Reply from HKIA's Passenger Services Dept dated 31st March 2011

After waiting for more than 2 weeks.... (How efficient and detailed they are going in... ;p)

Here is their reply...


Dear Ms. Chu,



Thank you for sharing your feedback with us on wheelchair services you noticed during your stay at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). Upon receiving your comment, we have immediately followed it up and it is subsequently confirmed that the service is provided by our licensee, Worldwide Flight Services (WFS).

According to your information and the investigation report from WFS we gathered, WFS responded that the passenger had offered tips to the wheelchair staff but was politely refused by the staff involved. As stipulated in the Licence Agreement with WFS, solicitation of tips for the services provided to passengers is strictly prohibited. To ensure such service performance standard is well maintained during the service delivery, WFS have been requested to step up their trainings/ briefings on customer services as well as the ethical awareness on solicitation of tips and the Authority shall continue conducting audit checks regularly.


In addition, all pre-ordered wheelchair passengers at departure gate 47 you mentioned had already been assisted by WFS for boarding around 1900 hrs on 6 Mar 2011.


Once again, we thank you again for bringing the matter to our attention.



Yours sincerely,

Irene Chan
Assistant General Manager
Terminal 1 Department
Airport Authority

My reply to HKIA and HKTB

This is my reply from them after I received their email dated 11th March...

I replied them on the same day itself....

Sorry for not providing the full detail on this.



I just know that they are departing at gate 47 at 1900 at 06th March 2011.

Reply from HKIA and HKTB dated 11th March 2011

HKIA = Hong Kong International Airport
HKTB = Hong Kong Tourism Board

Below is the replied from them..

Dear Ms Chu,


Thank you for your email. Please rest assured we are most concerned about your comment on wheelchair staff accepted tips from passenger. As there are different wheelchair service providers in the airport, to let us understand more about the matter, we would be grateful if you could advise us the airline that the old lady travelled with, a brief description of the staff concerned and her uniform colour. Your additional information may facilitate our follow up with relevant service provider. Should you have any queries, please feel free to contact us.

Once again, thank you for writing to us.


Yours sincerely,


Customer Service


Hong Kong International Airport


c.c. Hong Kong Tourism Board (Case Ref No. FEED-VRSUP3-20110310-0226575)

Ethics - To tips o not to?

It has been a long time I din update this blog....

I din think up putting this issue up here BUT the reply from Hong Kong International Airport's personnel had changed my mind....

Here is what I sent to the Hong Kong International Airport board and to the Hong Kong tourism board...

The issue below was happening around 1815 at 6th March 2011 near gate 47 at Hong Kong International Airport Terminal 1.

I came across this incident when I was in the queue to get free internet access…. There were one old lady on wheel chair and few (I think there is a total of four of them) old buddies who is not strong physically and need assistant who need to depart at gate 47 which is so far far far far far away from the main gate. When I saw them, they were assisted by the airport crew. One lady helped push the old lady who is on wheel chair and the others were on the cart, heading to gate 47.

Well…. After dropping off them on ground, the old buddies offer some tips to the crew. The crews accepted it and treat it as "coffee money"… After that, the crew who should help them on board accept a call from the counter and need to rush back and she wants to give back the tips she had receive to the old buddies. What is this la…. Of course the old buddies say no to her and say never mind la…. She apologized and went off and says there will be another crew to come over to handle them…. @@

I was not sure whether there is another crew member coming over to take over her place or not. What my concern were…..

(1) Is there anyone coming over to assist them?
(2) If there is someone coming over to assist them, should they pay him/her tips?
(3) Are the old buddies suppose to give tips to the crew?
(4) Should the crew members accept the tips?
(5) If the crew is accepting the tips, what is the main purpose of setting up this service?
(6) If the crew is accepting the tips, do they still get their monthly pay?
(7) If the crew is accepting the tips, should they get their monthly pay?

I just cannot get the whole idea of this. When I first saw them helping the old buddies, I was amazed and was touched with such a high quality service provided by the HK airport. p/s: I had send another copy to the tourism board.

Thank you Mr Lee from Sin Chew Daily...

I sent an email to the Cyber World of Sin Chew Daily and Mr Lee Yoke Loong（李昱龍）replied my email…

Mr Lee is the head of the Cyber World...

After communicating with him, he told me that it’s unfair if he is advertising my blog and not the whole course-mates' blog…

Anyways, he told me that he will be touching on toilet blog and will see whether he can do anything about it or not…

His column is under 副刊,《新媒體》...

副刊《新媒體》will be publish every Wednesday…

He told me to check out the latest 副刊《新媒體》 and I found that he had published out my URL on 18th March 2009…

Thank you Mr Lee for your kindness…

Please logon to here to the ‘internet version’ of the article and my URL is right below….

Photos below are the hardcopy which I bought on that day…. (Means the newspaper itself.. )

Find from here....

See this...

Read it.. If you understand chinese....

My URL is right below...

I did the photoshop to try to emphasize on it but failed to load it.....

So, open your eye big big to see if possible… if not go to the 'internet version' one here... :)

hehe......

Reply FROM MPPP...

MPPP = Majlis Perbandaran Pulau Pinang = Penang’s Council

I had sent out an email to the Tourism Penang and also to the Malaysia Airport Holding and both parties are not replying me…

Our advisory, Dr Reevany would like us to do 3 tasks together for this project.

Since they are not replying me, my course-mates and I decided to send in mail again to the Tourism Penang.

However, I managed to found the MPPP’s director and secretary 's email address and I am also sending it to China Press and The Star.

Below is the mail I send over and we planed to have everyone to send one over and since they are replying, I think non of my course-mates did send over the mail.


