- Report: #1215162
Complaint Review: Migration Expert Australia - North Melbourne, Victoria Other
-
Author Not Confirmed
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Migration Expert Australia
329 Queensberry Street North Melbourne, Victoria, 3051 Other, Australia
Phone:
+610393205999
Web:
www.migrationexpert.com.au
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Migration Expert Australia Australia ETA Visas not approved North Melbourne, Victoria Australia
I am a victim of fraud.
I applied for 3 Australian ETA visas online using Migration Expert. After completing the whole process, I then I only found out that they have overcharged me at AUD155.42 for the 3 ETA visas. The Australian Government doesn't charge any fees for ETA visas and we only have to pay a service fee of AUD20 per visa. Definitely I cannot blame anybody but myself for this.
On the very same day itself, 8th March 2015 which is a Sunday, they emailed me a letter informing that the 3 ETA visas have been approved. This alone sent warning bells ringing through my head. How can you get visas approved on a Sunday, which is a non-working day?? Anyway, I was still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. The letter had no approval number and it is a letter from Migration Expert not the Australian Government. So, I wrote to them to ask for some form of verification/confirmation that the ETA visas were actually approved. They were unable to provide any form of verification and just informed that the approval is electronically linked to our passports. I wrote to them again expressing my concern in the event it is not approved and I get stopped at Australian Immigration. They were still unable to provide me any form of confirmation.
I was desperate and searched through the internet for ways to verify the approval of my ETA visas. Finally, I had no other choice but to contact a travel agent to assist me to check on my visa status. I was very furious to find out from the travel agent that only one of the three visas have been approved, which confirms my suspicions about their fraudulent activities. Without further delay, I instructed the the travel agent to apply for the ETA visas for the remaining 2 passports that were not approved. It was very obvious as the first passport 's ETA visa validity starts from 8 March 2015 whereas the other 2 passports validity starts from 11 March 2015. Luckily the travel agent was able to check for me. I cannot imagine the problems and headache I will face if I just went to Australia without checking my visa approval status.
I have since written to Migration Expert to demand for a refund but they have refused stating that they have processed all three ETA visas and it is non-refundable.
I am very angry and upset as Migration Expert not only overcharged me for the ETA visas, they also fraudulently gave me false information about my ETA visas approval and despite several insistent messages to them to provide proof of the validity of the ETA visas' approval, they were unable to do so. I had to use my own resources, time and phone calls to check my visa status, only to find out that they only managed to get one ETA visa approved when they have already overcharged me for 3 ETA visas' approval!!!!
