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Burlow & Spencer Ltd Reviews

3.9 Rating 181 Reviews

73 %

of reviewers recommend Burlow & Spencer Ltd

Company Reviews

3.9

Based on 181 reviews


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0845 643 9753

Email:

support@burlowspencer.com

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Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Helpful None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“It took 2 mintutes to take the money out of my account and took me 2 months to be able to talk to one of the manager! Very bad customer service, the staff keep changing so you are dealing with so many people during your case and they are not even professional. My case was refused through them and I sorted my self through home office.”

Posted 5 years ago

“To say that Burlow and Spencer is a horrendous firm is an understatement. I first hired them back in January for a FLR application. They are quick to catch up with you when they're trying to take payment, but once they've got it don't expect them to do any work. I had someone named Shahista Akhbar handle my first application. She was rude, she took several months to get it done, only to rush it last minute. The worst part, in April the Home Office requested for more documents but she never notified me resulting in my application being refused. I tried giving them a second chance in hopes it was just one bad solicitor, they charged me £2000 with someone named Adam assuring me this would be handled professionally. They knew the application needed to be done within a weeks time. Not one phone call. When I rang I was put through to a Kiran who is probably the rudest staff member. Apparently it was my job to remind them multiple times when it needed to be done by, because twice wasn't enough. Then she sends me an application on Friday, which by then it's too late to send it, only for me to realise it's the first application they sent over, not taking into account any changes updating any info. She even had the nerve to leave my old IHS number despite me providing the new one. To anyone looking for an immigration solicitor DO NOT bother with this firm. They are a scam and what they're doing is fraud. I'm lucky enough that I've recorded all my phone calls with them since day one, and I fully intend on telling my bank to with-hold the payment for £2000 now, as well as making sure I get a refund for the first application Shahista Akhbar purposely neglected out of spite. Anyone else who's had issues, look into reporting them to the SRA. Clearly they don't know anything about law if what they're doing is fraud.”

Posted 5 years ago

“The adviser (Alessia) didn't guide us properly, asked a hundred unnecessary, Didn't know how to explain simple things. I spent over a thousand pounds and as result my partner has to return to her country. They just wanna your money after get it don't expect much! Destroyer of dreams and lives!”

Posted 5 years ago

“Very poor experience which led to the refusal of a important visit visa for a family member at a crucial time. I was promised first class customer care at my initial assessment - however that was quickly replaced once I paid my fees by uninterested and disjointed staff on the phone (one lady sounded like she was chewing gum whilst talking to me). My lawyer, Harris, was pleasant enough but didn't provide me with enough support and evidence based documents to get the visa over the line. I came to him with extra documents which he liked and agreed with, but he should have given me exactly what was needed in the first place to get the visa but the case wasn't strong enough and the way it was presented to the UKVI was weak to say the least. Emails remained unanswered and appointments had to be taken to speak to my caseworker unless it was specified as urgent. Take my advice and spend you £500 with another firm.”

Posted 5 years ago

“They took our money £2500 and completed a visa application that had no chance of success. As a result my fiancée has had to return to the Phillipines. We also lost the Home Office application fee. I asked for a refund from Burlow but they refused. They have no skills in immigration advice - my advice is to avoid them like the plague. I have complained to OISC and my advice to anyone who has had dealings with this company to complain to OISC as well.”

