Here is a copy of the letter I received back from the UKBA.. I think I emphasised the fact that I thought I received poor service at the border and my guessing is that that's what triggered the compensation..
Here's the letter I got (via e-mail)
Dear Mr W
Thank you for your email dated 14 November 2011 regarding you and your partner’s experience at Brussels on 13 November 2011. It has been passed to me as the officer responsible for handling your complaint. Before I respond to your specific concerns I would like to assure you all complaints about the UK Border Agency’s Border Force staff are treated seriously and are used as an opportunity to learn and improve services.
In your correspondence you mention you are an Irish citizen and your partner holds an EEA family residency card. When you arrived at Brussels the Border Force officer stamped your partner, Mr T's passport. When you remonstrated with the officer explaining she shouldn’t have stamped Mr T’s passport she was rude and dismissive saying ‘what difference would it make.’ The chief immigration officer who you also spoke to explained an officer may stamp the passports of holders of EEA family permits at their discretion.
You have requested an apology for the rude and dismissive attitude of the officer. Additionally you would like a written statement saying Mr T’s passport should not be stamped, as per regulations.
In line with our usual procedures, which are set out in detail at http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/about ... acomplaint, I have asked the operational manager to assess the circumstances relating to the matter you have complained about. This process involved speaking with the officers concerned. With this work now complete, I have based my response on their findings.
You are correct in your understanding of Regulation 11(3) which specifies ‘an officer may not place a stamp in the passport of a person who holds a residence card when he/she is admitted to the UK’. Although the officer was right in stating the stamping of Mr T’s passport would not disadvantage him, she did make an error, for which I apologise.
I regret you perceived the officer was rude and dismissive, as this was not her intention.
We expect high standards of professionalism from our officers in their dealings with the public; they perform a very demanding and difficult job and are required to do so with integrity at all times.
Where we could have performed better our policy is to consider offering a consolatory payment. These payments are intended to recognise unjustified inconvenience, annoyance, frustration, worry or distress to a customer. Such payments are ex-gratia, which means they are considered a favour rather than a matter of right.
I believe in the circumstances of this case it would be appropriate to offer such a payment and I propose to offer £25 to Mr T.
Our accountancy procedures require acceptance to be given in writing and I would be grateful if Mr T would complete the enclosed form and return it to this address.
Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience this incident caused. If you believe your complaint has not been dealt with in the right way you may write to us at the address above and a complaints manager will check the process used to look into your complaint, to ensure it was both appropriate and followed correctly. You must do this within one month of the date of this letter.
We are keen to continually review and improve our services. To help us do so, we would be grateful if you could complete a short online survey. Please access the survey using the following link: http://feedback.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/ ... 35927hosbt
Yours sincerely
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To be honest, the greatest satisfaction wasn't really the money, it was knowing that the miserable woman at border control got a talking to, probably thinking that I wouldn't bother her again after she'd called over the CIO.. Little did she know
