Indovision vows to satisfy customers

Indovision vows to satisfy customers

JAKARTA (JP): PT Matahari Lintas Cakrawala (Malicak), the
management of Indovision, have pledged to soon appease its
disappointed customers over its poor service following the loss
of the screening of Star TV, its executives said.

In a meeting at the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI),
the Malicak executives promised to, for instance, give back the
full amount of the customers' cash deposits and purchase their
decoders at "a reasonable price which won't inflict great losses
on customers".

YLKI vice chairman Agus Pambagio on Tuesday quoted the
executives as saying that Malicak would pay for Pace decoders at
some Rp 1 million each and RCA decoders at around Rp 5 million
each.

According to the executives, the Pace decoders were bought by
the customers before the monetary crisis hit the country at Rp
1.7 million, while the RCA unit marketed during the financial
hardship at Rp 7 million.

Malicak also stated that customers would be freed from paying
subscription fees during the cut-off period of the Indovision
service.

According to Agus. the meeting at the YLKI office between
Malicak and the foundation's executives on Monday was meant to
solve the problems faced by Indovision customers.

As has been reported earlier, the customers of Indovision --
beginning Dec. 11 last year -- could no longer view their 11
favorite channels broadcast via Rupert Murdoch's Hong Kong-based
Star TV.

In its widely-circulated press statement and advertisement,
Star TV deputy chief executive officer Bruce Churchill announced
that it had decided to stop its cooperation with Indovision in
the marketing, distribution and technical operation of a
satellite subscription TV platform in Indonesia due to a
disagreement "over a satisfactory way to move forward with our
alliance."

In response, Eddi Elison, public affairs manager of PT Datakom
Asia, which owns Malicak, said at that time that the termination
would not affect Indovision's services to its customers
whatsoever.

"Indovision will replace the missing programs with new
programs, including AXN, Animal Planet (documentary/science), I
Music, Jet TV (Mandarin), CCTV-4, RAI, TV5 MCM, Sony
Entertainment and ART," he said.

The withdrawal by Star TV, he said, was caused mainly by a
dispute over Datakom's plan to move its transmission from Palapa
C2 to its own Cakrawarta I satellite, which was launched into
orbit on Nov. 11, 1997.

However, the poor customer service of Malicak has angered many
of its customers.

"In its statements, Malicak gave the impression that the
company wants to take no responsibility for the problems which
had, in turn, disappointed many of their customers," Agus said.

"Within a single week we received some 200 complaints from
Indovision customers, who felt that their rights have been
transgressed by Malicak," he said.

During the meeting with YLKI, executives of Malicak also
promised to give a free antenna for its Cakrawarta satellite to
customers who have already paid the full one-year subscription
fees.

Those who paid the fees on a monthly basis would be required
to pay an additional Rp 626,000 plus 10 percent tax.

Agus said: " PT Malicak also agreed to further improve its
customer service to meet its customers' needs."

One of the many letters written by the disappointed Indovision
customers to The Jakarta Post read: "The Indovision case is about
customers who paid large sums of money to an Indonesian company
for equipment and services, and who are then, without notice, cut
off and forced to buy new equipment.

There is nothing the customers can do about it. The case is
also about suppliers (for example the Star TV) who engaged in
medium-term contracts with Indonesian companies, and then didn't
get paid for years. There is nothing they can do about it." (bsr)