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Auto firm refuses to replace battery till car meter shows 40,000 kms

T K GIRIJAL of Dubai called Khaleej Timeas to complain against Arabian Automobiles.

He said "I bought a car from them and after it had covered 36,634 kms the battery stopped working. I called Arabian Automobiles but they did not replace it. Instead they told me that they would change it at the next servicing of my car which was due when the meter reads 40,000 kms. My question to them was what am I supposed to do till then? My car can't reach 40,000 kms without a battery. How do you expect me to use a car without battery? They didn't have an answer. In the end, I went to some other service station and got my battery replaced from there."

Reply

WHEN Khaleej Times contacted Arabian Automobiles for a reply and the company said that if the client was turned down by the garage personnel, he should have approached the complaints department. They would have listened to his complaint and taken immediate action.

However, what the company is now willing to do is reimburse the client the money that he spent on buying a new battery from outside. The client is requested to bring the receipt for purchase of battery and collect the money from the company.

Billed by Etisalat while on vacation

VARGHESE, a resident of Dubai called up Khaleej Times Hotline complaining that he was stunned to receive a huge telephone bill from Etisalat after he returned to Dubai from a two-month vacation.

"I went home with my family to India in June and July. But when I returned to Dubai after the vacation I was stunned to receive a huge telephone bill. I lodged a complaint with Etisalat but they informed me that internet hackers might have used my telephone while I was away. They insisted that I should pay the entire bill first and then follow up the matter with the respective department,'' he said.

How can Etisalat do this? They should give some option to the affected customers and take strict measures to prevent such frauds. But it seems that they are only interested in charging money from their customers, he complained.

Reply

A STATEMENT issued by Etisalat read: "We conducted investigations on the disputed invoice and detected that all the calls in the invoice have been made from the customer's premises."

The customer uses this number for his dial-up Internet connection. When surfing the Internet, the customer has inadvertently allowed a website to switch his dial-up connection, and the website has routed his modem to international ISPs.

Etisalat's charges for accessing the services of international ISPs remain the same as those for making international calls from a telephone. Etisalat has addressed this issue before, and there is a permanent page on our web-site that warns against this. The page can be viewed at http://ecompany.ae/eco/isp/english/news/customeralerts/dialers.html.

Moreover, Etisalat has also introduced the "Etisalat Modem Protector" software to help protect our valued subscribers from such Internet Dialer scams. Customers need to download the software by clicking on ''My Account'' link on the Etisalat web-site at www.etisalat.ae. After logging in with his Dialup user name and password, the user can click on the "Etisalat Modem Protector" link to download the software.

No pedestrian bridge near Sahara

A RESIDENT of Sharjah has complained about the lack of a pedestrian bridge or an underpass near the Sahara Centre to help residents cross over to the popular shopping mall. Often people are found crossing the busy road and jumping over the road barrier causing a nuisance to motorists and posing accident risks. Why is the Sharjah municipality turning a deaf ear to the request? the complainant asked.

Reply

AN OFFICIAL from the Sharjah Public Works Department said the road construction project in Sharjah is currently underway. We are not ignoring the issue of underpass or overhead pedestrian bridges in several busy areas of Sharjah. We are working on it and will hopefully start the project soon to resolve the problem, the official said.