According to the guidance notes, you should have included your courier request in a fax. Since the cover letter is not a required element in the application, I don't think it can be said that the HO owes you anything beyond the standard 12 week replacement.
I understand that it must be incredibly stressful for your docs to be missing, but I disagree that this is the HO's fault...think about it from their perspective: they sort through and review who knows how many applications a day. In order to keep those mountains of paperwork sorted, they have pretty nitpicky policies and procedures, and they actually seem to stay pretty organized considering...so if you deviate from those policies and procedures, you risk mistakes.
This is purely a guess, but I'm betting that the reason they want a fax is that the caseworker is not the person who gets your docs ready for return, and therefore even if he did read your cover letter, the courier request was lost in the shuffle. Whereas if you sent a separate fax, that would get attached to your application in a manner that the person who prepared it for return would see it...I'm just trying to picture the logistics.
Here's what I found in the guidance notes:
"If you arrange for a courier to collect
your documents, please fax us on 0114
207 6021 to make the necessary
arrangements. If however, at the end
of one week your documents have not
been collected we will post them out by
the appropriate postal method, as
above."
Kiwi Pro wrote:As the HSMP team should have sent my documents and decision letter back via Courier as requested in the covering letter and not via Airmail, I requested a DUPLICATE decision letter for review request or EC as the case may be.
After all, they are supposed to read the covering letter and allow delivery by courier. Hence, they are at fault.
This is the reply I got:
Dear Sir,
I am sorry to disappoint you, but as your letter has already been dispatched to you we cannot send a duplicate. Please allow the full 12 weeks from date of dispatch (05/07/07) - ie 28th September. If your letter (plus documents) has not arrived by then you should contact us and we may be able to replace the letter at that point. We are unable to act any sooner than this.
I hope this helps to clarify the situation for you.
Regards,
Would a complain help?