I hold a current account at Emirates Islamic Bank’s (EIB) Jebel Ali Branch. I opened a salary account in June 2017 and started depositing money into the account. I had been using the debit card to make transactions. Recently, I paid an amount of Dh10,000 for my children’s education fees through the debit card on August 7, for which the bank sent me a message and the balance in the account was Dh10,532.45.

After that, I shopped at a hypermarket and a few other stores on the following days, for which, I received messages from the bank. On August 16, I deposited Dh2,000 as we had house rent and some other utilities to pay for, but to my surprise, the message I received was for only Dh2,495, even though I was supposed to have Dh12,495 in total. When I called the bank’s hotline number, I checked my last five transactions through the voice message and there was no record of Dh10,000 being deducted. When I spoke with the agent, I was told that I had made two transactions in the school, whereas I just made one transaction for which I received a message on August 7, 2017. However, she said that the same amount of Dh10,000 had been debited from my account as well as from the school, and I had not received the message about it from the bank. To my shock, she said if I needed to place the case under dispute, it would take up to 140 days to get the amount reimbursed. When I spoke with the call centre supervisor on the same evening, he checked and said that it was a duplicate transaction and someone from the bank would call me in the morning to follow up further and that it should not take long to get this sorted.

The next morning, I got a call from customer service and the agent advised me to go the school and sort this out with them as they had made a double transaction. He advised me of the two authorisation codes as well. When I went to the school, I was surprised to see that the authorisation code given to me by the representative was actually a terminal number and the other was the authorisation code, which was genuine.

When I called him back, it took me 15-20 minutes to reach him, as the call centre told me that it was a big floor and they couldn’t trace the person I was looking for. After waiting for 15 minutes, when I connected with the representative and told him that the authorisation code that was given by him was actually the terminal number, he said that this is how it was appearing in the bank system. I then made him talk to the school accountants, however, after wasting half a day, I called him back.

This representative made me speak with another representative. Initially, she was not very helpful and I could sense some rude behaviour. She said that it is a procedure and I would have to wait. She said she would call me back and let me know about the status of my complaint. I then received a callback from the bank and was told that if I need to pursue this case further, I should go to the branch, get the statement with the stamp from the branch and then file a case at a police station and bring the police case number to the bank to have the result in 140 days. Why should I suffer when the transaction has taken place without my authorisation, especially when the bank’s system is showing the wrong authorisation code? Also, I received no message received from the bank for the second transaction.

I would appreciate if my case could be heard, as it has hurt me, and I need to pay my house rent and my children’s education fees for the semester starting in September, otherwise I will not be able to travel for Eid to see my elderly parents back home.

From Mr Mohammad Umer Khan

Dubai

The management of Emirates Islamic Bank responds:

Thank you for bringing Mr Khan’s concerns to our attention. Our Customer Experience team has been in touch with Mr Khan regarding a disputed transaction on his debit card. Our team assisted him on an expedited basis and the funds have been credited to his account within seven days. The issue has been resolved to his satisfaction. We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that Emirates Islamic is committed to providing the best customer experience to all our clients.

(Process initiation: August 27. Response from organisation: September 7. Process completion: September 12)

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