Unauthorised charges
I hope you can help me resolve the issue regarding the cancellation of my credit card with Dubai First. Last August, I was approached by one of the staff at Dubai First saying that she has a quota target for each month and she badly needs customers to fill in her target. She told me that once I receive the credit card, I will get a welcome gift with a watch worth Dh1,000 and vouchers and so on. Once I had given my contact details, there were no days and hours that she would not call or send texts to get the requirements and to meet up to get signatures, and so on. I gave in and the credit card was issued. After that, I tried to get in touch with her to ask for the gift that I was promised, but she did not respond to any emails or calls. I decided not to activate the credit card, hence, it has not been used. I was surprised to receive an SMS and an email from Dubai First, stating that I have an outstanding amount of Dh400 for the annual fee. I tried to call the helpdesk, but was told that I could only cancel the credit card once the annual fee was settled. I cannot believe that the annual fee has to be paid on the first month of an inactive credit card. I tried to call the bank agent again who signed me up for the card, but she started raising her voice and treated me like I was a beggar who could not afford to pay the annual fee. I filed a complaint to Dubai First for her attitude as well.
From Ms Cherrie Ann Paterno
Abu Dhabi
The management of Dubai First responds:
Kindly note that customer issue was raised to us on September 24, 2013 and immediately we started investigating. The customer’s card was cancelled and all charges were reversed based on the customer request on October 3. We contacted the customer again and she is now aware that the card has been cancelled. The customer is fine now and it has been confirmed that there is no other issue.
Ms Paterno responds:
Yes, the issue has been resolved.
Unwelcome charges
We are very old customers of Emirates NBD – privileged customers at that. I hold a supplementary debit card with the bank, the primary debit card holder being my husband. On July 31, 2013 our current account was charged with four transactions; two of Dh1,236.49 each and two of Dh20 each. These were fraudulent transactions incurred in Thailand on my debit card while I was here in Dubai. On my complaint, the bank refunded the two transactions of Dh1,236.49 on September 10. However, despite repeated reminders, the balance for two transactions of Dh20 each (a total of Dh40) have not yet been refunded. All my reminders to the bank in this regard are not even acknowledged. I agree it is a small amount, but at the same time I feel that the bank has no right to keep any amount of a customer.
I request Gulf News’ intervention to sort this out. It is a matter of principle.
From Mrs Gopa Dutta
Dubai
The management of Emirates NBD responds:
We are pleased to inform that our Group Customer Experience team has been in touch with Mrs Dutta and has settled the matter to her satisfaction. We wish to clarify that the amount of Dh40 that was charged as international transaction fees on the two fraudulent transactions has been reversed to the customer’s account.
We have offered Mrs Dutta our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused, and assured her of our best services at all times.
We would like to thank Gulf News for your interest in Emirates NBD and for offering us the opportunity to better serve our valued customers.
Mrs Dutta responds:
I am pleased to inform that this issue has been resolved. Emirates NBD has credited the amount to my account. I profusely thank Gulf News for all its help.
Money lost
I bought a Samsung Galaxy Grand on April 4, 2013, since I have two mobile phone numbers and the phone allows dual SIM cards. One is my workplace number, which is a billing number, and the other is pre-paid.
I inserted both the SIM cards in the evening and plugged in the phone for charging. The next morning, I woke up, checked my phone and saw a message stating that my phone has reached the limit of Dh1,000. I was shocked and removed the billing SIM card and input it in an old mobile phone that I had.
I made a complaint with etisalat at the Al Qusais office in Al Twar Centre.
They told me to switch my account to hard cap [allowing data to be disconnected once the data included in the package is consumed] and I got it done. They said they will get back to me in two weeks. I called to follow up several times but no result.
Please advise me what I should do to get back the money that I lost due to no fault of mine. The company that I work for has deducted the amount from my salary.
From Mr Savio Gama Rose
Dubai
Editor’s note: The complaint was forwarded to the management of etisalat for comments. However, despite repeated reminders, they failed to respond.
If you have similar consumer complaints and wish to raise them with the newspaper, contact us via email at readers@gulfnews.com
