Monday, January 31, 2005

What's in a name?

1. sounds nice by itself and sounds even better when put together with our family name
2. doesn't have a negative meaning or history to it, and
3. doesn't remind us of anyone we would not like to be reminded of (and mind you, a lot of good names have been rejected thus)

Needless to say, the most popular question I've been getting asked recently is, yes you guessed it, "What are you gonna name your baby?" Admittedly, right now, it would be an awful lot easier to answer what we're not gonna name our baby. But hey, I'm not losing hope. I know we're not far from nailing that elusive perfect name.

Friday, January 28, 2005

Rocking the boat

January 2004

A classic example of curiosity killing the cat. A friend from work was looking for a new gym and he wanted to check out the gym 2 floors below our office. So him, me and another officemate stepped out and took a quick trip to the 8th floor. I wasn't even interested in signing up for membership. I went only because I was curious to see what their facilities were like. Of course, I didn't know I was about to meet the most convincing salesman (a.k.a. membership consultant) who can make me sign up for a 2100 a month membership on the spot. I don't usually get duped by salespeople but this one made me an offer I could not refuse. Well not really. In retrospect, I COULD have refused but he promised he would personally transfer my membership if I ever changed my mind about it. So I was like, "Hey, what have I got to lose?” As it turns out later, A LOT.

March 2004

3 months of membership and I haven't even used the gym once. So I gave Mr. Membership Consultant (Mr. MC) a call and I asked him to transfer my membership. A couple of days later, he gave me a call at the office and informed me that (1) he has already transferred my membership and (2) they would stop billing me starting April. Great! Thank you, Mr. MC! End of conversation. Or at least it should’ve been.

April - June 2004

I signed up for my company's fitness program and started going to this other gym. If one would compare my new gym to Fitness First, it would not fare very well. It was smaller, not as hi-tech, had a very limited number of equipment, and provided only a limited variety of classes. It was also several blocks away from the office so getting there itself was a work out. But I still chose to go there for one good reason: I didn't have to pay them a single centavo. No more 2100 a month for me. Anyway, I went there religiously and may I note that I lost a reasonable amount of weight (hey, isn't that the number reason people go to the gym in the first place).

August 2004

So imagine my shock when I saw this come in. That line is no stranger to my previous credit card statements but I didn't think too much of them at first - I thought Fitness First's posting must have been delayed or something. But when I saw the same on my Aug statement, I knew something was amiss. I knew right there and then that they've been overcharging me. A more thorough review of all my previous statements confirmed this, so I gave the 8th floor folks a visit. I wanted my money back.

Things that followed, in chronological order:

1. FF: Mr. MC has resigned. Do you remember to whom the membership was transferred.
   Carla: No. He didn' tell me and I didn't ask.
   FF: Did you sign a transfer form.
   Carla: No. I didn't know I had to.
2. FF: Ma'am, we will look for the record of transfer.
3. FF: Ma'am, we've gone through all the files but can't find it.
   Carla: You probably won't find it. I doubt it even exists. What else can we do about the situation?
   FF: Pls write a formal letter of complaint and we'll set a meeting between you and our manager (GM). In the meantime, we will stop billing you.
   Carla (only not out loud haha): Yeah, and I guess you're expecting me to thank you.
4. GM: You'll need a written statement from Mr. MC. We'll try to contact him and get it for you.

September - December 2004

Why Fitness First is a sorry excuse for a gym:

1. They might as well have an answering machine that says "Ma'am the person you are looking for is in a meeting", "Ma'am the person is out right now", or "Ma'am the person is at our company party". It is close to impossible to get an update from them. It's hard to reach them and you can forget about getting a return call.
2. It took them 4 months to track down Mr. MC's residence, and when they finally did, they couldn't even manage to get his new contact number. Well I know why it took them so long - They were not persistent, not sincere about wanting to help and doing everything they can to do so.
   
   And now, the mother of all reasons why FF is a sorry excuse for a gym
   
   
3. Their lady admin managed to speak to Mr. MC himself some time September. I believe he paid them a visit to get his final pay. He told lady admin that he has indeed transferred my account but he can't remember to whom. She asked him to come back later to formalize his statement and guess what, he never did. Surprising isn’t it? Not. On top of that, I have another lady employee saying she remembers Mr. MC transferring my account. She goes on to say she is certain and cannot be mistaken.
   SO WHY ARE STILL THEY REFUSING TO GIVE ME MY MONEY BACK? What more do they want from me? What more do they need? One would think all those "eyewitness" accounts would be enough for me to get my money. Not enough for them apparently.

