PESHAWAR, May 17: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has become a nuisance for its subscribers across the province, many of its clients told Dawn on Thursday.

“I haven’t received the bill for the month of April but my telephone line has been disconnected on account of non-payment of the bill. It is embarrassing because the PTCL had yet to devise an authentic bill distribution system despite the fact that telephone charges were being raised every now and then,” said a person in the University Town area.

He said he received his telephone bills routinely from a nearby shopkeeper, who, under the law, was not supposed to deliver the bills to the subscribers; but the PTCL staffers left the bills without ensuring that these reached the subscribers. As a result, he added, the consumers ran from post to pillar to find their bills.

The ordeal of the subscribers is multiplied when they contact the customer service centres of the PTCL to locate their missing bills and deposit the due money. Another subscriber said: “It takes almost three to five days to get one’s bill located.” He said he had deposited the amount of his bill for the month of April, but after the passage of six days the authorities were yet to make his telephone functional.

The bill distribution system of the PTCL has become an albatross around the necks of the subscribers across the province. In villages and remote areas, the people have to visit the telephone offices on daily basis to locate their bills, deposit the due amount in banks and get their telephone lines reconnected.

Not only the bill distribution system but getting new connection has also become a Herculean task for the people. The PTCL never tires of claiming to give new connections to the people within 24 hours but the subscribers argue that it wasn’t possible even in 24 days, let alone as many hours.

“I applied for a new telephone connection on Feb 18 this year and deposited the money the same day. I visited the Khyber exchange which was supposed to give me connection, but to no avail. Then, somehow, I managed to get telephone installed at my home but that took 45 days,” said another subscriber.

The PTCL claim of reduction in the charges for new connection, he further said, was incorrect because one had to pay Rs2,200 without set. Previously, he pointed out, the new applicants had to pay about Rs2,800 to get connection along with telephone set. “So, in real terms, there is no reduction in the fee as claimed by the PTCL.”

The list of the PTCL shortcomings is lengthy, as many subscribers claim that they were made to pay for the calls in the bills which they never made.