky that Grandma is not around during this period because with her health condition I don't think she can take the steep stairs even only to the second floor. Then we might have to stay at a hotel instead and burn a hole in my pocket for such poor management.

Males NOT Allowed?!!!!

Yesterday we went to MidValley to buy some baby stuffs, most of you would have known that Jusco is offering their J Card Privilege Shopping Day (20-29th April)
We were at the second floor. Everything was rather fine until Keith started whining, while grandma, Nicole and the maid was in the children gaming place and Elaine was busy somewhere looking at baby stuffs. The first thought that came to me is to go to their baby's room, in case Keith needed a diaper change.

To my surprise I saw this on stuck on the wall of the Baby's room:

Of course I took this from the outside la

In the end I have to change Keith's diapers and fed him on the bench because I dare not go into the Baby's room. I don't wanna my day having to go to the police station and being accused of going to where I am not allowed to because with this notice there is possibility that I could be charged as a Peeping Tom with my boy as an excuse to enter!!!!

Elaine said I should have just ignored the notice, she even laughed me for not going in there because of abiding to the notice posted and she told me that they have hot water dispensers in there too **why can't she understand the tough situation I was in?**

I just wonder why Jusco, being the leading departmental store company, didn't prepare at least one Baby's Room for fathers or making one of those Baby's room accessible to fathers on one floor only. I don't think father's mind going to that floor rather than doing it in the open or, in my case, on the bench **sweat** And if breastfeeding is the the reason to ban all males then I think perhaps they should have separate feeding rooms instead of taking such a drastic banning of males!

I really take pity all those single fathers, widower fathers, househusbands or "those having to care for the baby, while the wife can have a peace of mind shopping" fathers!!!! Has society changed or is it only me and my imaginations?????

P/S - I have written an e-mail to their customer service. Let's see what they have to say about this :)

My Condo Management

Today I felt so frustrated of the management of my condominium, I'm gonna tell you of their doings.

Anyone of you staying in a condominium/apartment with a lousy/sloppy management?

What made me so mad is that I have to take the stairs to reach my doorstep at 16th floor carrying so many things with me!!! Worse part is Elaine have to walk up with me too!! Because the $+up1D management have both elevators broken down on a Saturday night! OK, you would all say that probably it is just a coincidence but let me tell you what happened. There are 2 lifts in my block and Lift 1 have already broken down for a few days and no urgency was the repair. We residence already have to bear with a block running on a block serving and I had feared that it might break down upon high volume usage. I still wonder why Lift 1 took so long for repair (and are still non-functional this morning) but Lift 2 was repaired overnight! Personally I think all these could have been avoided if actions are taken with some urgency. With only Lift 2 working today, what if it breaks down again tonight? What if there is an emergency?

I really do not understand what am I paying for the maintenance for when nothing much is being maintained (The only area the management would have scored well is cleanliness, we have a team of a very diligent housekeepers and gardenera)

1. The guards.......
- they always let people double parking (Each residence have only one parking, visitors have to park outside) Some of these double parkers park overnight too and their cars are not clamped, as warned! Sometimes they double park and just block up the entry/exit of the block where you let passengers down/pick-up during the rain.
- I rarely see them patrolling the compound. Also the reason why the cars can park as they wish
- seems like they would open the gates for certain resident/visitors even when the management pinned up memo on the required use their card to enter/exit.
- Sometimes I see non-residence walk around without a tag neither have they registered at the guard post. The examples I can think of:
* there were 3 elevators mechanics on my floor that night neither any of them have a tag on them.
* Once I even found someone sleeping on the floor of my BIL's neighbour's place (he is staying in the same condo on another block. I did tell the guard of the problem that night but there was only one guy manning the post and another resident have another problem, someone parked in his parking lot)


Sorry for the poor lighting...... this was taken with my old SE K618i

2. No pets rule......
- Quite a number of residence have pet (dogs and cats) in their home. (I would be ok if they do not take them out to pee and poo in the garden within the vicinity.
- even the maintenance people feed the stray cats within the compound. I actually suspect that they were the ones rearing them.
- the stray cats scratch car tyres and sleep on the car bonnets. Every morning I can find cat prints on my windscreen, especially after the rain water dried up.
- some children have developed allergies and rashes when they came in contact with those animals, like our Nicole and another Nicole from the 11th Floor

3. In house maintenance......
- the in-house phone is not working (you know the one that links directly to the guard house)
- the power would always trip whenever it thunders. Once it tripped 3-4 times within an hour. They have informed us that they have changed the necessary fuse boxes but the problem still there. It tripped so bad that my BIL's surge protector kena fused (Luckily got warranty)
- whenever the power trip, the lighting at the parking lot also kaput. Right now the lights are on during daytime and it is all darkness at night. Now we are all scared if someone would sneak up on us in the darkness. Not all residents are good people, right?
- the aerial reception is horrible yet we are not allowed to fix our own antenna. So we have to depend on Astro lor
- the guards rarely patrol the floors of the blocks.
- the entry/exit barrier always broken at the guard house. Now this condition worsen the double parking problem.
- the road bump near the maintenance is built too high. I always scratch my car whenever I pass it carrying 4 people in it. My car is a stock car! They built the bumps overnight and we were not notified of it either. The manager had promised that he will lower it but till today nothing is done.

I am blogging this so that I can remember to write an official complaint letter to the management, as well as circulating a copy of it to all the residents. At least I can put up the points, that I see as important, here and access it whenever I needed it.
Sometimes really cannot tahan the place but Elaine liked the place so much that I have to let her have it her way lor. But I told her that I will do what I can to improve the situation as long as she doesn't nag me :P

As I returned home yesterday I found the maintenance sign is still on Lift 1


It seems like there is a paper stuck on the wall in between the lifts.


Comments penned by other residents

"The answer is to sue the management for neglect"

"Fully agree"

Seems like someone beats me to it. But I will still be writing my letter to the management. In fact I am more determined!!!! At least I am not the only one in this cause.

Edited
This morning we have to take the stairs down because no lift was running and Lift 2 was stuck at 17th floor with someone inside!!!!
Btw, the management is still under the developer so will have to waith till we got our strata title before we can do like what duckie's place

I have called the management and I was told them of the situation and how long more do we have to wait to have 2 functioning lifts. I was told that they were waiting for insurance claim on the Lift 1 after it was struck by lightning!!!