小枫叶…看世界

Tomorrow will be the 14th day i.e. the last day my beautician is supposed to refund me.  However, until now, there is still no sound no picture of any cheque yet.  So, what am i supposed to do?

a.  Wait another few days to see whether they will make the payment or not?

b.  Call them to ask when are they giving me the cheque?

c.  File a complaint to the Ministry of Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism so that action can be taken against them under Section 117 of the Consumer Protection Act 1999?

Maybe she couldn’t understand what was written on the Tribunal award letter?  Maybe she thought that the sentence “Tuan/Puan hendaklah mematuhi award ini dalam masa 14 hari dari tarikh award ini” means she has to comply AFTER 14 days???  You know la, she being a UK graduate also can’t understand English, what more if the award letter was issued in Bahasa Melayu??? 

The award letter further stated that a complaint can be filed against them “jika pihak Penentang gagal mematuhi award in selepas tempoh 14 hari dari tarikh award ini”  It is so clear that they need to comply WITHIN 14 days!!! Can she still not understand such simple words???

Hmmm… given that ordinary English also she has trouble understanding, i think it is highly likely that she has been cracking her head trying to interprete the award letter.

上个星期，在新加坡Marina Bay Sands赌场献上了我的第一次…那就是赌roulette! （不要乱想啦！）事情是酱发生的:- 

话说我们公司组织了一个company trip, 去新加坡玩，其中一个stop就是Marina Bay Sands赌场。我和同事Ah Chang因为不会赌，所以在赌场内走了一个小时候，正在看人家赌轮盘时，兴起了我们的赌意, 两个人决定kongsi钱试一试运气。Ah Chang提议个人出S$25, 以S$50为赌本，我复议了！我们选最便宜的一座来赌，那就是minimum bet S$5的那座.  Ah Chang 换了table chips 后，问我放那里，我依照之前的result, 就跟他说放红色吧!  在他放了一粒S$5的chip后，那个croupier就很客气的跟他说，”Sir, minimum bet for colour is 5 chips” *GULP* 什么？5 chips？？？S$25 一个bet??? S$25 x 2.41 = RM60.25???哇！ 我们两顿时冒冷汗。。。Ah Chang 看着我，我看着他，嗨呀！死就死吧！S$25就S$25吧！杀他！当时的感觉就像是个赌神，S$25, RM60.25的赌神！了不起le???

就在那个波波转着的时候，我和Ah Chang又再开始冒冷汗，心理一直pik pok pik pok的猛跳着，我的gu chia len!!! 我的gu chia len… 如果输掉的话，不是倾家荡产！冷汗一直流不停，流到那粒波波停后，才敢争开眼睛看看是什么原色！当看到是红色时，整个心终于安顿了下来！Phew!!! 这种刺激真的是顶不顺！拿到我们的S$25 winnings后，我跟Ah Chang讲，“不如我们走路lor!!” 可是因为之前的乌龙，Ah Chang说不好意思只玩了一次就走人！所以呢，我们就继续的再赌下去！

再一次放S$25, 我的gu chia len继续的再len, 整个心又再次pik pok pik pok的跳，几乎跳了出来！我看看Ah Chang的表亲，好像好不过我很多，脸色有点苍白的… 终于开股了，是。。。当..当..当当！！！红色！woooohoooooo!!!! 又赢了！由于受不起这种那么富有刺激性的玩意儿，我和Ah Chang决定还是走路好咯！于是，Ah Chang硬着头皮，把table chips退还，然后再cash out我们的cash chips, 过后我们两个就大摇大摆以小赢家的身份走出赌场… 哈哈哈哈哈！只赌了两轮就赢了S$50， RM120.50… 还不错啦!  嘻嘻嘻嘻！好高兴哦！

Today was the 3rd time i attended the consumer claims tribunal. To my great disappointment and despite my submission of all facts, evidences and the production of a witness in the court, the president of the tribunal refused to award the case to me.  Instead, he kept coaxing me and the respondent to amicably settle the case out of court, reason being it will not be beneficial mainly to the respondent if judgment is against them.

Why do i say with such certainty like i was going to win the case?  Mainly, it was very clear from the beginning and all the evidences i produced in the court points to a failed eyebrow embroidery job.

