A question for Satelindo

My customer number is 00096424. For the last three months, I have been trying to get Satelindo to answer one simple question: Why are so many calls being transferred to voice mail when my phone is in perfect working order and open for business?

This voice mail, by the way, can take up to three hours to let me know that someone has called me in the first place. On top of that calls are regularly interrupted.

Your Customer Service Hotline 533-1881 is so hot that you can never get through. It is always busy or no one answers the phone. I have tried some 50 or 60 times.

I have paid two visits to your Service Center in the Artha Graha building to get some answers. These two excursions took me three hours and the answers provide were completely unsatisfactory, falling in the category of "I don't know".

My last bill includes some Rp 200,000 for previous billings which have not been explained. The accompanying message said: Just pay and don't ask any questions.

Regular monthly costs for every phone have been increased by some Rp 8,000 or nearly 20 percent. Based on the horrible service provided I think that this company should be offering refunds to customers instead of trying to milk them of more money.

A visit to the service center will now take three hours because of the very large number of customers with problems. There are so many of them that the waiting area cannot hold them and you now have to stand in line in the lobby of the building just to get into the waiting area.

On July 28, I sent a fax to the Customer Service Department explaining my problem and asking for some attention. I am a paying customer after all. Nobody bothered to answer this letter or even acknowledge it.

The irony is that the more misdirected/interrupted calls, the more calls customers have to make to one another in order to communicate. Satelindo is paid for every connection. The worse the service, the more calls made and the more money going into the coffers of Satelindo.

During this period I have received three letters, calling me a "valued customer," which explain that they are improving the billing service. But I just want a phone service that works.

I clearly have only one "value" for the company: "money value" instead of "customer value."

When will I get service value?

MICHAEL SINJORGO

Jakarta