Passport issues, travelling on Saturday should I still hope?

[Caillou]

I applied for my ds, 4yo, first british passport early April (when we apply, the turn around was 5 weeks).

He already has another passport (EU country), however we could not renew it as the consulate in London is not seeing people due to covid...

We sent as requested his foreign passport (expiring in August) his UK birth certificate as well as DH British passport.

Last week they requested for someone to re-identify ds (it has been done) as well as new proof of ID as his foreign passport is expired (doesn't actually expire until august 2022). According to the government website, I have sent all the relevant documents, what other proof of ID a 4 years old could have?

I have since been passed from service to service with the promise of a call back. They have called me back once requested me to email the upgrade team who have not contacted me, and when I call the helpline they keep telling me at some point someone will call

We are due to go on Saturday to visit family after not seeing them for 2 years due to covid.

I am loosing hope, any advice on how to get the things moving?or should I just give up hoping that we can go 😭

My DS 21 applied for first passport end of Jan. all documents sorted by end March.
Today he travelled to Peterborough hoping to fast track BUT he's been told
He now needs an interview.
He was supposed to fly @ 5am Thursday to barcelona for a festival.
He's finally admitted defeat.
He's lost nearly £500.

Got to a passport office. Loads of people are turning up and if you fly within 48 hours they should prioritise you. Lots are being printed that day so they leave with it.
If you have Facebook join the Passport chaos 2022 group

I’ve just had a first passport for my baby, it took 9 weeks and arrived this week. I got a text to say the application had been approved and it was being printed, it was about 10 days until arrival from then so I’m afraid based on that I’d say it’s not very likely you’ll be travelling Saturday. I’m so sorry, it is total chaos at the moment.

Can you move your trip? It sounds like if they want new ID docs that you haven’t even been approved yet? Is that right?

Dont hope, these customer service are useless. There is no such thing as Customer Service Management. I applied end of March before the 10week warning, and I fly out Monday 30th to Disney.....I have emailed upgrades team who are also useless because nobody will ever call you back, and believe me I have been on the phone for 4 hours at a time. Simply there arent any process that handles calls like ours and you get agency hiring kids to answer calls who arent able to help.

I really hope that HMPO lose this contract to issue passports, absolute grace.

My fiend applied on 01/05 and I countersigned on the same day, guess what he received his childs renewal in 3 weeks.

Wait til they cut 40% of staff from the department, then people really have no hope