Appointment cancelled

[skain84]

UKBA emailed me yesterday to say my appointment was cancelled. Phoned them this morning and I was told that its becos I didnt book my own appointment and they have reason to believe I paid for my appointment. They are right so now I have no appointment and lost £300. I was desprate for appointment and didnt think UKBA would cancel it.[/quote]

[cs95tdg]

It looks like you are one of many who have been affected by this. See the following thread. Note that it is against the UKBA rules to sell PEO appointments. If your need is urgent and you cannot find an appointment yourself, one allowed option you have would be to try a solicitor or a OISC registered immigration agent.

http://www.immigrationboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=123874

[paribus]

I hope you get your money back from these agents. On the other hand, might be a difficult task considering that most of them operate only through a mobile phone and an email address. How did you pay the agent?

[tier1_aspirant_del]

Just curious. How did UKBA know that the appointment was booked by agents? It's really good if UKBA acts tough on these agents. Also moderators of this forum should delete and ban all the posts where these agents are posting their ads. Just seeing one more ad today by these agents.

[paribus]

A number of possibilities. An IP trail when the registration was done could point to the usual suspect 'agents' who would have been registering multiple appointments from the same 'source'.

A password change on the account. These agents presumably takes an applicant login details and once they secure an appointment, the only way they ensure they get paid is if they change the password to something the original applicant does not know until payment is made, then they either change it back or give the applicant the new password to access the account again. Applicants who retain the new password risk the appointment being cancelled ('sold off') of at the last minute by the unscrupulous agents. On the other hand, applicants who changes the password still risk cancellation by UKBA. So it is damn if you do and damn if you don't and the best way is to book your own appointment.

There are definitely other detection methods possible so won't go into details. The moral of the story is book your appointment yourself as these agents cannot guarantee that appointment they book for you will not be cancelled by ukba. Of course they cannot give you that assurance so why suffer yourself

On another note, these agents are not being discouraged if they know their posted email addresses don't actually get deleted despite warnings from well meaning forum members might post about this. Either the forum moderators are superbusy or can't be bothered.

[expMan]

A number of possibilities. An IP trail when the registration was done could point to the usual suspect 'agents' who would have been registering multiple appointments from the same 'source'.

A password change on the account. These agents presumably takes an applicant login details and once they secure an appointment, the only way they ensure they get paid is if they change the password to something the original applicant does not know until payment is made, then they either change it back or give the applicant the new password to access the account again. Applicants who retain the new password risk the appointment being cancelled ('sold off') of at the last minute by the unscrupulous agents. On the other hand, applicants who changes the password still risk cancellation by UKBA. So it is damn if you do and damn if you don't and the best way is to book your own appointment.

There are definitely other detection methods possible so won't go into details. The moral of the story is book your appointment yourself as these agents cannot guarantee that appointment they book for you will not be cancelled by ukba. Of course they cannot give you that assurance so why suffer yourself

On another note, these agents are not being discouraged if they know their posted email addresses don't actually get deleted despite warnings from well meaning forum members might post about this. Either the forum moderators are superbusy or can't be bothered.

All reading is interesting, except booking yourself, What is the solution?

[itztom85]

guys, what about when you have legitimately booked and for noreason it has been cancelled? I made a booking for Feb 19th back in mid Jan and they have the courtesy now to email me saying that the appointment has been cancelled.

I called the customer service at 08706067766 and they are saying they have no control of what is done online and that I have to write a letter to the Croydon office to know why it got cancelled.

It is really frustrating how UKBA processes are! Do any of you know any other way I can diagnose this further or escalate it on phone to someone in UKBA?

Thomas

[itztom85]

just when I was about to completely lose faith in this system, I have been proved otherwise.

The Support team has emailed me to say that the cancellation was done in error, and they have a booked a new slot at a different time on the same day for me.

relieved!

[mulderpf]

All of this at least points to the fact that UKBA are being proactive about this side business of people selling appointments and that they are doing something about it. It's unfortunate that someone like iztom85 had to get caught up in it, but at least we can see activity around this issue to make it fair for everyone.