Posted 5 years ago

“We are just scared to death. We have been trying to obtain our residence through Burlow and Spencer. My partner (de facto partner) is Italian. The assistance we received from Burlow and Spencer was just preposterous. Once the residence was refused (the first time) then they charged us another £2500 approximately. Basically we paid the first £2000 approx. to then learn we have to pay another £2500 approx. Both payments made in one single instalment and on the same respective days. After the first refusal they told us the situation was extremely delicate and they pushed us to pay the next full amount. We had an interview on that day. We had the interview with a solicitor who knew nothing about our case. We had to re-explain everything from the scratch. He helped us filling the forms and we re-sent the papers. This time we sent them without having filled the payment details for the home office to take the money out from our account for the fees -£65 approx..- When the application was refused the second time, they blamed us for not having filled the payment section. They tried to charge us again £2500 by all means telling us that if we didn't do so we were taking the risk of being deported. I was very strong this time and I said I wasn't going to pay anymore for this terrible service and I said we should have been advised better on how to fill the form. The form should have been revised before being sent instead of leaving us all stressed up and trying to fill the documents on our own -something that we have paid them to help us with already £4500!- Fortunately, one of the advisors acknowledged the situation was a bit tricky and they agreed to do the application again for us. This time WE worked very hard on it. We gathered testimonials etc. The testimonials were something WE discovered we should do by reading carefully all documents. This third time and out of desperation, we started learning about the whole process ourselves. Then we realised testimonials are indeed very important, so we added them. When we called B&S asking for their advise on adding testimonials, they said the Home Office wasn't going to care about them. Finally the residence got refused for the third time. We received the usual call from B&S this time prompting us to pay again so they could submit, for the first time, the form directly from their firm. I answered, no, "I'm not paying any more for your services". Then one of the advisors suggested they could do it for free. We agreed to allow them to do it one more time... They advised us a solicitor was going to call us. This happened later. The solicitor that called us, knew nothing about the case! and was asking us if we sent any documents at all. You can imagine how we felt... I said: "Please check our folder and call us again. We are making the effort of paying for your professional advise but in order for you to be able to do so, you need to analyse the case first, otherwise we will have our residence rejected all over again." To which he answered, don't worry, I will take a look and get back to you. He never called again... Finally I started calling last week to recover my documents, they answered: "your case worker will call you later today". They did this two times. Today I called again and I said: "Please give us back our documents and most importantly, our passports, we have been left without any identity documents" To which they answered: "Your case worker has already uploaded your documents and they don't have them any more" I was shocked and very scared. Basically they are expecting us to print our passports! Now we are left with no supporting documents and no passports. This is one of the worst situations I faced in my life, this firm has left us with no way of accrediting our identity. These lawyers have managed our case irresponsibly and now we don't now what else to do...”

Posted 6 years ago

“They are crooks. Very bad people who can endanger citizens. Thieves. They do not have empanthy over the people they steal from. They are liars. They defrauded me of £2733 which was an application fee of a disabled and very less priviledged person to obtain further leave to remain. Adam, Mahommed, Ahmed ,the whole group including the owners of the company. They caused a lot of problems. May they face the maximum sentence suiting them. Up to now i have not received my refund since 8 months ago. They are criminals”

Posted 5 years ago

“Don't were to start this firm is the most useless fuckers iv ever come across let start my story I had this come to do the work for the imagratin visa for my wife first they lost all my documents and after more than twenty phone calls and a treat that I'd go to the office with my mates to find it ..They were found I wrote a review saying that not to use these people you be better of putting your money on a three legged horse in the grand national with this they threatened me that if I dident take down the review they would write to home office to desrupt my wife visa so I took it down but know my wife is home im going to tell everyone what a bunch of cunts this company is i tried many times to find out what was happening but the phone is always busy and no one ever comes back so please leave this company well alone they will only bring you more stress and frustration but if you want to commit suicide and you want to throw your money away this is the firm for you all there good reviews are completely fake”

Posted 5 years ago

“Doesn't even deserve 1 star I had to give this company a one star due to the fact that you are not able to give 0 or minus stars. Well in my opinion this company should not be trading at all, if you do come across them skip straight by as you will end up being conned. They take your money straight away and the do ABSOLOUTLY NOTHING. Any good reviews about this company in my opinion are obviously from their own staff and not from their customers. I started my spouse visa application with them back in February, when they took my money they told me my wife would be with me within 6 weeks. As November neared some 8 months later and 3 or 4 postponedments from Burlow and Spencer with lame excuse after lame excuse I have decided to cancel my application with them and go with a reputable firm. I have asked for my £3000 pounds to be refunded but they have ignored every email I have sent now, so I have reported them to the Office of Immigration Services Commission who are investigating them. I have also contacted UK fraud services who have told me that Burlow and Spencer's are already under investigation for Fraud who prey on the vulnerable. So my advice is stay well clear of these crooks..... No doubt I will receive a reply from them for this review with threats of prosecution as that is what they seem to do with every bad review. Update 4th January. After giving Burlow and Spencer all the information they required they have still not got back to me on this.... stay well clear as the OISC are investigating this company!!! Update 7th a January 2019 still nothing from Burlow and Spencer regarding this. This company is happy to take people's monies and not do any work what so ever and then go silent when you ask for your monies to be refunded. This company is NOT to be trusted and in my opinion I would be very weary of amy 5 star reviews. UPDATE 8th January 2019 Still nothing back from Burlow scam merchants... however as one reviewer has correctly put Burlow and Spencer along with parent company are under criminal investigation by the OISC and are due to appear in court on 18th February 2019. I have also been advised that I should take them to the small claims court to reclaim my refund and advise everyone else likewise. I am also writing to trading standards as this company need closing down before they rip off anyone else. I would advise anyone that wants to find A reputable immigration service then look on the government website where you will find a list of qualified immigration lawyers as Burlow and Spencer are not qualified!!!”

