Automated error
I have a credit card and account with Standard Chartered Bank since the past 20 years. I had given clear instructions to the bank to deduct the credit card’s due amount from my existing account.
In my latest account statement, I saw that I had been debited over Dh500 as interest and late payment for the due charge of Dh285.
I complained about it on February 13, and they told me that because my due date was a Friday (not a working day), the amount was not automatically debited and the same would be reversed within two working days.
After that, someone from the bank called me and said the instructions had been cancelled. After giving an explanation, I was told that they would get back to me.
I checked again, after that phone call, by dialling the toll free number and a customer service representative informed me that the instructions are always active.
Since the past 10 days, I have been calling the bank every day but there has no response from any of the concerned persons. Furthermore, I have voice recordings of my phone call to them, which clearly has them saying that the standing instructions are active. But till date, they are calling me and saying that the instructions were only valid till December 31, 2013, even after forwarding them the recorded evidence. The auto debit instructions were never withdrawn by me.
We customers give instructions to auto debit in order to have some peace of mind, but this is what happens.
From Mr Kishore Bhatia
Dubai
The management of Standard Chartered Bank responds:
Upon receiving the complaint, our customer care unit contacted the customer and the issue is now resolved.
Mr Bhatia responds:
Sincere gratitude to Gulf News for addressing the issue on my behalf. I got a prompt reply from the bank and the delayed issue was eventually resolved.
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