Unhappy customer finally gets apology

When Lucy Roberts made a formal complaint about the customer service she received from her bank, she expected it to be resolved quickly to her satisfaction. Instead, the incident escalated into a drawn-out saga with an exchange of e-mails and the involvement of a consultant specialising in customer service.

Last week, Ms Roberts told The National about her experience at a branch of the Mashreq bank in Dubai. Her story was part of a special report on the level of customer care in the UAE. A survey of 800 people revealed that 67 per cent of them had encountered a serious problem with customer service in the last six months, and 36 per cent complained of poor or very poor service from banks. Ms Roberts, a Dubai-based account director for a web design firm, said she visited the Mashreq branch two weeks ago and had to wait 30 minutes past the scheduled opening time of 9am for a cleaner to open the door. Once she was inside, Ms Roberts said, a cashier who was speaking on her mobile phone told her the system was down and she could not be serviced.

That same day, Ms Robert filed a complaint electronically, by phone and fax, and even had a friend hand-deliver a copy to the branch. A spokesman disputed Ms Robert's account and told The National that, while the bank regretted her "uncomfortable experience", an internal investigation had found the branch was fully operational at 9.05am, tellers were not allowed to speak on mobile phones while working and there was no system breakdown that day.

However, this week, Ms Roberts demanded "a full written apology from the highest member of staff for what happened that day at the branch". She said the bank's response "embarrassed me tremendously". "This is a bank. We trust them with our money," she said. "They didn't talk to me." But the bank would not back down. Eventually, a representative called last Sunday and promised to "get to the bottom of this". A day later, someone from Mashreq called to verify her credit card details. "My credit card has nothing to do with this," she said.

Ms Roberts has decided to take her business to another bank and said she would encourage her friends to do the same. She sent out messages describing her experience on the social media service Twitter. After reading Ms Roberts's story, Dave Bradley, the Middle East managing director of VantagePoint Marketing, a research-based customer service consultancy in Dubai, sent Mashreq an e-mail in which he said he was amazed at how badly the bank had handled the situation.

"All that Lucy Roberts was asking for was some respect as a business customer and an apology cost to the bank, nothing," he said in the e-mail. In his e-mail, he told the bank it should have considered Ms Roberts's complaint, because only a minority of customers take the time to report their grievances. "For every Lucy you will have 25 others who are unhappy with the bank but won't ever tell you," he wrote.

Ms Roberts said she hoped her complaints would ultimately make a difference. "How do you expect things to improve if you don't do anything about it?" she asked. After receiving the e-mail, an official from the bank contacted Mr Bradley to discuss the situation and get feedback. Finally, two weeks after her initial complaint and with help from The National for highlighting her case, Ms Roberts received an apology in an e-mail from Gavin Sanderson, head of distribution at Mashreq bank. Mr Sanderson said he had interviewed staff and management and reviewed that day's CCTV video.

He said the bank opened 10 minutes late at 9.10am, due to the supervisor being involved in an accident, and apologised. He also acknowledged the cashier had picked up her mobile phone while Ms Roberts was standing at the counter and offered an apology. "This is not as our service should be, nor what is trained. Both matters have been addressed directly with the branch staff and their regional manager," Mr Sanderson said.

In an official statement yesterday, a spokesman for the Mashreq bank said the branch actually opened at 9.08am and added: "We have been in touch with Ms Lucy Roberts to apologise for the inconvenience this incident may have caused and have addressed this matter with the branch manager and Mashreq's staff. Mashreq remains firmly committed to listening and responding to all its valued customer needs."

Ms Roberts has been invited to view video recordings A weary but triumphant Ms Roberts said: "This could have all been sorted out two weeks ago." kshaheen@thenational.ae aligaya@thenational.ae