Ghost calls

I would like to bring to the notice of etisalat’s management, the billing issues that have occurred on my landline and postpaid Sim card, with the hope of an early resolution.

I went on vacation for two months. After returning on September 3, 2014, I was shocked to see a bill amount on my landline for Dh9,000. On investigating, I could see all the calls were made to Bangladesh, particularly three numbers between August 19 and September 3. I could observe the calls made were throughout the day and night. For your information, the house was locked and vacant.

I called up etisalat’s customer care and was given a complaint number. I followed up several times, but every time, I was given the same response: “We are working on this issue.”

Another issue is with my postpaid mobile phone package. I have moved from du to etisalat. The plan issued to me was 1,000 local minutes and 10GB data. Additionally, I bought the flexi minutes pack. Every time I make a call, as per etisalat, it should be consumed from my default minutes (1,000 local minutes) but it did not happen. All the calls made are consumed from the flexi minutes. The objective of taking the flexi minutes was to call international lines or receive calls while roaming. This purpose is being defeated. Again, a complaint has been raised with etisalat and when I followed up with them, as usual, I get the same response.

They have now discontinued my outgoing services. A few customer service agents called from etisalat and visited my house, but so far, there has been no resolution. Please help close this case as soon as possible. So far, other than an SMS that ‘your case is under resolution’, nothing else has come up. If it is under resolution, why are they barring outgoing calls?

From Mr Alex Samson

Dubai

The management of etisalat responds:

We can’t help the customer as the calls were made from his phone by his office helper. This information was given by the customer to our staff and so it not etisalat’s fault; the customer must take responsibility. The customer has another issue and it has already been forwarded to the concerned section.

Mr Samson responds:

The office helper was not at my residence during the period mentioned. The house was locked during that period and no one was staying at my place during that time. Also, all the calls have gone to numbers that do not exist. The office helper was at my residence for a period of two days, cleaning my house when I was in Dubai; not the period when the calls were made.

Etisalat responds:

Kindly note that we tried our best to help the customer and after checking his line (outside his residence) we found no abnormality in his line as it’s a fibre optic cable and if anyone tried to cut it, the whole line would fail. The calls were made from inside his home so it’s his responsibility, and not etisalat’s.

We advise the customer to lock his service line (lock 0 and 00) or to temporarily close the line (for eLife, it is Dh75 for 60 days and DEL service, it is Dh60 for the same 60 days). The customer can take this service once a year.

(Process initiation: October 12. Response from organisation: October 28. Process completion: November 9).

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