Telkom denies role in unreasonable phone bill hike
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta office chief of the state-owned telecommunications company PT Telkom (Witel-IV) said yesterday that none of its officials are involved in the many telephone bill cases involving public complaints over unfair price hikes.
"After making a thorough checking, we have found no evidence of our people being responsible for the higher phone bills reported as of late, let me assure you of that," said John Welly, the chief of Witel-IV, in a press conference yesterday.
John said that based on the office's current investigation, the problems could be classified into two categories: the first deals with various technical problems with the office's equipment and the second the responsibility of the customer.
During the press conference, John encouraged their customers to make formal complaints to the office over their telephone bills, some of which are reported to be two or three times higher than normal, for prompt investigation.
"PT Telkom is responsible for the price hikes if they are caused by technical damages but the customers must pay their bills themselves if they are at fault," he said.
The office spokesman, Djaman Sinaga, said that the office had already invested a lot of time and money to investigate each case.
"We have succeeded in unveiling the source of one shocking telephone bill hike in a household in West Jakarta. In that case, it turned out to be the family's own servant who had made many long distance calls to her lover in Central Java," Djaman said.
Meanwhile, John Welly asked that people give Witel-IV officials a fair chance while they investigate their cases.
"The people have to be open to the possibility that one of their family members, servants or even their neighbors could have been using their telephone," he said.
"Collect calls"
He also pointed out that the facility of "collect calls", a call whose charge is borne by the receiver, is frequently misused by some people in their neighbors' residences.
"The customers should be careful if a stranger comes to their house saying that he or she is waiting for a call because it might be a collect call," John said.
In the press conference, John said that the office would not accommodate formal complaints from customers whose telephone sets are not labeled by the office's research and development lab.
He also said that the office will not act on a complaint if Witel-IV officials find out that the customer's telephone set is a wireless telephone because the use of such telephone sets in Indonesia is not permitted.
"The office never gave any approval for the use of wireless telephones and the people who intend to change their telephone sets with another brand are required to report to us first," he said.
John said the number of complaints is still reasonable considering the fact that in 1989 only 283 complaints were registered out of 354,364 customers. In December of this year, with 898,603 customers, the number of complaints reached only 356 cases. (mas)