After calling National Bank of Abu Dhabi’s (NBAD) toll free line, and a conversation with a representative, I decided to lodge a formal complaint so that the bank does something about the problem rather than blame the customer or just not address the problem and end the entire ordeal silently.

This is the second time I used the ‘Pay your Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa) bill’ facility via my bank account from my smartphone. At first, this was ideal, as I could pay the bills even while I was on holiday. Now, I think there is a glitch in the system or perhaps the payments are done manually. The last time I tried paying, the money was transferred to a different account.

This was surreal, as my details were already in the system and when giving them instructions to proceed with the payment, the bank machine gave out the correct Premise Number. So, after constant follow-ups over a course of two months, the bank quietly transferred the amount to my Dewa account and it appeared as if that this mess never happened. I was just glad it was over.

Now, again, I decided to use the ‘pay bill’ feature and concurrently, the same thing has happened. The bank does not seem to know why this is happening, especially when I mentioned that my details are already in the system and no new entry was made. I am still stuck with calling them everyday.

Can someone call and give me an explanation as to why they keep paying to the wrong account, when they have the correct Dewa Premise Number and contract information?

From Ms Hina Makhtar

Dubai

The management of NBAD responds:

Thank you for your constant cooperation and communication with us in the endeavour to best serve our customers and resolve their issues.

We have investigated Ms Makhtar’s complaint and below is our feedback.

Ms Makhtar used our interactive voice response (IVR) to make her Dewa payment in April 2016 and the payment did not go through since she entered an incorrect Premise Number. Upon receiving Ms Makhtar’s complaint, we investigated the matter and were informed by Dewa that the Premise Number entered by the customer was incorrect. We requested Dewa to credit the amount to the correct Premise Number. We couldn’t inform Ms Makhtar about the error she had made, as she had changed her mobile number and was not reachable on the mobile number registered on our systems. She made the same error in July 2016 and again raised a complaint that her payment was not credited to her Dewa account. She also contacted Dewa and was given her correct Premise Number. Ms Makhtar contacted us again and provided us the correct number and we informed Dewa to credit the amount to the correct Premise number.

We have contacted Ms Makhtar and have addressed all her concerns and have requested her to update her new mobile number by visiting one of our branches.

Thank you once again for forwarding the complaint to us. Our Customers Experience is very important to us and we are thankful for the opportunity to respond.

(Process initiation: September 19. Response from organisation: September 21. Process completion: September 22.)

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