This is truly, truly depressing coming from a reputable developer such as Mah Sing which has won whatsoever awards there are to be won. What good are these awards if fairplay is not practised and the developer continues to ignore commoners like us?

Towards the end of last year, I made a booking with a RM10,000 cheque for an office suite from the South Gate project by Mah Sing. However, as my loan application for the amount requested was not approved, I requested to cancel the purchase of the property on Jan 11. I was then told by the developer that I couldn't cancel the booking and they would have to forfeit my booking fee.

According to them, my loan was not rejected but was actually approved for a lower amount. I applied for 90% loan but the loan was only approved for 70% so technically speaking, my loan for 90% was rejected.

After much thought, I then asked for the amount to be transferred to another residential property that I was buying from them but again I was told I couldn't do this as my original booking fee was made for a commercial property so hence, it couldn't be transferred to a residential property.

A week later, however, I was told that it can be transferred but as the slales and purchase agreement (SPA) has already been activated by their lawyer, I will then have to pay RM1,000 for the ‘agreement activation’. The thing that confused me is, how can the developer proceed with the activation of the SPA before the deal is even sealed?

Throughout the whole episode, I was in contact with the salesperson who never failed to hassle me every alternate day on the status of my loan. Never once did she mention that the SPA will be activated automatically upon booking.

And when I asked for the RM1,000 agreement to be produced so that I could know for what I am being charged for, she can only kept mum and said that she had to refer to her legal department.

All this happened at the beginning of January. I called them up again this morning (Feb 22) and was told by her that she is still waiting for their legal department to revert. It's been taking more than one month for their legal department to act but when it comes to collection of my booking fees, it was immediate.

Now I truly understand how an award-winning developer can continue to make millions. Well, they won't even let go of RM1,000 which is a drop in the ocean compared to the millions or billions that they are making. Best Developer Overall in Malaysia? Think again.