On April 17, I made an inquiry for the 'Sukuk' bonds at the Priority Office of Maybank at KLCC in Kuala Lumpur.

The officer gave me some forms which I read after which I made further clarifications. Thereafter, I made purchased several 'Sukuk' bonds using my Maybank savings account passbook.

The purchase was immediately debited against my bank account, and I was given a slip with my particulars on it. The slip was signed/stamped by the bank officer.

In the evening, my wife and I discussed the purchase of the 'Sukuk' bonds. She had made a similar purchase at Public Bank (the OUG branch) using her savings account passbook but the purchase was not debited.

She was told to wait to be notified if she would be successful for the bonds purchase. I then quikcly checked the slip I had received from Maybank.

In fine print at the bottom was written and I translate: ‘Keep this slip as a reference to check if your purchase has been succesful'.

I did not notice this small print earlier as my eyesight is not good. Maybank took my money but yet could not confirm if I had got the 'Sukuk bonds'.

Such a condition is not stated in the terms/conditions listed in the handout on the bonds for interested clients. On April 20, I returned to inquire on the status of my purchase but was informed there was no news yet.

I then inquired of the officer who then would be paying me for the lost interest on the amount I had signed over while pending confirmation of the success of my purchse.

They could not answer me. I could not take back my money. This practice by Maybank is an outright robbery.

On April 2, my wife went to OUG's Public Bank to inquire on the status of her purchase. The officer also advised here that there no news yet.

My wife then informed that she wished to withdraw but to her surprise, the officer said she could not do that - her purchase has been 'locked in' and she could not cancel the purchase order to use her own money in the bank account.