Opinion | Letters
Your Complaints
Your Complaints
- Gulf News
- Published: 23:26 July 3, 2009
Rude air hostess
On April 18, I was flying on Emirates from Karachi to Dubai with two children. The flight was delayed by two-and-a-half hours due to a flat tyre. The air hostess on board was rude as she ordered me to shut off my phone. I had 45 minutes to send messages. I was shocked by the way a passenger was being treated by an air hostess and that also for no fault of my own. This was an unpleasant experience on Emirates for me.
From Ms Shazia Faisal
Dubai
Ms Allison Vouyoukas, Customer Affairs, Emirates airlines, responds: I regret to learn of the inconvenience Ms Faisal experienced due to the delay of the flight from Karachi to Dubai on April 18.
Our Daily Operational Report confirms that this flight incurred a delay of 2 hours and 3 minutes due to technical difficulties. Although every effort is made to achieve on-time departures, which is an integral part of our product, there are occasions when flights are delayed due to circumstances beyond our control. Flights are only operated when our engineers tell us that it is safe to do so. Emirates will never compromise on the safety of our passengers and crew.
Our cabin crew did their utmost to alleviate discomfort to our passengers, whilst waiting on ground, on board the aircraft. During this delay, a full hot meal service was carried out in the Business class cabin, where she and her children were seated, and there were continuous updates from the captain via the public announcements.
It is therefore, disheartening to learn that a cabin crew member behaved in an unprofessional manner with her when she was using her mobile phone. May I assure her that rudeness of staff members is not tolerated and that we take a serious view of such incidents. We expect our staff members to always deal with passengers in a friendly and professional manner, which she, as our customer, has every right to expect.
The senior manager concerned has been informed of this and will take steps to ensure that such a thing does not happen again.
We do hope this unfortunate experience will not deter her from travelling with us and that we may have the pleasure of welcoming her on board our flights again.
ATM charges
This is to inform you about the charges the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has decided to apply on withdrawal from non-RBS ATMs. A letter to notify customers about the charges reached me on April 14, while the charges have been applicable from April 1. This is clearly not right on the bank's part, as they need to have planned that the customers are notified well in advance. I would kindly request Gulf News to take up this issue with the bank so that the charges on the ATM withdrawal be reversed.
From Ms Vidya Gopalakrishnan
Abu Dhabi
Ms Heather McPhail, Public Relations Manager, The Royal Bank of Scotland, responds: We can confirm that our schedule of charges was updated and effective as of April 1, 2009 and letters informing our clients of this change were posted on the March 9 and 10, 2009. We have contacted our client following your [Gulf News] email and informed her that a communication was sent to her post office box and we have had confirmation from Empost that the client letters were delivered.
However, as a service gesture, we have advised our client that we will reverse any ATM switch fee levied on her account until the receipt of this letter, which she claims was received on April 14, 2009.
It is important to note that we continue reviewing the benefits we provide our customers to serve them better. The use of non-RBS ATMs involves a cost for the bank and it is not possible for us to continue providing this service without fees. All of our customers continue to enjoy unlimited free transactions on our ATMs and the RBS ATM card also serve as debit cards that can be used free of charge for making payments across 35,000 merchant outlets in the UAE and over 125,000 outlets in the GCC. Our client is satisfied with this resolution.
High interest rate
At a time when everybody is seeking ways of helping small enterprises, Mashreq bank is achieving the opposite by nearly doubling, to 3 per cent, the commission charged to small retailers on their customers' Visa and Mastercard transactions. The justification for this huge increase is unclear. It seems banks can arbitrarily increase charges or interest as they see fit. The UAE Central Bank should check all banks' tariff increases to ensure that customers are being treated fairly. Furthermore, consideration should be given to opening credit card processing business to foreign banks, telephone and IT companies to drive down prices.
From Mr David May
Dubai
Editor's note: The complaint was forwarded to Mashreq bank for comments. However, despite repeated reminders, its management failed to respond.
If you have any similar consumer service complaints, let us know at: readers@gulfnews.com
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