In Reply to: VIP a critics view of the service. posted by trayden on Saturday, 7. August 2010 at 17:58 Bali Time:
According to your post the service is illegal because, (quote) "at no point were we ever even sighted by an immigration official and payment had to be done outside the airport and out of view."
We used VIP in May and we paid the money on arrival and not secretively outside the airport.
We had to give an immigration officer our passports (airline staff queue) and although his glance at it seemed cursory, he did sight it and us. Like your experience, the whole process was very fast.
Was the the VIP i used legal? I haven't a clue!