To everyone who receive this email,

I am Sophia Chu here and I am a student from USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia), majoring in anthropology and sociology and I am currently taking SAU216/E (Globalization, Cyber Culture and Future Studies) which is a subject under School of Social Sciences and the lecturer of this subject is Dr Reevany Bustami which is also the Deputy Dean of the school.

I am working on an assignment on a topic of public toilets in commercial buildings and posting all on a blog and this can link you to the blog.

The main purpose of creating that blog and writing this email is to help to create the society awareness on how to use a public toilet in a correct way and how the management of the commercial buildings can actually do something to keep the toilet clean and have a toilet which is friendly to everyone and not only to those who are capable.

I had sent a letter to Malaysia Airport Holding Bhd and also to the tourism of Penang and they seems like not to bother me and they are not even replying me!!!

I need you guys to do me a favour by forwarding this mail to the email address that I have listed below and I trust that there will be a strong force to awake them and they have to do something on it. Do write your comment as well when you are forwarding it.

Let’s together send this mail to aduan@mppp.gov.my and enquiries@tourismpenang.gov.my, enews@chinapress.com.my and editor@thestar.com.my and cc a copy to me and to zainalrahim@mppp.gov.my (Dato’ Zainal Rahim b. Seman, president of MPPP), tancchui@mppp.gov.my (Sr. Tan Cheng Chui, Municipal Secretary of MPPP), .

My photos that attached are all on toilets at Bayan Lepas International Airport and it is an international airport and though the facilities and cleanliness of the toilet is not even 3 star. Do remind all of you that there will be so many tourists coming in through this airport and if the toilet is not clean, will you, as a Malaysians ashamed of it??? Don’t you feel shameful if you have a friend from another country telling you how dirty is the toilet in Bayan Lepas International Airport???

They do have toilets for the OKU (Orang Kelainan Upaya) or better known as people with disabilities. But, this does not fit the criteria for an OKU user. The hook is so high and there’s only one aluminium bar. Didn’t they stand at the one who is sitting on a wheelchair's situation and think of that matter? The OKU’s toilet is not just for the old folks but also for the one who is sitting on the wheelchair, those who have injured on leg and for those who really need it!!

Besides that, the tissue is everywhere, on the toilet bowl (not flushing it down), on the dustbin (NOT IN BUT ON) and water stain is everywhere. I am afraid that someone might slipped because the colour of the tar will not aware us on that. O ya.. The rag had become one of the displays in the toilet. How creative the management is!!

Tissues that provide us to clean our hand is not proper too. They seem like putting on the toilet roll. Has the economy crisis affect Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd and they have not enough money to even change the dustbin in the toilet (they are using a cardboard to hold the dustbin) and provide a proper type of toilet roll and to have a proper place to place the toilet paper and not just put it on there???

When I was using the toilet, I was holding my camera phone and snapping the entire toilet. The cleaning lady was shock to see me doing so especially when I opened one of the cabins which is full of tissues on the toilet bowl and on the dustbin.

She feels like threatening me and this is what she said and she assume I understand BM. (I do understand BM but I didn’t reply her.)

‘Tandas itu masalah sikit. Memang macam tu.’

Bermasalah sikit and you can just ignore it????

Well, look at the photos and judge yourself.

-- Sophia Chu
weblog:http://thinkandacttoachieve.blogspot.com/

An OKU toilet which is out of order.

A space beside the dustbin is now a store room.

Aluminium bar is not enough if there's only ONE and no place for the toilet rools or that space is meant for toilet roll.

Footprint in the OKU toilet.

Hook must have 2 if you are putting it so high OKU people cannot reach it.

Malaysia Airport Holding has no more money to get the suitable type of roll to fit in it and YOU have to use a cardboard to hold the dustbin.

Shouldn't a place for the user to keep their belongings is necessary as this is an airport.

The rag is another display in the toilet.

Tissues are everywhere and the cleaning lady is inside the toilet and she is not doing anything until she saw I snap it down.

Tissues on dustbin and I think that's the mark after washing (on the floor).

Water stain. Someone might slip over if they are not aware of it as the tar colour will not alert us on this.




This is the reply I got from Sr. Tan

Sophia Chu,

Just to update you of the progress of your feedbacks.

Regards,

Tan Cheng Chui


Tuan SU,

For your info, MAB has been invited as one of the committee members is the cleanliness campaign I am chairing.
The airport toilets condition & maintenance is a permanent item we discussed. Latest feedback from MAB in the last
meeting on 23.2.2009 was that they have completed the toilet upgrading works and a new cleaning contractor was appointed.
Representatives from MATTA & MAHA also confirmed they have received favourable response from the tourists that the
condition of the airport toilets has improved. I will pass the latest feedback from your goodself and also Sophia to MAB.

On the other note, based on instruction from YB Chow, we have tentatively blocked 14.3.2009 for YAB CM to launch the
cleanliness program at Batu Ferringhi. I will be preparing an official invitation letter for you to sign to be forwarded CM. TQ.

Goh




From: Tan Cheng Chui
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 8:05 AM
To: Dr. Goh Kok Yeong; Ibrahim Bin Mohamad @ Mohd; Patrick Khoo Poh Aik; Riduan Merican Bin A A Merican
Subject: FW: Please look on this matter and so something. (Do help to forward)

Bolehkah kita buat satu sesi perbincangan untuk menangani kebersihan tandas Lapangan Terbang Pulau Pinang.
Aduan ini berasas. Saya baru balik dari S'pura dan saya amat terperanjat dengan keadaan/tahap kebersihan.
Dr Goh boleh selaraskan sesi ini.

SU