to think the passport office are a disgrace

[penelopestitsdropped]

November the 19th my brother sent his passport for renewal by recorded delivery.

January the 16th there was still no passport so he phoned the passport office giving his passport number and the barcode reference number.
They said that they had not recieved the passport application at all.

We found teh tracking number from teh recorded delivery and confirmed with the post office that yes, they have recieved it.

on Monday he phoned them back and demanded they look into it further.
Yesterday they phone him back to apologise. It turns out that although he completed his form properly their machine didn't scan it properly.
instead of sending to his home at number 16 they sent it to number 5.

quite how that works is beyond me.

What has angered me is that the passport was posted on the 27th november! Before he was initially told that they had not even recieved the passport.

secondly they have just posted it out without checking. that passport could be being used for anything, not least fraud.

thirdly, their idea of a resolution is to tell him to just go and knock on the door and ask for it back!

I am so disgusted at the level of service and even more angry at how lax the security is.
Whilst babies are having their nappies checked at airports, your are having to have your personal privacy invaded by x ray machines and all fluids banned. they are sending passports out to who knows who.

The passport office are not airport staff you know..

no i understand that. But it is all down to security.

a passport is seen as teh ultimate form of ID and yet here they are just throwing them around.

DB is now having to pay for a credit check to ensure that he hasn't been a victim of ID theft...not that it was theft, more given to them on a bloody plate

really? no harm done?

He did knock on the door and was told to fuck off and that they didn't have his passport.

not particularly nice people.

Now given that passports are sold on teh balck market for hndreds of pounds i would suggest that the passport office not doing basic checks is pretty dire actually.

and harm has certainly been done. he is a 19 year old trying to get a job. he has so far had to turn down 2 jobs as they were at the airport and they require him to have a current passport.

I would imagine of their (fairly sophisticated) scanners scanned teh application incorrectly your DB had either filled it in something other than black ink or he has fairly illegible handwriting.

What do you expect them to do re checking - you fill in your address and then you expect them to verify it? How?

If you are that concerned you should either i) fill the application in online so that they send you the form to check and sign or ii) use the post office checking service.

I would be pissed off if they told me they hadn't received something they obviously had though.

We have a photo copy of the form, it was filled in perfectly. the wrtting is perfectly clear. we also DID use the check and send.

the woman first said that the computer didn't recognise the number 1 and that was why.
I could understand that if they sent it to 6 instead of 16, but they didn't they sent it to 5.

none of it makes any sense whatsoever. and yes the lie that they hadn't recieved it has infuriated me

Forget all that.

He needs to report the lost of his passport to the police ASAP

yabu - turnaround time of five days for my passport renewal. And 4 days for dd's.

Mistakes with 1 passport is a shame, but sometimes things go wrong.

Why did he wait two months before contacting them? He should have been on the case daily from end Nov.

slightly off topic rant....

You are not cheering me up. I have to renew mine and they have closed both the Milan consulate and the Rome embassy to passport renewal. Have to send the sodding thing to Paris. With form. But on the website it doesn't say which form is specifically for renewal. And if you phone you get lost in Dante's lesser known ring of hell, the automated phone system that sends you in circles.

Reading this I'm now angsting that I'll spend a couple of hundred euros for both fees and the costs of getting it there and back just to have the damn thing send to the wrong place and to sent round in circles by another automated phone system when i try to track it down.

I wish passports had a fingerprint or something so they never needed renewing.

Or at least let me use my Italian ID card for EU travel.

(sulks)