Thompson & Cooke Solicitors - Stalybridge

Daniel B.

Avoid – Poor Service, Unclear Expertise, Questionable Fee Practices

Terrible Experience – Look Elsewhere for Immigration Services
I had an extremely disappointing experience with Thompson & Cooke in 2025 and strongly urge anyone considering their services to look elsewhere.

Not the Immigration Expertise We Expected
We were referred to Thompson & Cooke as immigration specialists. In our experience, the advice we received did not reflect the level of expertise we expected. Their understanding of the relevant immigration processes appeared limited, and we later learned that we would not have qualified for the fee waiver route they advised us to pursue.

Questionable Fee Practices
We were charged £1,650 for the "preparation and submission of a fee waiver application." However, the application was never submitted due to serious errors in their draft documents that raised concerns about their competence. When we decided not to proceed, we requested a partial refund based on the incomplete service, which they declined.
We later reviewed their time records and saw that they had logged only £1,139.40 worth of work. Much of that time appeared to involve input that we had to provide ourselves, including corrections and clarifications. Despite the application never being filed, they insisted on retaining the full fee. We ultimately did not challenge the full amount due to contract terms that we felt limited our ability to seek a fair resolution.

Poor Customer Service
In our experience:

We were often made to feel like a burden rather than clients
Communication was slow, inconsistent, and difficult to maintain
Concerns were met with defensiveness rather than constructive responses
We had to chase them repeatedly and provide basic information ourselves to get anything done

Quality Concerns
The draft documents they prepared contained fundamental errors that should not have been overlooked by a qualified immigration solicitor. This significantly undermined our trust in their professional judgment and competence.

Inadequate Complaints Handling
We attempted to raise our concerns directly with the firm, but the response focused heavily on contract terms rather than service quality or addressing the substance of our complaints. It was only after escalating to the Legal Ombudsman that we received a meaningful reply. We also submitted a report to the Solicitors Regulation Authority, due to our concerns about their handling of both fees and professional standards.

Red Flags to Consider
In our view:

The advertised immigration expertise did not match our experience
Service was slow and at times unresponsive
Documentation contained avoidable errors
There was little flexibility when concerns were raised
Contract terms seemed more focused on protecting the firm than ensuring fair treatment for clients

Bottom Line
Based on our experience, this firm appeared more focused on protecting its position than on delivering high-quality legal service. The stress and time lost dealing with poor communication and questionable billing practices significantly impacted what was already a difficult immigration process.
There are other firms with genuine immigration expertise who communicate clearly, stand by their work, and treat clients with respect. We recommend finding one of them instead.

Save yourself the stress – look elsewhere.

Matthew M.

Had a great experience with Thompson and Cooke regarding UK visa support. Bahdshah Khan was responsive and helpful.

Maddie M. P.

Bahdshah Khan helped me with my UK spouse visa extension and was an absolute joy to work with. I was on a very tight timeline and we had many hoops to jump through, but he managed to get my application, documents, and appointments sorted same day and I received my visa extension the next day! The rapid turnaround ensured my travel plans weren’t affected. Very grateful for them!

Anjali M.

I had a tight deadline to switch from a student visa to a skilled worker route, and they got it done in time. Their knowledge of the current rules was spot on. The advice I received saved me from making costly mistakes.

GP

Mary & Jude dealt with the sale and purchase for me and I couldn't have asked for any more from them. My sale completed with ease and my purchase took 8 weeks from start to finish. Nothing was too much trouble. Thank you so much for everything I wouldn't hesitate to recommend or use your services again. 🙂

Javed M.

Remortgage was completed in 3 weeks by Janine who was very fast and efficient.

Isobel S.

My husband and I are very grateful for their help to get a spouse visa, thank you

Sophie J.

Terrible experience, they neglected our case for weeks due to lack of staff and holidays. Various parties had to ring them to get them to action our work or take it seriously. I also had to get far too involved for example, our solicitor should be able to communicate with the purchases solicitor however this was not the case, both claiming they had sent documents etc and being a a dead end. It wasn't until i phoned up and got involved that a solution was sorted.

They asked for documents from the bank the day before our completion which led to us not completing as the bank said you would usually request documents at least 2 days before. We lost money on removal vans and labour. Our bank were difficult to get hold of and took hours for them to get through however it wouldn't have been a mad panic if it was sorted prior, rather than on the day of completion. After this disappointment we explained we would be complaining, which conveniently they then emailed us saying they hadn't received a document from us and it would affect completion. They are so disorganised they were still telling us last minute oh we dont have this or that the day of completion rather than checking everything once and letting us know.

They would ask us to post signed documents and only tell us last minute they didn't have documents from us, which led to us having extreme stress running to post offices on a late Friday afternoon trying to get paperwork to them on a Monday as well as packing our removal van.

The format they would send the enquiries and answers was incredibly hard to follow, they would expect us to print off 4 different emails and highlight/cross reference everything so we were able to respond accurately. Rather than put the enquiries in an email, with the responses in a different colour next to it.

They would often ignore our calls at urgent times and the receptionist would say 'she will call you back' to which they never did.

To top it all off, at the end of completion they then told us to complete we owed £6k to them and the bank and it had to be paid there and then or the completion wouldnt go through, again due to their error on not asking us to fill out a waiver form and send it to them. Its literally a solicitors job to ensure they have all the correct documents from us to enable them to do their job correctly.

They now want no business in helping us get this refunded, depsite banks telling us its a solicitors job to submit a waiver form. We have never experienced solicitors as poor as this.