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)