Unwelcome charges
I would appreciate if Gulf News could help me get an answer to my complaint, as I have failed to receive any response from the concerned authorities.
I had applied for an auto finance loan from Emirates Islamic Bank (EIB) in 2014. The representative processing the loan wrongly entered my bank account details instead of my salary account for monthly instalments.
After the third instalment, the next instalment was rejected, as there was no sufficient balance in the bank account. EIB charged me for this. I visited the Dubai Media City branch and paid the missed instalment by cash along with the late payment fee (which was mentioned by the customer service representative as Dh200, whereas I learnt later that it seems the fees should have been Dh300).
In November 2014, they charged another Dh200 and also the previous balance of Dh100. The bank is unable to provide any explanation about the additional Dh200. My auto finance should have closed in January 2016. But currently, it shows that I owe the bank Dh300 as charges. However, the bank is unable to provide any explanation for the charges.
I visited the Dubai Media City branch, but the customer service representative was not able to help or register any service request. Later, I called up a customer service representative who asked me to send a detailed email with scanned copies of the receipt of charges paid in cash. For this email, I never received any acknowledgement. Later, I visited Mirdif City Centre branch and got a service request registered on January 9. I never received any update from the bank until January 28. Between 9th and 28th January, I called up the bank thrice to check the status. From 29th January to 5th February, I was out of the country. The bank closed the request during this time, mentioning that my request was rejected, without providing further explanation.
I would highly appreciate if the customer grievance officer of EIB looks into this issue at the earliest and helps me answer my questions.
From Ms Jenifer Prajwal Fernandes
Dubai
The management of Emirates Islamic responds:
Thank you for bringing Ms Fernandes’ concerns to our attention. The customer has an Auto Finance facility with Emirates Islamic, where she was paying instalments through post-dated cheques. In November 2014, the customer delayed paying one instalment and was charged with a late payment fee of Dh200 plus Dh100 for cheque return, as per the published schedule of charges.
Our customer experience team has been in touch with the customer to explain to her the breakup of charges and we would like to inform you that this matter has now been resolved. We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that Emirates Islamic is committed to providing the best in customer service to our loyal clientele.
Ms Fernandes responds:
Thank you for addressing my issue to the management of Emirates Islamic.
I did receive a call from the customer relationship management and they mentioned that they had received a complaint from Gulf News and confirmed that the extra charge of Dh300 has been waived off as an exception. Thank you Gulf News, for highlighting the issue to the management of Emirates Islamic and helping me resolve the issue.
(Process initiation: February 7. Response from organisation: February 15. Reader response: February 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.
