I recently needed to contact the Department of Education in relation to a cycle to work scheme query regarding two issues: 1. the VAT number that they say must be sent to the supplier of the bike when they are situated outside the country, and 2. information on how you pay the extra money when you go over the €1000 covered by the scheme (which they again insist must be paid before they will sanction the purchase).
I knew it could take a bit of time to get a response as I had already tried to contact them before regarding a number of issues that were conflicting on their own submission form (6 days and a few emails). Finally someone did respond to me, so at least it gave me a little hope of getting a response this time also.
On the 03/02/2014 I decided to contact them with the following email, asking for information on the two issues above:
4 days passed and I hadn’t received any sign of acknowledgment that my email had been received so I decided to send the same email again on the 07/02/2014:
I followed this process for another week, sending an email on the 10/02/2014 and the 12/02/2014:
It has now been 29 days without a single response, either of acknowledgement of the emails, or answering the questions asked. What’s extremely annoying about this, is the fact this is information they say must be provided in order for them to sanction the purchase of the bike. So rather than being able to send all the right information at the start, I must instead send the incorrect information to them, have them read through it, and send me back what must be changed – a frustrating process and a waste of everybody’s time!!!
Over the last few days I’ve also tweeted them twice to see if I can get a response but alas nothing:
