MANILA, Philippines?The Philippine Charity Foundation must be the most successful and most generous donor organization in the country, and even the whole world?ever! It probably deserves a spot in the Guinness World of Book Records.
I received this text message recently: ?Auditors of Phil. Charity Foundation informing you that your SIM (subscriber?s information module) no. had won P950,000 second prize winner, drawn last 9-12-08. Please call me now. I?m Mrs. Emelda M. Lee.?
While most charitable organizations are having a hard time raising the funds they need for their projects, attributing the problem to donor fatigue (benefactors are becoming less inclined to give), the Filipino foundation is giving away large amounts of cash, like a P950,000 second prize, to people simply for having lucky mobile phone numbers.
With all other groups, a huge cash prize like that would mean buying a pricey raffle ticket?you don?t get anything for nothing. But the Philippine Charity Foundation truly lives up to its name?you do not have to buy anything to get that windfall. They must be awash in cash and do not know what to do with it that they are giving it away.
Even more astonishing, a colleague also won the P950,000 second prize, though the text message sender gave a different name. That means, just for the two for us, the foundation will already be giving away P1,900,000.
Imagine how much money the first prize winner will get!
This is not the first time the foundation made me a winner but I always get the second prize. I am waiting for them to tell me I won first prize before I claim my winnings. Has anybody won the first prize? How much is it?
I won?t bother to give the number of the person who sent the message. By this time, whether or not she (I am not even sure she really is a she) was able to get somebody to send hundreds of pesos of cellular phone airtime load (that?s usually what they ask for from ?winners? to claim their prizes), the number has probably been changed.
For all those people who get these text messages and fall for them, just think: It is supposed to be a charitable organization but it is giving away its money without asking anything?not immediately at least?in return. Charitable organizations will use raffles to raise funds. They will sell tickets priced according to the value of the prizes to be given away.
Unless you are a charity case, you will not get any money from them. And even if you are, in need of charity that is, there will be a ton of paperwork to accomplish before you receive any aid.
And consider the prize. Why will a charitable organization give away huge sums without getting anything back in return? As I said, legitimate organizations use raffles to raise money to support their work. What they have, they will keep. They will not give it away unless they can get more money in return. They have to be able to sustain their work.
The P1, 900,000 my colleague and I are ?getting? as second prize winners is a huge dent on their resources. It can feed hundreds of children, build a few homes or classrooms, buy boxes of teaching aids and learning materials and do so many other things.
No legitimate charitable organization will give away all that money just because?
As I keep repeating, if something is too good to be true, it usually is.
Cold hotline
A San Juan resident became a very unhappy customer recently of McDonald?s. In an e-mail, she said she placed an order through McDo?s delivery hotline at 4:35 p.m. After giving the person on the other end the needed details, like where and who to deliver the order to, she was told she would get the food in 45 minutes. But after an hour, with the food still nowhere in sight, she decided to make a follow-up call and was told the order had been dispatched. She made another follow-up call at 5:45 p.m. and got the same answer, ?It was dispatched already.? Then another call at 6 p.m. but no food was delivered after about five follow-up calls.
The customer said she asked for the direct line of McDonald?s at Greenhills Commercial Center, the branch from which the order was most likely to come, as it was closest to her residence on Annapolis St., but the numbers of that establishment were not yet in service.
So she requested the delivery hotline to ask the manager of the Greenhills branch to get in touch with them. The next day she called again (the order was apparently not delivered at all) and repeated her request for the branch manager to call them. Not getting any response until now, she decided to make her request through this column.
?This is a case of a taken for granted customer involving a very relaxed manager, whose name was??Gil.? As to his complete name? his staff doesn?t even know his surname. I?m just wondering what kind of manager and staff that branch has.?
Send letters to The Consumer, Lifestyle Section, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 1098 Chino Roces Ave. cor. Mascardo and Yague Sts., 1204 Makati City; fax 8974793/94 or e-mail lbolido@inquirer.com.ph.
