No bank statement

No bank statement

I have a Mashreq bank Grand Cinemas card, which I have been using since 2009. I was regular with my payments throughout the tenure, without any default history in my name.

I was receiving all my card statements in my official e-mail address till August 14, 2014, which reflects a credit balance in my account. I have not received any statement after that. I was keeping the card in my possession since my last payment and was interested in using it further. Hence, I called to inquire regarding my balance. I was shocked to hear that there was Dh1,717 outstanding for payment.

I spoke to a call centre representative on April 23, 2015, and they informed me that the mentioned email account, where I was getting my statement, does not exist as per their bank records. The agent was uncooperative and refused to give me any details regarding the outstanding amount. She advised me to log onto Mashreq bank’s online system to check, but to my surprise, when I tried to log in, I was not able to do so.

I called up Mashreq’s call centre on the same day to check and another agent informed me that I could not log onto Mashreq online, since my card had been blocked. He was good enough to provide all the necessary information to me. The first agent did not provide me with any information about the same.

I am totally confused and traumatised by these events, as when the card was sold to me, they had promised there would be no annual [membership fee] and even if there would be, Mashreq would reverse the charges.

Mashreq’s customer service called me on April 23 and informed me that they could only reverse two late payment fees and could not do anything else. They said if I needed to speak to them about it, I had to get in touch with their Collections department.

I spoke to their Collections department and they informed me that my case was not in their list and I would have to get in touch with the call centre.

I again called the call centre and another agent said they could not do anything more in this matter, and that late payment fees would be continued to be charge on my card in spite of the dispute.

Kindly note that the outstanding amount of Dh1,717 is built up of the annual fees, late payment fees and bank charges and no single transaction is included as a genuine purchase or cash withdrawal performed by me.

I appreciate Gulf News’ support to address this issue to Mashreq on my behalf and to help me get justice as a genuine customer, as the whole incident has happened due to mere negligence from them.

From Mr Faiz Ahmad Affandi

Dubai

The management of Mashreq responds:

We thank you for providing us the opportunity to investigate Mr Affandi’s complaint and we would wish to conclude our findings as below.

In September 2014, the customer was approached by the bank for new credit cards. While processing the cards, his email address was changed erroneously. Due to this error, Mr Affandi stopped receiving e-statements.

In November 2014. He was charged annual fee on his Novo Cinema credit card, which was unpaid and further attracted bank charges due to its nonpayment.

This apparently was not known to him since he was not receiving his e-statement. In January and April 2015, customer’s supplementary card holder had used the card for purchases, which were settled on the respective due dates. Customer advised us that he did not know about other charges on the card.

As a special gesture we have offered to reverse the annual fee and all other charges on the card, which were amounting to an outstanding of Dh1,717. We have also arranged to cancel all his credit cards with the bank basis his request.

We have offered our sincere apologies to the customer on the inconvenience caused to him.

He has been informed of the investigation and the resolution to which he has expressed his satisfaction.

Mr Affandi responds:

Thanks Gulf News, for taking up my issue with Mashreq, as they were not even ready to speak to me earlier on the subject. The bank official has called and assured me that all annual charges and late payment fees amounting to Dh1,717 will be reversed.

I really appreciate the good cause taken up by the newspaper, to highlight the grievances/complaints of the common man to the right authorities. Please keep up the good work.

(Process initiation: April 23. Response from organisation: April 26. Reader confirmation: April 27.)

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.