Telecom service firm and bank help find positive solutions

One customer faced difficulty in obtaining a bank clearance letter, while another said he was being charged by a telecom company for an account that did not even exist. Both issues settled amicably

Clearance letter

Ihave a complaint about First Abu Dhabi Bank’s (FAB) delay in releasing a clearance letter.

I started the process of settlement by requesting a liability letter on May 3, 2018. The bank manager in Madinat Zayed told me to deposit Dh1,000 because I have an Easy Payment Plan (EPP), which was not included in the liability report. So I deposited Dh1,000 to continue with the process.

Emirates Islamic Bank was able to provide cheques based on the information on the liability letter. The cheque for a personal loan and credit card was cleared on May 16. But the problem is that my salary for May was placed on hold because according to Customer Service, my clearance letter was not released. I went to the branch to complain on May 26. They allowed me to withdraw half of my salary, the other half is still on hold. My salary should not be placed on hold because it is not included in the settlement and the cheque was already cleared.

The branch manager in Madinat Zayed told me that the release of the clearance letter is out of his hands. On the same day I received an SMS that my application for a clearance letter was registered.

I called the customer service of FAB and confirmed that my personal loan is already closed but my credit card is still open. I still have Dh5,144 in my account that should be released and an excess amount of Dh1,527 on my credit card to cover the EPP. I have no idea what’s keeping them so long to close the credit card since there is enough money to cover hidden charges.

Customer Service pointed out that the branch should take action on this, but the branch manager is saying he can’t do anything about it.

It is already June 6, but the clearance letter is still not released. I had been begging numerous times to FAB customer service to send e-mails and make calls to the branch but they say there is no reply from the branch.

Please Gulf News help me on this matter. I need that money to send to my family.

From Mr Alexander Geromo Avila

Abu Dhabi

The management of FAB responds:

FAB supports the growth ambitions of its stakeholders and goes beyond financial products and services, and as such, we are grateful for all customer feedback as we strive to consistently deliver the highest standards of service. The bank has been in contact with Mr Avila, and the matter has been resolved.

(Process initiation: June 20. Response from organisation: June 28. Process completion:

June 30.)

Wrong charges

Etisalat is asking me to pay for an account which does not exist. The connection is only in their accounts, but no connection in my residence.

I am a customer of etisalat for more than 15 years. I had this account for a long time. In November 2016, when I moved to Shahama from Abu Dhabi, etisalat could not connect due to technical difficulties, but I started getting bills. When I complained they told it would be cancelled. I stopped getting bills.

When I recently moved to Abu Dhabi in March 2018, I started getting bills again for no connection at home.

I complained and etisalat is telling me to pay for the account before cancelling, which I never used and was not even connected at my residence. Please help me as etisalat is not helping me.

From Ms Shalina Nazar

Abu Dhabi

The management of etisalat responds:

Thank you for bringing Ms Nazar’s concern to our attention. Etisalat customer service team would want to apologise for all the inconvenience she may have faced. We have investigated this matter and here are our findings:

Based on our records, she has an eLife TV account and we did not receive any cessation request or shifting request on the account since activation. We had advised her to pay up to the August rental and to cease the account. She made a payment in August 2017 covering the rental until July 2017 only and at that time, no cessation request was found. The system did not charge the account from September 2017 to February 2018. The account was disconnected due to bad debt on the linked accounts.

However, we reactivated the line as we did not want the customer to lose her service. Due to the activation, the customer was billed for the rental from March to May 2018.

We have considered the customer’s case and refunded the charges as well as ceased the account as per her request. We have informed her about the refunded amount and advised her to settle the August 2017 rental. She said the amount would be settled by next Thursday.

Please be advised that we have directly communicated our feedback to the customer and this case has been closed from our end.

Ms Nazar responds:

Thanks a lot for your intervention. Etisalat representative called me to inform that this connection will be cancelled.

(Process initiation: June 24. Response from organisation: June 27. Reader confirmation: June 30.)

■ 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

Customer Service pointed out that the branch should take an action on this, but the branch manager is saying he can’t do anything.”

Mr Alexander Geromo Avila | Abu Dhabi