White Paint Allegedly Fell from Ceiling Onto a Car Parked in Jewel Changi Airport

Few things are worse than returning to your car after visiting the mall and seeing it covered in a foreign substance.

But sometimes, nightmares do come true. Just ask Facebook user Gabriel Xu Wei. 

Posting in the Facebook group aptly named COMPLAINT SINGAPORE, he wrote about how he had returned to his car after visiting the fountain at Jewel Changi Airport and noticed a huge white splash across his car.

He mentioned how he had initially thought it was dirty water, and attempted to clean it off with his windshield wipers.

With a stain that size (and colour), my first guess would’ve been that the culprit was a harpy eagle that had eaten one too many McSpicy burgers and flown over his car. 

Putting his detective skills to work, he concluded that the stains must be from white paint. He accompanied this with video evidence showing water streaks on the white ceiling above his car. 

He also demonstrated in a video how the windshield wipers and water could not remove the stains. In the grand scheme of things, perhaps bird droppings would’ve been better.

This is not the first time a paint-related incident has occurred in Changi. Last year in November, a lorry spilt white paint on the traffic junction between Changi Road and Joo Chiat Road, which caused pedestrians to slip and fall.

Complaints were Made to Jewel and Changi Airport Group

Xu Wei wrote to Jewel to inform them of the incident. Jewel then forwarded his email to the Changi Airport Group (CAG).

After a week, he hadn’t received a response and decided to contact Jewel and CAG again. He even journeyed to Jewel again to make an inquiry in person after another week had passed with no sound nor picture from CAG. 

The staff at Jewel there had apparently told him that they had already referred his issue to CAG, and they suggested calling the number 6595 6858. 

Calling the number seemed to embroil him what he termed as an “hour-long nightmare”. Xu Wei said of the CAG representative, “All answers to my questions led to him insisting of that same answer.”

The bureaucratic back-and-forth of a phone call did not seem to resolve his issue.

Sympathetic Netizens

In response to Xu Wei’s post, many netizens expressed sympathy for him over this frustrating situation. One user even wrote a practical comment advising him on what steps to take next:

If you’re too lazy to read that PhD thesis of a comment, here’s a TL;DR:

The netizen advised Xu Wei on the proper procedure to take legal action against the building owner or manager if they do not reply to or refuse his requests for compensation for damages. 

A Facebook Group Just for Complaining

As a public Facebook group that allows you to rant about annoying situations to thousands of strangers, it is no wonder COMPLAINT SINGAPORE has over 192,600 members. 

In true Singaporean style, you can create a post sparing no detail about the person, place, or thing that makes you want to tear your hair out.

More likely than not, you will receive a tonne of online support from other netizens who will comment and agree with your stance with the same degree of fervour and passion that you have.

Nothing strengthens the Singapore Spirit like complaining together.

How to Get Paint Stains Off a Car

While the odds of this happening to you are likely very slim, Xu Wei probably thought so too. 

So if you ever find yourself in this unfortunate situation, here’s a relatively simple suggestion on how to remove paint stains from a car:

1. Spray WD-40 on the problem areas.
2. Wait patiently for a few minutes.
3. Use a rag to wipe off the sprayed areas. Repeat steps 1-3 until the stains are off.
4. Use soap and water to wash your car.

Now I know for my next trip to Jewel, I should bring only the essentials: my wallet, my camera, and a can of WD-40.