Lesson learned: Avoid Fixers!

It's a bit too late for this entry but I'd still write it anyway. Last December 28 and 29, I processed my non-pro driver's license with the help of a fixer. Before I get boos and crumpled papers thrown at me, yes I know it was a bad thing and let me tell you I got my karma on both days.

So I got my student permit back in February 2010 when I enrolled at a driving school. The same week of my lessons, Dan and I found out that I was pregnant so our attention was diverted to the little miracle growing inside my tummy. In short, I procrastinated in getting my non-pro license to the very last week of my Maternity Leave.

Since I was pressed for time, we tried to seek several options in expediting the license. Dan knew a fixer at LTO who does the registration of him and his brother's cars. He quoted a price of P2800 and I was immediately appalled because I knew that getting one in a legal and proper way wont cost me P1500. But hubby said that this man promised a faster way with no exams and no driving test so even if my heart was bleeding to let go of P2800, I regrettably did so. 

December 28, we picked Manny the fixer at BF in Ortigas extension. He asked me where I got my student permit and I told him it was at LTO Marikina. He immediately said that we could only get my license at LTO San Juan or Pasay since LTO in Binangonan will not accept it. Fine. And so we went to LTO Pasay where we even saw Hubert Webb (but that's not the point right..). When we got there, the freaking branch was offline the entire day. So I wasted P300 on gas and P300 on food that day for nothing. The following day we went back to LTO Pasay and it was still offline. So Manny the fixer decided to proceed to San Juan where he told me I would still take the exam but he would give me a reviewer. When we got there, the office was online and there were a lot of people. I was under the impression that since I already had my medical exam at LTO Pasay that it would be accepted in San Juan but it wasnt so I paid another hundred. Then this son of a gun of a fixer approached me and told me to add another P200 because there was another guy there that he needed to pay.I was really irritated but I kept my cool. So at that time, I was already running on the following expenses:

- 2800 fixer fee

- 600 gas and food for day 1

- 100 medical exam take two

- 200 additional for damn fixer

- 600 gas and food for day 2

Total: P4300

Why did it ever come to this amount??? The driving school where I took my lessons charges P1800 for non-pro driver's license and they will take their car which will save me gas money. The worst part of this experience was IT NEVER EXPEDITED ANYTHING. I was at LTO for 11 freaking hours to the point that Zoe had no milk left because I only pumped 4 bottles for her at home. 

So yes, in the end I got my driver's license but there's no justice to my P4300. I could have bought so many stuff for Zoe already. I was sleepless for a number of days just thinking why I wasted so much money on something that could have just cost me P2000 max. So lesson learned, I would AVOID and ABHOR fixers at government offices because they will extort the life out of anyone for something that can easily be done.