Posted 5 years ago

“I cannot explain the emotional distress this company caused us. They took our money and at the beginning sometimes chose to respond, made endless mistakes and had no interest in our application progressing being pushed forwards. They eventually just stopped all contact totally. Complaints been ignored for months. The receptionist is hands down the rudest female I have ever encountered and would often laugh at us down the phone. I urge people to avoid this "company" and I am sad that we got conned like we did. On other websites any bad reviews, they respond by being defensive. I am not sure anyone in this company has any idea the distress they cause people and the severity of their behaviour .”

Posted 5 years ago

“Anonymous, We have just experienced the worst year of our lives thanks to the professional negligence of this firm. They misrepresented us, sending us to the application late, with the incorrect documentation. the application was refused and they blamed the Home Office. The appeal used the wrong pronoun, calling my husband, 'her'. It was such a pour appeal based on human rights that we were forced to start a new application with another qualified OISC lawyer. This firm should not be operating and I am amazed that they are still ripping vulnerable people off. We have just been issued the visa and now we intend to sue. for damages. They are presently in court for not being legally qualified to give immigration advice. Do not in any circumstances use this firm!!!”

Posted 5 years ago

“Burlow & Spencer LTD Is really disappointed to give a trust to the company that’s not responsible for they work and I have been with this company for almost 9 months for my Visa application Leave to remain With out any support to my case, even they having problems for sending the post to the correct Address ( it’s Happened twice) from this two ( Mr Ahmed ) And ( Miss Kira). And after waiting all of this time I have refused to my visa and again never had any support form Burlow and Spencer team. Never again”

Posted 5 years ago

“If I have a choice I would never give you any star Because you people do not deserve it I believe you use your position to To collect my money But believe me every day for the thief one day for the owner Just continue what you doing 🤯🤯🤯🤯😫😭😤”

Posted 5 years ago

“Nothing has been done except a letter which I had too edit for grammatical and punctuation errors, not to mention inaccuracies . I actually want my money back. I haven't even got to the application stage and I am vexed. I cannot get hold of any one at all. My case worker decided to disappear into thin air and no one thought to tell me about it and I was told I was assigned a new case worker, 7 days later. On calling them practically every day I am being fobbed off with "A new case worker will call you back...blah, blah,blah". I cannot believe I was duped. Everything that has been done for my application has been done by me. I paid £1500 to do my own work and research the information for myself. This is tantamount to fraud. I am asking for my money back because this is a waste of my time, money, mental health and well-being. I was hounded for my clientele and once my money was secured, I was left to my own devices. I will be taking this matter further. I have given one star for the review only because there wasn't any option for no stars. The service they provide is ridiculous and in my case relatively non-existent. Bulow and Spencer I want a refund of my money. I don't have this kind of money to throw around. There is nothing you can do or say to make me change my mind about your company, so please do not try; just refund my money. I just needed to paste this blurb they have on this review forum; "Our case handlers and lawyers hold themselves to an extremely high standard, so you can be sure that everything in our power is done to assist you." Ahh...I don't think so! Not in my circumstance they havent!”

