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