Sharjah Media City (Shams Free Zone) — Local services in Al Batayih

I did a mistake opened a license with Shams in 2022. I paid for license and service of opening a bank account. After they got both payment, representative of Shams who was responsible for bank opening stopped reply for 4-6 months, other 6 month took just to get refund for not provided service opening a bank account. They returned only part amount and cut part even prior they promised return in full if they can’t provide the service. During first 6 month of dealing with them I experience full ignorance of mine and partner requests to customer service for refund, any explanation, ignorance of any messages in what’s app to their sales manager and account manager, full ignorance in emails. When I tried to require full refund as promised I been ignored in the same way. After 6 month of opening a license with Shams I decided to close the online store because I was not able to process online payments, since they did not open a corporate bank account for me. I informed them in written exactly after 6 months that I will close my business due to their actions and will never renew again and got no response to that. In 2024 after 2 years they shared suspension certificate for my company which I closed 2-3 years back!!! And now in 2025 new manager from this organisation reaching and saying I need to PAY them to cancel my license!!!!! Are you in your mind? Maybe after 10 years you will decide to request other payment just as new idea? By the way no one even replied on my email where I sent notice that I will close the company. And after 2 years New manager is reached to say I need to pay fine???? For what exactly? I had a losses due to unprofessionalism in this company, not you. It is like a bad joke, worse experience in business field and in any freezone. This team can easy take money of their clients and after be silent and ignore them for years and never provide paid services, cut and trying to give fines to ex clients for no reason. Will never deal with them again and not recommend them to...

My honest experience with SHAMS

I usually don’t write negative reviews, but this experience deserves one.

First of all, I want to mention Lovely Willis, who was genuinely helpful, polite, and patient throughout the process. She’s the only reason I’m even giving one star. If I could rate her service separately, I’d give 5 stars. Unfortunately, my experience with SHAMS as an organization has been completely disappointing.

Here’s why:

1️⃣ No proper guidance from the start. SHAMS itself recommends going for pre-approval, and most of my friends were advised the same by other free zones. But the business executive handling my case never mentioned it — she only pushed me to pay the full amount immediately. That’s not advice; that’s poor client handling.

2️⃣ After rejection, zero support. When my application was rejected, I asked SHAMS for guidance based on their experience. Instead, I received generic, robotic responses that felt AI-generated — no real help or explanation whatsoever.

3️⃣ Every person says something different. There’s no consistency. One person says you can’t amend the license for free, another says you can but need to remove yourself, and the third says something else entirely. It’s chaos.

4️⃣ No attention to detail. The operations team blindly forwarded my documents without even checking obvious issues — like my passport not having a surname (which every immigration officer would flag) or my business activity being more suitable for the mainland. Nobody cared to double-check anything.

In short, SHAMS needs serious internal training and better communication between departments. Clients trust you with their money and time — the least you can do is act responsibly and consistently.

Again, thank you Lovely for your professionalism — you deserve much better colleagues and management support.

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1 Star Review

Fake commitments. No transparency. Worst of all—never owning up to their mistakes.

A few people were nice in person (they listened), but in reality, they couldn’t do anything.

Their own team openly admits that there’s an issue with establishment cards for Pakistan nationals. I mentioned this countless times, yet they bypassed it with false promises—just to close a sale. They pushed me into a point of no return.

One name I will never forget is Saba Razzak, who was handling sales for my case. She could have gone for a simple pre-approval check at the very beginning. If they had done that, my case would have been rejected early and I would have saved both time and money. Instead, since Feb 2025, I’ve been stuck in this process, wasting months and bearing huge expenses. And in the end, when asking for a refund, they still had the audacity to deduct a cancellation fee.

To make matters worse, one of SHAMS’ own official team members (unofficially) admitted it was SHAMS’ lapse in my case, and even guided me that establishment cards do get approved if you’re inside UAE. Because of SHAMS, I had to go through a nightmare—traveling to Karachi, doing an embassy interview for a sticker visa, and then coming back to reapply. Even then, it was rejected again.

Instead of helping me resolve it properly, the PRO made me sit outside immigration, then later just called me saying: “Bro, they won’t do it—your application got rejected due to a political reason.” That was not true. SHAMS simply did not want to try.

They acknowledge the problem but don’t act. They make promises but don’t deliver. They shift the blame instead of owning it.

If you’re considering them—be...