Since I am a golfer, I was interested in a card that offers golfing facilities. Mashreq Bank representatives offered me their Solitaire credit card with free golf facilities, hence I got this card after the payment of a Dh1,500 fee, which I found exorbitant. A couple of months later, I was told that there was a change in policy and a minimum spend of Dh5,000 had been imposed in order to use the services to play golf, that too, for only once a month. I would have to pay Dh10,000 for a higher frequency. The increase in the spending cap to avail golf services was not communicated to me through any notification. Hence, I was unaware that golf services could be utilised only if I met the revised spending cap criteria.

The communication from the bank has been very poor and I have sent them emails twice saying that this approach is unethical. They have not responded to any of my emails.

Also, Mashreq Bank never sends an alert for any small balance to be paid to avoid penalty. Their tendency is to wait till a customer makes a mistake, and then they fine them Dh399. I have paid this penalty twice in quick succession, which could have been easily avoided if an alert was sent through.

Can the bank explain the reasons for this unethical behaviour in the name of customer service, and why they are not responding to my emails at all?

From Mr Brij Mohan Bansal

Dubai

The management of Mashreq Bank responds:

Firstly, Mashreq takes pride in quick and transparent problem resolution. We regret to confirm that we are not in receipt of the customer’s previous emails. Our conversation with him clarified that his secretary had sent Mr Bansal’s concerns to an automated email box used by the bank to dispatch eStatements and not as a channel of communication. We have now advised him to approach us via Mashreq Online, our 24X7 Call Centre or by visiting any of our branches for speedy response and resolution.

Secondly, the Mashreq Solitaire Credit Card is our most premium card offering, that offers a suite of lifestyle benefits, one of which is complimentary golf at specific golf courses in the UAE.

Additionally, customers get rewards points worth Dh1,650 when they apply for the card and pay the annual fee of Dh1,500 in rewards points on all domestic and international spends, dining discounts, complimentary travel insurance and free access to over 500 airport lounges. These features are offered to encourage customers to use this card for spends, thus making it mutually beneficial. We’d like to add that with the exception of the golf benefit, none of the others are linked to a minimum level of spend.

You would appreciate that as a bank we do reserve the right to modify the benefits or terms and conditions of our products and services from time to time, keeping product viability in mind.

The requirement of a minimum spend requirement on the Solitaire card for the golf benefit was thus introduced to ensure our customers who use the card frequently are fairly placed when it comes to usage of benefits. Mr Bansal has used this facility on five occasions from October 2015 to January 2016 and we hope he will continue to use it, even with the addition of a small spends criteria.

Lastly, our customers are given more than three weeks from the statement generation date to pay on the due date, to ensure timely monthly payments.

Our eStatement are dispatched regularly to all customers advising them of payments due. In addition, the statements can be viewed online by logging to Mashreq Online or by calling our 24X7 call centre.

We do take pride in our transparency and service and it gives us no pleasure to see our customers inconvenienced. We would like to inform Mr Bansal that in line with his suggestion, Mashreq will soon start sending SMS twice to customers by end of June 2016, once the bill is generated, and a reminder just before the due date.

In addition, we are glad to confirm that as a gesture of goodwill, we will reverse the late payment fee of Dh395 to Mr Bansal’s card.

We have taken the liberty of contacting Mr Bansal and have advised him of the above and he is satisfied with our explanation. We thank Gulf News to have shared our customer’s concerns with us and seek our feedback.

Mr Bansal responds:

Thank you, Gulf News, for taking up my complaint with Mashreq Bank. I agree with their explanation and gestures, but I still maintain that the modification of facilities should be for new customers and not for existing customers.

(Process initiation: May 31. Response from organisation: June 1. Reader confirmation: June 5.)

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.