Cecilia,
I received yesterday a copy of an anonymous email from someone at HKRI, had sent to my wife.
From: "."@hkri.com
Date: 26 May 2025 at 16:40:52 HKT
To: jinglee@netvigator.com
Cc: Zico Chiu <zico.chiu@hkri.com>
Subject: Purchase of Langqing electric golf cart
Dear Ms. Lee,
Following the introduction meeting on 15 April 2025, we have been following up your requirements with the golf cart suppler. Regarding your request for a golf cart with back-to-back seating arrangement, we have reservations in introducing new golf carts with such arrangement in view of safety. In fact, we have stopped offering new golf cart with back-to-back seating arrangement for a long period of time.
Following the phone call with your goodself on last Friday morning, we immediately contacted the supplier and learnt from them that a Langqing 4-seater forward-facing golf cart in blue color is under production currently. Should this be acceptable to you, we could proceed to place order for you. Most grateful if you could let us have your prompt response on whether to accept or not.
Best Regards,
DISCOVERY BAY TRANSIT SERVICES LIMITED
Tel: 2987 7351
Fax: 2987 5246
Email: dbtpl@hkri.com
Ref: TS/E168/25
It claims to answer concerns Jing and I expressed to you last Friday 23 May and my email later that day.
But it does not at all answer our concerns and suggestions. It simply restates your position.
Let me restate ours: we wish to have Choice. And wish for more Transparency. We are the residents, we pay the management fees, and thereby your salaries. We drive the golf carts, we own them.
And yet you make the choices. And you show no transparency.
We golf cart owners are treated ever worse over the years. By ultra high prices, by high maintenance costs, by tighter restrictions on parking. And now, as the aging golf carts fleet needs replacement, by an arbitrary selection of two brands of golf cart that we had no part in choosing.
The Safety issue.
You repeat your preference for seat-forward option is because of "reservations" over Safety.
We say our preference for the "back-to-back" seat is also for safety.
The difference is: your view is based in anecdote. On a story from one or more people.
Our view is based on data. From the experience and scientific testing, all of which prove our view is more substantial and correct.
I find no reports that justify your concerns about children's safety. There have been some accidents over the years, none recorded as fatal or grievous. If you have a record of one, please provide the Accident Report(s). Transparency is important.
If safety is the top concern, one should have considered the electric micro car, which is made for residential restricted roads such as ours and is safer than any golf cart. I brought this to the attention of DBTSL and DBSML several times, but never any interest shown.
The Choice Issue
Back to the choice issue. We do not suggest that our own preference be the preference for all people. If someone wants forward-facing seats let them have it. If somebody wants back-to-back, let them have it.
What is the reason for having only one type of Lǎng Qíng 朗晴? We have long had several brands on our streets, the Club Car, the Yamaha, the EZ-Go and the Columbia. So consistency is no longer a strong requirement.
We repeat: This issue is easily fixable.
Allow us the choice to have the back-to-back Lang Qing that we want. Done.
The Transparency Issue
We know the Lǎng Qíng company and we know that they can easily and quickly provide the one we want. It's incorrect to say "Langqing 4-seater forward-facing golf cart in blue color is under production currently..." and to assume that this means the back-to-back is not available. It is available. I could order one today and it would be with me in two week. I do wish your staff would make a better job of talking consistently and not always changing their story. There's a lack of transparency and of fair dealing with us. That's a fact, attested by the various confusing and inconsistent information we've been given over these many months.
And then commit going forward, to being more transparent in everything you do. Transparency is a call everywhere these days. Be a part of it.
Why do you insist on making life difficult for us? Your job is Service. Not obfuscation and objections.
If you detect a note of frustration in this email, it's because I am indeed frustrated. I reflect the anger, frustration and annoyment of many golf cart owners in Discovery Bay. It would be good if you could take this into account.
Regards
Peter Forsythe
