Holidays and the GRO

[Colin Rowledge]

Thursday last, April 1, after finetuning my research, I discovered I needed 9 cerificates covering BMD's

Starting at about 09.30 am [my time], I ordered 2. Acceptance date April 1 [well in advance of the price increase]. A bit of a family issue occurred and I couldn't get back to order the other 7 until around 14.30 [my time].

With England's time being different from Canada's, I realised that the order date [with Friday being Good Friday], would be the next business day. Imagine my chagrin when the other 7 showed an order date of Tuesday April 6. I'd forgotten, since having been in Canada 43 year, Ehgland doesn't work on Easter Monday.

Wouldn't it have been nice for all overseas customers to have given us a bit of a warning [HOLIDAY SCHEDULE - NOT THE PRICE INCREASE]?

The cert's are ordered and paid for, and I just hope they were worth the money

Colin

[RobinC]

I ordered 2 certs yesterday and have been charged £7 for each so orders placed before April 6th will probably be honoured at £7.

[Colin Rowledge]

I ordered 2 certs yesterday and have been charged £7 for each so orders placed before April 6th will probably be honoured at £7.

According to the emails and copies of transactions after the 1st 2 it shows order date April 6. My credit card statement will tell the tale. Could they have been playing an April Fool's joke on us?

[dietabix]

I ordered one today, 4 April at 8.47 am, cost .. £7

[Colin Rowledge]

I ordered one today, 4 April at 8.47 am, cost .. £7

Let's see if others from outside the UK experienced a similar response to mine? If not, then I'll get up early tomorrow and order a couple more and see what the response is

Colin

[Pam Downes]

Colin,
What precisely are you having a rant about?
If it's the increased cost of the certifictaes, then you should still only be charged the equivalent of seven quid per certificate. Like Waitabix, I've just ordered some and been charged the old price.
If it's the fact that that the order date is one day later than you thought - why the outrage? If it hadn't been for the price increase I doubt you would have ordered the certificates so quickly, so you'll still be getting them earlier than you expected.
Pam
p.s. Have you compared the prices between those you ordered on the 1st and those you've just ordered?
My GRO email confirmation just says 'submission date 4th April'.

[Colin Rowledge]

Colin,
What precisely are you having a rant about?
If it's the increased cost of the certifictaes, then you should still only be charged the equivalent of seven quid per certificate. Like Waitabix, I've just ordered some and been charged the old price.
If it's the fact that that the order date is one day later than you thought - why the outrage? If it hadn't been for the price increase I doubt you would have ordered the certificates so quickly, so you'll still be getting them earlier than you expected.
Pam
p.s. Have you compared the prices between those you ordered on the 1st and those you've just ordered?
My GRO email confirmation just says 'submission date 4th April'.


Pam.
This is the email I recieved

"Order Complete"

Then the 'order reference details" and the anticpated despatch date

Also as is part of the service, I received the following from"Identity and Passsport Servuces" - details of the tranasanction.

Despatch date takes in the holiday [which is fine]

Both, unless I'm Blind and stupid, as well as deaf, indicated a submission date before, but later than the cut-off TIME for the current day.

That is my 'rant' - will I pay 7 or 9.25 quid for the other 7? From the site [that I can access] I'm paying 9.25 for the other 7. Do others have adifferent interepretation?

[Pam Downes]

Pam.
This is the email I recieved

"Order Complete"

Then the 'order reference details" and the anticpated despatch date

Also as is part of the service, I received the following from"Identity and Passsport Servuces" - details of the tranasanction.

Despatch date takes in the holiday [which is fine]

Both, unless I'm Blind and stupid, as well as deaf, indicated a submission date before, but later than the cut-off for the current day.

That is my 'rant' - will I pay 7 or 9.25 quid for the other 7? From the site [that I can access] I'm paying 9.25 for the other 7. oTHERS SEEM TO INTERPRET DIFFERNTLY.
Do you mean that it says £9.25 for the cost of the certificate when you get to the (third) page where you fill in the GRO details, and again on the 'basket' page beside each certificate??
Pam

[Colin Rowledge]

Do you mean that it says £9.25 for the cost of the certificate when you get to the (third) page where you fill in the GRO details, and again on the 'basket' page beside each certificate??
Pam
In a word. .. ,Yes - the amoun! you've indicated

[Peter Goodey]

There was a temporary glitch when they wrongly started charging the higher amount. Is this what you are talking about?

[Pam Downes]

In a word. .. ,Yes - the amoun! you've indicated

I must admit that in that case you are fully entitled to|rant| especially as it still seems to be seven quid for us UK folk.
Have to admit that I can't understand how the site can show a different price just because you're in another part of the world. (Though I am not a techie.)
As an experiment try using this link, just to see if it says anything different re the price.
http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certificates/
Pam

[Colin Rowledge]

There was a temporary glitch when they wrongly started charging the higher amount. Is this what you are talking about?

Possibly, Peter and not aware of this.

I've 2 more I need to order - should I do so now and see if it's back to normal?

Colin

[Pam Downes]

Possibly, Peter and not aware of this.

