passport madness (1 Viewer)

[Jim Daniels]

This country is stupid....

About ten weeks ago I applied to renew my passport. Completed the form, attached the photos, asked Mr Garda to stamp it, atached a cheque for €57 quid and sent the whole lot off to beautiful Molesworth Street. Hassle but fair enough.

Five weeks later I gave them a call to see how things were coming along and was advised that "its going in the post this evening". Grand. A week later it had not arrived so I called them again, eventually getting through after two hours of trying. Was told this time that it went in the post "yesterday". A week later, still no sign, so I got back on to them and explained the situation. They put me on hold for 15 mins (listening to A Womans feckin Heart) and then told me that it was posted two weeks prevoiusly. But but, but etc I cried. They said that it was not their responsability once it left their premises and suggested I ring an Post.

An Post had no idea so the Passport people suggested I apply for the whole thing all over again. AND, get this, I would have to PAY another €57 for the privilege. I couldn't believe it, I was speechless, I was without speech (as some funny bloke once said). Like, what is that all about!

So ultimately, I paid €114 to Passport people, €12 to a stupid photo booth in Stephens Green Centre, €7 to get a birth cert cause I had no formal ID to prove to passport people that I was me. And then all they gave me was a One-Year passport "cause we issued one to you already this month".

Sorry for dumping all this on you, it has feck all to do with music but I had to tell somebody that wasn't Joe Duffy.
Does anybody know any legal things regarding who is responsible for paid-for produce that doesn't reach the consumer?

Thanks!
Jim

 

[egg_]

Originally posted by Jimcorr
They said that it was not their responsability once it left their premises

That's bollocks Jimmy. By that rationale they could fling it out on the street and say it was your responsibility to find it. You've paid for the passport and its delivery - if something's gone wrong in the process somewhere it's up to them to sort it. They, not you, should take it up with the delivery company they used (i.e. An Post).

Ring em up again and don't take 'No' for an answer ... no need to shout if you don't want to, just don't hang up the phone

 

[Jim Daniels]

Believe me Egg, I was on to three different people in there and they all said the same thing! I then went down to the offices but got the same story.
I asked them if they send all mail out by registered post, given the importance of the documents and they said "only if the applicant requests it to be done in this manner"!

They went on to say that I should have used their Swift Post system (which is not mentioned on the application form) or have arranged to collect it in person!

I'm going to write them a letter and might copy it to the Times or the Tribune or something. Its not only the money, but the unbelievable hassle involved and the lack of any responsibility on their part thats getting me....

Jimmy

 

[f.a.q]

contact all your local TD's...seriously.

It does work sometimes...

When I applied for the grant for college many years ago I was refused it for reasons I wont go into even though I was eligible for it.

after contacting my local TD's all was sorted out (eventually)

if those 'in power' don't find out about the incompetence of their departments they won't be able to (attempt to) do anything about it.

good luck with getting it sorted.

 

[Yurn!]

I spent 6 months without my 'lost' passport some years ago. Time came where i was booking a holiday for Amsterdam and no sign of my passport so i decided to report it stolen to the cops, hassle, que up for 2 hours at the whoredom that is the passport office, hassle, fill out all the forms and get the photos taken and then hand it back to the passport office.

The withered old prune then leaves me standing at the counter for 20 minutes and buggers off upstairs and then comes back down and hands me my lost passport.

'Yeah, it was handed in 6 months ago'.

No call, no letter, no e-mail, no nothing.

Inept pricks.

 

[Alex]

Last year I bought a car together with the guys of the band and got an open insurance policy so that everybody could drive it.

I learned short after that I couldn't drive it because I didn't have an Irish licence and they couldn't care less that I had a European (Italian licence).

I thought it must have been coz I'm used to drive on the right... Fair enough: went to the tax office and asked to have it converted... guess what? I gave them my licence and they sent me a brand new Irish one in two weeks... no exams, no drive test, nothing. What's the fucking point?!?

It's not over: one year after, I needed to rent a car so I asked around and found most of the car rentals wouldn't accept me because I had the licence just for one year..... right. My original licence was issued in 1993 and now that it's converted there's no indication of this!

This is madness !bog

 

[madouva]

And they wonder about the origins of the passport scandals that go on.

Losing a fucking passport in the post! If you went into them to get your photos signed for a new passport and they asked you what happened to the original one, and you told them you posted it somewhere but it never arrived, Sergeant McFuck would be like "Only a horse's ass would post a passport". Follow this up. Even if it seems trivial. Take them to task, dear boy.

