Embarrassing prize

Embarrassing prize

From Pikiran Rakyat

I felt extremely happy when I received a call in September from a representative of Bank Bali telling me that I had won a special prize from their Bali Festival. The prize was a two-way airplane ticket from Bandung to Denpasar. When I went to Bank Bali Pasteur to collect the prize, I found that the ticket was valid for only one person and was effective until Oct. 9, 1997.

I talked about it with my wife and suggested that the ticket could be given to her brother who was going to Bali. But I was deeply embarrassed later when my wife told me that the prize could not be exchanged for the plane ticket because it was September and the airlines representative office had been closed down, leaving only its agent.

When I called the agent in Bandung, I was told that there was no Bandung to Denpasar flight and that no arrangement could be made in Bandung to obtain the ticket. So why did Bank Bali give me the prize when there was no ticket available?

Then I returned the prize to Bank Bali and the customer service officer made a copy of it for me and promised to contact me about the problem the following day. But several days passed without any news from Bank Bali. On Oct. 6, a Mr. Handoko from Kualiva informed me to make arrangements to get the ticket in Jakarta. Instead of going to Jakarta for such a foolish errand, I decided to make a collection of Bank Bali prizes.

May this serve as a warning to those who happen to receive a similar call regarding free prizes.

D. SUPENO

Address known to the editor