When a Passport Company Let's a Customer Down,
Apr 10, 2023 4:00 AM
When a passport company comes up short on its delivery promises, TrustDALE intervenes to make it right.
Tanya and David needed to get a passport for their newborn baby Harper in advance of a family trip to the Bahamas. They found a service that claims to be an easy online solution.
“We saw that you skip the lines, you don’t actually have to go in person, and we were like, ‘this is great,’” shared Tanya. “We’ll get it back in two weeks!”
There was a fee involved. More than $200 to get the passport processed fast! But at the time, it seemed like a small price to pay for the convenience. That is, until…
“As soon as we put in all the information, we got a message saying we’d need to speak with an agent and go in person to one of the offices,” Tanya told us.
So the family drove an hour and a half to the nearest passport office that same day.
“We get there, we show them the paperwork, and they said, ‘These are actually useless.’” Tanya was stunned. “They told us, ‘You’re the third family today that’s shown up with this paperwork. ‘ But they couldn’t do anything to help rush the passport. “
With less than eight weeks before the trip, Tanya and David resubmitted all the information via the U.S. passport website, travel.gov. They paid all the fees - including another $200 in expedited fees to ensure the baby’s passport arrived on time. Then they reached out to the original company for a refund.
“We called multiple times,” Tanya said. “Nobody answered. It said to leave a voicemail. We left multiple messages. Nobody ever called us back.”
That’s when they contacted TrustDALE. Our team reached out to the company and spoke with the CEO, who told us they’d be giving the family a refund. The CEO also claimed the company was taking the steps necessary to make certain its process is as easy as it claimed it to be on its website.
But here’s the bottom line:
This company, and many like it, are piggybacking on a public service that’s already available through the U.S. State Department. And that IS the expedited service!
But if this is the first time you’re applying for a passport, or if yours is expired, there’s no getting around going to a federal office. After all, passport is a federal document, and they need to confirm that you are who you say you are!
