Readers' views of the Blue Book

Dubai: Gulf News spoke to some of its readers to learn their response to the Blue Book on consumer protection launched by the Dubai Department of Economic Development yesterday.

Anamika Choudhury, a housewife, said that she had a problem with a tele-com provider over her new phone. She said: "My husband called me from the office of the telecom provider saying he wanted to buy me a touchscreen phone. In response I asked him to find out if my SIM card would work with the new phone's 3G services. The employee assured my husband that it was perfectly fine. Only when he got home we found out otherwise. The phone rejected my SIM card."

She then followed it up with a visit to a branch office of the telecom provider. It was not a pleasant experience. Choudhury said: "The staff made me feel like I was interrupting some major event in their lives! Not only did they make me wait over 45 minutes just to answer a query." She was of the opinion that escalating the matter to the DED's hotline would not help change attitudes much.

On the contrary, C.S. Sagoo, a civil engineer, who had a different consumer complaint that didn't go too well either, is much more optimistic.

Sagoo had disconnected his telecom service since June, but continued to be billed for it. Sagoo said: "I have written to them, and they keep sending me bills anyway. I work mostly in Saudi, so I'm barely here."

The readers' consumer issues seem to cover a gamut of problems.

Ahmad Abugosh, a web designer, said that for a week and half he and his roommate lived without air-conditioning. "We complained to the security, who took it to the building's management," he said.

Accelerate process

The management assured Abugosh that they would solve the problem the next day, but didn't send anyone for two days. "They had to go into our neighbour's home, but they were out of the country, so we had to wait for four more days." Awareness of the DED redressal system might have helped him accelerate the process.

Ala'a Hamade, a university instructor, said that when he moved from one apartment to another in the same building it took the telecom provider three months to move his DSL connection.

Their initial reason was that there was no internet in the building. But he said he knew there was a connection in the building. Hamade, however, says he likes the system.