Friday, November 4, 2011

Money Does Matter

One thing should you know when it comes to furthering education at a private institution is that you need to be extremely ready to accept the changes made by the policy-maker governing your place of study. Note that it's not the kind of changes as in switching from your morning freshly-brewed coffee to a sugarless organic tea, or picking up a heel over a pump. Definitely something bigger than that.

Let's say you and your family just moved to Denmark because of some business-expanding things your boss did (and in this case, you're in). Despite all of the problems faced (shipping issues, problems adapting to new surroundings etc.), he had a second thought and ordered you to re-evacuate to Alaska, providing that Denmark is a mistake and changes must be made to save the company, and you're like "FTW Alaska are you kidding me? I'm not shifting to a place where the sun remains during midnight! How do you expect me to sleep?". The worst part is that you're given with just one week to make up your mind. You're thousand miles away from Malaysia and if you decline, you'll lose your job and the company shall not be liable for any financial cost needed for you to shift back to where you belong.

Evacuating from one place to another is no easy task, ya know, especially when you have belongings which are the size of a house with you. And ESPECIALLY when it's already 15th of the month. Obviously, this is one hell money issue.

Well, the point I'm making is that we are all victims of the capitalist system, ain't we? It's the world where you have to pay for every single shit you're dealing with. Or about to deal with. Whatever. Reverting back to the whole private university things I brought up there, 3 days ago, they (the management people at my university) published a notice about late payment charges to students who failed to collect the exam entry slip just A DAY before due and expects us people to be aware of it when everyone is so busy dealing with projects, assignments and FYPs. What the heck?

This happened before, ya know, and I fought back twice. The first one was last year when they started this and I was in second semester. I was 5 days late from collecting the document only to find that I was compounded a total of RM 10. So, I asked the scornful looking lady at the counter this: "Where on earth in the student's rules & regulation book stated that students need to pay for the late charges if they failed to collect the exam entry slip?"

She shot me a surprise look. Without looking at me in the eyes, she answered "Uh, it's stated in the rules, uh, you can go to the 28th level (the finance department) to confirm... Uh". I can tell she was unsure through her "Uh-s". My mistake was that I decided not to take the issue further. I wasn't well-prepared; my knowledge about consumerism right was pretty shallow at that time. So, I paid and requested for an official receipt in which she gave me another unbelievable look.

"What receipt? We don't issue receipts for payments made on late charges. Receipts are only for people who pay the tuition fee and stuffs."

There you go miss, talking like an ass. "It's my right to request an official receipt as a proof of the payment received on the university behalf. Without a proper receipt, can you assure me that the RM10 given just now will not go into your pocket?"

The lady let a hard sigh, hard enough that a male colleague who was quietly stood behind the other wall listening to our conversation came to her. How did I know? He asked "What's the problem here?" in which she made a quick 5 seconds explanation and voila! The guy was now the master of the whole issue.

"Take her to the finance department with this," as he handed the lady the RM10, "and grant her the receipt."

And I was right.

The weirdest thing was when we got at the Finance Department, after the lady requested for the receipt to be printed explaining this and that, the department's officer himself said "What is this late payment charges? I've never heard of that before. Are you sure?"

"Yes, they, they are in the rules."

WTF, eh? I'm so getting my hands on those thick law books after this.
Okay, so the whole thing was not an Infringement of Copyright issue LOL

0 comment(s):

Post a Comment