Philippine Adventure: Day Four - Disaster

21 December 2007, Friday

As originally planned, I went out with my siblings today to get them the Christmas present they requested - new mobile phones.

But before that, my siblings had to run some errands at school first, and after a day of being "trapped" at home, I just opted to tag along.

Getting to school via train was a disaster. As usual, the train was delayed and packed with commuters. And it was a good 30-45 minutes to get to the Pedro Gil Station.

At school, while my sister did her errand, I went on to visit my cousin Rose and a dear Professor. It was very nostalgic walking in the corridors of my alma mater again. I can almost see myself in the A-line checked uniform! Hahaha... :D

After a quick visit, we were off to the malls. We had merienda first at the Old Spaghetti House in the Midtown Mall, a new wing of Robinson's Place Manila. But since there's no Nokia shop there, we had to move the party to Glorietta.

Getting a cab to Makati from Manila was a disaster. The queue at the taxi stands were a mile long. And hailing a cab along Pedro Gil proved to be a difficult feat. And so, we ended up taking 2 jeepney rides and a bus ride to Glorietta.

We got the phone quickly. It is always easy to pick out something when you already have a clear picture of what you want in your head. Good job sibs! Now, it was time for shopping. Glorietta was a mess! At least compared to what I remembered of it. The section that was bombed a couple of months ago was barred. And that was where the good clothes and shoe shops were located! Darned.

We moved to the Landmark Department Store to see what they have there. My shopping experience is sadly best described by the word disaster. Well, it wasn't in the beginning until I lost my mobile phone. Hmm... In fairness to Landmark, it was my own carelessness that led to the phone getting "misplaced". When I tried on one blouse at the fitting room, I hung my phone by its pouch strap in the hook on the wall and forgot all about it when I left the fitting room.

It was a good 10 minutes before I realized that my phone was not with me anymore. And so I traced back my footsteps which led us to the saleslady who helped us located the phone at the Customer Service counter. But even after presenting my passport, id, my mobile phone number and a vivid description of my phone including the little orange Tigger charm I have hanging, it seems that the people in the customer service counter weren't convinced of my claim. My brother even saw one of the saleslady tugging on the elbow of the other saleslady who appeared to have found my phone, whispering "Itago mo na iyan. Tanga-tanga."

To settle the issue, the lady at the counter paged a manager. And this manager, an elder woman seemed to be just as corrupt. Why did I say so? Well, she "appeared" to dial my mobiles number and then blurted, "Hindi nagri-ring. Cannot be reached." When obviously, my phone is on. I am thankful to the other lady supervisor who made a call to my phone and had it ringing. And finally, they turned over the phone to me - the rightful owner. My only regret is not getting the names of those who tried to prevent me from recovering my phone. Had I only gotten your names, you might be jobless this Christmas season and I won't care a bit. Landmark should not allow dishonest people in their brood. Customer service sucks at Landmark, because the customer service providers suck even more.

After the incident, we decided to call it a night. And I guess we did pray enough to deserve a cab. Hehehe.. So it was the bus again for us - one hour travel time from Glorietta to Buendia. Tsk tsk. Very bad!

We tried to catch the last train from Buendia to Monumento. Even that was a disaster, too. They closed the gates too early. There were a lot of passengers begging to get in as at this time, only the Ticket Booths were closed and those with tickets should still be let in. But the security guards were too stupid to see the convenience that the trains offered their passengers and subject them to the gruelling travel via jeepney.

And so last night, it dawned on me, next year, I'll try to come home before the Christmas season. Why? Because eventhough Christmas is always special in the Philippines, it seems that the people doesn't care any more. Sigh.