VERY very bad service :( :(

Do you have something that is less than one star?!

THIS was one of the worst experiences I have every had!! Their slogan says: "Stress free travel visas" - Just wondering in what bubble they live!!!

We had contacted them for help applying for our Schengen visas and a few months later, after receiving our UK visas, which I had app**** for myself online and it went through so easily, we started the Schengen visa process through Visas & Passports unlimited.

We paid the fee which was over R5000, for my husband and I, and then the "fun" started!!

The company’s claim for “stress free travel visas” is NOT stress free!!! I had more stress than when I actually did the UK visas on my own!!!

First off, Samantha the operations manager who was doing our visas for us, is impossible to contact!!! I would call and get the same message each time “Samantha is not at her desk currently. Can we take a message and get her to call you back?” The one day I called 4 times ….. not after each other but with a few hours in between each call and would get the same reply and then she left for home before returning my calls!

I was told on one occasion when I actually got hold of her to just send through our passports and then the next time she wanted me to send through ALL the documents – eg passports, bookings of flights as well as accommodation etc. Well It was way too much to upload, gmail kept bouncing it back so I uploaded all to the cloud and then sent her a link and told her everything was in the cloud and she could retrieve whatever she needed from there. Then I was told to print everything out, and someone would come and fetch everything from me……. REALLY?!! I had thought the idea of uploading everything was that it could ALL be printed out their side, well that which was necessary that is. I still don’t understand why the process was not laid out step by step for us from the start.

So I printed everything out (at a huge expense on my side, which I did not budget for as I was not informed before) and then the late afternoon before our appointment Samantha asked for the letter of invite from our son in the UK!! It was all there in the cloud!! She rep**** oh, she must have missed it…….. more likely she never even went to the cloud in the first place as I had printed everything out and given it all to the courier, who btw arrived here with no warning.

I had handed over all our documents to a guy who just showed me on HIS phone that he had received a message to come and collect everything from me. No official document or anything that I could keep or that he signed saying he had taken all my documents. This is highly ***** and suspicious.

I had also sent Samantha emails, which she only rep**** to 3 days later!! This was during the time I had also tried to call her and she was, as usual, not at her desk and also did not return my calls. The night before our appointment, when she asked for the invite letter, she also asked me if we had booked anything more, such as flights etc and we had to print and send that too as it might help. The form provided stated that we were NOT to book anything and just the itinerary would be sufficient. So the night before, I sat and still sent through another itinerary for Basel, which I had to draw from the internet. I printed it and took it with us the next day. I emailed Samantha, which she never responded to. I still don’t even know if she received it or even bothered to add it to our paperwork. She probably just left it out, wasting over an hour of my time and stressing us out even more the night before our appointment.

Then our appointment. We went through to the VFS in Pretoria and were supposed to be greeted by a representative. Well of course that did not happen. After trying to find out what we are to do I called their office and Otis, said he would be there in 2 minutes. Fifteen minutes later he arrived. We went through to the queue to go in and got our number tickets. He told us to sit there and he would then take it further. While we waited he was sorting out our paperwork. I don’t understand how our paperwork was not sorted out before the appointment. Highly stressful to see some stranger frantically trying to sort out our official paperwork. Our number came up and off he went. At the counter he was once again sorting through paperwork and at a stage, two more of his “clients” arrived so he left the counter and went to see to them! In the middle of our process! The assistant just sat and looked at him while he was having a chat with his other clients. My husband eventually got up and went to tell him she was waiting for him. He then went back to her and the process could continue.

A highly stressful situation. We are emotionally involved as we have plans to see our grandchildren. One for the first time. All we could think of is how *********** the service is and that we would not be able to see our grandchildren because of it.

When we had done our biometrics, we went to find Otis again and had to ask him what was next. He said now we were to wait about 3 weeks and HE would bring our passports back to us to the house. Makes sense as this is part of the service we paid good money for.

On Friday the 18th October, we received emails as well as texts stating that our visas were ready for collection. I called their office and well, as usual Samantha was not at her desk. Another assistant told me that VFS was offline so they would only be going on Monday to collect.

Monday morning came and went. We heard nothing – not surprised though as this seems to be how the business is run. At 2 pm I called the office to enquire what was happening. Got to speak to Samantha!! WOW!! THAT was a surprise.

She said she would call Otis and hear and then call me back. Well, she did NOT call back just sent me an email which read that our visas were not ready for collection. Really?!! So I called her back again….. she apparently was on a call and I was put on hold. Halfway through my holding I heard ringing again and then an automated voice told me that the number was busy and I was cut off!!! I called back again and then an automated voice told me that the number I was calling did not exist!! This all added to the already high stress levels.

I called again. I then told the nice switchboard operator that their phones had firstly cut me off and then secondly had told me the number was incorrect (I had used the redial function so it could NOT have been incorrect as it showed the number on the screen) and I was now not in a good space anymore. She so kindly said she would put me through to their operations manager, Samantha!! Awesome!! I did not tell her that was whom I had been wanted to speak to anyway!!! At least this way I actually got Samantha and she was at her des**** Why would she give us the run-around like this? Why do we have to keep chasing her for information?

Samantha then asked me to send thru the email and the text, and gave me the emergency number to send the text to and said her assistant would go at 3 pm and collect the passports.

The next “correspondence” I received was an email with an authorization form that both my husband and myself had to fill out before the VFS would hand our passports over to your assistant!! I did not understand why we needed to complete this form. This was not on the list of forms we had to complete. Things are so inefficient and disorganised. Samantha did not let me know that she had sent an email so I only saw it after their offices had closed for the day – well their switchboard had closed as I tried to call – it was just after 4:30 pm – and no one answered. By then, my stress-levels were through the roof.

I eventually got my husband to call Samantha on the emergency number.

After he spoke a while I took the phone and asked Samantha what now? Why do we now need to fill out those forms as well seeing that Otis had said all we had to do was wait for him to bring the passports? Samantha said that maybe it was because she had shown them or told them or whatever, that we had received both an email AND texts saying our passports were ready for collection and that maybe now they were playing hardball. I don’t believe this. After the terrible service we received from Samantha, it felt like she was playing hardball.

I said to her the way I was feeling was that I get into my car in the morning and go and collect them myself!! Her reply was: That would be a good idea if we met her assistant there!! Really?! WHAT did we pay over R5000 for? I said it would take me an hour to get there – Oh was her comment, then we could make it the afternoon!!!! Or my husband could come and meet them. I don’t understand how this is her solution.

My husband works!! I look after my granddaughter in the afternoon and WE PAID THEM TO GET IT!!!

Well eventually around 11 am Tuesday morning the 22nd October she called and said they had the passports in hand and they would be delivered Tuesday afternoon at my house. The delivery guy arrived here and finally handed over the passports.

This was the most awful experience I have EVER had!!! Their switchboard people are beautiful, friendly and so helpful …. And that is where it stops!!! I do not know if this has just been my experience or if it is the norm for their company, but I will NEVER use their company again and will definitely NOT be recommending their company anywhere. I will however be telling it like it is – their company’s employees, Samantha’s service has been unprofessional, ***********, unreliable, and I honestly do not understand how she is their operations MANAGER and Otis’ service was very disorganised and treated us like side notes, instead of the paying clients we were.

If this had been free of charge I would have had to “suck it up” but we paid good money for a very, very bad service and I am not one who complains very easily. I always give credit where credit is due. This has left a bad taste and an even worse feeling. Instead of ‘Stress-Free’ I would suggest they change the slogan to ‘StressFUL’.