Horrific Transcab Incident

So I had a rather terrifying cab experience with a Transcab cabbie in August which left me quite shaken. I sent a feedback email to the company but they only replied me saying that they had given the driver counselling, which to me, was insufficient. I later filed an official complaint to LTA who launched a full investigation. I was asked if I would be willing to testify against the cabbie in court as he would most likely be charged by the LTA for committing an offence (it was not clear to me which) but I declined to do so under the advice of my parents who told me to "forgive and let live".

I agreed with my parents so I told the LTA that I would not do so - they have since taken disciplinary action against the cabbie on a departmental level. I'm not sure what that entails but I hope he has been deterred sufficiently, I would not wish the encounter I had with him onto my worst enemy. This is the email that I sent in to the company which details what happened:

"Dear Sir/Mdm,

Yesterday (30/08) I had an extremely unpleasant encounter with a Transcab Taxi Driver, one that left me quite shaken and overwhelmed. I wrote a feedback email to the company; however in the hours following, I was informed by various sources (friends and families) that Transcab is rarely responsive to emails of this nature. As such, I am forwarding the said email to you in hopes that my concerns would be heard:

'Dear Sir/Mdm,

I am writing to provide feedback on a driver whose cab I took this afternoon, here are the details of our encounter:

License Plate SHC5124H
Driver's Name: : Wong Sheng Kim Jasper
Duration of Trip: 1548 - 1603 (From Jurong East to Holland Village)

The cab journey was quiet and uneventful up until I was just about to alight. I handed the driver a $50 note to pay for my $9.40 fare and he responded by saying that he did not have enough small change to give me. After confirming that I had no other spare change to pay him with, it was decided that NETs was the only option. I was mildly disgruntled and remarked evenly,

"So because of you, I have to pay extra."

I expected perhaps a quick apology or at least a smile that would indicate understanding to my faint sense of indignation, but what occurred instead shocked me. The driver immediately turned around and snapped at me loudly saying:

"It's not my fault that I've no change what, what do you mean I made you pay extra?"

I was so shocked that the only thing I could think to say was:

"Isn't it true? Since you had no change for me, I have to pay an extra fee for NETs."

The driver who already had my card in hand, started shouting at me. He repeated that it was not his fault that he had not enough change and that he disliked my "bad attitude". At this point, I was already starting to feel uncomfortable so I quickly said, "I did not say that I was not going to pay. So quickly swipe the card so that I can pay and leave, don't waste my time."

This seemed to only incense him further and he continued shouting, he also threw my card down (on the area between his seat and the other front seat) in anger. I kept insisting that he stopped wasting my time so that I could make payment quickly but he shouted on over me. When I raised my voice to make myself heard, he came eerily near me and said threateningly:

"WHY ARE YOU SHOUTING AT ME?"

I was very much afraid as I was alone and quite defenceless in the face of what looked like an extremely violent and angry man, his quick temper already told me as much. I simply repeated again in a raised voice that I wanted him to swipe my card for payment, thankfully this time he did.Unfortunately, the card was declined the first time. I handed the NETs device back to him simply saying "it was declined", and waiting for him to restart the process in silence. He however, seemed to use my silence as an opportunity to heap abuse on me. The following exchange shocked me even further and I was desperate to get out of his cab:

Me: It was declined
Him: Declined then?? It's your card's fault what! How is that my fault? Now you want to blame me for your card being declined??

He continued in this vein for some time before I snapped and replied:

Me: I didn't even say anything! If it's declined then just try again, I'm waiting.
Him: YOU THINK DON'T NEED TO WAIT IS IT? THE MACHINE CANNOT DO AGAIN SO QUICKLY WHAT
Me: I know, I SAID THAT I AM WAITING
Him: THEN YOU SHUT UP LA

He screamed this last sentence directly into my face and I was so shocked that I sat back in silence for a bit. Following this, he had not stopped talking and was continuing to shout abuses at me about how I disrespected him and for my lack of patience. The whole encounter leading up to this point felt so terrifying and I only vaguely remember that at one point (I'm not even sure which point of the conversation anymore), he had pressed a button saying that he would record our conversation since I was being "unfair" to him. He taunted me between shouts saying that I should call the police and/or report him to Trans Cab as he had "evidence" of me yelling at him, and that I on the other hand had nothing on him.

When my payment finally got through, the only thing I could think to say was to tell him that if he had children, he should keep in mind that today, he had treated a child in a way that he would never hope for his children to be treated. He brushed me off in a scathing manner, telling me not to talk nonsense.This entire incident left me extremely shaken and I quickly sought the company of friends after leaving the cab. I was so overwhelmed at this encounter that I could not stop crying for an hour due to the injustice that I felt was served to me.

At first I was confused and wondered if I had done something wrong to trigger such terrible verbal abuse from a man who works for a company which provides service. I have never expected to feel so threatened and unsafe in a registered taxi in Singapore. Now as I'm thinking calmly, I do not think that I did anything wrong at all. Though I did make a remark that may have triggered the driver's response, it was in its entirety, true and justified - I had not wronged him in any way.

In any case, even if he did felt victimised or insulted, I see no reason as to why he had to shout, taunt, and threaten me for an extended period of time -- seeing how I neither refused to pay nor made any untrue allegations towards him. Had he apologised for the inconvenience caused to me at his expense, or at least responded to me in a calm manner, things would've worked out a lot better. I do not deny that I had shouted at him multiple times in response to his abuse, but I do not see why he should have been surprised at that considering his behavior. His constant refusal to swipe my card to process the payment only suggested to me that he enjoyed his screaming monologue and wanted to "punish" me for the statement I made.