Posted 5 years ago

“We are just scared to death. We have been trying to obtain our residence through Burlow and Spencer. My partner (de facto partner) is Italian. We are currently running the fourth attempt to gain residence in the UK with B&S. We feel the assistance we received from Burlow and Spencer was just unacceptable, at least for our standards. Our first application was refused (the first time). B&S charged us another £2500 approximately for the re-submission. We paid the first £2000 approx fee to learn then we have to pay another £2500 approx. Both payments made in one single instalment and on the same respective days. After the first refusal, they told us the situation was extremely delicate, and they pushed us to pay the next full amount. You can't imagine the stress we had to go through. When you are in a situation like the one we went through you are incredibly vulnerable. We are a couple that has been together for long years. We had an interview on that day. B&S set up a meeting with a solicitor that was not informed about our case. We had to re-explain everything from scratch. He helped us filling the forms we re-sent the papers ourselves. This time we sent them without having completed the payment details for the home office to take the money out of our account for the processing fees -£65 appox.- All after we have completed the form in front of a B&S solicitor. When the application was refused the second time, they blamed it on us for not having filled the payment section. B&S tried to charge us again £2500, by all means, telling us that if we didn't pay the fees back, we were taking the risk of being deported. I was firm this time, and I said I wasn't going to pay any more for this terrible service and I said we should have been advised better on how to fill the form. The form should have been revised before being sent instead of leaving us all stressed up and trying to fill the documents on our own and the same day -something that we have paid B&S to help us with - by that time, already £4500!- Fortunately, one of the advisors acknowledged the situation was a bit tricky, and they agreed to make the application again for us at no extra charge. This time WE worked very hard on it. We gathered testimonials etc. The testimonies were something WE discovered we should do by reading all documents carefully. This third time and out of desperation, we started learning about the whole process ourselves. Then we realised testimonials are indeed essential, so we added them. When we called B&S asking for their advice on adding testimonials, they said the Home Office wasn't going to care about them. Finally, the residence got refused for the third time. We received the usual call from B&S this time prompting us to pay again so they could submit, for the first time, the form directly from their firm. I answered, no, "I'm not paying any more for your services". Then one of the advisors suggested they could do it for free. We agreed to allow them to do it one more time... They advised us a solicitor was going to give us a call. The solicitor that called us knew nothing about the case! He was asking us if we sent any documents at all. You can imagine how we felt. I said: "Please check our folder and call us again. We are making the effort of paying for your professional advice, but for you to be able to do so, you need to analyse the case first; otherwise, we will have our residence rejected all over again." To which he answered, don't worry, I will take a look and get back to you. He never called again.a Finally, I started calling myself to recover my documents, and they answered: "your caseworker will call you later today". They did this two times. I called again, and I said: "Please give us back our documents and most importantly, our passports, we have been left without any identity documents" To which they answered: "Your caseworker has already uploaded your documents and they don't have them anymore" I was shocked and petrified. They were expecting us to print our passports! At that point, we had no supporting documents and no passports. At that point I was facing the worst situation in my life; this firm had left us with no way of accrediting our identity. These lawyers have managed our case irresponsibly, and we didn't know what else to do… It was then when we felt all was lost, and we posted the review above. This review was then visible on many review sites. Then, Riaz called me. He was agitated and said my behaviour was unacceptable. I explained to him that we felt very vulnerable and that's why we didn't know how to obtain a call from a responsible individual who can help us. I said I was very thankful for his call and I felt sad I needed to post a review to get a professional call from the firm finally. He offered to submit our application directly from the firm. OUr assigned professional was Mr James Short. James Short sounded very professional and down to earth. He gave us, what we thought was beneficial advice and we proceed to send him all the documents he requested from us. We then received an email from him asking if we have sent him our bank statements. We said we were not sure, but if we were informed about these documents being missing, we would indeed have sent them again. Then we asked if they still needed these documents or if they have sent the application at all. The latter email was the last one received from James Short -dated 12.02.2018- Since then we sent emails to James Short and Riaz on the 13th, 18th, 19th, 23rd of February and 29th of March and 5th of May. We received no written answer. We also called the office at B&S. Different people called us back confirming they have sent our documents on the 18th of January, and then on the 22nd of January. We have no information about the bank statements and their inclusion in the application. We have no written confirmation of the documents being sent at all. At the moment we have no passports, no tracking number of visa application, neither of our documents. B&S and Riaz individually wouldn't contact us; no one sent us any certificate prooving our documents are safe or located in any particular office. We are vulnerable, and we don't know what else we can do. We are sad and worried about all the people that might have hired B&S and might be going through the same. Just a real shame.”

Posted 5 years ago

“Avoid them like a plague! It is two years I have been trying to get a visitor visa application done with no effect! The painful part is that I have paid in advance of doing any work for me and there is no way they reply to you or refund! I used them because I saw a lot of good reviews but now I am certain they are fabricating good reviews. Extremely unprofessional and irresponsible service second to none.”

