Another data point reference – on three out of four of my last flights returning from France to UK, after landing have received a call from Borderforce asking why I didn’t submit a GAR… Of course, I had, via OnlineGAR (via skydemon) just like every other hundreds of times over the last few years… They said that emails from OnlineGAR are getting sent and stuck to their Spam folder at the moment, and would I mind forwarding it on? They seemed just as frustrated by it as I was, to be fair, and they were very friendly. So I don’t think it’s just a Shoreham thing.
There are lots of ways for email to fail. It is just not a robust enough system. There is too much spam – sometimes 90% of email is spam – and the spam defences give rise to a high loss rate – especially when implemented by stupid people with all the right fashionable lingo on their CVs, which is practically assured in any govt IT project. None of the methods introduced to reduce the spam problem (e.g. DKIM, which should work really well) work if you want to receive emails from strangers.
I can think of a highly reliable way to block GAR form spam: make sure a plausible GAR form is attached. Way too clever for these IT projects, probably contracted out to India 
But a specific server can have robust email, by arrangement with the recipient, and using DKIM.
on three out of four of my last flights returning from France to UK, after landing have received a call from Borderforce asking why I didn’t submit a GAR
Since the change in official system lot of people have complained about this as well, I really don’t see the issue in your homebase: you get local UKBF email and phone contact details on first instanc and fwd to them everytime after
When flying to Stapleford or Damyns I always cc Southend & Stansted teams in addition to OlineGAR, I never had an issue (other than during CV19 where they did turn up everytime to read PCR+PLF), it’s only when going somewhere “new” where they phone call on your FPL number to ask where is your GAR?
Yes….
…but why should you?
This is them asking us to “work around” their system not working in order to save them hassle. We all want to help, but this is a local issue, not a nationally required action.
Indeed, it’s solving their problem, maybe not the right thing to do…
Best not to put phone number or email in FPL
Best not to put phone number or email in FPL
I don’t understand…
The 3 times when they did not receive my GAR, they called by phone few hours before takeoff
I suppose they get phone number from FPL not from GAR (after all they did not receive it)
The GAR data goes into a database, so they can access previous forms.
They also have access to flight plans. And if you use the Autorouter for the flight plans, the AR server emails them the Eurocontrol tracking link. Plus they watch FR24.
Whenever I send the GAR form through their online tool I get an email notification with my specific code/number right away. If I would’t get it I would assume that they did not receive my form. Should be allright after that, shouldn’t it?
Yes. You can quote that number at them if they question you.
