Victory Liner Customer Service

This is an email conversation between me and customer service at Victory Liner one of the main bus lines that operates in the Philippines. My original email has some exaggeration in the effect of how horribly it effected me and doesn't mention the fact that I live here. I was impressed with their response even though they didn't offer me any freebees.

To Whom it May Concern:

Due to your incorrect bus schedule posted on your website, my trip to the Philippines has been ruined. I traveled here from the U.S. with the intention of traveling to Zambales timing my arrival in Manila to make the Thursday 22:40 STA. CRUZ via CAMILING   as posted on your website schedule. Upon arriving to Victory Liner around 9:40pm on January 27th around 9:30 pm and were informed that the bus does not depart until 4am. This has completely ruined my travel plans for the weekend.

I am part of a fairly wide network of travelers and depending on what action is taken from me sending this email, I plan to effectively spread the word to avoid using your service when it can be avoided and not to trust your website (Which eliminates the usefulness of your website and that is money your organization is wasting by having the website developed and maintained) 

Ian Geiger

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Dear Mr. Geiger,

Thank you for bringing up the concern.

I have investigated the incident and found out that indeed bus number 811 was dispatched last night on 22.40 for the trip Sta. Cruz via Camiling.  I also checked if the manifest was fully booked, which could be the reason why the person you talked to said that the next trip was for 4am already.  However, upon checkng the manifest, I saw that the bus was not even fully booked.  There were seats and you should have been accommodated on that trip, sir.

Did you inquire at the dispatcher's booth sir?  Or at the ticket booth?  Or with a security guard on duty?  We are thinking, there is a possibility that that person may not have understood what you were saying, perhaps a different intonation or pronounciation.  If this were the case, we would like to pinpoint who this person is as it reflects on the quality of people we have out there.

Mr. Geiger, on behalf of Victory Liner, I would like to apologize for this confusion.  If you have urgent questions, please do not hesitate to contact our customer service desk, English speaking and fully able to answer and understand you.  The number is0917 8425463.

Sincerely yours,

Marivic del Pilar

Marketing Head

Victory Liner

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Dear Marivic, 

         Thank you for your response. I inquired at the ticket booth and with a security guard. Luckily everything worked out well enough. I went ahead and gave Victory Liner another chance and returned at 4am. It still was not as easy as it should have been.. when inquiring about the STA Cruz that the office told me was leaving at 4am they said it wasn't leaving until 6 and I then asked just about everyone in the station until finally a security guard understood that I was trying to get to San Antonio and guided me to the right bus that did indeed leave at 4am (the guard also informed me that a bus for sta cruz did indeed leave at 10:40). Again, thank you for your response and for looking into the manner.

Sincerely,

Ian Geiger

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Thank you for your reply Mr. Geiger.  I am sorry, I think our frontliners are really having difficulty understanding and conversing in English.  We will move towards improving on this aspect.

Have a nice day!

Marivic del Pilar

Victory Liner

 

Fuzion Smoothie on Katipunan

In my previous entry on Places to visit in Manila I said that the best smoothie I have found yet is a chain called Fuzion. I have seen them at SM North, GreenBelt and GreenHills. I am sure they have more locations than this.

 http://fuzionphils.com/fuzion/news_mediagallery.php

Fuzion Smoothie is still the best smoothie in Manila. They have recently opened a new location on Katipunan Av in Quezon City. The location is great, right across from Anteno University!

They are still working out a few bugs in the system so if you stop by soon expect to find amazing smoothies for peso 99 - 145! but do sit upstairs the blenders are too loud for conversation on the first level, and be prepared, the lids do not fit the cups =)

Lord Stow's Bakery Manila

I was quite excited tonight to discover that Lord Stow's Bakery, a high end bakery from Macau.

Macau Egg Tart

Egg tarts to Macau perfection at 40rs each
Delectable chewy cashew brownies for 145 a box. Made with real chocolate!

Their Tomas Morato location has an inviting aroma and a pleasant seating area.

They have other locations around Manila and should be visited if you are near one.

Check out their web site for more information http://www.lordstow.com/

On a more personal note, our taxi ride home this evening was one of the more adventuresome rides. Our driver did not know the area super well, however knew it well enough to use some side streets. With his side street use we ended up going way past our turn looking for a turn around, after pulling some very indirect turns we headed up the wrong way to the main road and got yelled at by on lookers, while having a slur of cars exiting the main road coming at us as we backed down a curvy exit ramp, Hitting the curb a few times and having to re adjust. 40 pesos more than normal we made it back to our home safely and a bit more familiar with "short cuts" in Manila.

