The column for anyone fed up with bureaucracy, frustrated with delays or furious with poor service. Tell us your complaint and we'll try to fix it ... Chris Wilson of Lantau was outraged when a debt-collection agency started calling his home after he and his wife refused to pay One World Telecom $142 in late charges for an original unpaid $2. 'My wife subscribed to the One World Telecom service last year to take advantage of a so-called promotional offer so she could make cheaper international telephone calls to her family in the Philippines,' he wrote. 'After receiving a bill which was almost one-third more expensive than PCCW and arguing at the audacity of OWT to actually charge us for the privilege of printing the bill, we decided to stop using their service and paid what we thought was the outstanding amount. 'We then received a further bill for $2 and another charge for the bill itself and a staggering $20 charge for late payment. I refused to pay charges for late payment so the original $2 that they say we owed has climbed to an unbelievable $140. 'After repeated telephone calls to the OWT customer services department over the past seven months asking them for statements to show how we owed $2 and to ask if it is reasonable to keep adding these exorbitant charges, we still have not received any written statement. 'The final straw came after the start of some very threatening, abusive and intimidating telephone calls from a debt-collection agency promising to visit my home [two weeks ago]. This has worried my wife so much that it has started to affect her health. I am astonished that a business in Hong Kong can behave like this.' One World head office said the original $2 ballooned to $142 because it was company policy to charge $20 a month on late payments, regardless of the amount owed. 'It is our policy to collect all unpaid debts and late payments,' a One World Telecom office manager said. But she promised the penalty charges had been capped at $140. 'There will be no further late charges.' Bhagyasheel R. Sartape of Sha Tin believes racism exists at the US consulate in Hong Kong - 'otherwise, why do Indians who are financially sound, own their own businesses, are well-educated and resident in Hong Kong get rejected for visas to the US? 'It has happened to me and many of my friends. After proving our incomes, getting letters from companies and banks, and even invitation letters from business associates in the US, we are just looked at and rejected. 'We do not want to be tourists or settle in the US, but go for business meetings. And yet our intelligence is insulted by excuse after excuse to reject an application. If we prove one point, the officers come up with another. And they charge $800 per application, not refundable. Also, they put a chop on the passport that the visa was rejected, which makes it more difficult to get a visa to another country. When I try to complain about this, there is no one who can help. This has gone on for years.' A US consulate spokesman told us he could not comment on individual cases, but that as a matter of policy, all visa applicants were treated courteously. According to US law, all applicants have to prove to the interviewing officer that they are not intending immigrants. The consulate does put a stamp in the applicant's passport indicating the application was received at a certain place and time. Other countries do this as well. The stamp does not prevent the applicant from being issued a US visa at a later time. A Post reader and landscape designer felt patrolling police officers subjected him to unnecessary humiliation during a routine ID card check in front of his neighbours. He did not wish to disclose his name. 'On my way to work on August 16 at 9.15am, at the corner of Elgin and Staunton streets in Central, three officers from the emergency unit stopped me and asked me for identification,' he wrote. 'Aware that this was a normal procedure, I willingly obliged. Then I was asked to empty the contents of my work bag in the middle of the busy street, and I was asked to take out my laptop computer and turn it on. 'I asked the officer if we could step aside, but he insisted that we carry on right there. I felt belittled that morning and bullied.' Police said it was a routine stop and search and it was done appropriately. 'Your correspondent was intercepted by a team of three police officers for a stop and search during, which a laptop computer was found in his possession. 'He was asked to operate the computer to prove it was his.'