1. The respondent has throughout the 3 hearings, kept changing her story, even her written submission made to the court conflicted the records she maintained in her salon and her own statement in court.  Throughout the first 2 hearings, she kept telling the court that removal work couldn’t be done in my case.  I even had her conversation with me recorded, in which she told me clearly that I couldn’t have my eyebrow embroidery removed and when i asked her why, she said my case is different from other cases because of the thickness and the darker colour.  However, today in court, she told the President that she offered me 2 options, 1 is to totally removed the EE, then re-do the whole thing and the other is to do further touch up.  I told her if she has proposed that option to me, we wouldn’t have wound up in court.  The purpose of me initiating this claim was just so that I could get justice for myself and get my money back so that I can proceed to remove the EE.  It is just that simple.
2. As i have suspected from the beginning, her command of English is questionable eventhough she claimed that she was a graduate from a university in UK.  In my submission, i wrote that the respondent coaxed me into signing up for the EE package.  She and a staff of hers were so angry with the word “coax” that i wrote.  In her submission to the court, she alleged that I was accusing them of cheating me!!!   However, throughout the whole case, I never at all mentioned that I was cheated!  Her staff even went to the extent of saying, “当我看到你指责我们恐吓你时，我感到很心痛” (translation:when i saw that you accused us of THREATENING you into signing up for the EE package, it really hurt me).  And so I told her to please check up the meaning of “COAX” in the dictionary.　The actual meaning was “to persuade with flattery, patience and gently.  As you can see, before they even find out the true meaning of coax, they accused me of threatening them!!!  What a joke!!!
3. I have made pictures comparison to show that the result of the procedure clearly was different from the original design.  However, she kept arguing that my last design was thicker eyebrow but what has that got to do with being totally different with the one i designed?  My design as shown in the photo she captured with her camera was balanced.  However, the outcome was one side higher than the other and even the shape wasn’t the one that i drew.

It makes me wonder what is the use of evidences and production of a witness when clearly the President of the tribunal didn’t even want to rely on them?  I have a solid concrete case but today i was denied even a chance to speak up for myself and was forced into signing a settlement with the respondent.  The President, instead of delivering his judgement in the court room, asked all of us to see him in his chamber.  And all that i heard in his chamber was his self promotion about how good he is, that he was the first ever lawyer to sue the supreme court judge, that he was the lawyer acting for the 1st wife of PM, that PM regretted not having him to represent PM in his divorce case, then went on and on about his business, his houses all over the world, his ferrari.. and many more…  While i was in there, my heart was thinking, are all these relevant to the case in question???  Sigh!!!! Instead of addressing our case, we were subject to his self glorification talk! 

However,the only consolation i got was i did get RM832 out of the RM1,080 that i paid for the EE (RM1,080 minus the cost respondent incurred in doing the EE).  When i asked about the cost of another RM800 that i would incur to have the EE remove, he told me to go do it and submit another claim for it…  I was thinking, are you nuts??? Subjecting myself to injustice and heartache and mental anguish again??? No thanks!!!

最近曾经因为consumer claims tribunal的事耿耿于怀，好像很不顺利，很多障碍似的。但是再三思考过后，觉得因为此事件而把我的胆量练了出来！

一直以来胆小的我，（除了被人家冤枉以外）因为上帝没有赐我一张像宋世杰的口才，往往都不敢在大庭广众和别人争吵，每每都是像哑子吃黄连，有苦自己知。从小到大，爸爸的话就是law, 孩子们是不能反驳的，如果一应嘴，下场就不堪设想！渐渐的，在那环境成长的我，学会了就算有多么的委屈，也得啃了它，绝不能出声！

一向以来我骂人最厉害的方式就是在书写方面，有谁在工作上弄我生气的话，我会手下不留情的用email shoot 他们, 有时候会shoot到他们死得目不忍睹！近期好像已有三，四个人被我酱shoot死了！（对他们的家属，我致万二分的歉意！）

这次的Consumer Claim Tribunal, 不只是我生平第一次上法庭听审，也是我第一次在大庭广众陈词。因为自己不是律师，但却必须面对着法官，难免会很紧张和害怕！但是我也体会到法官也是人，只要我没做错事，我不必害怕，也不必惊慌，所有的事，只要很坦白和老老实实的呈现给他就是了！至今已经上了两次的法庭，所练出来的胆也越来越大了！现在的我，在经过这场官司之后，比较有胆量在大庭广众和别人较量了! 

不过我得在此声明，我说的是“比较”有胆量，而不是“很有胆量”或“有很大的胆量”，所以如果你看到我给人家欺负时，还是不敢出声的话，不要取笑我或问我不是说很大胆了咩？嘻嘻！就算最终我还是输掉了这场官司，不过能练出了我一点点的胆量，算是塞翁失马，焉知非福，不也乐呼？！