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BALI LIVING STORIES & ESSAYS |
2. SILVIA'S STORY
Here´s the story of
an Expatriat, living for many years in Bali:
I had a
similar story going, fortunately, I have a telephone line at
my home, so after all costly, and time-consuming trials and
disappointments I could at least get back to the expensive "Telkomnet"
dial up connection…
Literally,
all of us expats, as well as an increasing part of the local
population living on this island, share the same problem, and
hours and hours have been spent talking about ways to improve
the situation, and trying to find out about alternatives to
the not only poor, but also expensive internet services being
provided. We all want to stay in touch with our friends and
families abroad, some of us are running businesses, some just
want to surf the internet in their leisure time, get the latest
international news, stay connected with the pulse of time. Not
to talk about the advantages of being able to access such great
opportunities as internet telephone, messenger services and
such...
As a matter
of fact for all of these purposes it is unavoidable that one
has a reliable, reasonably quick, and last but not least, affordable
way to connect to the World Wide Web.
It seems
hard to comprehend why this is, up to now, just not possible
on this island. After all, Bali is not a remote place at the
very edge of the globe, but has been a famous tourist destination
for many decades. Everybody is talking about encouraging foreign
investment. I wonder if the people dealing with the communication
sector of this country are aware that the use of internet is
not a luxury item for some elite people but comes down to being
a basic need for everybody these days if one does not wish to
be left behind. It could be assumed that the government does
not have a great deal of interest in keeping the society well
informed and up to date…a price that certainly will have
to be paid by the upcoming generation, not being compatible
in the future or even today’s market.
We all
know how cheap it is for our friends and families in the West
to access the World Wide Web and we envy them for that. If now
somebody says – Indonesia is a poor country and cannot
be compared, let me put an example of another poor country –
Brazil. Their government is well aware of the needs of modern
life and provides their jobless people with 3 hours of free
use of internet per week in order to be able to stay up to date,
find a job, keep in touch …
Here is
my personal story –
After being
sick of using "Telkomnet" dial up which sometimes
reminds me of having a money box besides my computer where I
constantly have to throw in coins (more for waiting actually
than for being connected – some call that „world
wide waiting“…) I decided to get in contact with
some companies offering broadband connection. The speed they
promise was of course tempting, but honestly, their prices are
not at all affordable for me. We are talking about some serious
cash, 3, 5 Mio Rupiahs per month, i.e. about 350 U$...
My next
try was "Flexi". They offered an, although not faster,
but at least cheaper connection than Telkomnet, so I wanted
to give it a try. At least the waiting would be less expensive,
I thought…
Here came
the one and only specialist from Flexi, somehow I must have
repressed his name… to install that Flexi phone that should
be used as a modem. Or let’s say at least he tried so…Equipped
with a cheap brand no name on it CD and a rather screwed up
sheet of paper he started to work on my PC. Out of obvious reasons
I would not let him touch my laptop…First of all he rearranged
my desktop icons the way he thought they had to be... made comments
on my installed programs which he thought were too many…
until finally he started his attempts to install the software.
After many unsuccessful trials and getting aware that he knew
close to nothing about computers I took over. Anyway, the software
he brought did not fit my system and the data he had been provided
with by his company were not complete. I had to run a system
recovery when he left after 2 hours…
Besides
of appointments being cancelled from his side without prior
notice, keeping me waiting, then again showing up unannounced,
we played that same game for 3 more times…in total nearly
2 weeks…..calls to Java did not help either, until I finally
decided to stop that mission. As he was a friendly enough guy
I did feel a bit sorry for him that after all the time he spent
he did not get his commission on selling one of his Flexi phones,
but honestly, I just could not stand to spend another half day
watching that guy playing around with my computer’s settings
and witnessing his helpless trials to install a software that
just was not right for my system (XP) …I had to send him
off and could not hold back to advise him to achieve a more
professional approach if he wanted to stay in business…besides
of that I had information from friends till then that were not
happy at all with their Flexi connection…
The next
story was the "Matrix" . Rumors came up that we can
now connect via mobile or a special gprs modem, which I was
stupid enough to buy for 1, 8 Mio.(190 U$), eager to finally
be independent with my laptop. Matrix offered a "Flat Rate"
package for as little as 200.000. - Rp. + tax per month for
a non-stop 24 hours access. That sounded good. Finally, we got
it, decent price, and independence. Everybody was happy. At
least since everybody tried to get online, which was hardly
ever possible…not enough bandwidth? Wanting to sell more
than they have in their box? Looking for a quick profit? Sounds
familiar…Disappointed I cancelled the package and opted
for a pay per download agreement, which was then offered at
10 Rp. per kb. Only a few days after I signed that contract
I recieved a letter informing me that the price had gone up
to 15 Rp. per kb…
Back to
dial up again ;-(
Here comes
Indosat with their new, air-conditioned, and rather modern looking
office in Singaraja. The employees look neat and clean in their
colorful Indosat costumes, and after all the filthy offices
I have seen in this country over the years, filled with employees
that look either bored to death or somehow just too eager to
get into business…I could not avoid to get the feeling
of an atmosphere of trust and liability…Well, I should
have known better by now that the outer shell does not mean
anything…
Their offer
is IM2. A dial up connection, which they promote for 3.250 Rp.
per hour, proudly telling the customer that the price is only
a third of Telkomnet. Packages with various prices as well as
prepaid cards are available. So you can, for example, have 70
hours of internet connection for 200.000. Rp. + tax. Fair enough,
I thought. As it seemed rather cheap to me I wanted to make
sure, that there are no extra dial up costs on top of it. I
asked that at least 3 times to the employee at the Indosat office.
And I am fluent in Indonesian. Ibu Dewi repeatedly confirmed
the price, even telling to one of my friends that IM2 had made
a special deal with telkom about the dial up cost and everything
was included…
One of
my friends popped in one of those days and as usual we exchanged
experiences about “the internet”…He also used
IM2 services for a month and he warned me that he had received
an outrageously high telephone bill for the last month. As the
internet was so cheap… he used it quite a bit. I got alarmed.
Then my telephone bill came and I was shocked. I went to Telkom
office to get a print out. One number appeared repeatedly and
after some serious talk… the employee of telkom was finally
able find out that the number was from IM2…I found out
that on top of the price for the contract with IM2 a surcharge
of 100 Rp. per minute for telephone costs had to be paid. After
all, it costs more or less the same than using Telkomnet that
is slightly faster…
I went
to Indosat. I was loaded with frustration and anger, which I
tried to hold down as not to lose face…Politely I explained
the situation to the same employee of Indosat, Ibu Dewi, that
I made the contract with, and all I earned was one of her charming
smiles. “But you have told me, that there will be no other
costs…” “Yes”, she simply answered.
And smiled.
Then she
took up the phone and called the Indosat central for information
on the costs. “Yes there are telephone costs on top.”
“Why didn't you inform me about that in a proper way?”
Another of her smiles…I started feeling that I was rather
dealing with a sphinx more than with a representative of Indosat...
I avoided to ask her how many packages she had already sold
to other customers without even knowing the correct price….I
did not even get an excuse for the wrong information and the
costs that were caused to me…If that would have happened
in my country of origin I would have brought them to court.
3 months after I cancelled the contract I am still getting bills…
Back to
Telkomnet by now. Still waiting for the modern times to finally
reach the worldwide famous island of Bali…
Silvia.
