Telephone bill

To my surprise, my telephone bill for February 2002 included telephone calls to Japan through International Direct Dialing, 008. I couldn't understand why these calls to Japan were included as I have no interest in Japan, have no relatives/colleagues there and during the period covered by the bill did not let any neighbors use my telephone.

On Feb. 11, 2002, the day I received the bill, I immediately reported this to the nearest Telkom complaint office in Larangan, but did not get a satisfactory answer as I was told to report the problem to Satelindo.

So, on Feb. 11, 2002, I went to the Satelindo office in the AG Building on Jl. Sudirman, but was disappointed when I was told that this matter was the responsibility of Telkom.

On the same day, I went to the Telkom office on Jl. Iskandarsyah and got a sympathetic response. I was also told that my telephone did not have access to International Direct Dialing. (Strangely, however, there were charges for a direct call to Japan with the name of the person who made the call using my telephone number and that of the recipient, neither of whom I knew).

On Feb. 19, 2002, I returned to the Telkom office on Jl. Iskandarsyah and was told to pay the Telkom charges pending an investigation into this matter by Telkom and Satelindo.

On March 5, 2002, I received a letter about the results of the investigation into this matter by Telkom and Satelindo, confirming that I had to pay the charges for the call to Japan, as the investigation had found the name of the person using my telephone number, namely Apit or Ay-anyone. Of course, this person is completely alien to me.

That was the end of my attempts to seek the truth. I do not have enough time and money to pursue this matter further as I realize that if I persist I will only fail in the end.

I'm sure if Telkom has an instrument like the metering device used by the state power company (PLN) at the house of each telephone subscriber, something like this could be avoided.

BUDI SANTOSO

Tangerang, Banten