PARKING OFFENDER #2 : A MALE DRIVER
He says, mid-conversation with the lady “private property?, you are a restaurant, how can this be private property…” (MM rolling his eyes) “it’s certainly not public property as in the roadways, and it is not owned by the government, so yes, you are indeed trespassing and on private property.” Then he counters with “you are offering a service, you are not customer friendly.” to which Mrs. MM answers, “you are not a customer now, and you weren’t eating for 8 hours straight.” To which he laughingly says, “you weren’t open at 7am, so how could I eat here?” OMG, DOES THE PHRASE LOW-IQ KIND OF LOGIC ENTER YOUR PSYCHE JUST NOW? Then the clincher was “I am with the press…” to which I said “good, what agency so I can record and send it to your publisher so he can decide how pathetically gormless that argument is…” Pray tell, what important press-worthy article was he chasing and writing for 8 hours: “How to park illegally and worm your way out of it?”
THEN BOTH OFFENDERS, IN UNISON, claim with dramatic flair, “but we eat here EVERYDAY…”, so basically, their argument is that they are ENTITLED TO FREE AND UNFETTERED use of the parking lot whenever and for as long as they want… even when neither ate there that day. Nor do waiters remember their faces, and believe me, our waiters remember faces of our regular customers quite well. And besides, that isn’t the point, here, is it? And finally, one of the final comments are,
“I WORK FOR XXX INSURANCE, AND WE “ALL” WON’T EAT AT ZUBUCHON AGAIN.” They attended whole day meetings at a nearby head office of XXX and the consequences of their actions be damned, basically. To which I said,
“please do not ever come back, we would prefer to reserve our parking spaces for customers who don’t feel entitled, act inconsiderately, are illogical, and prone to name-dropping while trespassing on private property…” And soon enough, other cars left and the two parkers finally left, after waiting some 40 minutes against their 8 hours of parking illegally.
So my point is, where is this supreme sense of entitlement coming from? Why are they in any way entitled to special treatment, because they (possibly) once or twice or regularly ate our food? Now they can avoid the minimum PHP400 parking fees on the street, by just parking themselves in a private spot without asking or seeing that was inappropriate? Do they NOT UNDERSTAND the concept of being inconsiderate, that by their actions they were inconsiderate to several other legitimate customers who couldn’t park in those spots while they dined at the restaurant on a very busy Friday lunch? Is logic so sparse in our society today that they really didn’t see anything wrong in their actions, and instead make up excuses why they are SO RIGHT and that it is me that is causing them headaches? Huh? And the name dropping?? PNP husband? Press? That’s supposed to change the logic or arguments at hand? Funny how they all lost their bluster when I said to our staff standing around “to call the local Makati police station just a hundred yards down the road and have them meet these folks…” Ridiculous.
Meanwhile, my evil thoughts included things I could have, and should have, done rather than getting my knickers in a twist, so for future reference, what do you think??:
1. I should have asked our lechoneros to dump 400 sacks of charcoal around these cars, tell the car owners we just got a delivery, had nowhere to put it, and so we had to store it around their cars that were illegally parked near the entrance to our lechonan/charcoal storage areas. They were welcome to dig their cars out from under the charcoal rubble, and leave when they could get into their vehicles and clear a path.
2. Deflate their tires. I have to check with a lawyer, but I think that could be defensible since they were trespassing to begin with, but I have to seek counsel on that, as it may cross a line, so strike that option…
3. Buy a tire clamp from some Amazon or other on-line source (OMG, I just checked, they are only PHP1,500 or so, I WANT ONE OR TWO!), and just clamp their tires down until we can get their cars towed away.
4. Drop a gallon of paint from the roof above, possibly splattering it all over the cars, and when asked, tell them, “if you weren’t parked illegally there, you wouldn’t have a problem.”
But I jest. Just JEST. Really?
In the meantime, since it seems they VOLUNTEERED where at least one of them worked, I am thinking about writing a letter to XXX Insurance management, Mr. RH, the CEO, and Mr. JK, the Chief Human Resources Officer, to ask if one or two of these cars in the photos above are company-issued vehicles, or belong to one of their 3,000+ employees or agents, and to kindly ask them to read this post and ask XXX staff to think before they park their vehicles illegally and cause inconvenience to many other people. I’m sure 99% of XXX insurance employees know this was just plain wrong.
I, too, am in the service business, but I do not under any circumstances have to suffer fools. Even if it means losing two or more customers as a consequence of THEIR OWN FOOLISH ACTIONS. Particularly fools that are acting entitled, who are patently inconsiderate, unable to discuss a topic logically and argue a point factually, name-dropping trespassers. If either RH or JK replies, I would be happy to send them the full plate numbers of the cars shown above.
The recap, for cliff-notes readers:
1. You trespassed when you entered a private parking lot.
2. You knowingly parked without asking and receiving permission to do so while you attended to business at another company/location down the street for an entire business day.
3. You clearly had an option to park on the street, and pay parking fees and a stay limit of 3 hours by Makati parking authority rules.
4. You left your car in our parking lot for 7+ hours, regardless of inconvenience it would cause to legitimate customers who dined with us at lunch time today.
5. You neither admitted you were in the wrong, and instead used non-sequitur or invalid arguments of “coming early and no one was there, to I left my child unattended at home, to I had a meeting and needed to park somewhere” that are childish, inappropriate, and well, just plain stupid.
6. You did not dine-in before, during or after your 8-hour parking escapade today.
7. You somehow thought it was useful to name drop that your husband was a PNP employee, and the other parker was with the press?! Seriously? I’d love to see an article in the press about what you did. Remember, I have video of it all.
8. You showed absolutely no remorse, or worse, real understanding that what you did was just plain wrong, indefensible, and frankly, stupid.
I hope you guys learned your lesson today, though I sincerely doubt it.