LBC Refused to help CDO victims - the two faces of LBC

This post is from Carlo Mangoba where he is trying to send donations via LBC to Cagayan de Oro. The statement below that you will read is so sad because LBC Hari ng Padala Refused it.

For the longest time LBC has been my go-to company for all of my shipping needs, especially during the time that I was studying in Cagayan de Oro city. But due to my recent experience with LBC, I will never ever use them again now that I’ve seen that they don’t value the plight of their customers.

As we all know, CDO has recently been ravaged by Typhoon Sendong leaving hundreds dead, and thousands without basic necessities like food, clothing and even potable water. Among those victims is my fiancé’s family. Sendong left their area badly flooded and have rendered them with a low supply of food and no potable drinking water. They have spent the last couple of days trying to secure a supply of potable drinking water but to no avail, most sources of potable water in the city have been contaminated, or in short supply.

I heard in the news that LBC was accepting donations of food, water, clothing, etc. to Cagayan de Oro city, that all donations would be accepted in any of their branches so I thought that maybe me and my fiancé can send her family a shipment of bottled water. Just to make sure that we would not be wasting our time, I called beforehand LBC’s customer service number (02) 858-5999 and got a confirmation from two customer service representatives, one girl and an agent named “Bryan.” I clearly stated with them that the water that I was sending was to be sent to my fiancé’s parents and not to be donated, the agent’s reassured me after putting me on hold for over two minutes that the water would be accepted as long as they are in sealed containers and are properly packaged. I even asked them if they can deliver the package door-to-door or if my fiancé’s family needs to pick-up the package from the LBC office in CDO. Me and my fiancé were both relieved to hear the reassurance from LBC that they would accept our shipment especially since my fiancé’s family only has less than a gallon of water left and we were informed that they will get our shipment in 24 hours.

We bought a case of 1.5 liter bottled water in Landmark Makati then proceeded to the LBC branch in Glorietta to ship the water. Upon reaching the counter the guy behind the counter frowned and gruffly said to his companion “ o donation nanaman.” We informed them that the water was for my fiancé’s family and not to be donated. The man behind the counter gruffly told us that they won’t accept the shipment of water unless we are donating the water to a foundation. (NOTE: WE TOLD LBC THAT WE ARE PAYING FOR THE COST OF SHIPPING THE PACKAGE) We told the man behind the counter that we were informed by their customer service department that they can accept shipment of bottled water, we were practically begging them to accept the shipment since my fiancé’s family badly needs the water. The man told us to sit and wait while he called someone on the phone. After 10 minutes he put the phone down and told us that they still won’t accept the shipment.

The man’s companion, who was a bit nicer than the man we were speaking to, told us that the donations are shipped via sea freight and would take weeks before it reaches its destination. This little factoid horrified me, people are cold, going hungry and thirsty in CDO due to the lack of clothing, food and potable drinking water and here’s a company proudly proclaiming that they accepting donations but takes their sweet time in getting those badly needed donations to the intended recipients. As the saying goes, “paano na ang damo kung patay na ang kabayo.” So what use is their effort in accepting donations when those donations would not be received when needed?

If you are a Kagayanon, or someone who sympathizes with the victims of the tragedy in Mindanao, please spread the word and repost this note about how LBC treated a victim of Sendong and showed their true stand about Corporate Social Responsibilit.

So all the statement of LBC release are all joke joke to help to the victims of Typhoon Sendong in Cagayan de Oro and some part of Northern Mindanao?