Unpleasant experience with Telkom-Speedy

I had another issue with my internet at home at the beginning of the month.  This was not the first time I have had trouble with Speedy since it was set up just a little over a month ago.  So I called 147 which is a telephone support, and talked to a Customer Service Representative.  They told me that my internet was blocked because of a past due balance on the Speedy invoice for May which technically was my first invoice.  I was startled to hear that since I assumed that the Speedy balance should have been paid with the regular Telkom bill.  I pulled the invoice again to see if I missed any fine prints that stated a different way to pay Speedy. Null!  All I noticed there was only one invoice number for both phone and speedy account, and a total due at the bottom for both services.  All usage for phone and speedy internet access were also listed on one page.  However, our bank has already debited my telephone charges on time. 

Being a new customer to Speedy, I was not aware that the phone and internet should have been paid separately.  In other words, you need to register or authorize either ATM or the bank in order to pay the Speedy account.  It doesn’t automatically get deducted from your bank account along with your home phone.  Although this can be seen as a secure way to ensure no fraudulent in payments, this creates inconvenience for us as new customers.  Because of the past due balance, a late fee was forcedly added onto my account and my internet was blocked until they received payment. 

Since it was a Saturday night when I called 147, I had to wait until Monday to resolve this issue personally at Plaza Telkom since it could not be done over the phone.  This issue with Telkom or Speedy really took a lot of our time away from other things.  Not only we had to spend the time to drive over there, but also we had to wait in line and spent much more gas, which unfortunately has raised its price recently.  Fortunately, we only had to wait for one customer before we were called in to one of the customer service desks.  Unfortunately, she was a trainee and did not really help much when I explained to her the reason of my visit.  I described to her in details that I just wanted to pay for the past due balance, and about the internet being blocked, and the service charge that I was unwilling to pay.  Not to mention the amount that was charged on May invoice which was for April internet usage was totally incorrect.  Instead of being invoiced for 1 day usage, I was charged for a 7 day usage.  That was a total difference of over Rp. 70,000 that was not supposed to be my responsibility.  Yes, the technician was supposed to install the modem on the 22^nd of April but no one has ever come to set it up.  I had to make several calls to 147 to find out the status of the installation, and someone finally called and scheduled for the last day of April to install the modem. 

Back at the Plaza Telkom, I became impatience to wait on the resolution.  I stated to the trainee again that all I needed was to pay the past due balance without the fee so that my internet can run again.  She consulted first with the lady at the front who might have been her supervisor or a senior staff.  Both the trainee and the senior staff just tried to lecture me again and again on what I should have done instead of what solution they could offer to me to resolve this issue at this time.  Then the trainee went to see her manager inside and came back only to tell me that I could make the payment for the correct balance but still needed to pay for the late fee.  I was furious.  I asked to speak to her Manager.

There inside the Manager’s office, I was greeted by a young lady who asked me what brought me to her.  I looked at her and I could see her pretense of not knowing the problem.  Or perhaps she just wanted to know my side of the story so I reluctantly repeated what I have told 3 different staff at Plaza Telkom, and told her that I just wanted to pay the correct balance without the fee.  To my disappointment, instead of directly offering a solution to my favor, like the other staff who sat with me earlier, she repeatedly lectured what I should have done and why there was a late fee.  My brain was really fried.  I am not the kind of person who like to be lectured 3-4 times for things I am totally aware of now.  My dad also intervened on the conversation and she still tried to lecture us about the issue.  No solution was offered yet.  I almost lost my temper and told her that if she wanted to make this issue more complicated, I should have asked them to cover my gas and mileage, although I was only bluffing because I knew that they would not do that.  She became angry and started to yell at us.  So what kind of customer service is that? She finally agreed to remove the late fee this time, without forgetting to lecture us again about paying on time for the next invoice (yeah, like we would not do it).  This issue should have just taken 10 minutes top of my time, but because of the incompetence and impassionate of the staff, I wasted about an hour with them. 

What did I learn from this experience?

1.   Never trust invoice from Telkom or Speedy.  Always review your invoice to ensure the charges are correct, especially for the first month. 

2.   Staff needs better training in order to provide higher lever or customers’ satisfaction.

3.   Always ask details what you don’t know.  Do not make assumptions and feel that your questions are just being silly!

This also applies to other invoices, not only from Telkom or Speedy.  I hope this blog will help you avoid to be in a similar situation like I was.