Hello Team,
You asked for an update so here I am. We had zero response to each of our online forms requesting contact, our polite emails detailing our situation / travel dates and various telephone calls trying to request an application update. I desperately rang again on Saturday but after holding for over two hours, I was once again cut off.
Our holiday ticketing deadline was Saturday and we either had to move our holiday at a cost of thousands of pounds or take a punt our passport would arrive in time using the upgrade lottery process but if not, lose thousands of pounds by gambling its arrival as once ticketed, our holiday became non-refundable / changeable and we travel in a few weeks.
Given the shambles of the passport office and their actions to date, we just couldn’t take the risk and we therefore rescheduled our holiday at a cost of thousands of pounds, all because we originally applied for a passport based on their processing advice of 3-4 weeks, which they then moved the goalposts of during the processing of our application.
Knowing that we’ve paid for our application to gather dust in the application being processed stage for almost two months because of their system error, is quite frankly unacceptable. Being told that there is an upgrade system in place which is actually like a lottery system for a, rare, allocated winner, is also unacceptable. People are being told that the upgrade team are not working this weekend whilst others are receiving telephone calls from the upgrade team. All systems in place at the passport office have been proven not to work. It is absolutely outrageous that it is us who are suffering because of their incompetence by missing holidays, paying to move them and all whilst paying for the privilege to do so. *RANTS ON*
The upgrade system isn’t guaranteed but people are gambling on this and still missing holidays. We just couldn’t risk this as an option as there was too much money at stake which is why we moved our holiday only a few hours before it was ticketed. If you are able to do this too please do think about this as an option. It is heartbreaking to see so many people miss their holiday and those their money thinking an upgrade is coming when the reality is only a few are given the chance despite promises being made.
I wish you all so much luck with your own applications, my nerves could no longer take the gamble!