HMPO, Liverpool

Prakhonchai Nick said:
I recommended the Ombudsman Post No 69 December 2nd last

I currently have a case with the Ombudsman regarding Royal Bank of Scotland. Seems they are very busy -or short staffed they have indicated a wait of 4 months before they can look into my complaint
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Bit like HMPO, Liverpool then?

What pisses me off is that if there is a delay, the cannon fodder don't even know it. What starts out as 3 working days, becomes 10 working days which then becomes "as soon as possible" (which, in my case, then becomes four months). It's not as though it's rocket science. My question "Are you going to reimburse me for the cost of collecting the passports from Bangkok?" "Yes or bloody No!"
 
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Me:
to Bangkok, help, Liverpool, consular.replies - 2:36 PM 20 January 2023

Dear Sirs,

It is now three days since my last three emails and I have yet to receive a response from you with regard to the delivery of my replacement passport. The weekend is approaching which I assume means that your office is closed for two days.

If you do not intend to respond to the specifics, please advise your full name and the full name of "the examiner" as your head office requires these to be included in my complaint to them about the status of my replacement passport and the lack of quality control exercised by your office.

Regards,
 
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I am at a loss to determine to which email this HMPO email is in response. It appears to be referring to the email today sent to VFS/VAC, Bangkok with copies to HMPO, Liverpool, the HMPO help line and the British Consul in Thailand.

Fred Karno has nothing on these Walleys!

"Dear Yorky,

Thank you for your email regarding the delivery of your passport.
If you are in the UK, these are delivered by Royal Mail second class post unless you paid for secure delivery. If you paid for secure delivery, these will be delivered by our courier.

Delivery timescales can vary depending on demand.

If you paid for secure delivery, you should receive an email or SMS containing a tracking number for your supporting documents. You should track your delivery using the link in the message.

If you have not received your supporting documents or tracking number 3 weeks after receiving your new passport you should reply to this email telling us:
· the application number(s)
· full name of applicant
· date of birth
· post code
· tracking number (if known)

We will use this information to trace your documents and update you.
If you are in the UK and did not pay for secure delivery, you will need to contact Royal Mail. However, you should allow for any postal delays.

Regards,
His Majesty’s Passport Office"
 
I wonder how they will respond to this?

Me
To help

Re: Complaint #6454445

Dear Sirs,

Reference your email of July 22nd 2022 (your Mr N Roberts), quote " Please keep your receipts for the cost of sending the passport back to us to enable us to reimburse you if the error was made by Her Majesty’s Passport Office.",

I enclose herewith a copy of the receipt in the amount of ฿300.00. In addition there was a cost of ฿120.00 taxi fare to the post office for which I do not have a receipt. I would be pleased if you would advise me of your preferred method of reimbursement.

Best regards
 
It must be time for them, as a group, to decide to "get this eejit off our backs and send him his bleeding passport!"
 
Yorky said:
I wonder how they will respond to this?

Me
To help

Re: Complaint #6454445

Dear Sirs,

Reference your email of July 22nd 2022 (your Mr N Roberts), quote " Please keep your receipts for the cost of sending the passport back to us to enable us to reimburse you if the error was made by Her Majesty’s Passport Office.",

I enclose herewith a copy of the receipt in the amount of ฿300.00. In addition there was a cost of ฿120.00 taxi fare to the post office for which I do not have a receipt. I would be pleased if you would advise me of your preferred method of reimbursement.

Best regards
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Very quick response:

help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk
to me 8:34 PM

Dear Yorky,

Thank you for your email about a refund.

In order to request a refund, please follow instructions at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-passport-office/about/complaints-procedure
When we receive your request, we will investigate and let you know what went wrong and advise you what we are doing to put things right.
We will write to you within 15 working days from receiving your request, either with a full reply or to let you know what is happening if we have not finished our investigation.

