Kartu Halo

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