BCA blues

BCA blues

I want to thank Mr. Smith for his letter of Oct. 10. I also
have a BCA dollar account and like Mr. Smith, Mr. Taufiq and Mr.
Menon, felt deceived when I was told that in order to withdraw my
money I would first have to pay the exchange rate from U.S.
dollars to rupiah and then back to dollars.

After reading Mr. Smith's letter, I went to the Depok branch
of BCA to show them the letter and told them that since Mr. Smith
didn't have to pay any fees to withdraw his money, I felt that I
was entitled to the same treatment. The customer service clerk
told me that for withdrawals of below US$2,000, I did not have to
pay the exchange rate but I would have to pay a provisional fee
of 1.25 percent.

Since I hadn't been informed of this fee before, I refused to
pay it and requested that she contact the manager of the BCA
Kuningan branch to find out about Mr. Smith's case. She then told
me that each BCA branch has its own set of policies and that I
couldn't expect the same treatment as at other branches. Even
more outrageously, she said that Mr. Smith was probably a big
depositor and thus received preferential treatment.

I told her that since BCA is supposedly a reputable bank, I
expected policies that are rationally and consistently applied
regardless of who the customer was, the amount of money involved,
or which branch was involved.

At this point the manager invited me to his office. He told me
that BCA's policy was that I would have to pay the exchange rate
and he hoped that I would understand since Indonesia was
experiencing currency difficulties. He had no explanation as to
why I hadn't been informed of this policy before opening the
account, nor why Mr. Smith didn't have to pay the exchange rate.
I asked him if the fees were policy or if there would be any
changes in the near future, to which he assured me that there
would be no changes whatsoever.

Unfortunately when I returned on Oct. 13 to make my
transaction, I was told that this time no fee would have to be
paid. This extremely disappointed me, especially in light of the
manager's previous assurances to the contrary.

My question is, why are BCA dollar account holders being given
inconsistent information which is costing them money, and why are
BCA personnel attempting to impose fees which are not part of a
rational bank policy? I urge BCA to make a public clarification
of their policy on the BCA dollar account since in the absence of
a clearly stated and consistently applied policy, its dollar
account holders are being ripped off.

JIWAY TUNG

Jakarta