Letter: Telkom’s service

On Oct. 28 Oct, my house telephone died. My wife tested the telephone set using a neighbor’s telephone line. It worked, meaning that the problem was in the telephone line. She then called Telkom (0251) 147 (in Bahasa Indonesia) using her cell phone to report it. The receptionist (a woman) said a technician would come to repair within 48 hours.

She asked for other numbers where my wife could be contacted, so my wife provided her cell phone number. Nobody from Telkom came or contacted her that day.

The next day she called again. After checking the record, the receptionist (a man) reminded her that the waiting time was 48 hours, so she had to wait. Okay, we waited. Nobody showed up on Saturday. This time I made the call in English. Again the receptionist (a woman with fluent English) promised to send a technician “as soon as possible” within 48 hours.  

Up to now there has been no technician nor has anyone contacted us. Almost every 48 hours my wife calls and every time a different receptionist answers. They all are polite, never interrupt when we are talking and give honest answers. They explain that we use the flat rate payment system, meaning that we pay a certain set amount for local calls every month. Now our telephone has been dead for two weeks, meaning we could not make any calls but we still have to pay.  

The receptionist apologized, but that was the policy for the flat rate package. She said that if after 48 hours the telephone still does not work, Telkom would compensate us by not charging the subscription fee. Thanks a lot, but the bills show that the flat rate system does not impose a subscription fee, meaning that Telkom offered us empty compensation. When my wife asked how many times she had called (to check whether her calls were recorded or not) the receptionist answered with the correct number. Anybody in Telkom could have seen that an efficient central office system does not solve our problem.

We really cannot understand why Telkom is so determined not to repair our house telephone. We always pay the bills in full before the due date. Are there many desperate lonely people in Indonesia who call 147 every 48 hours pretending that their telephone is dead simply because they just want to talk to the receptionist — and Telkom thinks we are one of them? Even if it were so, they still have to come to investigate the situation. Or is this Telkom’s easy way to make money: offer a flat rate to customers, and when they complain just ignore them but make a report that all is repaired, then sit comfortably waiting for the next payment from the customers.

It has been many of 48-hour periods since our first report. I wonder if there will be anybody in Telkom who is wise enough to send a technician to where the dead telephone lays: our house, not the central office.

Dirk Jan Kleijn
Bogor, West Jakarta