I used the GAR filing for the first time last week when filing for a flight back from Caen to Bristol. The file plan filed fine and sent me a confirming e mail. The GAR seemed to file and gave me a reference number which i duly noted. Before departure, immigration at Bristol phoned me to say that the had spotted our intended arrival via the flight plan, but had received no GAR. I told them I had filed it 30 minutes before. They were not au fait with SkyDemon and asked where i and sent it to and of course I had no idea where I had sent it to. The lady searched but could find no GAR and phoned back, but we were airborne. On landing, they requested I resent the GAR which i again did on SD and again received no confirming e mail. The lady in immigration appreciated that we had done our best and requested that in future, we  copy her in with an e mail, which we could do, attaching either the written details or a screen capture of the SD GAR form. When I last heard she was searching in Manchester central immigration for any sign of our GAR. Am I missing some important step here? I had a good wifi when i sent the GARs and had no problem receiving e mail confirmation of the flight plan. Help please

I have had no issues with the GAR feature. I agree £3 a pop is now expensive when you can email it for free via a scanned piece of paper but at least with SD it remains free.

You do need to contact onlinegar and raise this as it sounds potentially very problematic.

Please post back with what they say.

https://www.instagram.com/liam548/

The email reply from onlineGAR with a reference number is all that you are required to have,see attached file.
However it seems that some of the border force people do not understand their system.
I had a similar scenario recently and spoke to John Murray /AOPA about it.
Here is his edited reply:

***********
Pete
can you let me know 'who' said they don't get onlinegar
it is absolutely untrue - there are CBP terminals in every SB and BF office
I spoke with ***** SB...
They say they are 'encouraging' all to use the onlineGAR

- file online
- get your GAR ID
-  tell anyone who wants to know it
-and you should be fireproof

Seems to me the main  problem is ********** who have not read the Home Office Guidance to airfields which has just been reissued

I quote from it (same rules apply to SB and CTA flight) CBP is the backend to  OnlineGAR - ..................
****************

So as I understand it, they need to check their CBP terminal for your reference, where apparently they WILL find it!
regards
Pete

Right now I'm so busy I haven't got time to go into problems with 3rd party software. I might look into it in the winter when things cool down a bit. It's possible the problems are because I'm now using an iPhone whereas I had an android last year. I'm not averse to paying a one off charge for an app if it's useful and works properly, but £3 per GAR rather sticks in the gullet. The app is slightly more convenient than the various other methods of filing a GAR but given the problems I've had I'm inclined to stick to the tried and trusted methods.

Mike