The 'efficiency' of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) can be gauged from the promptness of preparing bills and sending them to 'customers' who do not have telephone connection.
Way back in 2005, when PTCL had offered to provide telephone connections 'free of cost', Muhammad Nasrullah Khan, resident of H/No 793-A, Mahmoodabad Gate, Karachi, sent his request for the service.
However, he did not get any response from the Company and made efforts to know the reasons for the delay. Ultimately, he lost hope, and kept quiet. His subsequent calls to the company were also not responded. He has not been able to know the reason so far.
But , to his surprise, Nasrullah Khan received telephone bill for the month of February, amounting to Rs 1180, including Rs 945.49 arrears, asking for early payment or 'face disconnection' of his non-existent phone No 5804150-1, exchange 915-EWSD-D.H.S-II DGTL, connection type 01. The date of installation of the phone has been shown as January 27, 2006 and the customer ID as 169155804150.
However, there is another interesting situation, which needs to be looked into. The Company has advised its customers to call 17 in times of need. Usually, this number remains busy and the usual answer is 'Thank you for calling PTCL....'.
In most of the circumstances the line drops and if an operator bothers to attend he gives poor attention to what the callers is asking for. Those organisations that have changed their phone numbers are usually not recorded in the PTCL telephone directory and the operator gives only those numbers that have been either changed or disconnected. "Your required number is not in use" is another answer, which a customer gets.
The standard of politeness is another aspect of the operators' conduct, which adversely reflects on the overall personality of the PTCL.