Lodging a Complaint With Etisalat

The Internet was disconnected from my mobile phone yesterday, after I forgot to dully charge it with enough credit to allow Etisalat to deduct the subscription fee automatically. The SMS that intimated me of this also provided that my sim card is now pay-as-you-go, run-of-the-mill one like the millions of others around the world. (Curiously, this is one surefire way of canceling an Etisalat service. Don’t pay. Lose connection). Feeling slightly offended by this degradation of status, I summoned the web page of Etisalat and found the particular text that will, by sending it to 1010, renew the subscription.

But first, I had to dully charge my phone with enough Derhams. Which I did.

So I punched the text and SMS number and pressed sent. And waited. And waited. One hour, two hours. I checked my credit and realized that 90 DHs has been deducted upon sending the SMS (although the subscription fee is 49 DHs). Baffling! I called Etisalat blackberry help line, they told me to wait for a couple of more hours, and, if I’d not received a confirmation SMS by then, to call them again.

So I called again after the recommended period elapsed. The gentleman at the other end, to his credit, took the matter seriously and thought about it and asked probing questions. Yes, an SMS has been sent and 90 DHs deducted. No, I don’t know what the problem is. I’ll file a complaint with our IT/Billing department and they’ll call you when it’s fixed. OK?

OK.

OK.

A minute later I received an SMS from Etisalat, not, as I’d hoped, to inform me that the service has been renewed, but to proffer me a complaint number. It was fine, though. It was a development. I’m now armed with a complaint number; an important reinforcement in the bureaucratic battle of getting my complaint on the record.

This morning, almost 18 hours after the complaint was ‘lodged’, I receive a call from the complaints’ guy. Very professional and gentlemanly, despite his insistence on repeating the complaint number, which, I suspect, is meant to help Etisalat, not me, track the problem.

I mean, how many complaints could I be waging at Etisalat at the same time? Right?

Long story short: the complaints' guy asks me whether I’m certain the number I’d sent the SMS to was 1010, asks me to ‘check’ again. I summon the SMS register and it's there, an SMS sent to ‘w0w0’, (the ‘w’ button coincides with the 1 digit on the blackberry keypad), and I tell him so. He says thanks, he’ll call back.

A minute later he calls to tell me that the ‘w’ in the number I’d sent the SMS to wasn’t interpreted as ‘1’ but as ‘9’ (as is the case with the classic telephone keypads). He must be wrong, I respond, because that is the way I dial all my numbers: I don’t bother with pressing ‘alt’ before hitting the digit, the blackberry interprets the letter as the digit it’s cohabiting with. He says that is true as far as calling is concerned, however, for texting, the letters are interpreted the good ol’ way.

So: w0w0 = 9090.

I’d texted someone else completely and I’ve been bothering Etisalat for an entire day because of what is practically my own mistake.

So, I ask the complaint guy: what happened when I sent that SMS to 9090?

Nothing much, he replies. You just donated 90 DHs to Dubai Cares.