I'm guessing the title says it all really.. And I suppose a government agency described by members of Parliament as "unfit for purpose" doesn't rank high when it comes to customer service, but since the 2nd of December I have sent numerous emails to the offices in Manila and the only reply I have gotten so far is the auto-response when they were closed informing me how they will contact me within 7 days and deal with complaints within 20 working days... Oh well, guessing if they don't respond I can always take it further.
Even way back in 2005 when Elsa applied for her Spouse Visa, emails to the British Embassy in Manila was the most unpleasant experience; an auto-reply followed up many days later with vague answers of which none were of any help. I was left with the impression they were doing you a massive favour by bothering to reply.
I've sent them another email, sent to 3 UKBA addresses, also advised them that in 3 weeks if I don't have a reply from them I can take it to the parliamentary ombudsman as that will be 8 weeks since I met my MP.
So you have just given them another two weeks and six days to sit on their fat asses doing nothing. That is just what they want, they will love you for it Kuya. You will be the office pin-up boy today.
Oh joy; what have to look forward to, starting shortly... I have done this before with the ex; Manila were hopeless even in the 90's so since I was working in Beijing and were married and living there we asked for a visit visa and got one in a week.
Update: After sending another email to the 2 known email addresses I have for the Manila office CC'd into the email, but the email itself going to the UKBA general hub in London, I got a reply to my email sent 2 weeks ago advising there was no record of the 2 emails I had sent in December but asking for the reference numbers from the letter I got from the court of appeals. So I've replied to that and expect another update soon.. I did threaten to go to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, but after some research I concluded that overseas offices are not governed by them. So another threat to take it to the Parliamentary Ombudsman soon got a response.
My experience with the UKBA in Manila was a little more fruitful. But as a rule I found them very difficult to communicate with. In our case I wanted to know if the Isle of Man equivalent of the CNI would follow the same process as a UK CNI, in terms of processing the exchange for a local CNI. I did get a useful response by email, after a good week or so and managed to phone them and speak to them directly. In that sense they were helpful and I got the answer I needed. In other instances I found them almost impossible to communicate with.