Regards,
His Majesty’s Passport Office
 
From me
to mailto:help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk - 8:50 PM

Dear Sirs,

It is not a complaint, the complaint has been handled by your Passport office in Liverpool. This is a request for compensation for the cost of sending my new application and old passport to HMPO, Liverpool to replace the passport issued in error (as per the email from Mr. Roberts). There is no need for any investigation. The fault has been admitted by HMPO, Liverpool, and it is now only a matter of how you repay the costs incurred by me.

And this could be only the start!

Regards
 
Yorky said:
I wonder how they will respond to this?

Me
To help

Re: Complaint #6454445

Dear Sirs,

Reference your email of July 22nd 2022 (your Mr N Roberts), quote " Please keep your receipts for the cost of sending the passport back to us to enable us to reimburse you if the error was made by Her Majesty’s Passport Office.",

I enclose herewith a copy of the receipt in the amount of ฿300.00. In addition there was a cost of ฿120.00 taxi fare to the post office for which I do not have a receipt. I would be pleased if you would advise me of your preferred method of reimbursement.

Best regards
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Did you walk back from the Post office?
 
Prakhonchai Nick said:
Did you walk back from the Post office?
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The driver was asked to wait. It really doesn't matter because I'll never get the money.

All I wanted was a response in order to discover how difficult it would be to obtain compensation should it come to it. The answer is "very difficult".

"help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk
to me

Thank you for your email response.
If you wish to claim expenses in respect of new photographs, postage etc (where the error has been caused by HMPO) you must submit your request in writing (with evidence of the cost) to:
HM Passport office
PO Box 767
Southport
PR8 9PW

Regards,
His Majesty’s Passport Office"
 
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Yorky said:
The driver was asked to wait. It really doesn't matter because I'll never get the money.

All I wanted was a response in order to discover how difficult it would be to obtain compensation should it come to it. The answer is "very difficult".

"help@customerservice.hmpo.gov.uk
to me

Thank you for your email response.
If you wish to claim expenses in respect of new photographs, postage etc (where the error has been caused by HMPO) you must submit your request in writing (with evidence of the cost) to:
HM Passport office
PO Box 767
Southport
PR8 9PW

Regards,
His Majesty’s Passport Office"
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Of course to follow this route, I would have to post the information which would involve more postage and another taxi fare. Then I would have to apply for reimbursement of those costs, which would incur further costs in a never ending spiral.....
 
Today's nonsensible response from HMPO:

HM Passport Office - POGR/0514423/23 <noreplyCSMT@hmpo.gov.uk> 24th Jan 5:20 PM.
to me

Dear Yorky,

Your complaint has been logged under reference POGR/0514423/23 and has been passed to our investigation team for review.

We aim to respond to complaints with an estimated timescale of 10 working days. However, we are currently experiencing a high volume of contact and therefore our response to your complaint may take longer than usual.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you for your patience at this time. We will respond to you as soon as possible.

Please do not reply to this email as this is a no-reply mailbox and emails are not monitored. For contact information regarding a new or closed complaint, please visit: https://www.gov.uk/passport-advice-line

Kind Regards

Mark
Complaints Team
His Majesty’s Passport Office
www.gov.uk/hm-passport-office


I have no idea to what email complaint this correspondence is in reference to. And I cannot ask as it's from a "noreply" mailbox.

However, I have a name to add to my list of morons - "Mark".
 
I do find it of interest that "The Complaints Team" of His Majesty's Passport Office are "experiencing a high volume of contact"

Significant perhaps?

From Justin Madders, MP back in May 2022:

"Thank you for your email, I am sorry to hear of the issues you are experiencing, I am raising a high number of complaints on behalf of my constituents and so I am very familiar with the problems being encountered."
 
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I was finding the same, with various pension related departments. After having the pleasure of waiting in a queue for 35 minutes, then to be hung-up upon. That experience cost me 840b. The second & third calls resulted in the same 'service' but only 430b, those times, I reviewed my approach (with advice from PK Nick) and posted a letter & 2 pages of a HMRC form to them via EMS (COST 1000B).















