IVA Date Booked - 9th May

Hello all

Great news - IVA has been confirmed as 9th May! Although it wasn't exactly what you would call a "smooth" application process... The sheer futility and hopelessness of government departments never ceases to amaze me.

After sending off the application I had a call back a few days later to collect payment - although the admin clerk who took it had no real clue about what the test was for or how my application was progressing - not terribly useful or comforting when you're handing over £450.00 for sure. 

I then had another email confirmation, which was fairly bland, but used words like "due to the nature of your application it has been passed onto Technical Assessment team". the NATURE of my APPLICATION? Meaning what exactly? It was a shining example? So poor it needed extra special help from the technical team? Who knows.

Then it finally found its way to my local centre who were very much less than helpful, simply informing me that the "tester was off long term sick" (tester singular... so, what, there's only one person who can do an Basic IVA N1?) and therefore not to expect an appointment for an unspecified period of time!! and that I was to try Britsol (110 miles away) or Southampton (170 miles) for an alternative!

Suffice to say I was less than impressed. I did contact Bristol and Southampton (by the way you can't contact them direct, you have to go through VOSA's call centre who relay messages to and fro... why can't I just speak to them??) who were both exasperated with Exeter's unhelpful attitude and sick of the now backlog of other referral tests they were working through with a circa 8 week lead time...

So with a few more phonecalls and politely suggesting that Exeter might want to look at alternative methods of carrying out the test... they've managed to squeeze me into a slot where an inspector is coming down from Manchester for a half day. Could work to my advantage, pass it quick and then get back on the road home again?? Could work massively against me... "Why have I been dragged down to the back end of nowhere for this chump's car, fail it quickly and then get home" I guess time will tell....

Timetable of events for those of you who are interested and will no doubt follow the same sorry routine:

28/3 - Application sent off, recorded delivery
1/4 - phoned me for payment, essentially just an admin clerk, no help or knowledge of anything to do with the test at all.
2/4 - email acknowledged receipt of application and passed to TaSS (Technical Assessment team) in Swansea
7/4 - passed from TaSS Swansea to Exeter Test station
10/4 - Exeter confirmed appointment
10/4 - email received and letter followed the next day:

 

I'll get up some pics of the car (once it's clean!) of it in its pre-test state and I'd welcome any suggestions or comments people have had as to what they think any likely failure points are.

Slight dilemma in that Stoneleigh is the weekend before this test - do I risk sticking it on a trailer and dragging it 400 miles round trip in case it gets damaged the week before???

Cheers,

Steve