Complaint against Irish Embassy in London

Paddy McGinty

I have a large bone to pick with the above, have searched through boards but can't find a suitable home for passport complaint related stuff. Anyone got any idea? Don't want to bore anyone $hitless (yet) until I'm in the relevant section. Any help appreciated

acme4242

http://www.dfa.ie/home/index.aspx?id=8605

Complaints and Redress

Complaints about the quality of services or the manner in which they are delivered by the Consular Section or by an Embassy or Consulate abroad are normally considered in the first instance by a local supervisor. Persons who are not satisfied and who wish to make written complaints may do so by contacting the Customer Service Officer, who will promptly investigate the matter and reply to the person concerned.
Customer Service Officer
Department of Foreign Affairs
80 St. Stephen's Green
Dublin 2
Tel: 353 1 478 0822
Fax: 353 1 4785924

My experience.
When I was getting nonsense from my Irish Consulate, I got onto my TD(SF)
And he really helped to resolve it and bring some common sense.

Notice, the complaints and redress don't even take e-mails
so you already get the feeling its an unfriendly interface.

But its the only official channel I know about to record complaints.

FreudianSlippers

Maybe travel forum?

I recently had to help my brother get a new passport and had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with the Consulate in San Francisco. Wow... never had so many mistakes made and total lack of communication between the passport office in Dublin and the Consulate in SF!

Salamis

Whilst at the Irish Embassy passport office in Cromwell Road London on Monday 14/07/14 to submit my renewal form for my passport, I was shocked at the behavior of the person who served me. She was a one of the rudest most obnoxious people I have ever had to deal with. Not only could I not understand what she was saying because the volume on the speakers was so low (the previous customer could not hear her either), she was extremely patronising towards me. For example, I had a returns envelope used by the embassy which needed a return address written on it. These envelopes are seven pounds each so I didn't want make a mistake writing out an incorrect address. When I asked her a simple "Do I write my home address on this envelope?" her barely audible response was "what do you think?" Also when I politely asked her to double check the form to make sure all the relevant information was on the form, her response was "I have checked it already - it's correct!!" in a sarcastic tone. Her overall attitude was condesending and made me feel very unwelcome in their establishment.
I do not expect to be treated in such a manner by anyone and left their office
extremely angry. Considering that I could not contact the embassy by phone as it was constantly engaged, had to take time off from work to travel into London, pay 80 euro for the the administration costs and then be insulted by a member of the embassy staff leads me to believe that they are not only inadequately staffed but the staff that they do have fall far below the levels of civility that I would expect from embassy staff.
May I suggest that staff learn to use the communications equipment provided in their office, attend customer care courses and also wear name tags to identify themselves. They may be less inclined to be so rude if they can be identified.
A Final Note - This is not the first time that this has happened. My wife had a very similar experience at the passport office and a friend of hers witnessed an extremely upsetting incident where a grown man was reduced to tears by the attitude of the staff.

riffmongous

Salamis wrote: »

Whilst at the Irish Embassy passport office in Cromwell Road London on Monday 14/07/14 to submit my renewal form for my passport, I was shocked at the behavior of the person who served me. She was a middle aged blonde lady with glasses and one of the rudest most obnoxious people I have ever had to deal with. Not only could I not understand what she was saying because the volume on the speakers was so low (the previous customer could not hear her either), she was extremely patronising towards me. For example, I had a returns envelope used by the embassy which needed a return address written on it. These envelopes are seven pounds each so I didn't want make a mistake writing out an incorrect address. When I asked her a simple "Do I write my home address on this envelope?" her barely audible response was "what do you think?" Also when I politely asked her to double check the form to make sure all the relevant information was on the form, her response was "I have checked it already - it's correct!!" in a sarcastic tone. Her overall attitude was condesending and made me feel very unwelcome in their establishment.
I do not expect to be treated in such a manner by anyone and left their office
extremely angry. Considering that I could not contact the embassy by phone as it was constantly engaged, had to take time off from work to travel into London, pay 80 euro for the the administration costs and then be insulted by a member of the embassy staff leads me to believe that they are not only inadequately staffed but the staff that they do have fall far below the levels of civility that I would expect from embassy staff.
May I suggest that staff learn to use the communications equipment provided in their office, attend customer care courses and also wear name tags to identify themselves. They may be less inclined to be so rude if they can be identified.
A Final Note - This is not the first time that this has happened. My wife had a very similar experience at the passport office and a friend of hers witnessed an extremely upsetting incident where a grown man was reduced to tears by the attitude of the staff.

Apologies if I didnt get you correctly but is this a letter you sent to the embassy?

Marcusm

Sorry to hear this; I have been into them perhaps 6 times over the past 10 years including most recently in December. I have never encountered any incivility and generally found them very efficient and helpful - more do than is often reported on the Travel forum.

Was there a large queue of people waiting to be seen?

Salamis

I was going to complain on their web site and had written out a letter of complaint but the website limits messages to 250 words. It was through this forum that I found the address for complaints and I will send it in due course. I did copy and paste the letter onto this forum.