... and that too, shall pass.

The Injustice Of It All

It's so great that I sat down for an hour straight doing nothing but pounding away on my keyboard to send out this long-assed e-mail to the LTA.

Reproduced in its entirety below.

To Whomever-It-May-Concern,

12 September 2009 2.20pm

I am writing in to appeal for the two parking summons I received on 10th and 12th September respectively for my motorcycle, licence plate FN7418M, and to make a complaint regarding the work ethics of United Premas staff.

I was overseas from 8-12 September, and have just reached home not long ago. I went to check on my bike before I came home because it had a small hole in it which I suspect was caused by the summons officer from when I received a ticket on 3rd Sep in an effort to get to my number plate under the cover.

I was infuriated to see today:

1) The small hole had turned into a huge rip, exposing half of the front of my bike to the mercy of sun and rain. As it has a delicate engine, I like to keep it covered so that it is not exposed to the elements. Who knows how long it has been like that? Probably from 10th or 12th Sep onwards.

2) There were TWO parking summons, TWO days apart. This gives me the impression that the summons officer could, if he/she really had a mind to, camp out at this particular carpark and issue tickets every hour until the respective owners remove their cars. It was not as if the second summons officer, Hamiza Bte Abdul Rahman, did not know that there was already one parking ticket issued by Misliah Bte Mohamed before her - it was paper clipped to the ripped bike cover.

This is a particularly big problem in my carpark - Y47. My boyfriend who lives with me, has received tickets on two occasions at 7.01am when he put coupons that end at 7am, and on one occasion got a ticket at 8.01am when the full amount payable kicks in. My mother, who recently got her first car, tried time and time again to purchase season parking unsuccessfully. She finally got the season parking, but it started in September. So from the time she got the car, which was mid August, until 1st September, she got more than 15 parking tickets, all within the hour of coupons expiring.

My mother, being a simple minded person, paid for ALL the parking summons because she was unable to go through the hassle of appealing the parking tickets as she is the breadwinner of the family and is always working. I feel that the exceedingly numerous parking fine are a flat-out extortion from people like my mother.

3) The second summons officer - Hamizah Bte Abdul Rahman - the one who blindly issued the second ticket, STAPLED the ticket to my already ripped bike cover. STAPLED. This is exactly the kind of atrocity that caused my bike cover to be ripped in the first place. As I have clarified before, my bike is a delicate bike, it needs to be kept out of the sun and rain.

4) The worst was yet to come.

Upon closer inspection, I found a few deep scratches on my windshield. It was not there before I went overseas, I am very sure, as I take good care of my bike (or I wouldn't have made such a fuss about the ripped bike cover). I would guess that it happened somewhere along the line of "pulling the hole wider to look for my number plate" or "paper-clipping/STAPLING the ticket onto my bike cover" when a heavy bag hit against it.

Attached are pictures of the state of my bike when I got back earlier today.

In conclusion, I am only willing to pay the fine for the ticket issued on 10th September (notice number H0140963T) but not for the one issued on 12th September (notice number H0145744R).

In addition, I would like to request for compensation of a new bike cover that I purchased today (priced at S$32.00) right after I found out the state of the old bike cover, and also compensation for a new windshield of the same model (priced at S$130.00) as the scratches cannot be removed on this windshield. I would honestly appreciate it if nothing happens to them again due to the actions of incompetent staff from United Premas.

I am sure in my conviction that it is their doing as nothing bad has happened to my motorcycles before United Premas took over. No scratches, no ripped covers.

In future I would advise that the United Premas company select their staff with more vigour, or at least teach them to respect other people's property.

I apologise if I sounded harsh in this email, but please understand my situation. I cannot keep paying for other people's mistakes.

Please forward this email to the relevant department so that I can be contacted to have the matter resolved and my compensation made.

Thank you for taking the time to read this email.

Best Regards,
Jazzyme (this one changed to protect my privacy on this blog, lah)