Hope this works before 5thApril. All I'm trying to do is PAY THEM MONEY, FFS!
 
Ivor the Engine said:
I was finding the same, with various pension related departments. After having the pleasure of waiting in a queue for 35 minutes, then to be hung-up upon. That experience cost me 840b. The second & third calls resulted in the same 'service' but only 430b, those times, I reviewed my approach (with advice from PK Nick) and posted a letter & 2 pages of a HMRC form to them via EMS (COST 1000B).















Hope this works before 5thApril. All I'm trying to do is PAY THEM MONEY, FFS!
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You need CAT Phonenet.

Cost me 35 Baht for a 40 minute call.
 
Latest:

Dear Sirs,

Considering your apparent lack of interest in responding to my email of January 17th 2023 (3:35 PM), please let me clarify the situation as I see it.

I applied through VFS/VAC Bangkok for a new passport which was about to expire. Some weeks later, HMPO, Liverpool processed and printed out the new passport with an error. Quality Control at Liverpool failed to pick up the mistake and forwarded the incorrect passport to VFS/VAC Bangkok. In turn, VFS/VAC Bangkok’s Quality Control also failed to discover the error and issued the passport to an agent whom I had paid to collect it and deliver it to me.

In early March 2022, I informed HMPO of the error and requested that they re-issue the passport correctly. Then began a five month exchange of correspondence during which time, HMPO, Liverpool procrastinated and prevaricated until eventually they agreed to issue a replacement passport at no cost to me (July 22nd 2022).

I submitted a further application to Liverpool (not VFS/VAC Bangkok) as requested and asked HMPO, Liverpool to courier the replacement passport direct to me. This they said they wouldn’t do and dispatched the document to VFS/VAC, Bangkok against my wishes.

To conclude, I paid a sum of around ฿10,000.00 for the original passport itself and an agent to collect it on my behalf. The passport was issued incorrectly and replaced. However, VSF/VAC require me to pay an additional ฿5,000.00 (without recompense) to collect the replacement, rather than VFS/VAC could pay less than ฿100.00 to courier the passport direct to me.

Is that a fair summary of the situation? If you consider it to be inaccurate I would suggest that you advise me accordingly. I shall then consider any amendments prior to presenting my case to the Independent Examiner of Complaints as I consider awaiting an answer from HMPO, Liverpool for over four months regarding reimbursement of my costs to be considered a refusal of my request.

However, I have been advised that the Independent Examiner of Complaints that they are very busy/short staffed and maybe the case would no be heard for over three months; some time after your alleged deadline for returning the replacement to Liverpool.

I await your response, if any.

Regards,

[My thanks to @Prakhonchai Nick and @Merlin for their input - not included in the sent message]


Charles Geoffrey Pullan.



Copied to HMPO, Liverpool (team 8); HMPO help; Consular replies; Justin Madders (MP)
 
"Dear Sirs,

Having not received a response from either VFS/VAC Bangkok nor yourselves regarding the content of my proposed submission to OIEC, I shall be submitting my complaint tomorrow morning.

All this because of the refusal of VFS/VAC to courier the replacement passport to me incurring them a cost of less than ฿100.00.

I shall ask again, please advise your full name and your position within HMPO."
__________________________________________________________________________________________

"Dear Mr Pullman (good start- spelling my name wrong AGAIN!),

Thank you for your email.

I’m sorry about the problem you are currently facing, thank you for letting us know, we will pass this on to the relevant department.

Regards,
His Majesty’s Passport Office"
 
"Reference your earlier email, I would be grateful if you would remind the "relevant department" that VFS/VAC, Bangkok are threatening to return my replacement passport to Liverpool HMPO in 12 (calendar) days time if this matter is not resolved.

You still have not provided your name and position within HMPO.

Regards."
 
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