 

[Wayne]

re:

Unfortunately it is the same thing with all purchased items sent through the post. If you don't ask for registered mail and it gets lost then the answer you usually get from them is "tough , not our problem". Though with te amount that you have to pay for a passport you would expect them to register all the packages.

It's the same if you are sending back faulty items. Always register the package. I remember sending tickets back to ticketmaster last year. Luckily I registered the package as the idiots got the tickets lost in the office and it took me weeks to get the money back. Everytime I rang they asked me if I registered the envelope. I eventually had to contact An Post and get the the name of the person in ticketmaster who signed for the damn thing as proof.

 

[Tokey]

Originally posted by Alex
I thought it must have been coz I'm used to drive on the right... Fair enough: went to the tax office and asked to have it converted... guess what? I gave them my licence and they sent me a brand new Irish one in two weeks... no exams, no drive test, nothing. What's the fucking point?!?

Point is that they can hit you with Endorcments & penalty points on an Irish licence & not on an English or European licence.

Never notice why people from the north drive like lunatics down here. Can't be touched. Unless they run someone over

And old trick that a guy I know that used to run on the trucks did, is getting a second Irish licence by reporting your first one lost. Then going to the UK & telling them your living over there (give you aunties adress whatever) and using your Irish licence over there and the UK one over here. You can't be hit for points.

I heard the law is changing in the EU, so this scam might not work now. I dunno. Worth a shot though

really strange that they wouldn't take your licence though Alex.

Since I was in Calabria last year & we rented cars no probs?

 

[figs]

Originally posted by Tokey
I heard the law is changing in the EU, so this scam might not work now. I dunno. Worth a shot though

Driving carefully so you're not endangering yourself and anyone else is also worth a shot. I hate this attitude that many people in Ireland (and elsewhere too) have that if there's a chance you can get away with being irresponsible you should try. No wonder there's so many road deaths...

 

[Alex]

Originally posted by Tokey
Point is that they can hit you with Endorcments & penalty points on an Irish licence & not on an English or European licence.

At least now it makes much more sense...

Tokey, had problem to rent a car coz my new licence is only one year old

Figs, what you say is totally right but sometimes speed limits are not reasonable and this is why people break them. How can you drive at 30mph on the Naas road?!? The speed limit on Motorways in Italy is 90

 

[Tokey]

Originally posted by figs
Driving carefully so you're not endangering yourself and anyone else is also worth a shot. I hate this attitude that many people in Ireland (and elsewhere too) have that if there's a chance you can get away with being irresponsible you should try. No wonder there's so many road deaths...

Look man I'm no saint. But if your gonna sit there and tell me you have never broken the speed limit. Come on.....

 

[kstop]

Originally posted by Alex
How can you drive at 30mph on the Naas road?!? The speed limit on Motorways in Italy is 90

They have speed limits in Italy now?

 

[error type 11]

Indeed ther are parts of our wonderful road system that have wholly unrealistic speed limits. How can you be friving out of some of our towns under 30 or 40mph limits then get hurled onto little more than a dirt track where you can do 60mph if you don't mind the fact that there might be a 15mph tractor awaiting you around a corner

Plus the bypass situation is terrible. I regularly get fucked up at various locations like Fermoy, Mitchelstown, Cashel, Limerick, Ennis, Charleville, Drogheda, the list is endless. After twiddling your thumbs for up to 30 minutes at these picturesque locations its no wonder some put the pedal to the metal to try to make up for lost time

 

[figs]

Originally posted by Alex

sometimes speed limits are not reasonable and this is why people break them.

true enough, but I don't think the individual should be choosing which traffic laws they should obey and which they shouldnt. There are loads of drivers who seem to have a problem with 60 / 70 mph limits. If people obeyed the limits, however stupid / unreasonable they may be, there would be fewer accidents.

 

[Tokey]

Originally posted by figs
shouldnt. There are loads of drivers who seem to have a problem with 60 / 70 mph limits. If people obeyed the limits, however stupid / unreasonable they may be, there would be fewer accidents.

These are the one's that I'd have the biggest problems with 60 -70.

70 or 80 or 90 you hit something your dead.

This is why the Autobahn works.

Unfortunatly I would agree with certain speed limits on roads. Our roads just aren't built for it. All the experts said that the M50 should have been 4 lanes

 

[error type 11]

The last thing you need to see when you're on one of those M roads at 70 is someone barrelling past you at 85 because that is insanity and asking for trouble

I have read somewhere recently that trucks have a 50 or is it 55 limit on all our roads including the M varieties. Why is it then that I usually have to be clocking almost 80 to pass them out on the M7 up to Naas?