Paying for their mistake

Paying for their mistake

We have been living in the UAE for more than 15 years and have had an etisalat connection at our residence since 2005.

On September 8, 2015, I received a call from Tahseel, stating that we had an outstanding of Dh271.49 for our etisalat account number. I was surprised by the call and informed them that so far, there was no outstanding payment on our account as we always pay on time. The call centre representative asked us to contact the etisalat office for a clarification.

Since the etisalat account is in my husband’s name, my husband went to etisalat’s Abu Hail branch on September 12. The customer service representatives checked in the system and informed that there was no outstanding amount showing in the account. Still, my husband requested to check once again with another executive and he also confirmed that there was no outstanding amount. They asked us to ignore the SMS.

During the course of enquiry, we continuously received many text messages from Tahseel on both of our mobile phones. My husband got annoyed and called customer service for verification on September 25. They checked and confirmed the outstanding is on a different customer ID, hence we would need to pay. We were confused by the clarification provided.

On September 27, there was an SMS from Tahseel, stating that they had not received the outstanding payment, so they were going to take legal action if the amount was not settled within 24 hours.

We panicked on reading this SMS and were also helpless, as we did not have any proof regarding the old payments. My husband rushed to etisalat, leaving his office work, and we made the payment for the outstanding amount.

To our surprise, we received a call from eitisalat’s complaints department, enquiring about our complaint. After verifying all the details, the customer relations representative informed us there was a mistake in etisalat’s system and they would reimburse the amount we paid.

I would like to raise the following questions with etisalat:

1. In spite of repeated requests to verify our account, etisalat failed to check our account properly and was unable to provide the proper bill as proof for our outstanding amount. So why did they threaten us to make the payment?

2. What authority does etisalat have to claim the outstanding after three years? Is there is no timeline for their claims, and do they have the rights to claim after so many years — that too wrongly?

3. Can we file a complaint against Tahseel for the stress they gave us?

We would like to escalate this matter in etisalat. It is totally the fault of etisalat’s unprofessional management, as they have troubled innocent customers for no reason. I want my amount to be returned and also need compensation. We want a proper response from the responsible authorities in etisalat.

From Ms Shakila Daulah

Dubai

The management of etisalat responds:

Kindly note that the customer’s issue was resolved.

Ms Daulah updates:

That is not true. Some time ago, a representative from etisalat spoke with me and repeated the same story, telling me that the amount has been credited. I refused to accept the credit and sought to speak to a higher official so I could raise the amount of stress I faced. I would say that the complaint has not been resolved. What I require is appropriate compensation for the trauma I faced, the credit of the excess amount taken from me by etisalat, and an assurance that for any future claims, etisalat only must follow up, and not a third party like Tahseel.

The management of etisalat responds:

Kindly note that we contacted the customer and apologised again. We informed her that the amount is already in the system and she can check through our channels (business centre, outlets, our app and 101). In order to satisfy her, we give her a save offer, but she refused it. We explained the situation to her but she asked for more, which is out of our hands. No further action can be taken from our end.

(Process initiation: October 19, 2015. Response from organisation: October 26. Process completion: January 5, 2016.)

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