Fancy loosing £20 or £60?
Apply online for a 5m3m or 1yr visa
pay on line (or for that matter at the processing centre)
Get your 6 month visa back , worth £30, but stamped with the amount you paid
No refunds
Wonder what my credit card company will make of this?
I'll wait till next friday and try to ask on line from Goa

DAY LIGHT ROBBERY!

Hi
Im just about to apply for our visa on line can you explain exactly what happened so Im not subject to the same ripe off,Iv'e been dreading applying for them I have heard some horror stories
cheers

As I understand it, It's not a 'rip off' - to me that means fraudulent intent & I don't think there's any of that on the part of VFS Global - it is a situation of overcharging but what's new about that! The visas are still £30.00 each but with service charges & special delivery envelopes, the total cost of two visas ends up at £78.09

I've heard that if you apply for say a 12 month visa & pay the appropriate fee for a 12 month visa and they decide to only grant you a 6 month visa which costs less than the 12 month visa, THEN they do not refund the difference between the cost of what you paid for and what they actually provided you with - now that is a RIP OFF!

Hemingway

If that is the case then there must be some protection/redress under UK Consumer Protection Legislation.

They have advertised a range of products (visas) at set prices, and instead of charging the correct amount for the product you bought, you have been charged for a more expensive product of which you are not in receipt.

Not sure this is the correct department, but try getting Trading Standards onto them.

I have seen this question asked about the refund on another forum earlier today although there has not yet been a reply. I was waiting for someone to answer as I was told a couple of weeks ago you didn't get a refund if you didn't get what you asked for and thought this would be illegal.

This has nothing to do with service charges.
You can 'buy' a visa on line for £30 or £50 or £90
Granting of any visa not however down to the Consualte.
If the minimum charge for processing a visa was £30 +service charge of VFS) with no refund if not granted that would be acceptable.

What is NOT acceptable, and surley can not be legal is to advertise 1 year visa @ £50, issue a 6 month visa, stamp it at £50 and give no refund............

IMHO, this practice is illegal, and should be challenged.

You would not walk out of a store having bought a product advertised on display at £30 but having paid £50 for it.

You bought that product because the ones you preferred at £50 and £90 were not available, or "in stock". So they charged you £50 anyway, and by stamping it gave you a receipt for that amount, even though the product's advertised price was £30.

The visa handling fees are irrelevant since they are the same no matter which visa you actually attain. To correct you, it is the Indian Consulate who ultimately decide which type of visa you get; VFS simply handle the receipt and return of applications.

That's a nice earner, pocketing an extra £20 or £60 on the majority of visas.This will add up to a significant sum per annum, fraudulently IMHO.

Yet another disincentive to bother going to India.

Is it VFS or the Indian Consulate who are keeping the loot?

The UK newspapers would be interested in this; tabloid and broadsheet.