We have just renewed our passports and used the online service...
It was absolutely brilliant, I never knew you could do it online (I think it may have said it is a relatively new service) you apply online,pay online and then print off the documents post it off, I posted special delivery for peace of mind and you can also track that online,anyway you get a username and password issued from the passport people so you can track the progress, it tells you each stage first stage documents received and application being processed, then pages are being printed then finally they have been despatched, this is really handy as you know to kind of be around where possible for the delivery...
We started ours on a Sunday posted it all along with the dreaded photo on the Tuesday and they arrived exactly eight days later, very impressed indeed...
