spanish consulate london...pathetic

[medallomax]

a few months ago my wife a colombian, decided to apply for a schengen visa to visit her sister in spain...we visited the consulate with all the necessary information...within minutes of us handing over the forms..my wife was informed to go and pay £48 for the visa.....on return with the receipt...the lady then informed us we need not of paid!!!!!!...but we dont do refunds..so because she had not done her job and read the application properly we lost this money!!. hijue putas!.....we left a pre paid envelope for them to send us the visa ..which she said would arrive within 3 weeks....
5 days before the flight we became concerned as it had not arrived...and then tried to make contact with the embassy who ignored us until the 2 nights before the flight when they called our home...the lady refused to speak in english even though i know she does speak english as i recognised her voice from the consulate...she made out the visa had been sent and that we must not have been home and that it was at the sirting office....we had a slip of paper to track the envelope and we knew it had never even entered the postal system!!! so she lied.....then the following week after we had now lost the flight...we became concerned that the passport of my wife may have been stolen which concerned us more than the loss of the flight....we then had to send repeated faxes to ask what they had done ?? and where was the passport?? ...they again ignored us...until days later we recieved a call to say the passport had been misplaced and that it had been found!!! a big relief!! we were informed that we could apply for compensation for the loss of the flight!!! the cost of travellling down to london again !! to collect the passport and the loss of my wifes holiday.....we decided only to ask for the cost of the flight to be returned....and to this day 2 months after we applied for the compenasation all we have recieved is an abusive phone call from the same lady!!! in english!!! calling us all names under the sun...and then hanging up on us before we could reply...overall there a disgraceful bunch of usless incompetent idiots...untrustworthy people who think because they are a government body they can act as they please....espanol hijue putas gonorria mal parido Conos!!!

[sakura]

You are not the first to have had very bad service from the Spanish embassy/consulate. They do have a chip on their shoulders....not sure why.

There should be some way to make a complaint (not to the embassy directly, as they'd probably ignore it). Maybe others can share their experiences...

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

a few months ago my wife a colombian, decided to apply for a schengen visa to visit her sister in spain...we visited the consulate with all the necessary information...within minutes of us handing over the forms..my wife was informed to go and pay £48 for the visa.....on return with the receipt...the lady then informed us we need not of paid!!!!!!...but we dont do refunds..

Sad. Yet another sad story of shoddy behaviour by the Spanish embassy in London?

Was your wife going to be travelling alone or with you? Are you an EU citizen?

The Spanish embassy in London often do not follow the required European rules for family members of an EU citizen and do not respond if you complain to them. But you have recourse and often you can be AMAZED at how quickly they can actually move when attention is brought.

Who have you complained to so far? What was the key to getting them to offer you compensation? Do you have they compensation offer in writing?

You might want to read through the EU's Guide to getting the most out of Directive 2004/38/EC which should clarify some of your rights and what you can expect. http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/ ... _ec_en.pdf

I would also strongly suggest you complain to the European Parliament and to the European Commission. It will put additional pressure on the embassy to clean up its act and make sure the EC is aware of the problem.

[ldemiliani]

Hi,
i have exactly the same problem. my wife, also colombian, keeps getting problems when applying for visas in the spanish, french and belgian consulates.
it seems to me that it is the stigma of being colombian. even though we give all documentation proving she is the wife of an EU citizen and therefore should not be giving extra information on trip details, insurance, hotels, bank account, etc, the first thing we always get asked is why we are not giving that info as part of the application.last time i complained about the behaviour of the official of the french consulate through solvit, but apparently there were no violations to european law, so they can not act.

[Directive/2004/38/EC]

it seems to me that it is the stigma of being colombian. even though we give all documentation proving she is the wife of an EU citizen and therefore should not be giving extra information on trip details, insurance, hotels, bank account, etc, the first thing we always get asked is why we are not giving that info as part of the application.last time i complained about the behaviour of the official of the french consulate through solvit, but apparently there were no violations to european law, so they can not act.

About trip details, insurance, hotels, bank account: Are you simply not filling out the section of the application form that has stars (*)? Or is this a supplementary form?

What did you tell them when they asked why you were not filling it out?

[yasa]

Lol...
they are bunch of idiots...