When Joya’s Freight Elevator Bogged Down

This is the lobby of the chic and posh Joya condominium in Rockwell. Don’t be fooled by it’s opulent lobby. Yes I am upset with their management and poor security. See why.

I have a water refilling station and I deliver to all sorts of places in the Metro and I have two or three customers at the Joya. So I delivered with my guy Ruben who does the all the lifting. My client lives in the 45th floor and because it is a condominium, there were rules that needed to be followed to which we dutifully comply (ID, log books, calling the customer, etc). Normally, delivery takes 10 to 15 minutes tops. However, this one took an hour and a half.

After Ruben delivered the two containers of alkaline ionized  water to the customer, he begins to make his to the freight elevator. Then he discovered that the freight elevator conked out. He and other people who deliver to customers in Joya are not allowed to use the regular elevators, but in this case the freight elevators are busted and he and other workers were made to wait until the freight elevator is fixed before they can come down. Crazy policy, which actually poses MORE DANGER TO THE RESIDENTS, if you think about it. Why? If you were a rich person who lived in the North Tower of Joya, do you REALLY want to see workers in shorts walking about the floor because they’re stuck there? I mean, think about it.

After more than 45 minutes of waiting at the basement, I asked the guard on the whereabouts of my guy because the customer said he already left the unit a half hour ago. So I wonder, where in hell could he be? To me the guard seemed like he couldn’t care less. He just said “ay, nag trip ho pala yung elevator, mamaya lang ayos na yun. hindi ko pala nasabi sa yo” (oh the elevator bogged down. It’ll be fixed later, I forgot to tell you.)

Anybody who works in a business that does deliveries will tell you that staying too long in a client will delay schedules for the other deliveries. But Joya’s security people don’t think it’s their problem. True, but as the minutes turned into hours, I increasingly became upset and agitated because of Joya’s failure to give information and provide elevator transportation to the numerous workers stuck in the upper floors. The fear that maybe my guy was stuck INSIDE the elevator was becoming menacing and I knew I had to do something because the matter could be A LIFE AND DEATH SITUATION. Just because workers use the freight elevator doesn’t mean they don’t deserve the same urgency as their residents. That’s just plain bull.

I complained to the lobby of the North Tower and the receptionist didn’t seem to want to do something about it because she would rather answer the phones than look into the matter. By this time it had been an hour since he left to deliver and I was increasingly getting scared for my guy, who could be trapped or hurt. I had no way of knowing because THE GUARDS OF THE LOBBY DIDN’T KNOW THEIR STATUS EITHER. All those radio gadgets and THEY WERE STILL CLUELESS. 

IF JOYA HAD SECURITY CAMERAS, HOW COME NO ONE COULD TELL ME EXACTLY WHERE MY GUY WAS? HOW COME NO ONE HAD THE INITIATIVE OF OPERATING ONE OF THE REGULAR ELEVATORS SO THEY CAN LET ALL THOSE WORKERS OUT OF THE BUILDING? The residents of Joya are given proximity cards which restrict their entry only into the floors where they live. WITH ALL THIS SECURITY IN PLACE, THEY LET THOSE WORKERS GET STUCK FOR AN HOUR? It was really a simple problem with a simple solution. Go to the floors that people trapped and escort them out the building. In the first 15 minutes that they knew the freight elevator was out they could have just deployed guards to escort the workers. Good for the residents, good for the workers. WHY IN HELL DID THEY HAVE TO WAIT AN HOUR TO GET EVERYBODY DOWN?

I bawled at my customer because at that point I didn’t care what she thought. The building was keeping my guy trapped inside and I threatened to call the police. ONLY THEN WAS SOMETHING DONE ABOUT IT. ONLY THEN!

And one guard in white accosted me at the basement when I picked up my guy and raised his voice at me “bakit hindi kayo agad nagsabi sa admin para nasundo namin yung tao ninyo? nagreklamo pa kayo kung kani-kanino alam nyo namang hindi namin pinapagamit yung elevator kasi mabigat yung mga dala nila baka masira pa yung elevator, saka hindi maayos yung hitsura nila at ayaw ng mga guests ng ganun” (Why didn’t you complain right away to the admin so we could have fetched your guy? You complained to so many people, we don’t allow them to use the regular elevators because they carry heavy things and it might damage the elevator plus the workers don’t look tidy, the guests don’t like that.) DUH?

So I went straight to the property management office to report the matter. And what did I find out, ADMIN DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THE FREIGHT ELEVATOR CONKED OUT. They had no idea what had happened and all the supervisor could say was “thank you for telling us, we will investigate the matter.”

Well I hope they do their job, FOR THE SAKE OF THEIR RESIDENTS at least. For me, NO MORE DELIVERIES TO JOYA. I returned my customer’s money through admin, to which the customer confirmed she had accepted. I was mistaken into thinking that expensive condos have good enough service and had REAL SECURITY CAMERAS.I guess I was wrong.