Telkomflict! Prequel

… so, instead of continuing the story and telling you about how my internet situation has gotten better, let’s back track and talk about my experience in Semarang a few days ago. I’ve been living in Indonesia for just over two months now and have gained a pretty strong self-confidence in my language ability. However, once I was on my own and was taking care of business in a big city, while I didn’t exactly resemble a chicken with it’s head cut off, I found out pretty quickly that my self confidence had developed a bit prematurely.

My first stop, and what I thought would be my only stop, was the Telkomsel headquarters, GraPARI, in Semarang (where I was told all my problems would be solved). After walking in to the building and after being placed in the queue, I gave a huge sigh of relief because I could just sit there, relax, wait for a representative to help me, and then buy the proper cell phone to grant me access to the internet! As I waited, I watched a soccer match and chatted with some others who were sitting close. But, as I noticed more details about my surroundings, I started to become acutely aware that I would not be able to buy a cell phone here. I remembered finding it odd when I saw no merchandise on display upon entering the building, and then, after talking to a couple people, my doubts were confirmed. This was only a service center. That was fine though; I had all day, and I figured that before I bought a phone I should get some professional advice anyway.

Once my number was called, I spoke with a Telkomsel rep, and we had no real problems understanding each other; she basically just gave directions to where I should buy my phone. And of course, I probably could have guessed that the directions would be to the huge mall down the street. It was a little hike, but no big deal, so just I left and headed towards Mal Ciputra. I wasted some time in a few stores, just looking around (melihat-lihat), before I made it into one of the many cell phone shops. I had a few specific questions and some new technical vocabulary in my arsenal, which I had learned from the woman at GraPARI. I could now use that to my advantage for buying a phone, and I wasn’t really worried about making this semi-large purchase by myself. I asked the salesman a few questions about a particular phone I was looking at, and he gave me only positive responses, so I decided that it would be the one!

Well, rather than saying, “No, this phone does not have that feature,” or even “I’m sorry, could you repeat that? I don’t understand your broken Indonesian,” the salesman gave me a resounding “Yes” to everything I asked. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and attribute this misunderstanding to the reasons that I gave in my last blog entry – Indonesians do not want to disappoint. He saw that I liked this phone and just couldn’t stand to be the bearer of bad news and let me know that,

“No, this phone does not have GPRS Flash capability. You will have to buy another phone.”

Or, it could have been that he understood me just fine, but since his shift was almost over, he certainly would not have wanted to lose the last sale of the day. But, surely… surely, something like that would never happen in Indonesia! 

Anyway, I made it back to the Telkomsel service center, where they were supposed to configure my phone for the internet, and of course, after waiting patiently and unknowlingly in another 45-minute queue, I was told that this task would be impossible. I would need to purchase a different phone.

Now, having gone shopping in this country a few times before, I was already aware that the return policies here aren’t quite what they are at BestBuy. So, bearing in mind that I had just bought a $150 phone, a slight sense of panic began to set in. This time on the way back to Mal Ciputra, I walked a bit more quickly.

Luckily, resale value in this country is notably higher than in the US, and people aren’t worried about making large profit margins on used items, so when I went to exchange my phone, I only lost $20, about 13%. That might seem shitty, considering I had bought the phone only an hour and a half previous, but during the walk there, I had fully anticipated losing at least $50 with this transaction, so I was actually in a pretty good mood. I just bit the bullet, bought the more expensive phone, lost a little cash, and walked back to GraPARI. This walk was much less pleasant than any of the previous three though. Not only did I have a completely justified lack of confidence about this phone actually being “the one,” but I was also nearing the completion of my eighth kilometer… in 80¢ flip flops. This time, as well as being worried about throwing away large sums of money, I was becoming aware of the blisters forming on my feet. I hate you, Mal Ciputra.

But back at the service center, and after yet another 45-minute queue, I was placed at the desk of my 3rd Telkomsel rep for the day. She was the only person with whom I was able to speak English all morning and afternoon, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. We finished configuring my phone pretty quickly, and I was ready to go home. However, I had to wait another hour for my ride to arrive. Even still, after getting the phone situation under control, and even after having dealt with telecommunications people for 7 hours straight, I was still looking forward to just sitting back in the GraPARI waiting room, in the air conditioning, watching the rest of the soccer match that was on TV.

But guess what. It was closing time.

I called my ride to let them know that I could no longer meet them at our previously specified location, and when we worked out a new meeting place, guess which “close” well-known landmark was the rendezvous of choice…