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A
reader discusses the deterioration of service at New World
Gardens apartments
For
those of you who haven't visited our old BBS, this author had posted an
article on living in New World Garden (however, in case NWG is
thinking about suing, this poor author may not have written it, someone
else may have signed up with his/her username). It used to be a
decent place to live, but the general living conditions there now have
detiorated to such an extent, that the author feels compelled to take
said words back. Except, poor author can't really take 'em back....so
the next best thing will be done, which is edit the original
post.
For simplicity, the author of that first article prefers to use
the preposition (or is it verb?? I never did pay any attention in
school) *I* to refer to himself/herself
J
I
was told by everyone I asked before I came here that New World Garden
was the best, bar none, place to live for expatriates. How untrue that
statement was....although, I must admit that I hadn't asked too
many people ... and most of those I asked lived in New World themselves.
What is true though that the place used to be a lot nicer (hence my
original post) but is rapidly going down the commode in most aspects
now.
I
have posted my original article below, and have included comments in red
and indented them, for the sake of readability.
OK,
enough jabber from me. Here goes! Any comments, additions, or insight
welcome.
*****Original Article below, along with red comments indented******
Hello all! My first post here in the Dongguan Web Log. I hope this post
will help some of the foreigner’s visiting Dongguan for the first time
and searching for places to live at.
IMHO, New World Garden is one of the best (if not the best) places to
live for non Chinese speaking foreigners in Dongguan. It has some
distinct advantages over the other apartment complexes: -
NO! NOT! BU YAO! NIL! NADA!
SCHNADA!
Did I make my stand on that clear? (wink). NWG
may have certain "advantages", but the same "advantages" are available
everywhere else, one just has to "look" a little harder. To the
foreigner (well, at least some) who has just arrived in Dongguan and is
still recovering from culture shock, it may seem that NWG does
have advantages over other places, but stay a while here, and you shall
change yer mind.
1.
The management is VERY helpful, and a lot of the management speaks
passable English. This makes it very easy to get small stuff (toilet
stopped up, replacing a blown fuse etc) done and also to get help if
urgently required. From what I have heard, management isn't too
efficient in some of the other apartment complexes around (non existent
sometimes) and this can really pose problems for a foreigner here.
This used to be the case. Management used to be
pretty helpful, I agree. However, most of the "helpful folk" have all
ended up leaving New World Garden. I have talked to a couple of people
who used to work here, and I know (and sympathize) fully with their
reasons for leaving, but I shall not post the same here, to
maintain their privacy. Now, management is about as unhelpful as can be,
especially when they are required to speak English. I do understand that
this is China and that spoken English may be hard for some
of them, but then this apartment complex is supposed to be for
"foreigners". Last I checked, most foreign visitors to China do
not speak (or possess the ability to magically/instantly pick up)
perfect Chinese. It has also been my experience that NWG management
doesn't even make the attempt to understand my broken Chinese, and I
must say that is a pathetic attitude to have towards one's own tenants.
A lot of the management used to speak
passable English. No longer. Now, when they hear English, the general
tendency is to say “Sorry I don’t know”.
Efficiency is pretty much non existent in New
World Garden nowadays. Again, this used to not be the case. I
suspect much of it is due to abominable management. Their
maintenance people seem unprepared for everything, both mentally and
tools-wise. One didn't even have a screwdriver in his bag. This is
really unacceptable. To top it all off, when they don't have something
(this something could be anything ranging from wood to iron rod to
strings and screws -- anything is fair game and acceptable), they want
the tenant to help them with it (yours truly very firmly told them to go
to you know where).... and their favorite comment is "we'll get it done
tomorrow". Ever heard the say "tomorrow never comes"? Well, live in NWG
to experience it.
Actually, I never did hear the above saying
myself....I wonder why it suddenly popped into my head. (confused sign).
A case that I was especially ragged over (in US
terminology, p***** off) over was when they shut down the water supply
without informing me, late on a Sunday night. I do all my laundry at
night, and I was just preparing to go on vacation, so this was extremely
frustrating. Calling management was little help, as they
claimed they couldn't do anything about it. Well, why didn't they send
out a notice to all? Their answer was "sorry, I don't know". Why do they
not send out notices in English and Chinese half the time? "Sorry, I
don't know".
GRRR!!
2. There are plenty of restaurants serving Western food around New World
Garden. Plenty of bars too....not quite like the western bars, but
close. There is also the clubhouse which serves western style food and
they will deliver to your house (slightly more expensive though).
Bah! This particular comment was written by me
when I was still new to Dongguan and NWG.
That club house in NWG is pathetic, and their
customer service reeks of incompetence. Quite honestly, the place seems
to be managed by a buffoon. Their prices are comparable to any 5 star
hotels, but their service is worse than a roadside eatery. They do have
an English menu, but ask anyone there to speak any English, and it’s
like you have asked them to climb Everest. What makes matters all the
more strange is that there ARE a couple of people who DO speak English
there, but yet they insist on not helping their foreign clientele out…
The food other than a couple of dishes is
pretty atrocious too. One can find better food, and better deals
elsewhere….
