Du,
the UAE’s second largest telecom operator, has admitted that its online
customer payments system failed last month, resulting in a number of customer’s
home services being disconnected.
The
operator’s online payment system failed due to a system upgrade forcing it to
return customer payments, it said in an emailed statement to Arabian Business.
“As
a result of a recent system upgrade to our online payment system, some of our
customers were unable to complete their bill payments via some banks whilst the
upgrade was taking place,” the operator said.
“In
the interest of our customers and as a standard practice with our partner
banks, all payment received during this period of upgrade were returned
directly to the customer’s accounts and the attempted transaction is made
void,” it added.
Du
customers said they were not warned about the problem. “I paid my home services
bill via Emirates NBD last month and the money was taken out of my account. It
wasn’t returned until ten days later. In the meantime I was disconnected for
failure to pay my bill on time,” one customer told Arabian Business.
“Despite
repeated phone calls to the customer service department and several customer
complaint letters, at no point in time was I warned about the problem – they
just kept telling me they hadn’t received the payment.
“It
wasn’t until I contacted my bank I was told there was a glitch in the system
and I had to pay again,” she added.
The
Dubai-based operator in June said home services customers would be disconnected
immediately if they do not pay their bill on time in a bid to crack down on
late payers.
Under
the new rules customers with internet, television and landline services, are
cut off one day after the due date of their bill, if they have failed to make
the payment.
The
move prompted a flurry of complaints from ArabianBusiness.com readers. “This is
all very well if they upgrade their customer service. We have been disconnected
twice because their system failed to take a payment. The bill is paid by a
standing payment on a credit card and twice their system failed in the space of
four months. It took them seven days each time to get the system reconnected,”
said one reader.
The
COO of the phone operator vowed to open an internet investigation into the
complaints. “Many of you have posted about individual experiences with our
services. I’m going to look into each of these issues myself, and ensure that
they are heard and addressed,” said Farid Faraidooni, chief commercial officer
at du.
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