Telephone bill woes

Telephone bill woes

On Aug. 11 I accompanied an American friend to BCA Bogor to
help her pay her first phone bill. There were many people waiting
so I asked the woman in charge how long it would take before we
were served. She was very abrupt and replied that she had no
idea. It was about 11:30 a.m. so I told her we would return about
2 p.m.

When we came back, we were surprised to find BCA closed. The
woman in charge said the bank closed at 2 p.m. Why didn't she
tell us before what the closing time was? She argued that I told
her we would return in two hours, not at 2 p.m.

We didn't want to argue further so we said we would return the
following morning. We reminded her that we had already put our
number for service in the line. We felt disappointed again
because she said: "No, tomorrow you have to be in line again." We
understood that this was bank policy and left.

The next morning we tried to pay the bill for the third time
but were disappointed again. After getting out of the elevator,
we noticed that the woman in charge was processing the phone bill
of a woman who had shared the elevator with us.

Confidently I wrote down our number thinking she would process
it next. But she pointed to a stack of numbers and said: "Put
there." We had to wait our turn.

My American friend looked troubled and asked why this other
customer received special treatment. I did not know the answer to
this question. But I wondered why the woman did not treat
everyone fairly. Wasn't the bank's policy: "first come first
served."

We think the supervisor should ensure that all customers get
treated fairly.

LEANY N. HARSA

Bogor, West Java