FastFood Idiot

No more than an hour ago, I lined up on queue Mc Donald's outlet at the PeopleSupport Center in Ayala, Makati for a quick bite. It was my lunch break, but it was very early in the morning as I am on the graveyard shift. I know I don't dress up for work and usually only come as I would if I'm just strolling in a mall, but I don't think I look that bad to be discriminated upon.

The soonest I got up next to the counter, the two crews smiled on me and asked what I wanted to have. As I was on the phone with my wife, I quickly told them I want their Cheeseburger Value Meal with an upgrade to large fries. The cashier sort of mirrored to me what I ordered but I didn't hear it the first time, so I said goodbye to my wife on the other end and verified with them what they were trying to tell me.

"Are you sure you want to have Cheeseburger Value Meal and not Burger McDo (which is of lesser value) instead?", one of the crews said, still flashing a seemingly painted on smile.

"You heard me right the first time", I said thinking they may be only offering it as they are maybe having a promotion with that Value Meal, "--I want Cheeseburger Value Meal with large fries and regular Coke."

Ever smiling, the other crew asked me again, "Are you sure you want large fries and not regular fries instead?", which ticked me right off. I demanded to speak to a supervisor or a manager, upon which they both have profusely began apologize to me.

"I don't know what's on both your minds or if you're insulting me", I said, "but let me just educate you that it is rude to offer a customer to downgrade from what they have originally ordered. If I were your supervisor, I would have terminated you from your job right there and then."

I'm not really the kind who discriminate on people, as we have been taught by our parents when we were young to be respectful of every single person we meet. Those people like the fast food crews from hell I just dealt with simply just makes me wonder what kind of parents they have had to have grown that way. Their parents couldn't have been any better, I think. It couldn't possibly for a reason that they were raised in a poor environment, as I have met people raised in slums but with utter respect towards others unlike these two.

This is not to rant because I have been insulted, I merely am just showing how people can be unwittingly rude because of their stupidity. Definitely, such a practice of offering a downgrade from what the customer originally asked is a big no-no in sales, even with food vendors that do have customers coming to them willingly. And, yes, even if they are as popular as Mc Donald's. This makes me wonder if these crews have been trained at all.

Similar thing happened to me with Jollibee in Farmer's Cubao some months ago. We were on our way home from visiting a relative in Laguna and decided to stop by in Cubao as it was already late to cook for dinner when we get home.

We ordered for two two-piece chicken meals with upsize Cokes. To our surprise, the cashier asked us-- "Do you want to have Sarsi instead (which is a cheaper cola drink), for you to make some savings?" I explained to then, apologetically even, that we both don't like the taste of Sarsi and confirmed with them I want to have Cokes with the meals. That said and done, they have issued us the receipt and they prepared our orders while waiting at the counter.

When they finally handed us our meals, we even thanked them as we're about to go to our table. As a habit, I normally first take a sip on a drink before having my first bite. I noticed the drink tasted different, so I took out the receipt to check on the drinks billed. It was, much to our dismay, a Sarsi. I hurried back to the counter and excused myself to the customer the cashier was attending to. I gave her the drinks and told her I did reiterate myself we wanted Coke and not Sarsi, then asked for her explanation why we ended up being served with Sarsi.

"Sir," she said, "we have billed you already for Sarsi, so we can't change it for you. We only did that because we though you may want to save some money."

I was fuming mad already, so I said, "Are you insulting me? And what right have you got to switch my preferences on me without informing me about it? Where is your supervisor?"
"Sir, she's on a meeting right now, I'm sorry," she said almost with teary eyes. "It will be taken against my pay if we change your drinks to Coke, sir, so if you please have pity."

"Well, to begin with, if you were not stupid enough to mess up my order, I wouldn't be demanding for you to change it back to what I wanted. I only will go if you change it to Coke. Or if you don't want to pay for it, get me your supervisor."

"Sir, we're not allowed to get our supervisor for such a petty complain," she retorted.

"You call insulting a customer a petty complain? It could cost you your job!", I was beginning to feel pity for her at this point. I paused for sometime to get composed. Indeed it may cost her the job if I push through with the complaint. Pulling myself together, I told her-- "Okay, let me pay for large Cokes and you go to hell with these drinks you have given us. But learn from this, you idiot-- do not discriminate your customers for they may be earning far more than even your manager on this site."

I did write Jollibee customer service about that incident, but they responded I need to provide them the official receipt, which I no longer have.