Directions to the Indian Embassy Manila

After my adventure looking for the Indian Embassy in the Philippines, Manila. I thought I would post directions for any lost travelers.

Its not too hard!

You need to take the MRT to them Magallanes station

When you exit the station, exit on the side of the Southgate Mall

Less than a 5 min walk down the street, away from the mall you will find the main gate into Dasmarinas Village. At this point get ready for a real taste of what is to come.

Video immages of all who enter the gate
Sign a log book
sit on a bench and wait for a black van
get in the black van #8
drive around a maze of nice homes
Sign a van log book
get out of the van and go into an office
wait on a bench
go to a counter and pay p150
collect your recepit
get back in the black van
drive around a maze of nice house
listen for your driver to tell you that your at India
go in a gate
sign a log book
go around the side of the building into the first door (unmarked)
Stand around a bit confused
go to Window #1 to get a number
sit if you can find a chair
drink some water because its hot
wait for your number to be called
When your done, if your lucky you can convince the guard to let you walk out of the complex (its only 2 min walking) otherwise you must wait for the black van to come collect you

The address of the Indian embassy, Manila is 2190 Paraiso Street

Good luck and have fun =)

Manila Afternoon

I am by no means anything near a poet, but I wrote this in class the other day and it captures (for me) the essence of life here in Manila

Groups of men covered in paint
a city alive
flying by
oblivious children living on the concrete
traffic cops talking; bringing a semblance of order to the streets
BALLOONS, BALLOONS, Mam balloons?
CORN, Mam, CORN

Faces smile to the rhythm of the city
quiet forgotten
trees forgotten
struggling activists
elites superiority
two word combination's
an attempt to spice the mix that strives to capture the flavor of
a late afternoon Manila moment

world's soul

The poetics of life have been abundant in my life recently.

I have been applying for an array of employment positions since my arrival in the Philippines. Looking to do what many people my age are looking for, an opportunity to find a job that will pay my bills, allow me to live a reasonable life, perhaps even start a savings account and perhaps most importantly find a way to creating direction and meaning in our lives.

Less than inspiring results have come from the 100's of applications I have done.

Until today,

Around a week ago, I decided that I would send out a handful of applications to NGO's in Asia. Much to my delight I got an intimidate response from a capacity building NGO in Mumbai, India. I exchanged several e-mails with the founder of the organization, allowing us both an opportunity to know more about each-other. At the end of the e-mail based exchange we arrange a Skype interview. The morning of our Skype interview I checked my e-mail box to find 5 e-mails thanking me for my application to various positions throughout the US and informing me that I would not be considered as a final candidate for the position.  India began to look better and better.

My Skype interview went quite well and second than a third were arranged.

As the world become more and more digital there have been an increasing number of interviews done via Skype.  I have used Skype very intermittently and only for personal conversations. Following my first video interview I realized that demonstrating professionalism over Skype is different than in a face to face or even phone interviews.

• If you are using a head set you need to arrange your hair so that it complements your overall appearance with the head set on.
• Likewise you need to select a location for your computer where the lighting is adequate and reflects well on you appearance. 
• Other important things to have in mind prior to your Skype video interview is what type of background you will have. 
• A blank white wall will most likely look bad, find an alternate background.  
• Keep the distance between your computer set up and the background wall fairly small, if it is too far away it will distort your image. 
• If you have a detached camera ensure that it is located in such a way that your screen or camera will not move because of the location of the camera. 
• All traditional interview techniques should additionally be applied to Skype video interviews.

With that crash course in learning's I did not fare too badly and was offered the job. So once again being open to life, I am moving, but poetically its back to India almost exactly a year after I departed the US for India the 1st time!

Teaching Koreans in the Philippines

Ian and I have been living in the Philippines for some time now. Early on in out time here we met a Korean girl who introduced us to a variety of families. I began teaching the girl and her siblings who became dubbed the "bad Koreans" after a slew of award and disorganized situations. They also introduced me to another family who I begun to teach regularly and consistently had very positive interactions with. The "bad Koreans"  mother introduced Ian to a third family who he has been teaching daily for the past 4 months and has created a very strong relationship with.

Around November the bad Koreans asked if Ian and I would teach intensively for two months to a group of Korean students who would come to the Philippines for an intensive english study program over the Korean winter break. We both agreed. The experience has been a jumble of good and bad events ultimately leading to the week I have explained below.

