I'm not really expecting anyone to have any answers to this, but I wanted to share this story because I'm really really cross and not sure there's anything I can do about it...
I ordered 5 certificates from the GRO, using full and correct references, on 21st April. 4 death certs for 4 siblings who died in the 1870's in Wales, and one for a friend as a 40th birthday present, which was a birth cert for her grandfather who was born in Bethnal Green, London in 1911. She's just starting out on her tree and was very excited about finding out about him (he died before she was born).
On 29th April I received 5 envelopes. 5 death certs. They'd sent one of the sibling deaths in duplicate, and the birth cert for my friend was missing. So I phoned the GRO and explained what had happened.
The lady on the phone quizzed me in great detail as if I were trying to defraud her in some way, and eventually concluded that someone had made a mistake (er, yes!) and told me that she would get the correct cert and an empty envelope "for the duplicate to be returned in" sent out as a priority. I thought this was quite reasonable.
Today I got sick of waiting. I thought two weeks wait since the new cert was meant to be sent "as a priority" was a bit too long, so I phoned to find out what was happening. I eventually got through only to be told that my query hadn't even been looked at yet, and that there was currently a three week wait for queries to be initially examined! After further questioning she conceded that I may have to wait another couple of weeks before receiving the correct cert!!! She wasn't interested in explaining why the previous lady had told me what she had, or why it was taking so long.
Now I appreciate that people make mistakes - even that someone had mistaken a London birth cert for a Welsh death cert - but what I can't understand is why if it takes a week to receive a cert normally it has to take three weeks before someone even starts to think about sending one to replace one THEY'VE messed up on! Either they need more staff dealing with complaints, or they need to stop making so many mistakes!
In the end, I told her how unhappy I was with the service, and indicated that I would be using local Register Offices where possible in future, even if they won't let me order online... and now I have to go and explain to my friend why her present is going to be over a month late.
Does anyone else have any experience of GRO mistakes and how long they took to sort out?
I ordered 5 certificates from the GRO, using full and correct references, on 21st April. 4 death certs for 4 siblings who died in the 1870's in Wales, and one for a friend as a 40th birthday present, which was a birth cert for her grandfather who was born in Bethnal Green, London in 1911. She's just starting out on her tree and was very excited about finding out about him (he died before she was born).
On 29th April I received 5 envelopes. 5 death certs. They'd sent one of the sibling deaths in duplicate, and the birth cert for my friend was missing. So I phoned the GRO and explained what had happened.
The lady on the phone quizzed me in great detail as if I were trying to defraud her in some way, and eventually concluded that someone had made a mistake (er, yes!) and told me that she would get the correct cert and an empty envelope "for the duplicate to be returned in" sent out as a priority. I thought this was quite reasonable.
Today I got sick of waiting. I thought two weeks wait since the new cert was meant to be sent "as a priority" was a bit too long, so I phoned to find out what was happening. I eventually got through only to be told that my query hadn't even been looked at yet, and that there was currently a three week wait for queries to be initially examined! After further questioning she conceded that I may have to wait another couple of weeks before receiving the correct cert!!! She wasn't interested in explaining why the previous lady had told me what she had, or why it was taking so long.
Now I appreciate that people make mistakes - even that someone had mistaken a London birth cert for a Welsh death cert - but what I can't understand is why if it takes a week to receive a cert normally it has to take three weeks before someone even starts to think about sending one to replace one THEY'VE messed up on! Either they need more staff dealing with complaints, or they need to stop making so many mistakes!
In the end, I told her how unhappy I was with the service, and indicated that I would be using local Register Offices where possible in future, even if they won't let me order online... and now I have to go and explain to my friend why her present is going to be over a month late.
Does anyone else have any experience of GRO mistakes and how long they took to sort out?
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