new price for GRO certs

[lesleyhannah]

Indi, I didn't mean to imply that everyone should automatically get an email copy - just that it would be cheaper for the GRO to do that, and some of us would be willing to accept an electronic copy in order to save money.

Over the years I've bought many certificates that have turned out to be mistakes - result of common surnames. Sometimes there are two or more people who could be part of your family, and buying a certificate (or maybe all 3 birth, marriage and death certs) is the only way to decide which is the right one. In those cases the new charge would be a real disincentive.

Guy, how did Scotland manage to achieve the electronic system? Are the Scots just less incompetent?? I'm not pushing their system - they do it electronically, and still charge more (tho' they also give more details).

Lesley

[Guy Etchells]

Scotland has a devolved system and is free to make its own laws.

It is due to this that they could change the law regarding provision of certificates.
In the same manner their Freedom of Information Act prevents the process applying to census information.

I should also point out that the Scottish system only has to cope with a small proportion of registrations that a system covering England and Wales would have to cope with.
Cheers
Guy

[Gaille]

Well judging by a recent experience I have had with a non appearance of an ordered certificate, I would say they could cut costs by sorting out their staff. 

After 2 weeks of cert not appearing, I sent an email. 2 weeks later with no reply I phoned and the answer was, ahh you don't have a post code on your details on the system so the post office won't be able to find you. 

I replied something along the lines of well I've had some hundreds of successful certificates from you without a problem! 

Sorry I'll add your postcode in and can you send an email asking for a resend!!!!!

So I resent another email and eventually my certificate arrived and thankfully it was the right one!

Not exactly an efficient complaints system

Kerry

Yeah I had a similar experience yesterday & today - Spent 10 minutes 'in a queue' with (and I quote) " there are currenty ZERO people in the queue ahead of you"  ......... ok well mr or mrs Zero spent 10 minutes on their call!

When I got thru & actualy spoke to someone & explained my problem - that the childs 1st name & the last numbers of the index were unclear & how did i order the cert as I needed the parents names from it so I couldnt supply them to check it (I KNOW its mine, the chlds name is very unusual)
the answer I got was to pur BOTH numbers I thought it might be on the reference.......... and if that didnt work to order it & call back after

OK , so I went to order it & it wouldnt TAKE both numbers cos it will only take 6 digits in the page numbe - and I had 8!

So I ordered the cert & some others, noted down the reference as I had been told to ............... called back today & queued again .................. only to be told by someone else that they couldnt access the order to do anything and if it wasnt right they would 're-index' it (whatever that means!

wish they would all read the same info sheets before giving advice cos i will NOT be happy if I have wasted money cos of incorrect info!

Gaille

[Gaille]

Perhaps we should all agree to not buy from GRO when the price goes up and only buy from the local office (i see some are online and so easier) they would be in a bit of a mess if they all did that.

Ours only has a link to the GRO, but I know you can pick up local ones from the registry office - but at GRO prices.

I;m going to do a wedding fayre there shortly, so I will have a nice long chat with the registrars n see what will happen in April!
If they stay at £7.00 i will be ordering them locally

[andycand]

Hi Gaille

It looks like it will be 9 GDP from the Local Offices according to the fees on link below.

http://www.ips.gov.uk/cps/rde/xchg/ips_live/hs.xsl/1569.htm

Andy

[Gaille]

wow have you seen the prices for fees to perform a wedding for housebound or 'detained' people?
its almost Doubled!

'Detained' I am not too bothered about - for obvious reasons thats mainly of their own doing (ok please dont bite my head off!)

but housebound people? thats a lot of money to add on especialy when u think housebound generaly impies the person is too sick to marry elsewhere!

[Sloe Gin]

Ours only has a link to the GRO, but I know you can pick up local ones from the registry office - but at GRO prices.

It's usually preferable to obtain a cert from the local register office when possible (which it isn't always, of course).

Never forget that the GRO certificates are copies of transcriptions, not copies of the original documents.  Many, although not all, of the local register offices supply copies of the true document with the original handwriting.  If you are lucky enough to require certificates from these offices then there is no contest - local office wins every time.  Some go to a lot more trouble for us too.

On reflection, I am leaning towards the view that the GRO cannot cope with the volume of requests for genealogy certificates, and that the price increase, along with the withdrawal of the checking option, is designed to reduce the number of applications.  

[Rah1980]

Well if that is what they are after it seems they will have their desired effect because whether people think it is acceptable or not most agree they will have to cut the number they request as a consquence. I just wonder if this is the case why offer this service at all, or why not limit it to requests in the last 100 yrs, and if it is an issue for GRO Southport alone why is it also rising in Local Registrars offfie too?

[Nick29]

On reflection, I am leaning towards the view that the GRO cannot cope with the volume of requests for genealogy certificates, and that the price increase, along with the withdrawal of the checking option, is designed to reduce the number of applications.  

Sorry, but I think that's really not true.  An extra £2.25 won't put most people off, but it will put extra money into the government's coffers, to help pay for the billions that it lost by failing to properly regulate the banking system.  There's enough people unemployed at the moment to employ more staff at the GRO to cope with demand, if that was really the problem.  I doubt whether a petition to the PM will make any difference to the decision