mashup

Hopefully that caught your attention.

Maybe some of you will remember my previous posts regarding the ARTC saga I have finally completed. I haven't updated it in a long time and I am glad to say that today my Electrical Mechanic Cert was Granted.

This is going to be fairly wordy, so those with attention problems best leave now. But hopefully I'll be able to get across just how annoyed I am without the help of what we in the industry like to call, violent sexual imagery.

For the kick off, I'm Ross. Just turned 24, from Glasgow, living in Sydney and now de-facto on my girlfriends 457.

ARTC arrived in Canberra on June 10th last year (2011), had a phone call the same day asking me to send some more ID. Done that, fine, lets wait.

Let the 30 workin days go by and put a call in to the centre, "theres a backlog," this discussion forum was also testament to that. No problem, I'll wait some more. 45 working days. 50 working days, 55 working days, 60 working days....

During this time I placed many phone calls to the call centre and while the operators were very helpful and deeply apologetic they couldn't offer me any explanation as to why I hadn't seen any progress.

By October/November I was frantic, we had went too long on our visa without going and doing regional work as my employer had offered sponsorship on the back of me getting my licence. Luckily my girlfriend ended up getting sponsored as an ECT around 4 days before we were to be kicked out the country.

I was calling almost daily at this point asking to be contacted by supervisors, managers etc. Everyone in the call centre was great but STILL couldnt tell me what was going on.

Then on November 14th 2011, 115 working days later, I received my outcome letter. NOT GRANTED. Decided to give up and concentrate on getting girlfriends sponsorship sorted. Done that and then headed to Thailand for a month.

Came back on our new visa and thought, I'll just do my licence through NSW, TAFE etc. A lot longer but cant be any worse than that mob. Then i thought, f*** them, they took my cash, messed me about, gave me no end of hassle and never offered a re-sit or anything.

So I called them....

I get through to one of the guys in the contact centre, usual polite manner and I explain that I was lucky to be sponsored through my girlfriend and had it not been for that I would have been home now due to them taking 154 days to reply to me. I explain that I know its nothing to do with him so could he kindly put me in touch with a manager so that I can express my dissatisfaction and get a free re-try. He says no problem I will have someone contact you.

Back to work.

Phone call.

Man from head office on phone, seems fairly friendly. Asks me what the issue is, I explain again, say its not about money I'd just like a re-assessment for free due to the way in which I was messed around. Half way through a sentence, he starts shouting, "no, no, no not our fault,"

"excuse me?"

"the application was deferred to the panel on September 7th and a request was made for you to provide more information from your previous employer. You did not comply therefor they deemed your application to be lacking. Your fault."

"ok then, for starters I can categorically tell you I received no such correspondence, the rest of my life was hinging on that decision therefor I was scouring my email waiting for some sort of information."

"you must have missed it, it's an impossibility that it wasn't sent"

"ok then, do me a favour and go through my file, I remember speaking to one of your employees in October and she was able to see every time I had contacted you and vice versa. Can you see that I contacted the centre in October?"

"yes"

"well on that occasion, which I hope you have recorded, the girl I spoke to apologised profusely and implored me to take the matter further and contact her superior in writing. She said she had no idea why my application had been held up for so long and she was sorry there was nothing she could do for me"

"she doesn't have the same access as I do,"

"but you agree that her job is to deal with the application process?"

"yes"

"well surely she should have been able to tell me in OCTOBER that my application was deferred for more information in SEPTEMBER"

"well, you see it's a different operation...."

"ok, can you see a full transcript of everything that has happened to my application including every time I have been contacted by you and every time I have contacted your organisation"

"yes"

"do you see the correspondence that let me know my application was received?"

"yes"

"do you see the correspondence that let me know my application had been rejected?"

"yes"

"do you see the correspondence asking me for extra information"

"well I'll have to look into that you see, it's all unclear, I maintain that it has definitely be sent but I will have to look into it I more detail and get back to you next week."

"make sure you do, thank you"



One week later I get a call from the same guy, who is now my best mate, saying to fire in a new reference and they will sort it out.

4 weeks later, GRANTED.


To a man, the most unbelievable incompetent organisation I have ever had the "pleasure," of dealing with.

I know this is probably an extreme case but I had to share it with you all.

On the plus side, Australia is excellent, work is good. Onwards and upwards troops.

Ross.

steve`o

honestly i`m not suprised

every goverment backed agency that i`ve had to deal with over the last five years have been apaulingly useless from licencing the ato, to centerlink

it all depends on who answers the phone as to weather you get any help or not

good on you for keeping at it


steve

mashup

took a bit of help from your documents steve so thanks for that mate.

i will post all my stuff soon and anyone that needs a hand can feel free to contact me.

woodymcfc

I am in a similar boat to you, my initial application went in June of last year, was awarded with the fitters ARTC and not the mechanics as requested also. I submitted further evidence and it wasnt up until about 4 weeks prior to us leaving that I got the 'unsuccessful' due to not providing enough evidence, wtf !!!
BUT
I was able to sit a trade test once I arrive in Australia, great, or so I think !!!
Paid my $270 trade test fee, next available date 7th March !!!! 8 weeks time !!!
Sat the course two weeks ago, the college posted the results the same day to TRA, called them today, not received anything......must admit the chap I spoke to at TRA is one of the top dogs and he is very helpful and he sympathises with the frustration with it all !!!!

more to the story........

Because my line of work is really industrial maintenance I have been told that I need only the fitters license !!!!! So all this time messing around with the mechanics ARTC I could have been working by now !!! Oh well the mechanics, if passed, will be a bonus because I'll be able to do installs also, which is good because I have only had 20 years experience and I think its time I got in line with the Australians !!!!!!!!!!

By the way, it is great here and i am enjoying the lifestyle, need to earn some pennies soon though !!!!

mashup

Was the guy you spoke to called Adrian?

woodymcfc

It was Adrian......and he had my fitters ARTC posted out, it was his signature on the certificate, only deputy chairman of local trades committee.....and there I was slagging the Local committee off....ranting what do they want from us blah blah .......oops!!!

I do realise that things need to be done regarding electricians that aren't trained to a certain standard or the country that they emigrate from aren't up to scratch with regulations etc...... but they really do take the p#ss.. The same organisation that carry out your skills assessment for emigration purposes and tell DIAC that you are in the trade that you applied for.....then tell you different once you arrive in the country or make it damn difficult for you.
Something needs to be done for all prospective immigrants, they shouldn't have to go through something like this, what can we do to help ???

mashup

As I said man i am lucky in the respect that my girlfriend got sponsored eventually and I can cruise about doing what I like, I have no work restrictions.

I think that the shit we have to go through to get our licence here is unreal. We are trained to a higher standard in the UK, no doubt. Completely understandable having to sit wiring regs course but the levels of beurocracy involved are nothing short of ridiculous.

Adrian dealt with me too, started giving me grief then eventually back tracked when he realised I was right. Turned out to be a decent guy.