Telkom admits getting it wrong in billing<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom
\nadmitted on Friday through their Jakarta office that there was a
\nproblem with the billing system in which customers were charged
\ninappropriately for their January telephone bills.<\/p>\n
The company's external relations coordinator Asep Tatang said
\nthat the office had wrongly included a Rp 10,000 (US$1.40)
\npenalty against customers paying their telephone bills after Jan.
\n20.<\/p>\n
\"Actually, there should not be a problem with the penalty,
\nbecause the money will be returned to customers in the following
\nbills,\" he told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
\"We apologize for the wrong billing, but we will automatically
\ndeduct the amount of the penalty from next month's bills,\" Asep
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
He said the problem occurred because the office's computer
\nsystem had failed to reset the new telephone bill payment
\ndeadline from Jan. 20 to Jan. 31. The extended deadline was set
\nin anticipation of millennium bug (Y2K) problems.<\/p>\n
\"Normally, the telephone bill payment deadline is on the 20th
\nday of every month.<\/p>\n
\"But our computer system was not set for the change and it
\ncontinued billing the penalty to customers who paid their bills
\nafter Jan. 20,\" Asep said.<\/p>\n
He said that office management had anticipated the problem and
\ninstructed all front-office employees to inform the customers.<\/p>\n
\"We had considered issuing a release of the billing problem,
\nbut it was not carried out because the customers' money will be
\nreturned after all,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said it was also possible for customers to retrieve their
\nmoney immediately, \"But they can only take the cash from our
\npayment point offices around the city.\"<\/p>\n
Asep said the extended billing period deadline would only
\nhappen in January, as the normal deadline of the 20th day of the
\nmonth will resume in February.<\/p>\n
Complaints had been aired by city residents due to the lack of
\ninformation.<\/p>\n
The owner of a guest house complex in South Jakarta, Wiwi de
\nKoning, was surprised to pay a penalty of Rp 300,000 for 25 phone
\nnumbers when she paid her December bills on Jan. 21.<\/p>\n
\"(As the guest house owner), I always paid the bills with my
\nown money before collecting a reimbursement from my tenants
\nlater. The obligation to pay a penalty is not an easy thing for
\nme because I must explain the matter to all of my tenants,\" she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
She said she decided to pay the bill on Jan. 21 because she
\nhad heard that the payment period was extended to Jan. 31.<\/p>\n
Wiwi said she tried to claim her refund, but the mechanism was
\ntoo complicated as she would have had to go to a nearby payment
\npoint office, \"and wait for one day to have my money returned.\"<\/p>\n
Another customer, Lizbet from Pasar Minggu, experienced a
\nsimilar problem, \"I just paid the bill because it (the penalty)
\nis not a big amount of money.\" (ind)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/telkom-admits-getting-it-wrong-in-billing-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}