The initial agreement was that Ian and I would each teach 6 hours a day at a rate of
1 child p200/hr
2 child p300/hr
3 child p450/hr
4 child p550/hr

a whole slew of thing happened leading to one day towards the end of December when I got a message at 830am asking if I would come teach at 10am, I responded that it was too short notice and asked if Ian would be teaching at there house. The reply was asking if we could teach daily for 6hrs at p200(4USD) an hour no matter how many kids. At this point it became a question of money, power and personal time value. We decided that it would fulfill out needs if our rate was p50(1USD) higher and we received money for our transportation

After a intense and lengthy conversation an agreement was reached and we agreed to begin our classes the upcoming Monday teaching in the sub division of New Capitol Estates. The exact location was undecided and the conversation concluded with they idea that further details in regards to location would be communicated with us before we taught on Monday.

Sunday night arrived and no communication had occurred. We concluded that some change must have happened on their end. Both of us had received requests on Sunday to teach our other students on Monday morning. Near 9pm we both contacted our other students and arrange classes for Monday morning.

At 830 on Monday morning, as Ian was heading out to teach his good Koreans the phone beeped in a message telling us that we should be in front of the main gate of New Capitol Estates at 915. After another lengthy conversation we realized that they had understood that we would just come to that area and wait for information on Monday morning, no need to tell us any details prior to our arrival. We explained that was not our understanding and I agreed to go teach in the afternoon.

After 15 min of standing on the side of commonwealth avenue (one of the busiest roads in the most densly populated city in the world) their driver arrived. He did not bring me into New Capitol Estates but instead drove me 10 mins further away deep into a gated community I had never been before. Arriving there I walked into a house of complete chaos and was introduced to two teenage girls who I would be teaching for the afternoon. I begun my lessons with them and shortly after was interrupted by the mother who wanted to discuss my schedule with me. Partway through our schedule discussion she got up and said we would talk about it more latter.

After 3 hours of teaching I had learned that the girls were paying around 1,000 USD a week to be in the Philippines. I also learned that they had been told they would have a large living space and a beautiful house with fine food and were living 5 children per room, sharing beds with each other in an average house. They were upset that their schedule changed daily and they never knew what was going on.

The other tutors finished around the same time I did and asked me if I wanted to walk with them out of the complex. I declined, expecting the mother to arrive shortly to collect the children and to finalize arrangements with me. After 10 min of waiting I sent a message asking about there arrival and received no response. 10 min latter I could not continue to wait and said good bye to the 9 children who were alone standing in the yard of the empty house we had held class in. I than began to walk through the neighborhood maze, in the heat of a manila afternoon, in search of transportation to take me to my next obligation.

On Tuesday morning Ian and I received a message telling us that we should once again meet at New Capitol Estates (the sub division we were originally told class would be held in). We arrived on time and proceeded to wait 20 min before 2 taxis pulled up and we were told to get in, both taxis had 5 people in them and two other tutors were waiting with us, making it logistically impossible for us to all fit in the cabs. Luckily another taxi was waiting and we got in it. Out driver had no problem following the lead cabs to the gated community, however once inside we lost the cab that knew the way. None of us knew where to go and spent 10 min driving around looking for the other people, we finally got a phone call with the address and arrived at the house. I had to go into the house looking for the mother so she could pay the taxi driver. She sent the 15 year old girl to take care of it. The mothers first question to me was "why did you not get in the first two taxis?" followed by "why did you not follow the first taxi to the house?". Neither of those questions were how I felt the day should start. Perhaps a sorry we were late, or is it ok if we have class in this area now, or even how are you, would have been more appropriate.  All of the tutors stood outside while the mother continued her dealings with the Korean housing mob boss, until the 15 year old girl was sent to inform us it was time to start class.

Ian and I went into the living room to talk with the mother about my transportation at the end of class, as well as to give her the current bill  for our services so that she would be able to go to the bank and pay us at the end of the day. That did not go well. First she told me that when I was done I should wait at the house till she came to get me. Second she scolded us for trying to talk to her since classes were starting so late today, remember here that they were 20min late meeting us. She than said that she would not pay us today, only at the end of the week. We had arranged during our long dealings that we would be paid daily and she did not remember this. We re-stated that we needed to be paid daily and she said it was not possible and than asked how she would do it. We said that every day when we came to teach she would give us money and that is how paying us daily would work. She made a disgusted face and said we will talk about this around lunch time. I told her I did not have time to talk about it at lunch time since I have other obligations. The mother made another disgusted face and said she would only pay us on Fridays and not today.

At this point Ian told her that he would never teach for her again and I would only teach her children once she had found a way to get the money she owed me to me at my convenience and we walked out of the house.

As we walked up the road I messaged the girl who I originally met to tell her that the falling out I had just had with her mother was no reflection on her. Ian and I than each went to visit the mothers of the other families we teach who we met through this original family to explain our situation and ensure we could continue to teach with them. Our other families were very understanding and ensured us that they wished to keep our services.