I am not only a movie reporter.
I am also a consumer in the commercial society.
I am a water user as well from Primewater here in San Pedro.
I demand to be respected with my consumerist rights such as smooth facilitation of payment even beyond office hours.
The story goes like this.
The deadlines for payments of my two water bills—one for my residence and the other for the unoccupied house of my niece who’s abroad both located in Villa Castillo—was every 19th of the month.
During that time last month, I went to the province to look after the other chips on my shoulder. In transit in a bus on that Monday night, May 19th, it suddenly dawned on me that it’s the due date.
At the time, I was alone in the house because my housemate, entertainment journalist Art Tapalla was overseeing the property of Fil-Briton filmmaker Jowee Morel (“Moma,” “EC2Luv,” “Mona, Singapore Escort,” “Latak,” “When a Gay Man loves,” “HiStory,” “Strictly Confidential,” “Leona Calderon,” “The Making of Quezon City” etc.) who was still at the United Kingdom at the time.
Thinking that technically, two hours before the midnight struck, I could still beat the deadline sans fine at 71 or any pay centers available although, the most possible is only 711. At 10 pm, I was walking down Pacita Avenue to Villa Castillo on foot for austerity. When I arrived home, I put my things aside and quickly picked the bills and ran to the nearest 711 convenience store at the corner of Elvinda and Old National Highway. Unfortunately, when the store clerk scanned my payment slip of P248.24 the pay machine bogged down so I walked to the two 711s near the San Pedro Market only to be advised that their machines were also down. I went to 711 beside San Pedro College of Business and Arts and later to 711 Landayan whose machines were also down.
It was already raining and my time had lapsed so I decided to go home and planned to report the incident to the Primewater office which I did first thing in the morning.
I was advised I should pay the amount after due which was P273.08 so I argued and retold my narrative but the guy on the teller’s window said that the payment is system generated so they couldn’t do anything about it.
In this case, poor clients (from showbiz or outside of it) like me are on the losing end.
It’s not only the surcharge or penalty or what-have-you that matters but the social institutions’—technological or otherwise—care for its people.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #OpinYonNews