PANDA CLEANERS Makati.Do think twice bout their service.Culture shock.

Hello fellow expats,

What's I'm posting here may or may not be of relevance to you. I have been staying in Manila for the past 3 years, and i thought i have seen it all and certainly way pass the culture shock phase. I was wrong.
This may seems like a ranting post of me against my then-dry cleaner but do read on, there's more to it.

An incident happened today and it left me pondered.
Like every other day, my helper which we address by Ate (meaning Sister in Tagalog) was scheduled to pick up some dry cleaning from the laundry. When she returned, she told me she had lost her phone while picking my laundry. She had placed her cellphone on the counter while she was signing off the collection slip. In just split seconds, the phone was gone. She panicked and started looking around for her phone.
At the time of incident, there was a staff, the owner and a customer in the shop. My Ate asked the owner if she could borrow a phone to call her cellphone but was she was blantly rejected.
As any normal person would do, she then asked the customer if she have seen her phone. But she was dissed and even shouted at when my Ate tried to ask another question.
So I went down to the shop with her with intention of clearing some air and with a slight hint of hope in recovering her cellphone.

Upon reaching the shop, I kindly ask the owner if I could have the contact info of the lady customer present at during the event and explained I just want to confirm with her regarding the cellphone. My assumption was that there might be a slight possiblity she had mistakenly slipped the cellphone together with her other belongings into her bag.
This was when the owner started raising her voice at us
"No, I will not give you any information about my customer because she is a big account!" I was shocked but remained calm and tried to explain myself again.
In her position, she is right not to reveal customer information. So I asked if it is possible for her to ring the customer on my behalf and she said,
"No way I'm gonna call my customer, she has a big account with us and I will not ask her such things." Her replied left me speechless.
The rest of our conversations mainly was between my Ate and the owner in Tagalog. I couldn't understand what they were saying but I could see my Ate coming to tears. I intervened and rebuke her for the way she's shouting at my Ate.
That's when she decides to kick out of her shop. I clearing remember my Ate's last words to her was,
"We are Filipinos and yet you put me down"

On our way back to our place, Ate explained to me what their conversation in Tagalog was about.
In summary, the owner kept stating the fact she is just a housemaid, etcetera etcetera.
Yes, it was my Ate's fault that she didn't take care of her own belongings and the laundry shop is not liable for the incident. But I don't think we deserve the hostility cast upon us.
I will switch to a new dry cleaner from now.

This may be an isolated incident but it has certainly gave me a new perspective of some individuals with the horrible social class systems mentality.
And just when I thought in this modern society, we are way past that.