Bank and telecom service provider address grievances

One customer complains about a delay in downgrading his account, thereby resulting in needless account maintenance charges, while another was billed for an unwanted third-party service

On April 30, I was shocked to see a charge of Dh1,050 on my account towards ‘account management fee charges’.”

Mr Dharmesh Sheth | Dubai

I never downloaded any games and when I checked, there is no such game in the app store, it does not even exist!” Mr Wael Saif | Dubai

Bank charges

Iam writing to bring to your attention a matter with Mashreq bank that they are not resolving despite multiple emails and phone calls to my relationship manager.

I have had a premium ‘Gold’ bank account with Mashreq since 2013, as I had a home loan from them. In mid-2017 I fully settled the home loan account. On February 13, 2018, I received an email from Mashreq advising me that I had to comply with one of the following conditions to maintain my ‘Gold’ status account otherwise I would be incurring a charge of Dh1,000 per quarter:

1. Have a monthly salary transfer of Dh50,000 or above

2. Maintain a quarterly average balance of Dh300,000 and above in any of your accounts or investments

3. Have a home loan of minimum of Dh2,500,000

I wrote back to the relationship a manager (RM) immediately to advise on steps to close my bank account as there was no need for me to maintain this account, but received no response.

I followed up with another email and phone call, after which the RM responded almost a month later to recommend to me to keep my account at a lower ‘personal banking segment’ without incurring any maintenance charges. I agreed verbally and followed up with another email to the relationship manager asking to confirm the downgrade of my account and confirm that no charges would be applicable. As expected, no word from him.

On April 30, I was shocked to see a charge of Dh1,050 on my account towards ‘account management fee charges’ and contacted the relationship manager who advised it was a mistake and that the amount would be refunded shortly.

Since the first week of May, I have been contacting my RM regularly but despite his assurances the Dh1,050 fee charged is yet to be refunded by Mashreq. My last conversation was with him in mid-June when he confirmed that refund for me and several others is under process and would be credited back.

My money is still not back in my account, and I am therefore writing this to seek Gulf News assistance in this matter. From Mr Dharmesh Sheth

Dubai

The management of Mashreq responds:

Thank you Dharmesh with us.

We have reviewed the concerns raised by Mr Sheth regarding the Membership Fees levied on Mashreq account.

Our investigation reveals that as part of periodic review for sharing Mr Sheth’s concern and revision in the Mashreq Gold account policy, Mr Sheth was sent communication from Mashreq Gold to fund his account to avoid the membership fees of Dh1,050.

The account downgrade request was received from Mr Sheth and was under process. Meanwhile the membership fees was charged as per auto process. The reversal request of the membership fee was taken by the relationship manager and same has been reversed dated July 22, 2018.

We have contacted Mr Sheth and clarified his concerns.

We take this opportunity to thank Gulf News once again for bringing a customer issue to our notice.

Mr Sheth responds:

Mashreq contacted me to advise that the refund has been credited to my account. Thank you Gulf News for taking up my issue with Mashreq.

(Process initiation: July 23. Response from organisation: July 24. Reader confirmation: July 24.)

Is this a scam?

Iwould like to bring to Gulf News’ attention that etisalat has been billing me for some third-party charges. I called the customer service department of etisalat and they said it was an iTunes payment. That was not true and I pushed that they admit the truth.

Another customer service agent told me it’s a third party service by etisalat and it is called ‘The Dual Game’. I never downloaded any games and when I checked, there is no such game in the app store, it does not even exist!

So is it an organised scam? Someone inside is charging users for some fake game by a ‘third party’.

It means etisalat or someone inside gave users data, it’s a privacy leak, just like what Facebook did recently.

I request a deep investigation by someone experienced in information security.

From Mr Wael Saif Dubai

The management of etisalat responds:

Thank you for bringing Mr Saif’s concern to our attention. Etisalat customer service team would want to apologise for all the inconvenience he may have faced.

We wish to inform you that TRA had closed this case last month, and that the authority had provided him with full information.

As the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) had closed the case, etisalat cannot reopen the case as the customer has full control over his device and his account.

The customer was provided with a third-party service in 2017.

The system shows that the company that had sent the registration SMS so the customer is not eligible for a refund. We had advised him to contact the company and submit a complaint so they could look into his case and possibly offer a resolution.

(Process initiation: July 9. Response from organisation: July 9. Process completion: July 29.)

■ 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.