Bank and telecom service provider address grievances

Slow internet connectivity drives one customer up a wall while another’s promotion and upgrading of benefits results in untold misery after his account is suspended

Call for service

Iam writing to bring to the attention of du management about the issues being faced with quality of internet connectivity at my home and the lack of customer support to get it resolved.

I live in Victory Heights, Dubai Sports City community. We have had du as the provider for our broadband connection since December 2014.

Recently, we have been experiencing really poor connection to the internet with intermittent outages and slow access speeds at random times during the day. Even though no notification was sent, we thought at the time that it could be due to some repairs being done in the neighbourhood.

However, even after more than a month of many people in our community complaining about the issue on the social media forums and possibly to du directly, nothing has been done.

I have tried to contact du and after staying on hold for one hour, the line gets disconnected. This has happened over 15 times at different times of the day and different times of the week.

I reported the problem after navigating through the website (not very intuitive I should say when it comes to reporting issues) and got an ‘Auto Reply’ on June 11 saying that one of the customer care representatives will get back to me within 24 hours.

So far, no one has bothered to either call or send me info via email. Has du scrapped the notion of customer support? From Mr Srinivas Poluru

Dubai

A spokesperson from du responds:

In response to Mr Srinivas Poluru, the technical team investigated the matter and is currently monitoring his services.

Should Mr Poluru experience a slow or intermittent connection again, a field engineer will be dispatched. The customer is satisfied with the resolution. We apologise for any inconvenience he faced.

(Process initiation: June 26. Response from organisation: August 5. Process completion: September 11.)

End-of-service benefits

Iwas upgraded from my current position within my firm with financial benefits. My employer wanted to terminate the existing contract and sign a new contract with revised benefits.

As per procedure (Termination of current contract) my employer sent an ‘End of service/Final settlement’ notice to my bank, Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), and my account got frozen on June 21, 2018.

I started frantically calling the bank, and I was informed that the only way forward was that I would have to visit the DIB Collections Department to make my case and provide substantiating documents for further use.

I visited the DIB Collections department on June 25 and was made aware that I had to provide an undertaking from my current employer that I am still working with the same employer and that I was being promoted with financial benefits.

My employer was kind enough to assist with all required letters, and I submitted a letter stating that the amount transferred to my account was intended to be benefits and shall not be conserved towards end of service.

After my five-hour ordeal at the DIB Collections office, I was informed that my account would be activated at 4.30pm on June 25.

However, the end of service benefits would be withheld against my car loan.

I understand that there are protocols in place to ensure that financial centres are kept safe from fraudulent personnel and schemes, but I have been able to demonstrate that after presenting the letters to the Collections Department, my salary was debited to the account on June 26 and my car loan was being deducted as usual.

Gulf News, is there anything that can be done to release my end of service/final settlement? I really need the amount for further use. From Mr Joseph Antony Dubai

The management of DIB responds:

DIB would like to confirm that its Customer Support team has been informed about Mr Antony’s situation.

We are pleased to say that the team has contacted the customer and the matter has been resolved in due course.

We now consider the case to be closed and look forward to helping Mr Antony in any other way we can.

At DIB, our ‘Customer First’ approach is an integral component of how we function and we are committed to doing everything we can to address the concerns or queries of our customers.

Mr Antony responds:

I am pleased to inform that matter has been resolved and DIB’s representatives have been proactive in closing the matter.

With respect to Gulf News , it is only because of your timely intervention that brought the issue to the notice of the concerned personnel from DIB.

Thus, I would like to extend my appreciation to Gulf News for the invaluable service to people in need.

(Process initiation: July 16. Response from organisation: July 30. Reader confirmation: September 8.)

■ 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.

I have tried to contact du and after staying on hold for one hour, the line gets disconnected. This has happened over 15 times at different times of the day and different times of the week.”

Mr Srinivas Poluru | Dubai