KARACHI: Complaints about voice messaging increase
By Our Staff Reporter
KARACHI, Feb 19: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company has been inundated with complaints about its voice messaging service.
Well-placed sources told Dawn that the computer system operating the voice messaging service of Karachi and Islamabad had been out of order for some time. They added that as a result a large number of subscribers using the voice messaging service had not been able to utilize the facility. They disclosed that the phone utility had not taken the trouble to inform its subscribers that the voice messaging service was not working.
A PTCL subscriber from Gulistan-i-Jauhar told Dawn that he had got the voice messaging service for his phone number 8113309. “The standard procedure is that a subscriber has to dial 198 to retrieve the messages that his phone might have recorded while he was away. Some time back, I used to get this message when I dialled 198 to retrieve the message: ‘Sorry, the voice messaging service has been temporarily disconnected.’ Afterwards, even this recorded message stopped, but the voice messaging service has not been restored.”
He added that this facility is utilitized primarily by those who did not have people at home to take down messages while they are away. That is why, he noted, this service is so important.
Another PTCL subscriber said the voice messaging service of his phone number 7238531 had also become out of order. He said it was beyond him why the PTCL was still charging him for the facility which had been out of order for quite some time.
Admitting that the voice messaging service has been out of order, PTCL officials said that repair work was in progress. “The phone utility is not only repair the voice messaging service but also offering incentives to those clients whose bills are always more than Rs3,000. For these clients, the PTCL has waived the facility activation charges.”
The PTCL subscriber from Gulistan-i-Jauhar said he had sought to get the voice messaging service restored by first approaching the customer service department of the phone utility. “I was informed by the telephone attendant that the voice messaging service is not handled by the PTCL. This was, indeed, a revelation, because I had paid the activation charges to the PTCL.”
The official sources conceded that at times the information provided by the customer services department was not very accurate.
