Our family has been going to Eastwood Mall almost every Sunday since it opened. My Dad lives in the area and so we have gotten so familiar with the place. I've noticed how lousy their basement parking is planned. It's really one big maze! I know that on special occasions (i.e., Mother's/Father's Day, Graduation season, Valentine's Day), it can get really crazy in that place but last night was a totally different story.
After having dinner and watching the John Ford Coley concert, we walked back to the car. It was rather late, around 1030pm, and the kids were tired and sleepy. When we got down to basement level 4 where our car was parked, we noticed that there was a queue of cars en route to the exit. There was nothing strange about that as we had seen it happen before. Things got really bad when we noticed we had been waiting inside the car for almost half an hour and we had hardly moved. There were more cars behind us by this time and we began to worry about the fumes. Luckily, the level we were on wasn't full so we were able to slowly maneuver the van into an empty parking slot. We decided it was best to park again and go back up to the mall to wait it out, rather than stay in the car where we knew we were in danger of suffocating. At this point, other cars around us started to do the same thing. Angrily, Neal approached a roving security guard and asked him what the hold up was all about. The guard told him that their system was down and there was no way for them to collect payment from exiting customers. WHAAAAAT???? So they would rather keep everyone hostage in the basement?!?! We were so irked by the guard's answer, to say the least!
After waiting for about 20 minutes, Neal and I decided to walk back down to check on the situation. The kids desperately wanted to go home. In the lift going down, there were two others with us who were attempting to do the same thing. When the elevator doors opened at basement 3, we were shocked to see that things had gotten worse. There were cars still stuck and the fumes were three times as bad. Up we went again and waited another 15-20 minutes. We then decided to go back a 2nd time to check. Still a no go. Finally on our 3rd attempt, everything was clear but by this time, we were all so tired and angry. I ended up letting out a mouthful at the guard and parking attendant by the exit. I received the lamest excuse on the planet : Ma'am, pasensya na kayo nagkataon lang po. To which I replied : Huwag mo kaming lokohin, nandito kami every weekend at alam namin na noon pa ito nangyayari. Sabihin niyo sa amo niyo huwag puro pera ang isipin. Papatayin niyo ang mga customer ninyo!!!
We were finally able to leave the place very close to midnight, our night semi-ruined by this terrible hassle which could have been handled properly by Eastwood Mall administration. Really...how difficult is it???
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