laremy.sg

I’m extremely annoyed with the lack of ethics that a lot of Singaporean mechanics possess.

These wrangling pirates revel in a cut-throat ethos that places their customers’ needs below their shop’s bottom line.

To explain, Pooters’s battery finally yielded the ghost at the start of the work-week.

Because I didn’t have the time to get a replacement earlier, I went down to the shops near my home in the hope that I could buy a battery, return home, fix Pooters up, and carry on with the rest of my Saturday.

FAT CHANCE IN HELL.

I was quoted a price of $90 at one shop and $60 at the next shop. I knew a battery didn’t cost that much, but I had no way of verifying that at that point in time.

Anyway, I gave some excuse about having to make sure it was the correct model and left the shops.

But I was so furious that they tried to take advantage of me obviously because of my n00b-ly ‘jiak kentang’ demeanour/inability to speak a Chinese language well: Hokkien Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, etc.

Pseudo-sociological ramblings aside, this pillagery probably worked last time in the age of no Internet.

Now that information is more perfect than it was before, however, a phone call to Lim Ah Boy (LAB) Shop when I got home provided more clarity – a Yuasa 12N9-4B-1 battery is worth $32, if it matters to anyone else.

I learnt something though: I could have saved myself much grief if I had called up the shops to check the prices + convinced myself that the trip down to LAB was worth the trouble.

Since the worm of conscience will never begnaw the souls of most of these louts, I’ve never been more convinced that there’s probably a market for English-speaking, socially-conscious motorcycle mechanics.

Unfortunately, there’s only so much one can do with a BA in English (and a PGDE to boot). But if you’re my student, and you can tell me how many King Richard III references I’ve made, you win a prize.

Nearly knocked down by yet another taxi again – this time it’s a driver from ComfortDelGro.

~

Begin forwarded message:

From: Laremy Lee
Date: December 21, 2009 12:20:15 PM SST
To: feedback@cdgtaxi.com.sg
Subject: E-mail of Complaint against SHA 3519 B.

Dear Madam/Sir

I would like to lodge a complaint against one of the taxi drivers in your fleet – the driver of Vehicle Number SHA 3519 B (hereby referred to as “3519″ in this e-mail).

At around 9pm on Sat, 19 Dec 2009, I was riding my motorcycle along Loyang Avenue (heading away from Changi Village) when the encounter with your taxi driver occurred. This is the flow of events as it happened:

1. I was riding in the left lane, when I signalled right to change lane, as I wanted to overtake the vehicle in front of me.
2. I changed lanes safely and without mishap. However, after I changed lanes, the vehicle which was then behind me (3519) turned on its high beam for an extended period. I noticed this as the glare from the reflection in my side mirrors was extremely bright and distracting.
3. After I overtook the vehicle, which was now next to me, 3519 followed suit. It then tailgated me by driving behind me at a very close distance.
4. Furthermore, 3519 continued shining its high beam at me – for no apparent reason.
5. 3519 then overtook me in a dangerous fashion – it cut into the left lane at a high speed and at a tight angle, even after I had sounded my horn to alert the driver of my presence.
6. This troubled me greatly, as it meant that 3519 nearly sideswiped my motorcycle. Hence, I followed the vehicle so that I could alert the driver to the fact that he had been driving in a dangerous manner.
7. When 3519 stopped at the red light, he showed no signs of remorse. He did not even wind the window to talk to me; he merely glared at me in a menacing way.

These are my concerns as follow:

1. That 3519 overtook me in such a dangerous fashion demonstrates that the driver had complete and utter disregard for the safety of my pillion and I, along with a deficiency in knowledge of what it means to drive safely on the roads.
2. That 3519 had complete and utter disregard for our safety, plus the fact that the showed no signs of remorse proves that this was no accident – the driver had every intention to be a bully on the roads.

It is clear that your driver is at fault for driving dangerously and endangering the lives of my pillion and I. I would like to request for the following actions to be carried out:

1. I want to know the driver’s name.
2. I want to know why he did what he did that night.
3. I want a meeting to be arranged so that I can speak with him as I would like a personal apology from him.

I don’t think this is too much to ask. For one, this is not the first time that an incident of this severity has occurred – there have been other taxis who have been equally threatening, and I have written in to their respective companies before. For another, I do not want you to punish him or ‘counsel’ him, as other taxi companies have done in the past, as it might not serve a purpose in rehabilitating this driver and making sure he does not commit the same mistake again. Rather, I believe that the driver will pay more attention to other road users subsequently when he meets me, as it might help him to realise that other road users are human beings as much as he is.

I hope you will respond favourably to my request. Problems like these must be nipped in the bud; a failure to do so will be irresponsibility on our parts, as it will only breed the possibility of more accidents on the road in the future.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,
Laremy LEE (Mr)

Isn’t the $3 deposit on each card enough to offset costs incurred in Giro service?
Letter from Laremy Lee

I REFER to “EZ-Reload: Convenience, peace of mind” (Sept 7).

I acknowledge that there might be processing costs incurred in the provision of the EZ-Reload by Giro service which the company might need to cover. However, this raises two questions.

1. According to the EZ-Link website, there are more than 8 million card-based transactions daily.Aren’t EZ-Link’s overall profits based on this volume of users enough to cover said processing costs of the Giro service?
2. At the same time, EZ-Link users currently need to have a $3 minimum balance on their cards before they can travel.The EZ-Link website also states that it has issued 10 million cards so far. This adds up to about $30 million of latent cash. Doesn’t the interest on this already cover the processing costs?

Using the EZ-Link system is one of only two payment options offered to commuters. In light of this fact, I feel that EZ-Link should consider absorbing the processing costs for the EZ-Reload by Giro so as to reward its customers for their loyalty to the company.

~

Please be reminded (or at least be aware) that the tone I have adopted in the last paragraph is one of irony.

Haven’t posted links to sites in a long time, because I haven’t been able to get much reading done.

But I just came across this blog maintained by a taxi driver. He supposedly has a PhD from Stanford and turned to driving taxis because he can’t find a job.

I thought the content of the entries were rather interesting so you may want to take a look at it too.

(via.)

I’ve finally learnt how to kick-start Pooters! After five years of owning it! Hurray for perseverance and celebrating the small victories!

Anyway, if anyone wants to learn how to kick-start a Vespa ET8 or ET4, here are some helpful links.

And a video to boot: