A Sham of a KLCC Taxi Service

Its quite a shame for me to write something so angry after a long absence from the blogging world but at least this would let people know what really is going on, before more becomes a victim to this.

Its funny how the worse thing that can happen to you would be at the place where you will never even think of it to happen. I have heard of so many stories of people falling victims to sham based companies, never thought I would see the day that it would happen to me.

[Cover up operation?]

It all happened when I was going to pick up Miss Ave T and  Cereal at their workplace in KLCC, which is obviously the normal routine that I would do on an everyday basis. Since I came out from work a little late, it was getting kinda dark around KLCC and naturally, I parked at the side of KLCC that time to get the girls, since I didn't want them to start walking around the area at night. In less than 15 minutes, I walked out of the car, came and get the girls, came back out to the car and to my horror, the car was gone.

Knowing something must be wrong, I went around asking if they saw the car and one of the workers out there mentioned that the car was towed. Fuming mad by thinking that  KLCC UrusHarta have started doing rouge works like this, I stormed to the nearest taxi stand (the taxi guys with the car above) to get a taxi to the KLCC Urusharta office. It was then I was told that it was not them that towed the car, but the TAXI COMPANY THAT RUNS THE SERVICE IN KLCC.

[Just a taxi service?]

So I made my way with the girls to get to the bottom of this and on the ride to their office (which is in a deserted area in Jalan Stoner) I got a lowdown from the taxi man himself. It seems to be that this company, Awana Sutera Travel & Tours have been getting a lot of bad rep with the public over the recent months for masking other "businesses" with their taxi services around KLCC. So many people, fallen victim to them like me, have complained and tried to take action but to no avail. Best thing yet, they are known to hire gangsters to do their bidding around town (example of story here to get their monopoly on the taxi services).

[The alleged place]

Not wanting to believe in mere "heresay" stories, I came up to the office and wanted an explanation on why all this happened. Along the times that I argued my way through with the people, slowly one after the other the "men" started to surround us, looking at how we are handling the situation. From having no one at all at the place to suddenly having a few people surrounding our seats. I knew it was a shakedown and this was getting a little ugly. I asked the lady behind the counter (a fat old Malay lady who kept shouting at me the minute I started to win an argument) what would it take to get my car out, and she promptly replied "RM200 and to sign this letter, otherwise you're gonna have to stay here until you do".

[The only taxi service that tows your car as well!]

If many of you guys out there are wondering why they would want to get you to sign that letter so much, this would be the answer to it:

["when you sign this leter, you are not to press charges on the company for whatever reason what so ever because of what you have done"]

Now this comes to the interesting question, since when did companies like this are given the authority to impound cars, when even municipal councils no longer have the authority to do so? What amazes me that they blatantly convince those who were impounded to believe that they actually have the right to do so, seeing that most people would not know their rights out of panic in that particular situation. Most importantly, by using threats and gangsters are the way to go nowadays to get their business going?

I did my own research about this particular company and found so many horror stories about the company and the owner of the company, ranging from company fraud, underground maid agency fraud, and even its own brand of gangsterism in their business. Perhaps this latest "service" of theirs is the latest in line to their products. Albeit the fact that the company's taxi services have brought in much control and benefit for the public, this is truly used as a cover up for what they do behind the scene.

[Dato Sham Tom Ismail]

One of my main question is definitely to the owner of the company, who apparently "approves" of such tactics to be used under his name. As per my knowledge, the title "Datukship" is suppose to be given to those that have shown exemplary service to the public as well as contribution to the society of Malaysia. Is this the kind of action that is sanctioned by a man that holds the title, and the use of thugs, hooligans and gangsters as the means of their business?

Perhaps this would be a grim reminder to all that reads this as how a company, so publicly seen in the city, can misuse their place in business and claim authority over others, by simply using "armed muscle" to make sure that no one questions their actions. As per this incident, I truly hope that no one else would have to go through this "back alley" tactics as how I had to go through.

Despite what happened, I did get the last laugh in the battle of wits with the lady behind counter though:

fat lady: "Ni nak tulis RM200 tak? adik bayar RM180 nanti boleh claim RM20 extra.

me: "takpe makcik, saya taknak makan duit dengan cara tipu dan kenakan org lain."

And then, I just gave her a sneaky smile. She went nuts.

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