Q.
I have been cheated by a driving instructor! How can I prevent another incident like this?
A.
A.
This is called 'Breaking away from a Profesional Block'. This article is written because "You can be cheated by a professional!"
How?
From the film by Jack Neo, "Just Follow Law - 2007" on who is a professional?
- A professional is one who get paid for a job; (工照做) or (工照常做)
- does the job in his best capability; (尽量做)
- be paid a handsome fee whatsoever he claims to be worthy of the job; and (钱照收) or (钱照常收)
- yet, he does not guarantee the job can be delivered! (没包好!) or (没确定好!)
Be it lawyers, doctors or driving instructors or even estate agents, each group exists to protect themselves from their common threats. Over and above, to exercise their influence over every other things!
For example, a lawyer who is clogging a case: when the client complain to another lawyer, the same legal professional will protect its own kind. And, yet charge a fee for protecting his colleague! Rarely, you could get one to point finger at another! It is never good for biz!
Same with a doctor. If a patient were to refer to another doctor, the medical opinion will be bias to protect himself and the colleague. It would be difficult to get one lawyer or doctor to go against his or her own kind. Again, it is mainly because the act of being impartial is bad for biz. That job should be left to the authorities. But again, the birds of a feather flock together. Probably they are of the same 'moral value'!
I recently had an experience with a driving instructor who kept on postponing the lessons. He could drag on for days and weeks even upon reminded many times. He was lazy and reluctantly conducted his lessons. All sort of excuses like - your area is very jam lah, I'm caught up in another matter lah, mis-hap lah...
So we terminated him without completing the whole package to final test. Thereafter, we looked for another instructor, and the new guy said he would charge the package with special discount. What a consolation, I thought!
It turned out to be just RM50 cheaper than the previous guy - RM1,400. In spite of the fact that the previous instructor had progressed to a third of the process (L license), the new instructor still wanted to collect the whole fee!
Well, you might say, yes it is a whole process again. But, is there any guarantee that this new instructor would be on time and complete the whole lesson? This is an unknown.
In fact, the instructor only follow instruction. He is collecting the fees on behalf of his School! The driving school is the one which demands a minimum RM500 fee payment for each and every new student enrolled in that school! When you switch school, this fee is to be paid to the new school despite you having paid to the previous school!
This is a Professional Block! The instructors themselves come together and set up the school. They themselves are the school teachers. Then, as you are enrolled in their school, they get a cut from your school fee! Over and above, you still need to pay your tuition fee and it is termed their 'professional fee'.
So all in all, a driving lesson all added up to RM1,500! During earlier days, it was only RM450! Of course, with inflation over the years and improvement in the profession, we should expect some adjustment. But, now it is exorbitant!
Now, the tuition fee (say 500 still remains as 500) plus School Fee (500) plus Application for Exam fee (500) all add-in to be RM1,500 to RM1,600 depending on which School/Instructor you go to!
For example, a lawyer who is clogging a case: when the client complain to another lawyer, the same legal professional will protect its own kind. And, yet charge a fee for protecting his colleague! Rarely, you could get one to point finger at another! It is never good for biz!
Same with a doctor. If a patient were to refer to another doctor, the medical opinion will be bias to protect himself and the colleague. It would be difficult to get one lawyer or doctor to go against his or her own kind. Again, it is mainly because the act of being impartial is bad for biz. That job should be left to the authorities. But again, the birds of a feather flock together. Probably they are of the same 'moral value'!
I recently had an experience with a driving instructor who kept on postponing the lessons. He could drag on for days and weeks even upon reminded many times. He was lazy and reluctantly conducted his lessons. All sort of excuses like - your area is very jam lah, I'm caught up in another matter lah, mis-hap lah...
So we terminated him without completing the whole package to final test. Thereafter, we looked for another instructor, and the new guy said he would charge the package with special discount. What a consolation, I thought!
It turned out to be just RM50 cheaper than the previous guy - RM1,400. In spite of the fact that the previous instructor had progressed to a third of the process (L license), the new instructor still wanted to collect the whole fee!
Well, you might say, yes it is a whole process again. But, is there any guarantee that this new instructor would be on time and complete the whole lesson? This is an unknown.
In fact, the instructor only follow instruction. He is collecting the fees on behalf of his School! The driving school is the one which demands a minimum RM500 fee payment for each and every new student enrolled in that school! When you switch school, this fee is to be paid to the new school despite you having paid to the previous school!
This is a Professional Block! The instructors themselves come together and set up the school. They themselves are the school teachers. Then, as you are enrolled in their school, they get a cut from your school fee! Over and above, you still need to pay your tuition fee and it is termed their 'professional fee'.
So all in all, a driving lesson all added up to RM1,500! During earlier days, it was only RM450! Of course, with inflation over the years and improvement in the profession, we should expect some adjustment. But, now it is exorbitant!
Now, the tuition fee (say 500 still remains as 500) plus School Fee (500) plus Application for Exam fee (500) all add-in to be RM1,500 to RM1,600 depending on which School/Instructor you go to!
We normally look for good recommendation from friends for things like this, contractors, tutor, and all sort of things. We ask around, right?
Yet, the lousy instructor was referred to me because he is a close friend's brother. What else can you reference to? Report to the authority to take action? Money had been paid! That cannot be refunded!
So, there is no one way that is certain for public to get a good reference on who's who on a short course like this. No one contractor or tutor or driving instructor or even a lawyer or doctor is reliable!
Yet, the lousy instructor was referred to me because he is a close friend's brother. What else can you reference to? Report to the authority to take action? Money had been paid! That cannot be refunded!
So, there is no one way that is certain for public to get a good reference on who's who on a short course like this. No one contractor or tutor or driving instructor or even a lawyer or doctor is reliable!
How to overcome this problem?
There should be a repository to capture the information and thus, be able to give a certain kind of assurance to whoever is claiming to be good in providing the service. This is like the hotel sites, booking.com or the like. Customers can rate the service or the room, and future customers can make a more objective decision!
So, it is time to come out with this type of data server to empower consumers to rate the services provided by the agents - be it driving instructor, contractor, tutor or just anyone who claims to be good, and protect the abuse of the name 'professionals'!
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