The bars are there, but then the same bars are
accessible from Moon Bay and any of the other apartment complexes close
by, so that renders that particular argument null and void. In
any case, the food in most of these bars is not worth writing home
about.
3.
A couple of supermarkets (Oliver's, #1 Supermarket) are within walking
distance and they sell some imported items which cannot be found
anywhere else in Dongguan (to the best of my knowledge). For example,
spaghetti sauce, Hunt's ketchup, western style breakfast cereal.
The only catch is that these stores are a little more expensive than the
local stores like Wal-Mart (or some of the small groceries). However,
this is a minor disadvantage............the staff at Oliver's also
speaks decent English, which is good too, especially when your trying to
find a certain product!
There is a nice little convenience store also outside the front gate of
New World Garden called Sun tick and that is a good place to buy
snacks/beer/cigarettes/other odds and ends.
Most of these stores will also deliver to New World Garden free of
charge which is an added bonus!
True, but again, these are
accessible from other complexes, too….
4. Security is excellent in New World Garden.... and that always
makes it a good choice even if the above points do not. Petty theft is
pretty common in China, hence this is important.
5. There are a lot of choices for transportation. There is a bus service
operated by New World Garden and it's pretty useful.....it takes one to
Wal-Mart, Park 'n' Shop and other places around town. There are also
shuttle buses from the apartment complex to Hong Kong and the
international airport there. Details may be obtained from New World
Garden management.
The NWG does not operate any bus which takes
one to Wal-Mart or around town any longer. This used to be a nice (not
to mention cheap) way of getting around…but trust the boorish NWG
management to stop this bus service.
They claim that it is due to some government
regulation. However, I cannot confirm how true this is as I see the
Kings View garden bus out on the roads all the time.
Lastly, I have not ever lived in any of the other apartment complexes
(such as DongTai, East Lake).....my views are simply based upon what I
have heard from other people and my own experiences of living in New
World Garden. So if someone knows any other apartment complex with
similar features, please feel free to let me know!
HA! Plenty of them around….and from what I have
heard, with MUCH better management than NWG….
For
anyone having further questions, please send me an e-mail at
***********@*********. I don't log into this BBS too often due to
various reasons........but I do check e-mail multiple times during the
day!
Hope this helps!
It must be said that initially when I first
posted on this BBS, I didn't think I would log on to it too much.
How times have changedJ
And how the DWL has changed, too! Kudos to all
the members and all three site administrators for making this possible!
Kudos to Bob for thatsdongguan.com !
I do however; still check e-mail multiple times
a day. You may notice that I ****'d out the original e-mail address, but
this is for obvious reasons.
If you wish to contact me, please do so via any
link on thatsdongguan.com. I have no problem with e-mail communication
(I actually prefer it), but would like not to make my e-mail address
public information for now.
Hey
all. Something that I forgot to add in my last post is that rent at New
World Garden is a bit more expensive (by Chinese standards at least)
than most of the other apartment complexes. In my opinion, the above
points makes it worthwhile to flip out the extra $$$$$......but that's
just me!
NO, it does not. NO way. HELL no!
Why? Well, if you still have not understood
why, then I have wasted my time all along and I don't see much point in
repeating myself. (J)
That being said, the rent still isn't too much more than what one would
pay for something similar in the US or other developed nations. In fact,
IMHO, one wouldn't find stores delivering free of charge (some don't
even have a minimum amount that you need to spend) and certain other
such facilites for the $$$$$ one pays at New World!
Yeah well, you may not in the West (then again,
you may. I found several such stores in NY in the US). You
certainly will in Dongguan though....the case is *likely* the same in
the rest of China and most other Asian countries too.
Hope that helped out some!
I hope it helped inform the
unsuspecting "would be NWG resident" to stay away.
Regards,
<author prefers to not put names here>
Well, there it is. Why do I not take this up
with NWG management instead of taking up valuable internet space with
it? "Sorry, I dont'.....", well, actually I do know. The reason
is that it won't do any good whatsoever. So, all I can do is warn people
to stay away!
Is this just me rambling on and on, or is this
fact? Well, try and find out if it is or not. You have two choices *that
I know of*: -
1. Ask around. Ask any one living in NWG; ask
any one who knows someone who has lived/lived in NWG. Ask and yer shall
know.
2. If you are the type who prefers to
experience it himself or herself, then be my guest and move into NWG.
Only, don't say you were not warned :).
Written by,
(Guess who?)
PS: You may use this article anywhere and
anyway you like, but you must credit the original author (me). :). If
you edit the article, you must include ALL original text also. You must
also include your name if you edit it.
In order to credit me, please contact me via
any email link on thatsdongguan.com and yer shall receive further
details. Failure to do so may result in your computer crashing forever,
or other unspeakable horrors…and the author accepts no responsibility
whatsoever.
Other than that, please do feel free to print
it, hail it as a literary masterpiece, or use it as toilet paper.
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