Holiday calls home cut short by Wasel glitch

Dubai: etisalat's recharge system for Wasel pre-paid cards went haywire on Tuesday leaving many mobile phone users unable to add credit to their accounts using top-up cards.

People who had bought Wasel recharge cards at a petrol station in Dubai complained they got a pre-corded message that the card number they had entered had already been used.

Gulf News bought three recharge cards worth Dh300 and found that all three PIN numbers had been used and received the recorded message, saying, "This card has been used before, please enter another card number".

A salesperson at the station said many people had made similar complaints.

The sale of recharge cards was huge yesterday as people hoped to contact family and friends for Eid. Many of them however were left angry and frustrated.

The telecom provider had announced that it would offer lower call rates during the holiday period. An etisalat spokesman told Gulf News the issue will be investigated.

"We have not received any complaints so far," said the spokesman.

"We would like to inform our customers that if they come across such problems they can fill up a complaint form. These forms are available at all etisalat business centres across UAE."