HMCTS Divorce Service contact problems?

[cheerup]

My husband is saying he didn't receive the divorce petition and the 30 days passed. I emailed them to ask them to send it to a different address rather than pay £50 for it to be emailed. Nothing happened. I'm now trying to phone but nobody ever answers. Webchat is referred to on the phone message but not available on the website.

£550 quid down and no closer to being divorced. Very frustrating!

Getting through to them is a nightmare.
They do answer the phone eventually, but in my experience the waiting time was about 30-40 minutes.

The webchat is here www.gov.uk/apply-for-divorce (down near the bottom of the page there is a tiny link!)
I used this a couple of times, but I think it's probably staffed by the same people. It says someone will be with you within about ten minutes, but I waited half an hour until someone answered (wondering whether it was even working). It's properly shit op, it really adds to the stress of it all

I never had a reply from an email. Once, I spoke to someone who said they had about 2500 emails in the queue and this was pre covid.

Did you apply online? If so, then hopefully once the wheels are in motion it should be a bit quicker.

@Tiddleypops thanks for responding. I finally got through. Then was cut off!! Then got though again - after 20 min wait- and spoke to someone who actioned my email. It shouldn't be this difficult, divorce is surely hard enough!

Agreed, it just adds to the difficulty! They lost all my paperwork at one point. I hope things get moving for you now.

I've been having problems too. My original application seems to have disappeared somewhere though they cashed my cheque.... When I have spoken to anyone they have been helpful but it takes about 45 minutes + on hold. I have had to email when they lost, have had an acknowledgement they have it but still no response some weeks later. I know the service is struggling, but it's really demoralising isn't it.

That's really awful @noideawhatusernametochoose.
They lost my paperwork too but cashed the cheque, it is obviously a far too common occurrence!! I had to purchase a certified marriage certificate to replace the one they lost.

I would call them again (if you have a spare half a day). I eventually got through to someone really helpful who sorted it all out.

Oh, also, I raised a complaint (I can't remember how, the process was detailed on the website somewhere, it was a third party complaints handler). That triggered a call back the next day from someone actually at the court rather than the call centre.

Nightmare @Tiddleypops ! At least with mine it's the Form A they've lost so no marriage cert going missing. I'll chase it up again later this week - I know it's all in the pipeline as I had the receipt email, but I'm now 3 months behind where I was so goodness knows when I'll actually get a Court date....

Does anyone know how to change the petition reason ? My ex agreed to two years but then decided he wasn’t going to do that so I need to change to unreasonable