Car Park Terror

I parked at the car park outside KLCC yesterday and when I left the car park attendant verbally abused me.

It started with him saying he didn't have change for the RM50 that I gave him (and to think the reason why I had gone to the bank to withdraw more money was because I had given the last of my small change to a colleague because we were pulling together to buy gifts for a little orphan girl).

We haggled and he didn't want to relent, he said he had walked so many times to the shops to get change, and insisted that I repark my car and go and find my own small change. He kept saying he had no change, that everyone gave him an RM50 that day. I was not happy either, and held out, insisting that they should find change and not treat their customers this way, he retorted really rudely and said "you tak balik sini besok pun tiada apa la, I punye customer banyak lagi tau!" and gesturing wildly at me with his hands.

So it went on like that for a while, both of us adamant, until cars started piling up behind me to get out, then with an angry huff he opened the cashier drawer and gave me RM44 ringgit in change (which he supposedly didn't have), and yelled at me not to come back. Then, just for good measure, he even yelled sarcastically, "you puasa ka, hah?!" indicating that as if it would have been so hard to reverse, repark my car, get out and walk 7 minutes back to the mall, take the escalator down to the supermarket, find something small to buy, get change and walk another 7 minutes back just for him.

He actually did me a favor with that retort, because it reminded me that I was fasting, so I took a deep breath, looked at him and politely said, "ya, i memang puasa pun". His confused, stereotyped brain went into overdrive trying to figure out this un-match, but he managed to gesture rudely again as I drove out of the car park.

I was soooo upset.

...but the sad truth is that he's right, even if I dont' go back tomorrow, he's not going to lose out on his business. In favor of comfort and convenience, we are really at the mercy of these ruthless car park operators in town.

The incident remidned me of another one at the open air car park next to Maya Hotel, a RM5 per entry car park. I had planned a half work day so I could leave at lunch time to pick up some friends who were arriving from overseas. When I got to the car park at midday, I was shocked to see cars quadruple parked on all sides, and they told me I have to come back in an hour if I wanted to get out.

I asked them who was going to be responsible if someone had to leave in an emergency? If your wife called and told you she just got hospitalised and you can't go because these people don't want to move the cars away for you, how would you feel? They said they can't do anything and that I have to wait for an hour.

So I took out my handphone and pretended to take pictures of the ridiculous way they had allowed cars to park. A minute later one of the attendants took out a bunch of keys and together with another attendant, they started moving the cars, and I got out after 10 minutes.

...sigh... just ranting. I'm going to stick to the LRT. And pray that my fellow commuters wake up inspired to shower every morning.