Gov't beefs up monitoring of foreign retirees in PH

[hk blues]

16 hours ago, Gas said:

I don't think locals or even foreigners love the idea of using a fixer.  

Someone picked up one of my vehicles for its yearly road worthy  inspection and registration at the LTO on Monday. On Wednesday he dropped of the paperwork and i paid him a small fee for his services. He is well known in our town and has a lot of customers.

I also used someone last week to apply for a license at the BIR  to print some more receipt booklets. Again I paid a small fee. 

Would you class them as a fixers or someone who is providing a service? 

 

It's not relevant to my point whether they are fixers or service providers.  The only point I was making was people here like to use the services of service providers/fixers when really not necessary IMO.  

 

 

 

[Gas]

21 hours ago, hk blues said:

It's not relevant to my point whether they are fixers or service providers.  The only point I was making was people here like to use the services of service providers/fixers when really not necessary IMO.  

 

 

 

Maybe old habits die hard and i agree things have improved a lot when dealing with governments agencies compared to the good/bad old days when without a bung it was virtually impossible to keep the wheels turning. 

However if say someone like myself didn't use service providers for certain things i would spend a good part of working life here dealing with time consuming things that could/can be done by somebody else for a small fee. I used my vehicle registration as a example as its a two day process where we live and as i register 3 work vehicles every year it would take 6 working days when i could be doing something more productive.

 

 

[Gas]

I am not a retiree but the police do come around every few weeks and ask for a picture of me standing next to one of their officers. Never really asked in detail what its about, as i know they are just obeying orders from someone higher up and i personally don't have a problem with it.

[hk blues]

49 minutes ago, Gas said:

Maybe old habits die hard and i agree things have improved a lot when dealing with governments agencies compared to the good/bad old days when without a bung it was virtually impossible to keep the wheels turning. 

However if say someone like myself didn't use service providers for certain things i would spend a good part of working life here dealing with time consuming things that could/can be done by somebody else for a small fee. I used my vehicle registration as a example as its a two day process where we live and as i register 3 work vehicles every year it would take 6 working days when i could be doing something more productive.

 

 

Yep, I get it that for many it's just more practical to pay someone a small fee to do a mundane and routine thing and that's cool but it's more the situation where that is the default choice regardless i.e. with the Annual Report for my neighbour where they paid a fixer/service provider to...uhmmm hold his hand when he went to BI to sign in as his personal appearance was required anyway?  

Where time is an issue but money not, I 100% get it but I'm more in the other camp!  

[GeoffH]

18 hours ago, Gas said:

I used my vehicle registration as a example as its a two day process where we live and as i register 3 work vehicles every year it would take 6 working days when i could be doing something more productive.

SMWBO papa was a taxi driver until recently (the income of taxi drivers crashed during the pandemic) and he has always organized the vehicle cleaning, change oil, repairs, smoke test and helps with the LTO.  

He takes pride in getting it done well and not wasting the family money which comes in useful so I sort of get the best of both world... a 'fixer' and I don't have to pay (ok... a bottle of red horse haha).

[Dave Hounddriver]

1 hour ago, GeoffH said:

a 'fixer' and I don't have to pay

Your experience is different from mine.  Whenever a family member has done anything for me, I get the speech: "You would pay all that money to a stranger and this is family so he should get the same plus more to show appreciation!"

[Onemore52]

2 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Your experience is different from mine.  Whenever a family member has done anything for me, I get the speech: "You would pay all that money to a stranger and this is family so he should get the same plus more to show appreciation!"

Seriously?

[Dave Hounddriver]

21 minutes ago, Onemore52 said:

Seriously?

Yes, and I kind of agree with it.  Example:  We hired some local yokels to do some work around the house a couple of years back and they dragged it out and did a horrid job so I was forced to fire them.  I ask my Lyn who we could get who would finish a job that an idiot started and then left.  She said her brother would do it but I should give him a little extra as most Filipino don't like to finish someone else's messy job.  I agreed and he got a few pesos more.

In another example, I had an ex's brother working on my car.  He did a great job but he dragged it out so I had to fire him.  He also was getting a few peso's extra but it went the other way.  He got all entitled on me and dragged the job out forever.  To his credit, as soon as I let him go he went back to his old job and they were so happy to have him back they paid him double what I was paying him.  He really was a good worker and he really thought he was doing me a favor.  But they drag it out so long.

[Onemore52]

After 2 years away I came home to find both vehicles in disrepair, to put it in common speak both cars have been driven without any thought to servicing them ( the Mazda 3 on inspection has both the rear shockers shot, Both front shockers with bushings gone, numerous problems with the front end suspension). My vehicle the Nissan twin cab has oil that looks like treacle, with noises coming from the suspension as well.

Now for me to get to the point:

I realised before I left that I was paying a “Gift tax” to the mechanics who did work on both vehicles for servicing, so this time my partner recommended that we ask my partners godson if he knew someone that could get both vehicles back to spec. So he went to his friend and got him to have a look at the Mazda first and came back with a price of 22k for parts alone.

But there’s more to this sorry tale. Another family member advised my partner to call the godson and explain that I am and tired of paying a the gift tax and that if he wants more business from me then he shouldn’t load the bill for the parts and especially the Labor cost of the job, my partner also has demanded a full itemised list of the account.

I guess we are fair game for everyone to take the piss.

[Onemore52]

10 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

Yes, and I kind of agree with it.  Example:  We hired some local yokels to do some work around the house a couple of years back and they dragged it out and did a horrid job so I was forced to fire them.  I ask my Lyn who we could get who would finish a job that an idiot started and then left.  She said her brother would do it but I should give him a little extra as most Filipino don't like to finish someone else's messy job.  I agreed and he got a few pesos more.

In another example, I had an ex's brother working on my car.  He did a great job but he dragged it out so I had to fire him.  He also was getting a few peso's extra but it went the other way.  He got all entitled on me and dragged the job out forever.  To his credit, as soon as I let him go he went back to his old job and they were so happy to have him back they paid him double what I was paying him.  He really was a good worker and he really thought he was doing me a favor.  But they drag it out so long.

Yes been there done that, when we were getting our house built, but in our case we tendered the job out and gave it to a relative, which meant didly to him, halfway through the job he left for a better paying job elsewhere, which fell through after a couple of weeks. He seemed surprised that when he came back we wouldn’t employ him on the site.