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SCMP Reporter

The column for anyone fed up with bureaucracy, frustrated with delays or furious with poor service. Tell us your complaint and we'll try to fix it...

When reader Chan Kwok-bun's 1980 vintage Alfa Romeo broke down in the Central Harbour Tunnel  on November 29 last year, he initially was glad to see a Hong Kong Tunnels and Highways Management tow truck pull up. However, things started to go downhill from there.

'I was asked by a tunnel staff member to sit behind the driver's seat of my car while he proceeded to sit in the driver's seat. Another staff member tied my car to the tow truck with a rope, yes, a rope, and proceeded to tow it out of the tunnel.

'Outside the tunnel, when the tow truck stopped, the tunnel staff member inside my car failed to brake and my car jerked forward and hit the back of the towing truck, causing damage to my car.

'After the collision, the tow truck moved on, stopped again and caused a second collision as a result of the staff member in my car failing to brake the second time.

'My car's bonnet, front grill and badge and parts of the body underneath the bonnet were severely damaged.'

He said the tunnel workers initially admitted it was their fault and offered 'a few thousand dollars' to settle the matter privately, which he refused. The tow truck staff charged him $140 for the towing service and then Mr Chan's own mechanic towed the car to his garage, where it spent several weeks waiting for body parts from abroad and having the bonnet panel beaten, spray painted and returned to its original condition.

In January, Mr Chan made a claim of $13,800 to AXA General Insurance, HKTHM's insurer, but the insurance company responded by saying the removal of the vehicle from the tunnel was at his own risk and HKTHM was not liable.

'I am still shocked by a big company like HKTHM using a rope to tow my car out of the tunnel.

'A tow truck has all the necessary mechanical apparatus and mechanisms to connect with my car and tow it such that when the tow truck stops and even if my car brakes fail (which they did not) or the driver fails to brake because of whatever reasons, including ignorance or stepping on the wrong pedal, my car still would not jerk forward and hit the tow truck not once, but twice, had my car not been towed by a rope.'

HKTHM operations manager Y. C. Choy told Take Action the issue was a 'misunderstanding between Mr Chan and me' and said the company would 'settle the claim for compensation of the vehicle damage with Mr Chan through our insurer directly'. The company has contacted Mr Chan to settle the full claim.

Anthony Green recounted how in August last year, he and his daughter visited a PCCW  roadshow at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and bought a computer that was to be delivered before she started  college in early September.

The computer was eventually delivered five weeks later on September 25, infuriating both the student and her father. This year, Mr Green reports  exactly the same thing has happened.

He writes: 'My daughter paid for a new T43 computer on August 10 and was told it would be available on September 3, three days after university  resumed. At 9.15pm, on August 30, an Eric Tong of PCCW rang me to inform me that the computer would only be available some time between September 26 and October 3.

As Yogi Berra said, 'It's deja vu all over again'. I was furious at the crass ineptitude of PCCW, which has not learned anything from the  fiasco last year.

'Eric Tong first offered me a paltry $100 Wellcome coupon, and then upped the stakes to a $200 coupon - a sum which I consider to be totally unacceptable considering that, yet again, they are screwing their student customers.

'PCCW still has not learned its lessons from previous years,  that students want their computers right from the start of the university year. I suspect that there are many students who have been grossly inconvenienced but have failed to find any way of publicising the issue.'

Hans Leung, PCCW's public affairs manager,  responded to Mr Green's complaint, saying: 'We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to the students and will work closely with the supplier of the computers to find a better arrangement in the future.' PCCW has told Mr Green his daughter can expect delivery of her computer to his home on September 8.



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