This is the first time I've had an unpleasant encounter with any taxi in Singapore and am rudely shocked to realise that we may not be as safe as we think we are. This speaks volumes about the kind of screening process and/or measures that have been taken to ensure the safety of passengers. Had I had the presence of mind and had not been so desperate to get away from the driver, I would have certainly called the police because I felt physically threatened by his verbal abuse.

I have no doubt that this driver in question will have a lot to say in his defence and indeed, he should have a chance to defend his behavior. I hope that you will conduct a full investigation as I am also extremely interested to find out why he found it necessary to verbally attack a defenceless young woman and hold her in his presence for an extended period of time simply because he was unhappy with a true statement that she made about his service.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Yours,
Alyssa Teo '

Having shared this encounter with some friends, I found out that such cases of verbally abusive taxi drivers are apparently not uncommon. Furthermore, the few who shared similar stories with me said that their feedback and/or complaints were never met with any replies. I hope that the LTA could help to expedite on looking into feedback such as my own as I believe that no customer should be treated in an abusive manner -- no matter the situation.

You can contact me via this email address or on my mobile phone (92980844). Thank you for your time and attention, I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours,
Alyssa"

Granny's 87th Birthday Celebration

Photographs from the day we celebrated grannypie's 87th:

Bumped into loads of her old friends, that was kinda overwhelming - hence my awkward smile, lol. Lili took this picture from across the room. 

Happy granny :3 

It was a pretty awesome afternoon catching up with family (: Something really horrific happened after this though, will be updating about it on the next post! 

breathing, n.

"You had asthma as a child, had to carry around an inhaler. But when we grew older, it went away. You could run for miles and it was fine. Sometimes I worry that this is happening to me in reverse. The older I get, the more I lose my ability to breathe."

- The Lover's Dictionary

6 Letters x Tinhill Rock Fest

God I'm really sucking at this keeping-track-of-my-life-thing. Here it goes:

Always in a good mood when I'm off to meet my qt. 

<3

Had the most awesome Jap lunch and then went to watch the local film 6 Letters, it was nice but not fantastic in my opinion. That was a pretty cool day. 

Company buffet lunch! I was feeling ill that day so I couldn't really enjoy the food properly, it was good though if memory serves correctly.

The boy came to pick me and fix me up with some medicine, rested for a fair bit before we headed to.. 

The Tinhill Rockfest! 

(Truth be told, I haven't heard of 60% of the performing bands/artistes, but the music was nice and good to get into)

What a cute dude. 

The sun was pretty damn brutal for a large part of the afternoon though, that wasn't very comfortable. 

Nevertheless, it did make for a very beautiful sky. 

We hung out pretty far from the main stage because it was really really really loud, plus it seemed slightly cooler here on the bench. 

The boy brought snacks but my throat was so bad I just wanted to whine, lol. 

Even when I'm all sick and hazey in my head, I still always have the best time with him :3 

By nightfall, it was pretty damn beautiful. 

Photo Update: 25 - 27 August

After coming back home, it was straight to school/work the very next day. This week I started cutting down on some work because I realised that I had to give myself more time to work on university work - that's my first priority anyway. I think things have been going mostly well so far :3

First official day of school!

Team meeting before class! 

Got to catch up with these two during a quick lunch too. 

Back to work with these babies as well. 

Date night :3 

Went to have the dude's favourite meal - ramen! 

Speak - Spoken Word event. 

Yet another FYP meeting, a consistent theme in my life right now - at least with awesome food hehe. 

Haha poor sweetie closed her eyes. 

Start of our road to fitness! Bahahahhaa. I wish I had more to say but the days pass by so quickly I lose track ): 

elliptical, adj.

"The kiss I like the most is one of the slow ones. It's as much breath as touch, as much no as yes. You lean in from the side, and I have to turn a little to make it happen."

-- David Levithan

BKKats Day 5 Pratunam x Home

Finally updating about the last day of our holiday! We were so reluctant to return to reality but had to make the best of what we had. Our flight was in the evening so we spent the morning spending the last of our budget at the Pratunam Market before packing up and leaving:

I love the abundance of pets and friendly wild animals in this city :3 

Last chance!!

Friendly puppy belonging to one of the shops, she was such a gentle sweetiepie. 

Kisses for me! 

The ultimate lesbian family photo (complete with bags of shopping hahahaha) 

Last gooodbye pic :3 

We had only walked down the lane for less than a min before we met this cutie. He was only 8 months old and soon fluffy <3 

Also, he loved me. Though it got kinda too much when he started humping my knee at one point and I had to push him away.... #whyyoudodis #justletmeloveyou #youruinedit

He seemed to love Joni without any ulterior motives though, hahahaha. 

Loot from our last morning there! Not too shabby for 1.5 hours of work methinks. 

Out to takeaway some food for lunch later in the airport (because the airport food suckssss and is so expensive). 

BKK I love you food <3 

Chilling at our hotel's restaurant area because we still had some time to spare. 

Time to gooooooooo. 

Byebye Thaithai.

Beautiful weather that day. 

Our packeted dinner! Chicken basil rice and bbq pork rice! 

Our gate area was so tranquil (but also lacking in air conditioning lol) 

Was craving for some chocolate so I spent over S$7 on this packet of pop chocssssss. 

Time to board! Look at that big bag of shopping!

We didn't actually take Thai Airlines, I just thought the view was picturesque.

Take offfffffffffff. 

Saw this strange UFO Catcher game before exiting customs when we landed. Apparently our boarding slip entitles us to three tokens which gives us 3 chances to try and catch the balls inside the machines. The balls contain vouchers for the airport stores!

I'm not too skilled and only got 2/3 of my tries, Joni got all 3! 

I thought this was cute, hahaha. Really authentic toys, snacks and memorabilia. 

Qt timmy came to pick us up! Really grateful for the ride home and so pleased with this trip :3