Repeated incidents on discounts
Congratulations to Gulf News’ team for the excellent effort in resolving reader issues with banks and financial institutions. I, too, have an incident to share. I used my Mashreq Bank credit card on October 18, 2013, at a restaurant in Sharjah when dining with my family.
For some reason, this restaurant didn’t honour discounts as per the ‘Mashreq Flavours Scheme’. I brought it to the bank’s notice and they communicated to me that it was due to an oversight by staff, and that they would courier two movie tickets as compensation for the inconvenience.
Similarly, I used my credit card on January 4, 2014, at another restaurant in Sharjah. This restaurant also didn’t honour the discount and, as usual, I brought it to the bank’s attention and the bank communicated to me that it was due to some confusion with new staff. The complaint is still unresolved. Surprisingly, the same was repeated in March, May and November 2014, and all these incidents were brought to the bank’s attention through proper channels. Earlier this year, I received a call from the bank and they said that the bank would give me a credit value for rebates that I spent in November 2014, in my next statement.
But nothing has happened. This is clearly unacceptable from a bank of repute and card holders must be aware of such practices.
From Mr George Thomas
Sharjah
The management of Mashreq Bank responds:
Thank you for sharing Mr Thomas’ concern with us. He is a valued card holder and as stated, he used the card for dining in November 2014 under the Mashreq Flavours Offer. The restaurant unfortunately failed to offer Mr Thomas the discount, due to the ignorance of their staff. When Mr Thomas approached Mashreq in February 2015 for the same, we apologised and gladly credited the discount to his account upon identifying a training gap at the business partner’s end.
We gave Mr Thomas the credit of Dh32.75 in his statement, which he has already received for his November transaction. In addition to that, we have, as a token of service gesture, offered him a mall voucher in lieu of the previous occasions, where he was refused discounts on restaurant visits made in early 2013 and 2014. Mr Thomas was called and informed of the same and is very satisfied with our resolution.
Thank you once again for seeking our clarification.
Mr Thomas responds:
Thank you, Gulf News, for your help. Yes, the matter is now resolved with Mashreq Bank.
(Process initiation: June 10. Response from organisation: June 11. Reader confirmation: June 15.)
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.
