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AIBU?

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Original poster

To think that the Post Office are f***ing @rses?!

38 replies

CantSleepWontSleep · 30/05/2007 14:27

I'll start by saying I'm having a really bad day all round, so I may well have not reacted well, but...

Dd needs a passport before we go on hols in the summer. I've already made one trip to get her photos done. DH filled out the form online, which they then mail out to you for signing etc. We got a professional person to certify the photo at the weekend, and to sign the forms and give us his passport number. So armed with the completed form, the photos, my passport and dd's birth certificate, I head into town to use the passport checking service at the Post Office (local PO doesn't offer service).

I queue for over 30 mins in a packed PO, with dd intermittently tantrumming because she is obviously bored in her pushchair, and wants to run around and play. I have a 'disagreement' with a woman who thinks she can push in front of the entire queue as long as she asks the couple that she's pushing immediately in front of (apparently queues should now be based on why you're in a rush, and not ordered by those who bothered to get up and allow enough time for the errands they had to run ), and then I finally get to be served.

The woman glances at the application form, says she can't check it because it's been downloaded and the passport office software puts a solid blob in the boxes where there should be an X. WTF - this is the only reason they won't check it! I'm sure that since the passport office puts the solid blobs in the boxes, that they must find them acceptable, so why can't the PO do the rest of the checks?!

Needless to say a bit of shouting and a few expletives from me didn't get me anywhere except to have another manager confirm what a bunch of useless twats they are .

So now I have to get another form, fill it out manually, find another professional who can certify another of dd's pics and put their info on the form, and queue up to have it checked all over again. Actually dh has to do all of this, because I phoned him up and told him that I was about to have a nervous breakdown in the middle of town, and that I wanted nothing more to do with passports.

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
mother2b · 01/06/2007 11:24

Mhh, i recon they go home and complain to their DP while their DP loving spends an hour helping them pull the sticks out of their bottom
tbh honest i would probably be a little bit grumpy if i had to walk around all day with sticks up my arse

Backtobasics · 01/06/2007 11:15

Do you think the staff go home at night and say to their husbands and wives 'flippin customers are such assholes!?'

mother2b · 01/06/2007 11:03

I think that is compulsary to go on a 6th month traing of sticking sticks up your own arse practising the grimice they all wear before they are eve considered to work in the PO

BTW sorry i havent read thread yet, i just saw it and got angry all over again at the unhelpful bints in my PO

bookwormmum · 30/05/2007 18:53

I got a duplicate copy of my dd's birth cert to avoid having her original copy messed up by civil servants/anyone else who needs to see it (my brother had coffee spilt on his when it was photocopied at one civil servant interview ). I had no bother getting her passport using the downloaded form - I got one of my mum's friends to countersign the pic and no doubt he checked the form for any glaring mistakes before he returned it to me. The worst part was getting the pics done as for the first one, she gave a beautiful pearly grin, plus her face was towards the bottom of the frame. We went back to Tescos armed with cushions and got it the second time and this time I managed to get her not to smile. The two sets of pictures looked like the 'before' and 'after' pictures of a child getting a present .

LIZS · 30/05/2007 18:48

I only remember because dh "lost" my passport, dd's and ds' Birth certificate on a train this time last year , together with our application forms ! Fortunately (for him at least!) they showed up 2 weeks later. But mine isn't a biometric one so if yours is maybe they have a computerised record to cross reference.

SoupDragon · 30/05/2007 18:39

I have no idea what I sent off with her passport application thn, Lizs. Could have been anything it was so long ago and my memory isn't what it used to be

SoupDragon · 30/05/2007 18:37

She's had a passport since she was 2 months old [jetset]

WelshBoris · 30/05/2007 18:26

So BabyDragon has a passport

LIZS · 30/05/2007 18:25

Soupy think that may only be true for biometric passports, I seem to remember having to send mine off last year but then I was also having ds taken off mine so may not be the same. Think I actually ordered ds duplicate certificate over the internet or phone as dh had "lost" it, cost about £7 .

