British passport renewal...please help!!

[British by heart]

I hope someone can help me.

I applied for a UK passport renewal from Islamabad, Pakistan. I submitted all the documents that were required along with the fees. A few days after, I received confirmation that my passport application had been forwarded to Belfast. That was the only correspondence I received which was an email from the forwarding agency--Gerry's. I was told at the time of submitting my application that it could take 10 weeks or longer.
So I waited and waited without receiving any notifications by email or phone. So I wrote to HMPO myself inquiring about my passport.

They wrote back saying they tried contacting me by email twice and since I didn't reply, they sent me a third email saying that my application is being withdrawn. How can they do this? I never received any emails from anyone. Nothing at all. I had no idea if they required something further or what they even needed. They said they would keep the fees since for processing.

I am really upset. I've tried complaining and calling HMPO. Has anyone experienced this before? What should I do? What guarantee do I have that this won't happen again?

[katanayi]

Check your junk folder for missed emails.