A friend had asked me to accompany her to a Samsung shop for the repair of her phone at Mall of the Emirates. As I sat down, waiting, a man with the security guard of Samsung Shop approached me and told me etisalat is giving away a free SIM card. He mentioned the free minutes that come with it for Dh50 credit. So I gladly accepted it and when he asked for my ID, I handed it over as he listed down all my details because it is the usual practice here in the UAE that you present your ID. I received a call the next day from etisalat and the woman told me that I will be paying Dh50 every month!

I told her that this was not explained to me, I assumed that since it was for free it was just like a normal pre-paid SIM card and initial credit was Dh50. I told the woman that I will be raising a complaint about the issue and she said that she would inform their office about it. I went to a branch and raised an official complaint. Now, I have received a call from them, telling me that if I cancel the SIM card now, I would have to pay Dh300! My other option is to keep the SIM and use it for six months, and then I can cancel it and will not have to pay Dh300 anymore! I told the woman, that it would be the same thing and this is deceitful. She raised her voice at me slightly and told me that I needed to present solid proof that nothing was explained to me at all and because I had signed, it was an indication that I had accepted the contract. I told her that they should inform their sales people that everything should be clearly stated to clients or customers. But what has happened was pure deceit because in order to sell their products, they lured customers for a free product and we ended up paying for it! I am so disappointed with etisalat, and I hope you will be able to help me. I know that Dh50 is not a big amount, but the mere fact that they are deceiving people with free products or services is another story.

From Ms Lorena Garcia

Dubai

The management of etisalat responds:

This happened due to a miscommunication between the external agency and the customer, therefore the benefits of the package were not correctly communicated.

Ms Lorena responds: The issue has been resolved and etisalat did not charge me with anything at all. I greatly appreciate Gulf News’s assistance!

(Process initiation: August 23. Response from organisation: August 27. Reader confirmation: September 6.)

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.