SoupDragon · 30/05/2007 18:21

And as Lizs said, you can go to the registry office and buy a copy of the birth certificate anyway.

SoupDragon · 30/05/2007 18:20

Just send the certificate off, it'll be fine. Do you actually need to send your passport off with it?? I'm sure I didn't for BabyDragon's last year - they can check on their computer systems because you've filled your passport details in.

prettybird · 30/05/2007 15:38

Why not give thema call and check. 0870 521 0410. If you're going to be needing to sen the birth certifcate and your passport off anyway, then you don't need to make your dh go to the bother of filling in the form manually. (unless of coruse you want to make him suffer )

2boysmacca · 30/05/2007 15:25

ah who cares about folding the document, she'll try and amend her birthdate on it in 14 years time so she can get into that trendy bar anyway

AttilaTheMeerkat · 30/05/2007 15:24

www.passport.gov.uk/passport_countersign.asp

Useful link re countersigning of a child's passport application.

Original poster
CantSleepWontSleep · 30/05/2007 15:21

Sounds like fishwife shouting is the traditional approach to take then .

I've told dh that he can take dd out on Saturday morning whilst I have a long soak in the bath. He's NEVER taken her out without me before .

He even said that if he can find someone to do the certifying by then, he'll go to the post office and sort it all out with a manual form. (Though if the certs now have to go off too, then there might be no point in doing it this way).

OP posts:
Bibis · 30/05/2007 15:15

CSWS

Just to make your day even more, it took three visits to the po and an extra set of photos of dd1 to get it right with our passports AND I had to send off the birth certs, never given option not to and I am not sure that you can't . The po did give me the option of spending even more money and having them (certs) sent using reg post - I declined offer and they were all returned within 2 weeks. Passports were hand delivered by a very nice man (not a postman) in a car.

DH had filled form in incorrectly and also got photos of dd1 (6 years) with her mouth open - not allowed I didn't grin in town, I shouted like a fishwife into my mobile at him

Original poster
CantSleepWontSleep · 30/05/2007 15:13

The certificates don't get sent off prettybird - used check and send for mine when we got married so that the marriage cert wouldn't have to go off either.

OP posts:
Original poster
CantSleepWontSleep · 30/05/2007 15:11

Still a stupid rule though .

Quick - have dh on skype - he says 'what can i do to make it up to you?' - what shall i ask for?!

OP posts:
prettybird · 30/05/2007 15:09

But if your reason to use the "Check and Send " service was that you didn't want to send off your dd's passport, I think you'll find that itdoes still need to be sent off.

See extract here from the passport website, the page on "What is check and send"

"check that your application form has been filled in correctly
check that you have included all the supporting documents and the correct fee and
forward all the relevant paperwork plus your payment for the passport directly to us. "

beckybrastraps · 30/05/2007 15:08

Apology required for the PO

Original poster
CantSleepWontSleep · 30/05/2007 15:07

Right, dh gets it!!

OP posts:
beckybrastraps · 30/05/2007 15:02

Not sure of that will work. I quote from the home page:

"Welcome to the IPS on-line passport application

This is a secure site designed to help customers correctly complete a passport application form online.

Once you have completed your online form

We will print the information you entered onto a paper application form. The pre-printed application form will then be returned to you by post for you to sign, date and return to IPS for processing. If we receive your online form before 5pm on any working day, we will aim to dispatch the pre-printed application form to you within 24 hours. Please note however, that during periods of peak demand it may take us longer to dispatch your pre-printed application form. It is only on receipt by the IPS that the fee is charged and the processing of the application begun. Pre-printed forms filled in online cannot be used for Check & Send."

beckybrastraps · 30/05/2007 15:01

www.passport.gov.uk/Epa1d/index.aspx?c=1

Original poster
CantSleepWontSleep · 30/05/2007 14:58

Nope, just checked the form, and it doesn't say it on there.

OP posts:
Original poster
CantSleepWontSleep · 30/05/2007 14:54

Does it? I left it all to my dh, and he assured me that it hadn't told him that at all!! We will be having words if it does. On the actual application form?

OP posts: