Travel travails
Due to some technical errors, I did not receive my Emirates chauffeur drive in Rome, which [resulted in] a great deal of inconvenience. It’s a promised service, which Emirates failed to provide. I was waiting for almost 30 minutes and it did not arrive and I ended up taking the taxi to the airport.  What was the point of providing my Rome number if the service was not to be provided? It is a clear mistake from Emirates and it is absolutely unacceptable to me as a passenger. The ground staff apologised and accepted the mistake and asked me to write an email for compensation. But, the customer affairs department has neither written back nor do they answer any calls. Their chauffeur leaves after 15 minutes of waiting and the flight never waits for me these are the rules of Emirates. What’s the rule of Emirates if they fail to provide the service? It turned out to be the most unpleasant trip for me as the start was bad. The service provided by Emirates abroad is not up to the standards. If it was a problem for Emirates to arrange transportation, it could have informed us politely and we would have arranged our own. At least it would not have created an inconvenience. The ground staff in Rome were apologetic. But it is very convenient to say sorry or just offer a refund for the taxi ride, which I didn’t accept. They [offered to] upgrade me to First Class, but it was not operational on the flight as no one was booked in First Class on the day.
Is this the reason we fly business class? In my dictionary, we fly premium classes for convenience, service and comfort and if we can’t even get that [from] Emirates then there is absolutely no point.
From Mr Ahmad Amjad Farooq
Dubai

Emirates’ Customer Affairs responds:
We regret the inconvenience Mr Farooq experienced, [while] travelling, with Emirates complimentary limousine service in Rome on January 31. Our records show that the Emirates limousine driver waited for approximately 30 minutes at the provided address before departing. We regret any miscommunication that occurred between Mr Farooq and our customer service team over the pick-up location. Emirates has offered to reimburse Mr Farooq for the taxi fare he incurred on travelling to Rome International Airport as compensation.Our customer affairs team have already been in touch with Mr Farooq directly. We thank Mr Farooq for his understanding, and for allowing us to respond.

Mr Farooq responds: I received an email from Emirates, which is not acceptable to me. Apart from the mistake they made on not sending the limousine, the wrong information they pass on to their frequent flyers and a premium class client is extremely disappointing. I waited at the location for almost 30 minutes and no driver or Emirates limousine was sent, which caused a great deal of inconvenience.
I could have missed my flight if I did not arrange my own transport. I paid for the service and did not get it.  We give our contact numbers to Emirates so the driver can call if there’s any delay or if the driver cannot reach the customer. I gave my local Italian number to Emirates and did not receive a call. Emirates is just making excuses and now I want to take the matter to the higher authority, no matter what it takes. The ground staff explicitly admitted its mistake and said it will be mentioned on the report that is prepared. I was informed that they have to submit a report for every flight. But, here is the Customer Affairs [department], which replies so late and tries to conveniently say sorry and reimburse the taxi ride. It is not acceptable.

Editor’s note: We forwarded the reader’s response to Emirates for further investigation. However, Emirates said that they have nothing further to add to their previous response.

Account opening
On December 28, 2009, I [opened] a National Bonds account. I got a call from [the company] on January 5, informing me that they still [had not] received my documentation and I needed to [submit] my identification [papers] and signature. This is after giving all the required documentation passport copy with a visa page, [completed] form and a signature card.I find this to be appalling, especially as there was material stating that we need to deposit money by December 31, 2009, to be eligible for the grand prize, for which the draw [took] place on January 2. The prizes include an apartment, a car and Dh1 million.
I am very disappointed to hear that after the detailed procedure that I had gone through, the account wasn’t activated. Furthermore, after emailing my concerns to National Bonds, I got a vague answer stating that my account remained locked due to missing details, that I’m not told about.
From Mr Tarek Ba’alawy
Dubai
 
Mr Kinan Esmail, Executive Director, National Bonds Corporation (NBC), responds:
In reference to the inquiry and after internal review of related paperwork, it is clear that the original application with terms and conditions has not been signed by the customer. We believe that this is the reason why operations personnel had locked the customer’s account. As it was a first purchase, the signature is mandatory as per NBC policy.
[The] account locking procedure is in place to obtain required documentation only and does not exclude [one] from entering into all NBC draws. Hence, the customer was eligible for the draw. We urge all our customers to check all the information on application forms to make sure it’s complete to avoid any delays in processing.

Mr Ba’alawy responds: I appreciate your intervention. I only contacted you so that we can help contribute towards improving customer service levels here in the future. If not, I would have just suffered like most consumers.
 
Editor’s note: If you have similar consumer complaints, send them to us at readers@gulfnews.com