User Feedback about the tls online experience

Introduction

The comments below have been collated from responses to the TLS-online-system-survey organised by 180daysinFrance.  

If you wish to add your own viewpoint then please use the survey here: https://bit.ly/TLSOnlineSurvey

Author's Comment

• It is acknowledged that a survey based on self-reporting skews the result toward the negative so the inbalance between positive and negative is not significant.

• Feedback from users shows a high degree of frustration

OTP Issues

• The pie charts below are based on date from 62 problems reports up to 22 January 2024.  

• OPT is the most frequent problem to date

Survey Question - How did you feel about problem(s) you faced?  

January 10-18

• Frustrated!

• Somewhat frustrated not knowing whether it would be resolved. Had to put our evening on hold as wasn’t sure that when/if OTP came through how long it would be valid for.

• Unresolved and very frustrated

• Frustrated

• Not fazed at all

• Frustrated, angry, help desk staff uselessI

• I was thinking it was me for hours,then I decided to phone ,was worried I would run out of codes

• Frustrated

• With France Visas it took 3 days before I myself came up with a solution. I was completely frazzled by trying to problem solve it. With TLS, it seems they are overdoing the technology and making the process even more complex. It was just one more dreadful obstacle to getting a VLST.

January 1-9

• Frustrating and unnecessary 

• 3rd visa, every year it’s worse, completely unacceptable

• Frustrated

• Fed up of phoning them. Got timed out and cut off twice. Earlier I had the problem of seeming to go round in a loop because I hadn’t got quite the correct website address with the France visas bit at the beginning. Rubbish.

• A minor frustration given I followed all the instructions for format carefully and checked the TLS FAQ in advance re phone numbers and OTP. However it was resolved quickly

• Worried we wouldn’t be able to resolve the issue. I kept trying to log in and eventually succeeded

• Not a big issue, thanks to feedback from others on Facebook (France 2nd Home)

• Frustratingly difficult process ..makes a complex application nervewracking!

• Very frustrated and concerned about the delay and impact on our travel plans.

• The process is still frustrating and time consuming but a vast improvement on last year.

• Fine - prompt reply from phone call

December 24-December 31

• Stressed, annoyed, frustrated at terrible websites,poor phone service just want to get rid of you, unfriendly and won’t listen Frustrated and angry

• Stressed, annoyed, frustrated at terrible websites,poor phone service just want to get rid of you, unfriendly and won’t listen

• If my middle name could have been added somewhere along the process, ie at the appointment, then it would have saved a lot of time and resources.  I guess I used autofill somewhere along the application and it removed my middle name. My fault but it's annoying.

Comments from other parts of the survey and from Facebook

Recent comments

it's much better than last year but repetitious. The follow up email suggetsed that our appointment was temporary even though we had paid. I logged back in to check all was OK but had to delete cookies to avoid having to use another email and password...,,annoying.  PM 17/01

In the section "Your Plans" it asks the reason for your stay but gives only 3 options and "Other". Non of the other options apply, so I clicked "Other". In the next box I am asked for "Reason for Stay". They give just 3 options: Au Pair, Veteran or Voluntary Work, none of which apply.  JP 12/01

Author's comment: This has been an occasional issue with the France-Visa site; it happened to me!  You need to force a scroll down to Visitor at the bottom of the list.  Is it noted in the crib-sheet which the responsent had not read

Very helpful ,she explained there was a global issue and asked I went back to the application after 5 pm Friday ,I waited until Monday ,then I didn’t need a code.She took our details during the phone call. CS 11/01   Author's comment: Positive about response dealing with an OTP issue. The OP waited hours before phoning TLS and then it was sorted quickly

Application made considerably easier because of crib sheets.  Anon 11/01.   Author's comment: The OP did not have any issues. All people who have used the crib-sheeta have reported them to be useful   

Older Comments

Several attempts to get through on phone and cut off several times. When did get through very helpful agent who cleared issue and told me to log on again after 5pm when appointments were open and was able to complete application    RW  08/01/24

Why doesn’t the website work successfully. This is 2023 when people know how to build websites. Rubbish. They are making more work for themselves manning the helpline than if they fixed their website bugs.   Anon 08/01/24

The issue this year is entirely related to the OTP code and inability to get through to the TLS to speak to someone to sort this.       JMC 07/01/2024 

I really am tearing my hair out. I’m applying for a VLS T visa. The difficulty in getting a OTP seem unsurmountable. I get as far as needing to have this OTP and keep going around in circles. The system just asks me to create a new account but if I try it says email already in use
I contact the help line who can find my account but say that I must try again after 5pm. I try and fail again.
Next day help line - same thing. And the next day and the next day.
Helpline are not in the least bit helpful - saying it will be ok after 5pm
When I ask if I should delete and start again she says it would not help as it is ‘a global issue’ and the same would happen. OH HELP. Are others experiencing this fiasco?    ES 07/01/2024

Yes...exactly the same issue here. Took us 6 days just to finally speak to someone. They overrode the OTP for us in the end and on the 7th day we finally got our appt booked.    JMC 07/01/2024

OTP did not arrive, but not really a problem. Based on comments from others I phoned TLS, went through a 'security' check and told to try after 5pm. All was fine after 5pm.       MB 05/01/2023        Author's comment: Positive about the helpline      

Added number in recommended format and no OTC received

Very difficult to contact TLS by phone , call dropped and no assistants available multiple times (called 20+ times) No response to e mail message. Eventually told to wait til after 5pm and would be solved.was solved 2 days later but now impossible to confirm and pay for appointment as website down

TLS employees as helpful as they could be and very courteous and polite at each of the 3 calls      ND 04/01/2024

Being held up in trying to sort our application is concerning. We started our application for a 6 month visa for 2023 in March this year (with a May start date) and then found very few appointments available before our requested start date. We were trying to sort things out earlier this year and are now stuck and due to our circumstances might be facing a similar issue for our 2024 visa application (since we can't sort things out outside of the UK)       JH 13/12/23     Author's comment: You cannot access the TLS system from outside the UK