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