I initiated a standing order with Mashreq bank in December 2011 for my policy with an insurance company in Dubai and all went on well as expected of a good bank. I decided to increase the premium a year later and on January 5, 2013 I went to the Mashreq Ibn Battuta branch to effect the increase. After about two hours of waiting for my turn, the customer service advisor and branch manager were clueless on how to increase the standing order amount. After calling other branches for guidance I was asked to fill in new standing order forms and cancel the existing standing order.
To my dismay the standing order did not go through on February 5, 2013 as per the processed standing instruction. I went to the Ibn Battuta branch again to find out the reason for this and was advised that they could not find my new standing instruction form. I was asked to complete another standing instruction form. To my utter disappointment, the same thing happened the following month, the standing order was not carried out. Frustrated by the level of service I went back again to the Ibn Battuta branch but this time to cancel the standing order instruction, as I had decided to use another bank instead. Surprisingly this was effected and on March 7, 2013 my account was debited with a standing order amendment charge of Dh50 and on the same day I was hit by a standing order rejection charge of Dh25. What the rejection charge was for I have no idea and never bothered to pursue it.
Almost a year later, on March 11, 2014 my account was debited off a total Dh500, standing order rejection charges and in tranches of Dh25. I followed this up with the bank over the phone but all my calls did not yield any results.
On April 5, another Dh25 was debited from my account, the standing instruction, which I cancelled in March 2013 resurfaced and Dh2,502 was debited from my account again.
I have been contacting customer care for almost three months now to reverse all these charges but nothing has been done. On April 10, I wrote to my relationship manager and he promised to look into the case and he asked me to complete yet another standing order cancellation.
Up to now my account is not yet credited with the charges levied, and I have been receiving promises every day.
The problem has not yet been resolved, and I don’t know who to approach if the branch and relationship managers cannot resolve the issue.
From Mr Givemore Gurira
Dubai
The management of Mashreq responds: Thank you for sharing Mr Gurira’s letter with us.
Our investigation reveals that there was no cancelation request that was received from our customer. We are pleased to share that we have reversed all rejection fee charges and the same was communicated with Mr Gurira who was pleased with our resolutions.
Thank you for seeking clarification.
Mr Gurira responds: The issue was resolved three days after getting the confirmation email from Gulf News. Thank you so much.
(Process initiation: July 1. Response from organisation: July 3. Reader confirmation: July 13.)
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.
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