I've 2 more I need to order - should I do so now and see if it's back to normal?

Colin

|doh| I'd forgotten that Peter had already mentioned the temporary price hike.

Yes, get them ordered quickly Colin. :smile5: If the price says other than £7 you can always delete your order.

Pam

[CanadianCousin]

FWIW, I ordered four certs just now (from Canada) and they came up as £7 each. The glitch does appear to have been fixed.

Tim

[Colin Rowledge]

FWIW, I ordered four certs just now (from Canada) and they came up as £7 each. The glitch does appear to have been fixed.

Tim

Hi
Just completed the order - order date April 5, cost 7 pounds each. Whatever the problem was on April 1, seems to have been fixed. Sorry for any grief my 'rant' caused and I appreciate the responses.

Will await my credit card statement to see if it coverts 63 pounds or otherwise. :seeya:

Colin

[ROYGBIV]

I ordered 9 certificates yesterday from Australia, and was charged 7 pounds each

Roy

[Dorset Girl]

I ordered 10 yesterday and 7 again today - and it has been £7 for all of them - have now run out of time (and money!!).
Marion

[Pam Downes]

Hi
Just completed the order - order date April 5, cost 7 pounds each. Whatever the problem was on April 1, seems to have been fixed. Sorry for any grief my 'rant' caused and I appreciate the responses.

Will await my credit card statement to see if it coverts 63 pounds or otherwise. :seeya:

Colin
Colin,
I think it may well be that you get debited for the original amount of £9.25 per certificate, but then you'll get a refund. Iniitally do give the GRO a couple of days to send an email about the incorrect amount being charged. Obviously they're under immense pressure at the moment, and that glitch will not have helped them.
If you haven't heard by say Friday, then I would send an email - make sure you put GQ in the subject heading - saying that you were incorrectly charged and give the 'col' and payment provider numbers, plus the date and time of the transaction. You should get an 'auto-reply' which says they will respond in so many days (it was 10 when I sent a query re an incorrect certificate on Friday). And please don't rant at the poor person who will have to read your email. :smile5: I'm sure that by the end of the week they will have kicked the idiot responsible for the price glitch all the way round Southport!

Incidentally, geeks might like to know that in the seventeen hours between 22.21 last night and 15.21 today the GRO received 2243 requests for certificates. And as several of us can verify they were often for multiple orders. |biggrin|
Pam

[v.wells]

Incidentally, geeks might like to know that in the seventeen hours between 22.21 last night and 15.21 today the GRO received 2243 requests for certificates. And as several of us can verify they were often for multiple orders. |biggrin|
Pam

And it would be understandable that there would be delays in delivery! :)

[Pam Downes]

And it would be understandable that there would be delays in delivery! :)

I have to say that after looking at the number of orders between Saturday morning and now (over 7120 :yikes: ) I think that the estimated delivery date for orders posted today might be a little over-optimistic. They were saying 12th April on Saturday and are still saying it today. :smile5:
Pam

[Peter Goodey]

I think that the estimated delivery date for orders posted today might be a little over-optimistic.

When they say "a three day additional despatch time" (see the Certificate ordering service home page), are you supposed to add that on yourself or is it included in their estimate?

[Sue Mackay]

Having just had a look at the GRO site, I see they have also discontinued their reference checking service, whereby you could get a partial refund if details didn't match. I can see this might be a problem for SMITH and JONES researchers. Personally I no longer used the service, ever since I had a partial refund because the father's name was different and then had to pay yet another £7 to get the same certificate - on his marriage my relative had got his father's name confused with his brother's |banghead|

[Colin Rowledge]

I have to say that after looking at the number of orders between Saturday morning and now (over 7120 :yikes: ) I think that the estimated delivery date for orders posted today might be a little over-optimistic. They were saying 12th April on Saturday and are still saying it today. :smile5:
Pam


I agree, Pam. The 12th is totally over-optimsitic in my opinion. I think April 16th might be closer to the despatch date.

I ordered 5 on March 18 with despatch date of March 24. One certificate arrived April 1, was despatched March 26 and the others are probably on their way now. Still a pretty good service!!! and given the large amount of multiple orders, those folks are not robots. I'll not really complain too much even if the response - see post 19 - is not completely to my satisfaction.:rolleyes5:

Colin

[Pam Downes]

Well, I was thinking of the 24th for a despatch date, but I think my last orders might not be despatched until 24th May.
According to the 'Col' numbers on my orders, latest figures are 487 orders processed in 1 hour 21 minutes between 3.21pm and 4.42pm today, with a further 121 orders added in the twenty two minutes till 5.04pm. Fancy going in to work to find that lot waiting on your desk! :biggrin5:

To all the people who work at Southport - you have my sympathy, and certainly deserve one of these - |hug|
Pam

p.s. I know I've ordered a lot of certificates but didn't realise that I'd maxxed out the credit card. My last payment request was declined. :yikes: Hopefully I'd just mis-typed a digit!

[v.wells]

My sympathies to Southport :grouphug: I didn't order any, preferring to wait for the crush to be over.