Problems I had with banks in Dubai

That was a long time ago now but I still remember the pain I had to go through when I was opening a bank account in Dubai.

• It took me about a week to get hold of the personal manager working with my company. He missed the appointment time a few times. Finally, I was waiting for him to come at X o'clock. At X:10 I called him and asked where the heck he is. He told me something in an excusing tone (as always btw). I asked him what the name of his boss is. He said he would come in 5 minutes. He did come in 10 or 15 minutes, and we got everything done.
• I asked the guy to issue 2 ATM cards - one for me and another one for my wife. My wife's card was never issued although I called him a few times and was promised to be sent a card in a week or so. Finally, I just gave up.
• The bank issued 4 (!!) credit cards. Visa and MasterCard for me and for my wife, but I only asked for one MasterCard for myself. After a few calls he finally came to me and we destroyed the Visas. He said the associated account would be closed in a couple of days. It is still open and next year I may be charged for it unless I go to the bank and close it.
• "No! Forget my number, I will not work with your bank! All the best!" It was my boss on the phone with the same guy... Didn't sound good. He decided to open an account in another bank after the bank's manager didn't come for the n-th time.

Later the bank's customer service representative called me asking to convert my account into an Islamic banking account (read what it is on wikipedia). After I confirmed the operation, she asked me if I have anything to say about the service. In the beginning of our conversation, she told me that the call is recorded. So, I did have a lot to say.

It appeared that everything that the bank guy promised to me was something that he could not actually do and I had to go to a bank's branch personally. Fair enough but it meant the guy was completely incompetent...

I never worked with local banks. My boss and another colleague did. Having denied the company's preferred bank because of the poor service, they went to one of the leading local banks. They've got the same service issues with it though.