My flight started from London, UK, at 9.05pm and the screen in front of my seat was not working. I waited till the plane took off, so at around 9.30pm, I called someone to report my problem. The steward said it would take 10 minutes as he needed to restart the computer, but it didn’t work even after waiting for 20 minutes. At around 9.50pm, I again called the attention of a second person, and she also said the same thing, but it still didn’t work. Then, at around 10.10pm, I called a third person and told her to call the supervisor. The supervisor turned out to be the first person I spoke with. When I asked him why it was still not working, his response was shocking! He said: “Can’t you wait for five minutes? I have another 300 customers to take care of.”
I told him that I had been waiting for an hour and if he had 300 customers, why wasn’t he bothered about the customer who raised a request an hour ago? He again said that he would restart the computer. I got really fed up and moved to the next seat and asked him to give me a complaint book.
He replied that I could raise a complaint online, which I did.
Sadly, the reply I received from their customer care service did not answer or address all the points I had raised. They also said that the flight attendant had offered me an alternate seat, which is not true. I changed seats, of my own accord. When I replied to them regarding these points, they tried to hush up the matter.
I have never seen any Emirates staff behave in such a bad manner towards any customer.
I request Gulf News to help escalate this matter so that proper action can be taken against the supervisor, and I receive some compensation for all the hassle I had to face.
From Mr Naveen Singhal
Dubai
The management of Emirates Airline responds:
Emirates has investigated Mr Singhal’s complaint and the case has been fully addressed by our Customer Affairs Department. Emirates places a great deal of emphasis on the high standard of service we offer our customers and we were disappointed to learn that Mr Singhal’s expectations were not met due to the technical problems encountered with the In-flight Entertainment System (IFE) in his seat. Our Cabin Crew offered Mr Singhal a number of other seats, so he could fully utilise and enjoy the In-flight Entertainment System, however he moved to the next seat.
Mr Singhal responds:
I am very disappointed with the response from Emirates. First of all, they did not offer me different seats. They never did that. Moreover, my main concern is the rude behaviour of the supervisor. They have not responded to this point, despite my having raised it two or three times. I understand the technical failure and that was never a concern for me.
Editor’s note: The management of Emirates Airline stands by their initial response.
(Process initiation: May 17. Response from organisation: May 22. Process completion: June 1.)
New charges tacked on after system error
I got a smartphone post-paid plan for 18 months on July 27, 2014. While booking the post-paid plan, I requested and confirmed a monthly credit limit cut-off for Dh500 and for the last 17 months, I have gotten the monthly bill for the correct usage of the same. The monthly bill never exceeded Dh400.
Since I received a reasonable bill every month, I didn’t go through the bill in detail. Unfortunately, on December 29, 2015, my outgoing calls stopped and upon enquiring with etisalat, I received a reply that I had used Dh4,348.63 in phone credit. On December 30, I received a detailed message regarding the same. Right after this message, I received three messages mentioning the current outstanding bill of Dh326.21.
Until November, 2015, I had cleared all dues and had a balance credit of Dh4.97.
I received December 2015’s detailed bill of Dh3,863.39 and in that, the bill previously paid in September, October and November had international calls added to the usage. To the best of my knowledge, I have not made five to six calls daily as mentioned in the bill.
I filed three complaints regarding the same. I have gotten different statements from the customer care that the bill is only for December. In my second complaint, they told me that there was some technical error, due to the international calls of September, October, November, which have now been reflected in the December 2015 bill. I have not made so many international calls.
On contacting the etisalat office in Sharjah, I was told that the previous month’s bills cannot get reflected in the current month’s bill since they have a monthly billing software system. She advised me to contact the Complaint Management section.
Even though this contract ended on January 26, 2016, my outgoing and incoming calls were stopped by etisalat in February. I am still receiving monthly bills of Dh250.
From Mr Vinodkumar Kundathil
Dubai
Mr Kundathil updates:
I had a credit balance of Dh4 in that month, so how is it possible to add a previous month’s bill in that bill? Every month, I have never exceeded a bill amount of more than Dh500. I have never used international calls. As mentioned, I have agreed to close this issue by paying Dh1,500 until January 31, when my mobile service was stopped completely by etisalat.
The management of etisalat responds:
Thank you for bringing Mr Kundathil’s concerns to our attention. Etisalat’s customer service team has contacted Mr Kundathil, providing him an option to settle the pending payments in instalments.
Mr Kundathil responds:
I am not ready to pay the amount since I haven’t used the same. I have accepted to pay a lump sum amount of Dh1,500 to settle the issue, but I haven’t received any further response from them.
The management of etisalat responds:
Thank you for bringing Mr Kundathil’s concerns to our attention. Etisalat customer service team has contacted Mr Kundathil, providing him an option to settle the pending payments in instalments. As explained before, this is as per our role and policy, and he already agreed to this, when he signed the application. No further action can be taken from our end.
(Process initiation: April 14. Response from organisation: April 21. Process completion: June 1.)
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.
