SO, it turns out that Vietnam-visa.com which was where we got our visas from is actually legit and not a scam. When it comes down to it they are a respectable business and it seems as though what happened to us was pretty rare if not original. Communication tends to be key in most situations in life and the miscomunication this past week was pretty odd. I want to also mention that it was labor day in Vietnam during all of this which made communication even harder…ohh and labor “day” evidently takes four work days which happened to consume part of our problem. Evidently this is what happened as best as I know:
We applied for visas online over a week in advance in anticipation of spending the month in Vietnam. Applying online, we received a confirmation notice stating that we would have our visas by the 27th which was 5 days before flying out of the country. This also happened to be the day that our visa for Thailand was coming due which complicated things later. The day of the 27th came and past without a word and after we contacted them again, they responded by telling us that their “scanner” was broke and that our information was in the system and that we would be able to fly to Vietnam still. The night before we were set to fly out we stil hadn’t received our visas but we did receive an email saying that our visas would be waiting for us essentially in Vietnam and that they had contacted the Bangkok airport to let us on a plane.
The next morning we arrived at the airport 3 hours before boarding time in order to make sure everything was taken care of. It took no time for Air Asia to jump into miscommunication mode because it seemed apparent that they didn’t want to risk sending us without actual visas. The ladies “helping” us took their time and didn’t offer us a lot of hope which made tensions on both sides escalate a bit. They gave our contact the wrong information which meant that we ended up with the “proper” form about 10 minutes after the flight had been boarded. They told us that we could fly the next day for a price of $400 changing fee and that was our only option outside of just letting the tickets go unused altogether.
After spending a night in the Bangkok airport to save money, we went and checked in with our approval letter that was OK’d by Air Asia. Upon arrival to Vietnam we filled out our forms and handed over our passports to the immigration counter that deals with visas upon arrival. However, we now faced a problem that we were unaware of until this morning. The lady working for Vietnam-Visa had felt rushed because she had dropped the ball and so the night before she decided to make a fake approval letter in order to convince Air Asia to let us on. However, we had no idea that it was actually fake. Furthermore, we could have most likely finished the process at that counter of entering the country if it hadn’t been for the fake letter. This made them uneasy about us and they decided they just weren’t going to deal with us at all. They kept telling us that it was a fake and a scam and that we were on the next plane back to Bangkok. They held our passports until they escorted us to the terminal and washed their hands of us.
Steph and Dave were diligent the next day to figure out what exactly happened and this is when we found out much of the information provided above. The company took responsibility for much of it and it looks like they wil compensate us the money spent for visas and an additional $411. That is a huge blessing. All in al we are “out” the money used for a round trip ticket even though I guess we got a round trip out of it…hmmm. This past week was an experience and we’re not quite sure what all God has for us this month but what matters more is who we are through it all than what we are doing so please pray that we continue to seek His heart and that we would be obedient and faithful to whatever He has for us…
Current state of the team…kind of growing through an awkward stage that tends to accompany growth spurts where we have a mix of emotions with little clear direction but the knowledge that all is well, the hope that He’s redeeming somthing good and the trust that He’ll be faithful to complete it in the end…our hearts and hands are open and we have the blessing to be challenged to be still and rest when there is little seemingly we can do… which actually leads into another really good blog but I think Jen Den should write it so I will encourage her to write it for you 🙂
ok, have peace my friends and let your hearts be light
