Customers of Doha Bank were unable to withdraw money or pay for purchases using their debit card for much of Wednesday to a technical failure that some say has lasted more than 15 hours.
The outage, which some customers said started late Tuesday evening, came at a particularly inopportune time for many residents who are paid at the end of the month and need access to their salary to pay bills.
A customer service representative said she expected access to be restored by 1:30pm but was unable to provide any additional information about the nature of the problem.
However, that target passed without the network coming back online. Shortly after 3pm, the bank tweeted that it was still working on fixing the problem:
Dear Valued Customers, we apologize for the inconvenience. We are working towards resolving the system related problem ASAP.
— Doha Bank (@DohaBankQatar) July 1, 2015
For the moment, however, the bank’s customers are unable to access their account online or use their card at ATMs or at retailers’ point-of-sale terminals, according Doha Bank’s website.
That’s caused considerable frustration for some residents:
@DohaBankQatar what happened still the services are not up? Today could not pay visa fee in MOI, big embarrassment
— Abhishek Mishra (@mishranomics) July 1, 2015
@dohanews when at the checkout counter at 11:30pm my card won’t work.. It said “do not honour”… Awesome service by @DohaBankQatar
— shamim (@sha4u143) July 1, 2015
Doha Bank service annoys since morning. No ATM, No Online Login even their Customer Care not working. @qatarday @DohaBankQatar @dohanews — Fawmy Samad ® (@Fawmy) July 1, 2015
Have you been affected by the outage? Thoughts?
![[Getty]](https://dohanews.co/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/GettyImages-1763609272-560x420.jpg)
Pay cash, problem solved.
But you have to withdraw cash first. The ATM and the branch does not work.
Do you mean even the branches were closed? that is truely shocking!
Stuck at an airport for more than 3 hours as I have no cash on me to get a taxi! Well done Doha Bank (no.1 bank in Qatar!!!). Thank you
Was stuck after oil change and car wash at 1am. Finally managed to get someone to come to Woqod at 2:30am and pay in cash … Horrendous …
Should have offered your ID to the worker, and pay next day.
looks like Doha Bank’s network breached by hackers.
not at all. its hacked by their own incompetence.
Seriously people! What do you expect from an Indian bank who’s website and online banking runs on Microsoft Windows 2008 servers with ASP.NET and DotNetNuke as a CMS. That’s like a “Please come in” invitation to anyone who wants to do no good to your bank account. It seems their systems got their last serious update back in 2012 and the core components of their website seems to be utterly outdated. I am not surprised. Information technology in Qatar is third world thanks to people from the 3rd world. My tip? Get a first world credit card and just use that one every time your bank collapses.
Haven’t you read the papers lately….’first world’ banks have collapsed and are in junk status…
The CEO is Indian….but IT in Doha Bank is more Pakistani ISI, I hear…
I don’t know what papers you are reading, but I am not aware that banks in the first world are at junk status. Credit Suisse at Moody’s long-term is rated A1, UBS is rated A1, Dohabank is A2. So I guess you’re either reading some strange “papers” that are quite some years old or you just try to be funny or smart here…
Obviously you are neither smart nor funny(too much Alcohol?)…. but thanks for googling the credit ratings of select finance houses.
Now google this – Name one first world bank in Qatar that you can trust your money with.
First world credit card to use in Qatar? Like a Greek based credit card?
Time of the year messing up your already messed up brain…………….keep your tips to yourself…
Btw did you work in Doha bank or were terminated by them to know details about their systems.
Won’t look beyond QNB or CBQ in retail banking – even HSBC is rubbish….
QNB!!! oh my gosh–never for me. HSBC for me (and CQB for e-savings).
Best of the worst – with QNB First, no complaints so far.
No need to be offensive. If you can read properly, you can see that my name is not alcohol. Knowing the “details” of their system requires a simple look into their homepage’s source code because they are so safe, they did not eliminate the application information. Information disclosure at its best. This tells me that not a single IT security check has been done on their systems properly, because that’s the first thing you check.
Indian? Now the “do not honour” message referred on the tweet above makes a lot of sense.
It is Doha bank not Bombay bank…..
Your comment does not make sense – ‘Do not honor/honour’ is an card decline code when the issuing bank does not authorize the transaction…
Ps-don’t think there is any bank named Bombay bank….
Trust me. My messages makes a lot of sense. 😉
Ah they were my client for years. Their IT is one if the worst among Qatari banks. And that says a lot because in general IT is quite bad in all of local banks. Its not seen as “strategic” investment lol. 🙂 Well..there you go.
Empty pocket, waiting since morning to get money, Branch near to me closed. WOW. awesome banking service ever. Qatar’s number on banking service LOL
Cash is king 😀
Now I know!
when
online? please answer me
I got a sms at 3am this morning starting with the line “We are glad to inform you that all the technical problems have been resolved”.
Well you Doha Bank Geniuses, how about next time you send a sms when you FIRST encounter this problem so you can save at least some of your customers from embarrassment, stress or inconvenience!
Aah, the moment when guest pay bills while host embarrassed.
There should be public fine for the institution, on this major lapse.
Should also be fines for the top team individuals – Ceo, IT head, Customer relationship head.
The Centre Bank and Customer Complaint Ministry should take notice.
This will send message to other banks also, for such terrible customer service events.