Dial-a-prize: One will soon learn the huge amount it costs
By Stevie Emilia
JAKARTA (JP): Games announcing big prizes to be won with only a simple telephone call have lured quite a number of television addicts here.
These quizzes offer cash prizes of up to Rp 2.5 million, which would come in quite handy during these hard times; all you have to do to is dial a number which usually starts with a 0809 prefix.
From data gathered recently by private television station Televisi Pendidikan Indonesia, (TPI), the Indonesian Consumers Foundation has discovered that from 10,000 people to 20,000 people per day followed TPI's quiz show Makin Asyik Saja. Not all felt better after their phone bills arrived.
To avoid joining the ranks of complainers, first check the amount of the charge of the premium rate calls.
The calls are charged on a new service -- launched by the state telecommunications firm PT Telkom in August last year -- offering an "intelligent network", giving consumers access to multimedia systems. Up to now, the sophisticated system is limited to little more than an entertainment and games service.
So far, six companies provide the new service, better known as JAPATI, which stands for Jaringan Pintar Tehnologi Informasi (Intelligent Network of Information Technology). This acronym is found on your phone bill.
Most of the providers present quiz shows in cooperation with private stations, while others offer consultation services, including horoscope forecast, and business information.
In exchange for using its technology, providers, through Telkom, charge call rates ranging from Rp 1,225 per minute to Rp 3,300 per minute, much to the surprise and chagrin of users.
Sunardi, a resident of Klender, East Jakarta, said he could hardly believe his May phone bill was double his average monthly bill of Rp 100,000. According to the bill, he had made a number of premium rate calls.
He refused to pay, saying that he never dialed numbers beginning with 0809. But Telkom showed him the list of calls made from his number, including those made on premium rate calls.
Many people have flooded the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) with similar complaints.
YLKI's executive director, Zumrotin K. Soesilo, said: "It's easy to use other people's phone lines, even though the telephone is safely locked, for example by using a device that looks like a calculator."
The foundation had earlier lodged a protest with the providers of JAPATI for allegedly encouraging participants to spend a long time on the phone. YLKI criticized the service providers for not revealing enough information about the rules of the quiz shows and the new telephone service.
For instance, providers only displayed the rate for premium calls at the bottom of the quiz, in small letters compared to the space allotted to the prizes offered, or the quiz's questions.
This seems to be good advertising logic but YLKI pointed out it was disadvantageous to callers who did not understand about premium rate calls.
Zumrotin said many consumers did not know that premium rate calls were different from the rates charged on international direct calls and long distance calls.
Unlike long distance calls, there are no special rates or discounts on holidays, a fact many are not aware of, she added.
"Many consumers feel deceived. For the first 10 minutes of making a call, they listen to a machine before getting into the quiz," Zumrotin said.
With a rate of Rp 150 per six seconds, with the time needed to talk was at least three minutes (180 seconds), the foundation estimated that with an average of 15,000 calls per day, the provider would receive Rp 67.5 million a day.
Zumrotin said that based on the providers' huge income, they should fulfill their obligations and be morally responsible.
She said there was no reason for providers not to announce winners of the quizzes in printed media, or electronic media, where they held quizzes.
"Consumers are required to dial the 0809 number again just to know the winners even though there's no guarantee they'll win the quiz," she said.
YLKI found that many consumers thought that by giving a right answer to a quiz show, they would win a prize straight away. In reality, each participant competes with at least 10,000 people who have also made the calls, she added.
She also regretted the gullibility of consumers taking part in quizzes, which mushroomed during the crisis. "Those lured by the quizzes are dreamers and gamblers," Zumrotin said.
YLKI discovered that most consumers have spent more than Rp 100,000 per call to follow the quiz show using the premium rate calls.
Response
In response to consumers' complaints, head of PT Telkom's Jakarta's division, Guntur Siregar, said he has already requested that providers of premium rate calls adjust their ads.
Some of the ads, he said, did not give complete information on the service, and as a result, many consumers directed their complaints to Telkom.
Recently some of the commercials have provided customer care contacts with local call numbers.
As quoted by the Suara Pembaruan afternoon daily, Siregar said that Telkom only provided the network as regulated in two 1997 decrees by then minister of tourism, post and telecommunications. Providers determine the services and the rates.
From the rates set by the providers, Telkom receives Rp 800 per minute, while providers pay Rp 100,000 per number when they first install the telephones numbers, and a Rp 90,000 monthly fee. Each provider usually has five premium rate call numbers.
Siregar said that in the games, the providers should display the names of their companies along with customer service numbers.
He acknowledged that the small print for the rates was easily overlooked by consumers.
He said that according to Telkom's ethics, the print should be a least half the size of other information in the quiz show, and he agreed that ethically, providers should give clear information about the games. The information should also be distributed in printed media or through customer service numbers which did not use premium rate numbers.
Advice
The complaints are similar to those made previously about party lines, which boomed last year. Consumers complained they were not informed that the calls to very friendly women -- and machines -- were charged as international calls to faraway lands such as Cameroon and Sweden.
Zumrotin repeated YLKI's advice given to a largely uncritical consumer population here: check before you buy. She said that with unclear information, consumers should be much more careful before deciding to join a quiz show.
"Be reasonable during this crisis. Use the telephone efficiently and only talk about necessary things," she said.
One could not ask Telkom to block their telephones to prevent those who want to make premium rate calls.
"Such a request would make the consumer unable to make long- distance calls," she said. She also warned telephone users to closely watch their telephones to prevent people from abusing their phone lines.
Following an earlier appeal from House of Representatives' members, YLKI has also urged Telkom to end premium call rates.
"I believe the service does not give Telkom huge profits anyway, so it's better to end it (the service)," Zumrotin said.