All in all, these things happened because they thought I could not afford to have those upgrades. Basically it is discrimination and maybe due to that I have darker skin tone than many here in Metro Manila. I could take indirect discrimination but not something as in-your-face as this. This strengthens further my observation that Filipinos are getting more and more stupid.

PROOFS THAT FILIPINOS ARE GETTING MORE STUPID Part I

A few days ago, me and my wife are in Quiapo to buy pirated DVDs for our planned DVD marathon, since it was my restday. We normally just go for pirated DVDs and buy original compies if we end up liking the movie. It is a different story though with CDs, as I would prefer to buy original copies or download legally from the internet. We thought it was a novelty when we saw a stall selling full albums in micro-CDs only. So, we entered the stall and looked for artist that may be of interest. As it ususally goes, a saleslady approached to offer us assistance. "Ano'ng hanap nyo, sir? (What are you looking for, sir?)" I answered I'm interested in some electronic dance music like house or trance. The lady replied, "Meron kami dito, sir, Bob Marley (We have Bob Marley over here, sir)." Me and my wife chuckled, as we perfectly know that aside from the Club Remix of Sun Is Shining, Bob Marley has got nothing to do with dance music. I retorted to the lady exactly that information and further informed her that Bob Marley's music is called reggae, not electronic music. I also added that I wouldn't be much interested into Bob Marley as I already have most of his songs and that he has long been dead. Aghast, the saleslady said in Filipino- "What? Bob Marley is dead? Since when? Oh God, he is really a good singer!" We hurriedly left the stall. The lady even has dread locks and rasta-style shirt and hat on.

2- We live inside University of the Philippines campus (our landlady is a distant relative who is a university employee), so usually on my way home I get to ride jeepneys full of university students. The University of the Philippines is considered the county's premier higher education institution where the brightest of minds come to learn. One afternoon, I happen to be on a jeepney when a group of Korean tourists boarded accompanied by two university students. They must be giving the foreigners a tour, with the students, looking all smart and nerdy, giving them infos about the various places in the campus. Apparently, the ride was sort of a quick preview as they still will be given a tour of the campus on foot. When the jeepney stopped near the famous sunken garden to unload some passengers. One of the students took the opportunity to inform the tourists about it, and in full American accent said proudly-- "That is the UP Sunken Garden, it oftentimes is the venue for concerts or fairs held by the university. One quick fact about it-- it is called the Sunken Garden because it has been sinking for an average of a foot each year." I nearly fell off my seat upon hearing it. I mean, it could be sinking by the meters but certainly it wouldn't be called sunken garden because of that fact. Sunken gardens of course are an economical provision for a sort of open-air stadium and has been used from way back in history. We have a sunken garden in our university back in our province in Bicol and I know of at least ten more with their own sunken gardens, and then there are the famous sunken gardens like that in San Antonio in Texas, the one in UWA in Australia, there is one in the Olympic Green in Beijing, there are a few in New york, and many more. If they have been called sunken gardens because they are sinking, as the UP student claims, this should have been a phenomena worth of investigation by geologists. Apparently, the student from the premier university is dumb enough not to know this. I also have lived inside the campus for more than ten years and there is no indication it has sunk at least five feet.

3- Like most here in Metro Manila, I use the public transportation system to and from work, and it is air conditioned buses I mostly prefer. Due to the nature of my job, my schedules sometimes leave me with very little sleep and I use the opportunity to take a nap on the bus ride home. I do need to feel comfortable, that's the reason I choose to ride airconditioned buses, but usually I turn off the vent as it makes me hard to get some sleep. And then there are some stupid Filipinos who couldn't figure out how to turn off the vent and just direct it somewhere else, and worse they could direct it right in somebody's head. It happens every day and not just once but at leat three to four in every bus I get to ride everyday. I mean how simple could it be to figure that the know in the center of the vent is a way to regulate the flow of cold air on the vent. They were able to figure out how to redirect the vent, didn't they? Could it be that they really know how to turn it of and simply opted to just direct the vent to others? That's really idiotic. Don't they respect other people? Even to ask somebody if they want your aircon vent directed to them is idiotic, what more if you direct it to them without their permission? It's not rude, it's stupid. Any normal human being would know that you don't do to others what you don't want other do unto you. That's a basic ethical knowledge called the golden rule and regardless of race or religion every human being should know it. Are Filipinos really that stupid to not know about this?

That's it for the moment. I still have a few more proofs and am gathering more and I will be sure to post them here. If you are a Filipino, get a life or better yet some education! If you are from another country or another race, get as far away as you can from a Filipino or from the Philippines.