andy thomas

Hi John and Kate

6000 pounds is definately a rip off, or they have made a considerable error when calculating your bills. Obviously you wont know which unless you challenge it. What I dont understand is why you havent named the agent involved on here, you have nothing to fear from them for stating fact.

People always recommend the good agents, the clowns should also be identified so others can avoid them.

Andy

jon&kate

someone has already guessed our agent!!!!!!

RE: WORK RECORDED ON YOUR FILE

As a valued client, we write in relation to the work recorded on your file to date. As this refers to an administrative matter you have not incurred any cost for this letter.

On the 14th March, we confirmed your instructions regarding the engagement of our services to assist in the lodgement of your Immigration application to Australia. You engaged our services under Plan B of our fee schedule which estimates a fee range of £2,500 - £3,900 plus tax and all extra costs.

We advised you on the 20th October that you were upgrading to a Plan C, which estimates a fee range of £3,400 - £4,800 plus tax and all extra costs. As at 8th November, a total fee of £4,660.22 (exclusive of tax and additional costs) has been charged on your file. An invoice for the most recent charges will be raised and forwarded to you shortly bringing your total to £6,246.44 plus tax and additional costs.
The main reason for the extra work being carried out on your file has been due to the following reasons:

Correspondence with you regarding obtaining detailed work referenced for your TRA application
Discussions with you regarding sponsorship by Mrs xxxxx brother and the requirements
Correspondence with you regarding other visa options for migration
Research into State sponsorship and list of occupations in demand in certain States
Correspondence with you regarding lodging and review of ACT State sponsorship
Discussion s with you regarding current work reference for DIMA
Finalizing and arranging to lodge DIMA application.

However, as the majority of the work on your file has now been completed we can expect that approximately 6 - 10 more hours (£960- £1,600 plus tax and all additional costs) may be required to completely finalise and lodge your DIMA application.

In the event that DIMA requests additional documentation or information in relation to your health or other specific requests, it is likely that additional time would be recorded on your file assisting you in this regard. Please also note as previously advised that our professional obligations as Migration Agents require us to make regular checks on all files and time will be recorded on your file for these checks.

We believe it is important to acquaint you with the situation to allow you to make an informed decision in light of all relevant information.

As it is this company’s objective to ensure that you are entirely satisfied with the service you have received we suggest that if there are any issues you are concerned about, you address your concerns to our client care and compliance department. This department is available via xxxxxxxxxxxxxx and we assure you that any issues you may have will be handled in a fair and objective way.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Unless we hear from you to the contrary within two working days, your consultant will continue to work on your file and you will be invoiced accordingly.


I bet i am a valued customer as im keeping them in business.Thing is the person dealing with our application has been good it's the company that is the problem.

Clan Fortune

I think you are
We used the visa bureau and I am delighted to recommend them to anyone, they charged us less than 3 grand and that includes all work no matter how long it takes, all tra applications including each work refference checed and double checked all help with visa application, the only extras we had were the medicals and the pcc checks, it even covers the cost of the final visa stamp.

painter man

Same as us, our bill is already touching £3000 and another beuty on the way
Wifes doing her nut as we were lead to believe from start to finish it would
only be about £4000 and we have only just submitted our TRA.
I bet by the end of it our's will be £6000.Bet there based in Christchurch NZ

jon&kate

whats your agents initials??????????they seem to have to get there own work checked and then charge us for the privalige!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Bosshogg

I had similar letters like that from them as well. They're full of s**t!!
I bet you they will continue to charge you up to the top end of that price scale they have quoted you and then for good measure ask for approx. £400+ to archive your file when eventually you get your visa. :scared:

Bosshogg

Oh yes that's a favourite of there's. Draft a letter to client, then finalise letter to client then get someone else to check correspondence to client.

jon&kate

DID THey get you the visa????????If it was up to me i would give them the elbow but time is passing quickly and we so badly want to get to oz and have come so far that dumping them know would put us back weeks if not months.

Bosshogg

Yes they did but was not an easy ride with them at all. I argued a lot with them and they did drop a few of their invoices I questioned. I suggest you do the same. As you say the people you deal with are great it's the greedy directors at the top. I dealt with them in a period of less than one year but their hourly rates went up 3 times in that period!
I PM'd you back in August, and I really feel sorry for you as I know how you feel. You've come so far, what do you do for the best?

jon&kate

i lost my job in october and the agent has tried her best to frontload letter to save time and i can really fault her and i think they must be under orders from above.I have managed to get a job in te same industry as i have applied under albeit a lesser wage a lower job but topping up wages from my redundancy will keep us giong till about june so every day is precious.Im just worried that if things get delayed we will be in the shit.

comet555

I think that letter is pretty funny myself, although probably not funny for you.

I think I would personally dispute each and every thing on that list. The research aspect is the best though, they charge you because they don't have the information to do their job correctly.

The rest of the charges appear to be discussions and correspondence, isn't that part of what they are already getting paid for? Apparently they feel the need to charge you every time they draft up a letter or call you, when in my opinion that should be part of the service.

I also think it's funny how they state at the beginning of the letter that they aren't charging you for that particular letter since it's an administrative manner

What I'm really curious about is what exactly is included in their plans, as communication with them appears to be extra. Also I noticed that they notified you that you were upgraded to Plan C, was that necessary? And did they even ask you if this was ok?

Sadly I'm guessing you don't have a contract that specifies these costs so I imagine it may be difficult to argue.

I really do feel for you as that definately sucks!

Haley

Bosshogg

I understand. I in the end have put it down to the "in hindsight" thing. I wish I had found this website before jumping in the deep end with this agent but I hadn't. That's life I suppose. I guess if we can warn others and at the same time be getting good advice ourselves on other firms to use/not use we can move on and put it down to experience. The end result of course will be a much richer, fulfilling life in Australia. Stay positive, you'll get there.

mysnix

How awful, I have also heard of people using this agency when moving to Canada - I advised them early on to get out after numerous communication charges!

As others have said they are charging you for things that should be part of their job, you should never pay extra for communication.

We also used a fixed fee agent and I think we paid around £3000 including application fees. As you say it is hindsight, it is awful that there are companies out there who are taking advantage of people in such a vunerable position!!

Hopefully this will be a warning to people who are setting out on the journey to be very careful when choosing an agent, look through this site for recommendations, and always read the contract really carefully before agreeing to anything!

Jon and Kate - I hope you get your visa soon

Nikki
xx

rossifumi

You are being ripped off.

Centurion

Go on - put some names to faces and free of charge you can print this off and use it as a dartboard this coming Christmas season!

Hey, just noticed that they have a nice London office. Don't forget to report them to the Office of Fair Trading, watchdog and in fact anyone you can just for fun. Sharp pratice and x4 the industry standard rate fees should not be tolerated by anyone.