Costly movie tickets
I hold a First Gulf Bank (FGB) credit card. The first time I used this credit card, was to purchase movie tickets at Lamcy Plaza, Dubai, for Dh30 on May 30, 2014, as I was told that I had an offer of ‘Buy one, get one ticket free’ for cinema tickets.
I paid the amount on June 7. This appears in the statement generated by the bank for June 20.
I didn’t receive any statement for July.
The statement received for August again reflected this cinema transaction and two more transactions, which were not sought by me. The first was credit shield and the second was accident insurance. For these, I made a call to the bank’s customer care and they said they would remove the credit shield and accident insurance. But, on asking about the reflection of ticket purchases again, they said they would get back to me.
For September’s statement, received on September 20, the credit shield and accident insurance were still shown in my opening balance. There was a late payment fee of Dh250 and finance charges of Dh2.92 were levied. I sent an email and called customer care to remove these charges on August 25, but there has been no reply till date. Their customer care team says they don’t look at emails and reply to them, which is pathetic.
Thereon, from October, the bank is levying late payment fees, whereas they are unable to provide a solution till date.
I visited the bank branch twice to sort out this issue, but it was not of any use. Instead, I was asked to wait for a call from customer service, which was not able to provide any further help.
The total cost as per my last conversation with customer care, is Dh1,790, which is not at all feasible for a person who has spent Dh30 from a credit card.
As always, the customer care team is least concerned about getting back to me. I am really disappointed with the service level of FGB, as I have barely used the card and am going through mental harassment.
The bank is levying late payment charges, but it is not at all providing any customer service by calling or replying to emails. This is going from Dh30 to Dh1,790 and on and on.
From Mr Vikas Rampal Singh
Dubai
The management of First Gulf Bank responds:
FGB is grateful for all customer feedback to which we give careful consideration, as we strive to consistently deliver the highest standards of service. The bank has been in contact with Mr Singh, and informed him that the charges will be reversed within the next seven days.
(Process initiation: April 27, 2015. Response from organisation: May 3. Process completion: May 11.)
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.
