Reverse amount

I am a loyal customer of RAKBANK for the past five years and have been making payments without any delay towards my credit card. But in October 2014, I got a call from RAKBANK about RAKValues and was informed about the benefits and charges. Also, they explained that I could cancel the same at any time. I thought it would be beneficial for me and agreed to use the option. Once the option was activated, I went through the offers given in the RAKValues program. But unfortunately, none of the offers were suitable.

In the meantime, Dh59 was debited from my card. I called the bank and asked to cancel the option. The customer service executive told me that the service will be cancelled within two days and asked me to confirm the same by calling the bank later. But I didn’t call back because I didn’t receive any SMS whenever making payments through the bank’s credit card. I then understood that the option was cancelled. Yet, the amount debited from my card was not reversed.

When I sent an email to the bank asking for the amount to be reversed for the service I hadn’t used, I got a reply that “We regret to inform you that as per the bank policy and procedure we are unable to reverse the charges debited towards RAKValue”. After that, I got a call from their complaints section on November 25, 2014, and they said they reviewed the call and they couldn’t reverse the charges.

I would like to request Gulf News to take up this issue to the concerned authorities and to reverse the amount debited from my credit card.

From Mr R. Chandra Sekar

Sharjah

Mr Ian Hodges, Head of Retail Banking — RAKBANK, repsonds:

Mr Sekar was enrolled for RAKValue on his Credit Card after his consent was obtained over the telephone on October 16, 2014. As per the call records, our staff had informed him about the features of the service, chargeable at Dh59 per month.

The customer was de-enrolled from the service on October 30, 2014, based on his telephonic request placed with the bank.

We have contacted Mr Sekar and clarified that the service was enrolled with applicable charges based on his consent. On an exceptional basis, the charges have been reversed to his Card. We will be glad to provide any further clarification as required.

Mr Sekar responds:

I wish to inform you [Gulf News] that on December 7, 2013, I got a call from RAKBANK regarding the reversal of RAKValue charges. They informed me that they will reverse the charges as this was an exceptional case. I then received my credit card statement and found the amount was credited on December 7.

I wish to thank Gulf News for the effort and time taken to help me in this issue.

(Process initiation: December 5, 2014. Response from organisation: December 7, 2014. Process completion: December 25, 2014.

Editor’s note: Do you have similar issues that you would like to raise with us? You can write to us at readers@gulfnews.com.)