I should mention that I know of other people who have had terrible experiences with this gym. Some of them, just like me, are still going after the gym for a resolution to their own cases. Under normal circumstances, it’s nice to find out you are not alone. But in this case, it wasn’t nice for me at all. Finding out there were more of us only made me sicker to my stomach.

January 2005

Still waiting for the long due statement from Mr. MC. The last person from FF who was trying to get his statement in writing has already resigned but not before giving me Mr. MC's address. I asked the admin if she could go to Mr. MC's to get his statement in writing. In the spirit of customer service she told me she was not allowed to. Her manager (remember GM from August?) won't let her. So what is one to do when faced with such an incredibly ridiculous situation? I don't know if what I did was incredibly stupid but back then I felt I had no other choice. They weren't doing anything about my case so I had to take matters into my own hands. So I went to Mr. MC's residence myself to try to get him to sign a written statement. Unfortunately, he wasn't home but his brother was, and he called Mr. MC on his new cel number. I spoke to Mr. MC and boy was he mad when he learned of how I managed to get his address. On a sidenote, I understand where he was coming from. Anyway, he promised me he would send me the letter via fax. It never came.

I also tried to get a written statement from my other eyewitness. She was nice and told me she would fax me a written statement. Sadly, nice as she was, that never happened too. So I went back to the admin, asked for my witness's address and got it. This time I didn't even bother asking if she could go there for me. Anyway, I went to the address and just as fate would have it, my witness wasn't home. But her parents were and I left the letter for their daughter's signature. Well today morning I got a call back from my witness and she was really mad at the admin for giving me her address. And just like with Mr. MC, I understood where she was coming from. Talk about deja-vous. Anyway, she told me she would get back to me once she has made up her mind about the letter.

What Now

So here I am, still waiting for that letter. I am hoping to get it to add to my list of supporting documents which already includes the following: (1) a letter from my employer certifying my membership with the other gym, (2) a letter from the other gym with my attendance record attached, and (3) a letter from the admin narrating her conversation with Mr. MC. Not a lot, but better than nothing. I’m going to get them notarized and I’ll be attaching them to my affidavit and formal letter of complaint. I’ll be forwarding everything to the following: (1) Fitness First Makati, (2) their main office, (3) my credit card company, (4) DTI, (5) Bureau of Consumer Protection, and (6) the media. I don’t even care if I end up spending more than the amount I’ve been asking them to return to me. I guess this is my way of saying “I'm tired of not rocking the boat. I am going to do something about this. AND YOU ARE NOT GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!”

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

I miss the man

It's 12:01 a.m. and all I can think of right now is how much I miss my husband.

I am 31 weeks along and I could feel our baby moving for quite some time now. Aside from myself, only 3 other people have felt our baby work out those little arms and legs - my mom, a lady doctor from the immigration, and a girlfriend. For some reason, little angel is most active just before I go to bed at night. For the most part of the day however, she is... well... asleep.

Like most if not all moms, I always feel a tremendous rush of joy whenever I get to experience something new with our baby. But what may be unique to me is that the rush is soon followed by pangs of sadness. The reason: I would always wish that Jay-ar was here to share in every new experience.

If I were to list the top 3 most-exciting-baby-moments-so-far, I'd say they are:

• hearing her heartbeat for the first time
• feeling her move for the first time, and
• finding out our baby is a girl.
  On a sidenote, I wasn't hoping for a boy or girl in particular. It just felt awesome to know we can finally refer to her as "she" versus "he/she" or "the baby". Not to mention it made shopping a breeze.

Consequently, not being able to share them first hand with Jay-ar also makes them most heart wrenching. Bittersweet.

I've already done some shopping in preparation for our baby's arrival. My mom has been great and she always accompanied me in my sprees. I still have several items (like 20 items several) to scratch off my list, and I need to get that done before my tummy gets too big for me to walk around the mall. I know my mom will be there to help pick out the good buys and to restrain me from any impulse buying. Still, I'd give anything for baby's mommy and daddy to be doing the shopping together. Now let me say for the record that I love my mom, I appreciate everything she is doing, and I enjoy spending time with her. It's just that I've always pictured such moments differently, especially for the first baby. After all, you get to have the first baby... well... only once.

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Jay-ar, I miss you so much. I wish you were here to share in all the special moments first hand.

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