Ozzy dog

The one thing I learnt in business is not to slag off the competition but to succeed on the merits of your own product or service. This thread details that the immigration service by agents is getting competitive and the less capable ones are playing dirty tricks.

We too looked into another agency that didn't just specialise in Oz or NZ, Visa Plus. They took an initial payment off us and promised a detailed report. This turned out to be a brochure of what they could do, but not really specific to us. So many ifs and buts it was clearly a generic form.

Glad to say that my hubby Kev has been going through the net looking at anything to do with Oz for months now. This is where he found 'Go Matilda', when he first sent me the link to their website I must say I did have a giggle at the very apt name.

Right from the beginning everybody we have encountered within their organisation has been helpful beyond at times what we have paid for to that point. We always knew what was on offer and have been shown a great deal of courtesy even with me being one of those 'now I've decided to go - yesterday is too long' people.

We were called by Visa Plus to ask if we were going ahead with them, I think we thought ignoring them would be enough to get the point across. This time they were pushy and asked who we'd gone with. My hubby got the, "be careful with those agents based in Oz, they take your money and you never hear from them again". At this point my husband cut the conversation dead. They are not as far as I'm aware registered and quite frankly I'm glad there own literature was so bad that we took the 'Go Matilda' route.

Its a lot of money to be paying, however more than worth it if you get a company that you feel confident and reassured by.

Good luck to all those looking for an agent, I think this site's references speak for themselves.

T

mandandbri

We used Global Visas. We were in the unlucky lot who applied to London and got transferred to Adelaide!!

We found them unhelpful and useless at ever returning our calls!!
They got us in and I am glad we used an agent as it took the stress off us to do paper work ourselves as our application was quite complicated. However we had several different caseworkers and they never kept us informed!!
We were going to complain but to be perfectly honest by the time we got our visas ( 20 months ) we were so happy we never bothered!!
If I had found this site first we would have gone for one of the guys on here.

Hope this helps
Manda

sue&bob

Hi,
We used Global Visas and we find them really helpful ,you will always hear someone who has had a problem, they got us in and we are off to perth as soon as the house has sold,
Stick with them your be ok, they may charge a bit more than others , but no visa no fee you cant go far wrong with that..
Good Luck
sue&bob

steve-n-jo

I'm afraid its absolutely true Alan!!! When I asked them why I should give them £1,000 before seeing any paperwork of any kind, the girl told me they didn't only deal with Australian visas and they had prestigious offices in central London. I told her we had spoken to Go Matilda and the fees were half theirs and thats when she came out with the one man band in a bedsi quote. I also queried the fact they were not registered and was told it didn't make any difference and they didn't have to be. They then hounded Steve and I for a few days after, both home and mobile phones.

All in all a lucky escape we think.

Jo

mowgli

Thanks everyone for all the replies, very interesting info from all of you. Does anyone think that we could get our money back? we have paid their fee, the rest of the money is for DIMIA etc - haven't paid yet. They have sent us first lot of forms to fill in, but we have not sent them yet, so could we ask for the money back? replies appreciated - this site has more info than the agency!!

ta.

parrot

When we were first looking at applying Global was one of the companies we approached to find about about fees etc and to say the guy was pushy is putting it mildly. He rang me every other day for about two weeks and told me that the points may go up soon so I had better choose fast (the points didn't go up for about another six months) so we decided on someone else, which is another not very happy story! Wish I'd found this site sooner.
Anyway, everyone has a different story it seems but best of luck with it all.
Parrot

steve-n-jo

if its straight forward and you didnt really need an agent then global visas would be great !!! also if you needed a visa to the isle Of Wight global would flog you one, but for PROPRER immigration to Oz or Nz then they would be crap as most of there migration (Experts!!!) are ex double glazing salemen.... great windows crap view............ go for refund !!!

tomtanktop

I did use them, and I got my PR...
but they gave me some totally wrong/bad advice, like not informing the dept. about some big changes in personal circumstances until after I'd been granted PR
It really put my visa in jeapordy,
now I've got to do another application for my wife and children, and I'm not going to use them again.

plumber39

Alan Collett's my man (GO MATILDA)

Did you hear that Alan, i think that deserve's discount!

steve-n-jo

Alan perhaps I can have a rebate too..??

Steve.

Alan Collett

You are very kind - I shall have to buy you a beer sometime ... :-))

cityboy

We are at the final stages with global & have had no problems. Our officer is jocelyn & has kept us informed at all stages. So i you have nothing to worry about.

garydunn

We are currently using Global Visas for our migration to Melbourne (general skilled) and I can honestly say that they have been wonderful. The girl I have been dealing with (Jocelyn) has assisted us through all areas and we hope to get our visas next spring.

I suppose there is bad press about any organisation, but I can honestly say that they have been nothing short of first class.

The no fee policy is reassuring and I don't expect a refund if I am turned down because of ill health. If I had used another agency, I would not have a case to have any fees returned at any stage, even if my wife's skills assessment had been turned down.

Anyway, there's my two-penneth

mowgli

reply to Garydunn and Cityboy,

Great to hear positive news about global, James Unwin is dealing with ours, Cityboy how long has it taken from the beginning and Gary what stage are you at?

wagtail

We were not impressed!!!