I guess some of our friends have somethings which they want to share occassionally but not frequent enough for them to render setting up their own blogs. Hence, I've been given this task of sharing with my fren C's unpleasent experience. Here's the story... (pls note that names are initialized to protect the true identities of the person/s involved, in some cases, it is easy to give them a ring to identify their true names hee....)
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One day, my friend C's kitchen sink chute got stuck, he could not fix it himself and hence did the next best thing he could.... He opened up our trusty Strait's Time's Classified Ads. He knew that it often has advertisments of plumbers whom he can give a call and get a quote over the phone of how much it'll cost to ask them to come down to clear the chute.
Delighted to see the prices advertised from S$15 onwards, C gave Mr. P a call at his line with the following advertisment....
Over the phone, C asked about the specific pricing for his type of kitchen chute to clear and Mr. P gave him a quotation of S$30 which C thought was reasonable and invited Mr. P to come to his house to clear his kitchen chute. Within mins of arriving, Mr. P cleared his kitchen chute and demanded for $60 of payment for his services! After some exchange, C paid up the S$60 and asked for his receipt, Mr. P said that his reciept book is at his office and agreed to mail receipt to C.
Question: how can he change the price AFTER clearing??? even though they have a verbal agreement of $30?
Question: how can he as a "professional" plumber advertised on our NATIONAL newspapers regularly NOT have a receipt book with him? Hey come on! Even the auntie that char bee hoon can whip up a receipt book if you asked for one.
Hence, it leads us to think that this Mr. P is a professional Con-Plumber. No doubt that he can clear kitchen chutes to "clear" our household woes. But knowing that this is an easy job, he would "trick" his potential customers first on the phone by giving them a low quote and quickly do his "job" and demand for something else.
Yes, it seems totally unreasonable.
Yet, it happens!
Imagine if it happened to an elderly folk? They would definitely be at their mercy of whatever they ask for, yes, even my mum has been a victim of "expensive-stories" by these CON-men. They will give you some fancy names about the condition or the type of chute that you have and demand that you pay more. When in fact, be it a simple chute or a complicated one, they just use their bloody machine to pump out the stuff/clear the chute. What difference does it make to them?????????
That's not all, my friend who got the advertisment from Straits Times Classified Ads, gave his experience as feedback to the advertising unit to help other "potential victims" not to be Con by this Mr. P. Guess what was their respond?
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Dear Mr C,
We're sorry to hear of your unpleasant incident & would suggest that you bring this up to CASE & the police as well if it warrants for a legal offense case. From there, the police will then issue an order to prevent unethical advertisers from placing further adverts with the press.
Pls advice where you've seen this advert i.e. publication & publication date, tel no in advert etc so we can keep a lookout in case the police contacts us. Thank you for your feedback & hope CASE can assist u further.
Best regards,
R
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What sort of response is that?
Raise the issue to CASE? or the Police?
does she know that for
CASE to take up any case, you'll have to pay for a year's membership which cost S$25 and S$10 administrative fees (total S$35) which will cost MORE the difference which C was forced to pay....
In addition, at CASE, you'll most likely spend 1-2hrs waiting in queue for your turn to speak to a CASE officer who will take down your particulars and ask for the details to your complaints taking anything from 30mins to 1hr. Then they will have to review your complaints to decide if they will take up your case. By which, half a day is gone. If they do decide to take up the case, they would fix an appointment with the company involved to come down for a mediation and reach a "happy" conclusion for both parties.... So all in all, would anyone want to spend 1 whole work day (take leave to go down to CASE as they operate during working hours) and spend another $35 on membership?
POLICE even more funny!!!
I think police will just laugh in your face lor.... because I've gone to the police previously before for several cases (i write those stories another day....) and they also laugh in my face... so I think that is also another waste-time effort. Besides, imagine if road accident does not involve any injured persons, please resolve the accident privately between the two/more parties, do you think for S$30 the police will interfer? Which police post do you go to? the one near where you stay? or the one near where the Con-man's office is? (Well, my friend did not get a receipt from him in the end, so how to know where he stay?)
The best advice the police will give is mostly likely..... Be more Careful next time lor.
they are more concern checking out the latest models of the mobile phones available than worrying about the social integration of greed and morality. to them i think $30 is a small matter.
To me, its a matter of ethics. It is immoral to purposely go out to cheat someone of their money/time/emotions. Mr. P could have explained to C about the difference about the pricing FIRST before he cleared the chute to see if C is willing to pay at the higher price.
BEST part is... this is not the end.... the problem with the chute returned. YES it did. Mr. P gave C a 3months warranty for his services, so if it gets stuck again, Mr. P should come down to take a look right? yes... right, now if we're wrong about calling him a con man, then he should be happy to come down and check out the chute and lived up to his words of warranty. Guess what happened???
Below is a letter from C to the ST R again, detailing the whole episode:
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Hi R,
Thanks for your response. I'd understand your limitations in dealing with such advertisers. Anyway, there is really no proof of what he had done because everything was verbal and he issued no receipt for his services.
For the benefit of your readers, I will just give a brief of the incident. The said ad is as attached, and is taken from the 31st Aug 06 edition of the ST Classified ads, Plumbing section (118 I think). As I checked, he is still advertising for his services today (6th Sep 06, Wednesday). The plumber goes by the name of "Mr. P".
On 31st Aug, I called and requested a quote to clear a floor trap choke, which was advertised at $15+. I explained that my floor trap is the one under my kitchen sink. Knowing that such advertisers tend to underquote in the advertisements, I agreed to his verbal quote of $30+ over the phone. So he came, and "cleared" the choke within 2 minutes. At the door, he asked for $60, claiming that others would have charged $65. He claimed that my "floor trap choke" was actually a "gulley choke" which warranted more money. This is after I had explained clearly where the choke was over the phone. Even then, a "gulley choke" was only quoted at $20+ on his advertisement. After some haggling and questioning, I paid the $60 and asked for a receipt which he claimed he could only issue at the office. I gave him my mailing address and he agreed to mail it to me. The receipt has yet to arrive. He also claimed that the service came with a "3-month warranty".
The story has not ended. On Sunday 3rd Sep the choke came back. I called the number and was told to "call back later". Subsequent calls were not answered. I tried again on Monday 4th Sep. I called 3 times and none was picked up. I checked that he had also placed an ad on that day. Eventually I engaged the services of a registered plumber through the Singapore Plumbing Society.
Nothing much I can do now but I guess this is a case of Caveat Emptor. Should CATS receive receive further complaints about this advertiser please do not hesitate to blacklist him.
Regards,
C
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So in the end, C had to call in ANOTHER plumber to clear his chute. of course at another additional cost.
This time he found out that there was a Singapore Plumbing Society. (http://www.plumbing.org.sg/)
And he used a registered plumber from this society instead.
I'm not sure how many people know about this society. Its definitely new to me.
But at the end of this story....
Who is responsible for placement of Advertisements? Should ST be cautious not to encourage immoral practises if they were warned of it by users?
If ST does not exercise such caution, would it throw potential readers off? I may remember this irresponsible behaviour and remind myself and those around me NOT to use ST advertised plumbers etc... Why is there no move towards being a more responsible merchant?
How would CASE justify $35 (membership & admin fees) to be levied on the victims of bad business practises? Havent the victims paid enough for it already? Is there another way to blacklist a company, a service without COST? or a lesser cost?
Can Police catch Mr. P and throw him in jail for $30 con-job? or not mailing the receipt to C? for not honoring his 3months warranty? This seems like a pretty small case as compared to the murder, arson cases or worse terrorist cases which the police are focusing their efforts on to protect us the citizens.
Why? Why like that?
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