I WISH to highlight an interesting experience in trying to get a water meter reinstalled by Syabas to a premises which has been vacant since I received the keys in October 2001. Most of the small shop lots around this area remained empty.

Some time in November 2007, I finally managed to get someone to rent my lot for RM500 and went to Syabas on Nov 23 to get the water supply reconnected.

To my horror, Syabas demanded RM420 for “Buka ferrule” and another RM30 as “Caj”.

The terminology “Buka ferrule” is only there to confuse and mislead the public. When I asked what “Buka ferrule” meant, they explained that they had to send their contractor with a “JCV” (an excavator) to reconnect the meter.

After much argument, they finally agreed to give a 50% discount on the RM420 “Buka ferrule” charge.

To me, this is still daylight robbery as it does not take more than 10 minutes to reconnect the meter!

Further, they demanded a “Tunggakan” of RM490 on top of the deposit of RM500 which they have forfeited.There was practically no water consumption since the key was handed over in October 2001.

So they wanted me to pay them a total of RM940, plus a new deposit of RM500, which means I have to fork out RM1,440 to get my meter reinstalled! So now you know how the rakyat suffer in silence.

SILENT MAJORITY.

Source: The Star – March 19, 2008