UAE: Reader complains against poor network coverage in JVC

Du sell wireless wi-fi (home and business, which stopped working after one-two months, the speed become 10-100Kb, which makes impossible to use even Whatsapp).

All complaints are ignored for one month, promising to call tomorrow, which of course never comes.

After, they are forcing to terminate the contract, refusing to provide any compensation, or replacement to another internet for remaining period of a contract.

Also they state that they don’t cover the area where the internet was installed (Jumeirah Village Circle, JVC, Dubai). If they don’t cover the area, they must not sell their services to that area’s residents.

So, if to agree on termination of the contract, and to reconnect to another provider, it will cause losses in future, as a tenant, we sign a tenancy contract for 12 months, and if we get a new internet connection in the middle of this period, and then move out, we must pay early cancellation fees.

Du doesn’t offer any solution or a compensation in this situation.

From Ms Natalia Tandarina

Dubai
 

A spokesperson from du responds: As per investigation, customer activated the service during November 2021 and logged the complaint during end of February 2022 only. According to feedback from respective network team, customer is facing slowness due to high PRB (Physical Resource Block level) utilisation in the cells during peak hours and no temporary solution can resolve this issue. Hence LTE (Long Term Evolution) expansion is planned on the site, which is expected to be in Q2 of 2022.

Customer was contacted by respective team and clarified the same, however since she was not willing to wait, hence exceptional approval was secured to deactivate the service and waive the termination charges. However, customer didn’t accept any solutions and insisted for waiving the invoice of February 2022. Further, said waiver request was rejected since customer’s usage during the month of February 2022 was around 175GB. Hence the case was declined with TDRA (The Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority) as well. As per system records we can see there was new complaint raised by customer on April 6, 2022, however when respective agent contacted customer on April 7, 2022 she confirmed that internet was not working earlier and now it is working fine.
 

Ms Tandarina responds: It’s not fair at all that du sell their services while they know that the area is not covered and there is poor connection.

Before signing an agreement, I provided a copy of Ejari, so they knew the address.

Their technical team never bother to call me since February. They say I use internet and its heavy usage. You might be aware how Netflix and Youtube are working; its downloading a video, then only you can watch it. Kids have lessons in school online via Zoom and half of lessons they are missing as connection cut and the internet is not available most of time.

I offered to install a cable internet, I was ready to pay more as per their plan for cable connection, but they refused. I was always forced to cancel the contract, but if I will take another internet provider, I will be forced to pay after eight months when I will be leaving the rented property – Dh500 of early termination fees. So I am not in a position to pay it because this issue was caused by du and why should I lose money then?

I replaced a router to another one, and it’s the same issue with internet. Note, that when I signed an agreement – two months the internet was perfect. Problems start later. It’s unfair to sell services which they can’t provide. They refuse to reduce monthly charges, so I consider it as a scam. When I pay money, I expect to get a quality service.
 

Du spokesperson responds: Please note, as per customer’s feedback she herself confirms that service was working fine when it was activated and after two months she started to face issue. Hence, it is confirmed that coverage in location is fine. However, we wish to highlight that du ‘Home Wireless / Home LTE package’ is based on LTE connectivity via mobile network and speed of broadband service depends on multiple factors such as weather, interference from buildings, mobile network capacity, number of devices connected at the same time, and so on. Hence the speed cannot be guaranteed. Further as per feedback from respective technical team, customer is facing issue due to high PRB utilisation in the cells during peak hours and no temporary solution can resolve this issue. Hence expansion of LTE service in the serving sites can only resolve the issue, which is expected to be in the second quarter of 2022. Considering the same, du has agreed to deactivate the service if customer wishes to and waive the applicable termination charges, which the customer has rejected. Further, since there was heavy usages made by customer hence all rental charges applied are valid. Also, as per business rules and system design there is no option to reduce the rental charge of the service.
 

Ms Tandarina responds: We don’t even talk about speed, we talk about internet, which most of time is not available. They insisted that there is bad coverage, but it is not a desert and the internet was working fine before. Also note, that I got the same product from du for my shop in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, where I face the same issue.

If du was aware that the quality is so poor, they must do not introduce and do not sell such product, or they must offer a solution for cable internet or any other solution, which will work.

Note, that I did not mind to pay more, but they refused.

Plus, I called their customer support daily for more than one month. Every day I got lies that the technical team will contact me. From February 26 until today nobody bothered to contact me from du. I replaced the router, but the problem is still there. It is unfair to sell such products and to have zero response to customer’s complaints.
 

Editor’s note: The follow up letter was forwarded to du for further comments. However, its management did not respond.
 

(Process initiation: March 25. Response from organisation: April 19. Process completion: May 20.)