Posted 5 years ago

“Avoid them like a plague! I wish I could give them negative score to warn other potential preys for them. It has been two years I have been trying to get a visitor visa application done with no effect! The painful part is that I have paid in advance of doing any work for me and there is no way they reply to you or refund! I used them because I saw a lot of good reviews but now I am certain they are fabricating good reviews. Extremely unprofessional and irresponsible service second to none.”

Posted 5 years ago

“All those good reviews are lies they are scammers”

Posted 5 years ago

“OVERVIEW REVIEWS PHOTOS 1 of 3 CALL DIRECTIONS WEBSITE 26 Finsbury Square, London EC2A 1DS Open ⋅ Closes 5:30PM 0845 643 9753 Suggest an edit Street View Add a photo REVIEW SUMMARY 5 4 3 2 1 3.9 32 reviews "Great place …..quick ,efficient and friendly staff." "My experience was excellent, I am very happy with the stuff at Burlow." "Great service and dependable lawyers." Flavia F F Muckova - Edit a week ago More Google reviews WEB RESULTS Burlow & Spencer | Burlow and Spencer London | Burlowspencer.com https://www.burlowspencer.com Burlow and Spencer offers Immigration services, Immigration lawyers, & naturalization service in England, UK and EU. Contact Burlow and Spencer | UK Immigration Lawyers https://www.burlowspencer.com › contac... London • Birmingham • Manchester. Citizenship ... Birmingham Office, 95 Spencer Street, B18 6DA* ... bham.legal@ burlowspencer.com. Burlowspencer Reviews | Read Customer Service Reviews of ... https://uk.trustpilot.com › burlowspencer Burlowspencer Logo. Burlowspencer Reviews. 379 • Great .... Read 2 more reviews about Burlowspencer ..... London, ... 2 of 3 GOOGLE REVIEW SUMMARY 5 4 3 2 1 3.9 32 reviews "Great place …..quick ,efficient and friendly staff." "My experience was excellent, I am very happy with the stuff at Burlow." "Great service and dependable lawyers." GOOGLE REVIEWS Most relevant Flavia F F Muckova 1 review · 21 photos a week ago Disgraceful!!!! Adam is perfect worker who you first talk and his job it is to make you feel save on tgey hands "Don't worry you are passing for a really stressful situation and you dont need more worry we will do everything".. what he says. However, when he gets you pay, the situation change completely. I had 3 caseworkers, now 4, and they just send my application last November to the immigration system without to have a clue that the UK law had changed last February. I got first in touch with them June 2018. From june to November they just messed up and off course the process was refused without appeal. My time with my family.. all stress.. money spend.. expectations.. They are disgusting.. with no care at all to my problems. And i have paid this bunch of fck.. 2000£ for them to even call me back after many tries.. now i have two problems to deal with 😔😓😥”

Posted 5 years ago

“Case: USVISA835-1593 This is a very dodgy company. Firstly the latest reviews for "James Short" in my opinion are fake, as are most of the positive reviews on here. I hired Burlow and Spencer to assist with a Green Card application, which cost £2000. They missed the telephone consultation twice so I asked for a refund. They agreed to refund me (back in August 2018!). The money was not forthcoming so I went through the small claims court. Burlow and Spencer did not bother responding to the court letter but did reply to me saying they would refund me (this is back in October 2018). They never paid the money back and the county court ruled against them and in my favour. I have chased numerous times for the money however they now ignore all phone calls and emails They are a bunch of crooks. They clearly have no regard or respect for customers or the court rulings - unfortunately I am unable to continue to go through the courts to enforce the judgement as my wife and I will be leaving for the USA. As a point of note they are not lawyers or solicitors but are a company (a crooked one!) that work through a loop hole in Immigration law that allows them to operate under their supervisor "DDR Legal Services LLP" who are regulated by The National Association of ROMANIAN Bars ... Make of that what you will... Also when I paid the money the transaction receipt I received was from a company called URBX LTD, which is registered as a marketing company, however it is a dormant company... again make of that what you will I can't stress enough how awful this company is and how strongly I recommend people stay clear of them. It still pains me that a months worth of my wages went to Burlow and Spencer instead of my family. I can only hope that at some point soon the people in charge get their comeuppance so that no one else is conned by these criminals. Needless to say I have never been given my money back....”

Posted 5 years ago

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Burlow & Spencer Ltd is rated 3.9 based on 181 reviews