Kartu Halo
After thirteen years of reading The Jakarta Post and deriving much pleasure from "This Odd World" and "Your Letters" columns, I have finally been inspired to share a story with my fellow readers.
In November 1996 I purchased a Kartu Halo for use with a handphone which I already possessed. All relevant forms were filled out and sent to the appropriate address. After unsuccessfully trying to use the card, my office contacted customer service, who informed me there was a small problem with the number and asked for it to be returned. I did and a replacement card was provided fairly quickly.
However, before receiving the new card my handphone was left in a taxi and has not been seen since. After four months I got a replacement handphone and opened up my Kartu Halo package. I immediately mailed the form to Telkomsel informing them that the card was in the right place. I then slipped it into my phone, entered the PIN and got the message: "outgoing call barred". Oh dear!
A phone call from my regular phone to customer service provided me information that the phone card had been blocked because I hadn't paid my bill.
"Fair enough," I said, "only you haven't sent me one."
"Yes, we have," came back the reply.
"To which address did you send it?," I ventured.
"To Pejaten," informed the helpful lady.
"But I don't live in Pejaten and also my office is not in Pejaten," I gently explained.
"Yes, we sent the bill to the dealer who sold you the card."
It being unlikely that someone else would rush to pay my bills, I decided not to proceed any further at this stage. After all, the young lady was as helpful as she could have been given the obviously limited information which was available to her from her computer screen.
The following day I contacted Telkomsel's office and repeated the same story with more or less the same result. I was advised to go to Telkomsel's office to sort out the matter.
I am happy to pay my bills. However, why should I pay for a subscription when the card was not in use, has never been used and has been blocked by the supplier for the nonpayment of bills, which the supplier sent to the wrong address anyway?
MARTIN J. SHAW
Jakarta