New Booking System
Comments
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I've just tried making a booking on my Amazon tablet. It insisted I enter my date of birth, but insisted I use a pop-up to do so, with no way of typing it in directly. The pop-up is SO BADLY designed that it would require 800 key depressions to wind back to my date of birth!!!
Then rinse and repeat for my wife's date of birth.
If the Club thinks I'm going to make 1500+ key depressions just to enter our dates of birth, it has another think coming.
I just gave up.
The booking system was clearly never tested on a tablet and the infuriating software was designed by a child.
It's been a long time since I've seen any system designed this badly.
When we're touring, we won't have access to a laptop to make a booking, so I can't see the Club being any use to us.
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Mikenbike, your complaint has been answered many times.
If you are logged in as a member on the website your birthday is known and you need not enter it.
If you don’t wish to enter your wife’s birthday you just book for yourself and pay for the extra person when you arrive at site.
it is very easy to book on a tablet.
Please stay cheerful.
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Possibly you are looking at the map Steve and I'm looking at the lists but today it seems to have got worse generally. I've just typed Devon in the location search which is still bringing up Haven Devon Cliffs as the first port of call then I look for Devon Uk, I use this and then use the CL filter. It then goes haywire. I think I got a few CLs but I got Aberbran, Baltic Wharf as starters (at least they are in alphabetic order.)
Had the club used an in house list ie just their sites and CLs I don't think it would be in this mess. Maybe a separate map search could have followed using google but essentially the sites search needs to be CAMC places only which could be adjusted accordingly.
I'm sure most website searches on a company site would only use their own products, I really don't need to find no 1 Acacia Ave or the local hospital if I'm looking for a caravan site....
(I'm pretty sure if I use the opposition sites search (C&CC) I only get their sites, nothing else needs to be there.)
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When I booked I rolled back to the nearest date that made my OH an adult so he became a spring chicken born in 2002! It works on some devices but not all however that's not good enough so I sympathise with all the problems being encountered. I think it's also possible to use initials instead of full names? I didn't try that but it might save extra work?! (That was gleaned from staff comments on Trust Pilot or social media.)
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Some friends have arrived today they booked this morning via a call centre and paid on arrival
And they say it is the way we are going to as they are not going to be fined if they have to cancel within 21 days
As they have been told bookings are down compared to the usual at this time of year ,it can only get better into next year to book sites late ,as us , expect quite a few sites including honey pot site to have availability
Ps they are retired site staff with their ear very much aware of club matters
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They may be able to do that now but if, once the system has settled down, the Club finds a significant number of members doing the same thing no doubt they will change things to make that more difficult. The easiest way would probably to make an extra charge for telephone bookings as they do with overseas bookings? I am also surprised they weren't asked to pay the site fees as they were arriving on the same day. There is really no point in people trying to get round the system because the loopholes will just be closed?
David
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I'm sorry eurortraveller, but you're quite wrong.
I WAS logged in as a member and it did NOT auto-populate our dates of birth. It refused to move forward with our booking without those fields populated.
There was no way to enter them, other than by 1500+ finger presses, as described.
I disagree completely that it is "very easy to book on a tablet".
May I ask in what way my complaint "has been answered many times" please?
I could book sites previously on my Amazon tablet and now I cannot do so. Why should I remain cheerful with the Club for that?
I should add that I spent 40 years in IT, including a spell as a software developer, and another long spell as a system designer, so I recognise a poor implementation when I see one.
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Haven't booked any Club sites, don't intend to...but I think I could just about use the system as is to book one site at a time and not let it get complex.
any tour we tackle in the uk will be CL/CS and/or THS or even the odd C&CC site.
the map on the app just about gives enough space to work out where CLs are and enough detail to call for availability, price etc.
im trying to be optimistic (in that I think I could use it) but I really do think generally the club has dropped an almighty clanger here.
the search is rubbish if you don't put 'UK' on the end of a place name and even then, what it returns is 90+% irrelevant.
I tried Minehead....I got High St Minehead and a lot of other hopeless stuff. Minehead UK was about third on the list, which was tempting to press, however just below that was Minehead CAMC site....so why wasn't that at the top?
as other have said, if you were to use, say, the B&Q website and search for a click and collect store near a specific town, it wouldn't point you to Poundland, or the nearest Bank!
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The proper way to do it is when you click on the DOB icon it should open a calendar. Jjust clock on the year and you should get a drop down menu showing all the years. once you have selected the year do the same on the month then you should have the month and year shown. Click on the day required and voila the correct DOB!!
peedee
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Possibly not on an Amazon device?🤷🏻♂️
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As I mentioned earlier, booking one stay at a site you know the name of is not too tricky...even I could do it.👍
I think it's when searches are requested to give suggestions for general areas where the 'fun' starts.👎
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I wouldn't bank on that David the club has upset and treated members so disrespectfully many will look at alternatives or book at the last minute the club has aligned itself with commercial sites and in many cases is more expensive, it's lost something valuable called Loyalty.
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I posted to try and balance out some of the emotive comments being made suggesting that the system is completely broken and that the membership is abandoning the club. The system isn't broken as otherwise and you agreed that you wouldn't be able to make a simple booking. I agree that the system isn't functioning the way that some members are used too and I also agree that the system wasn't ready for deployment. The club are addressing these issues but not quickly enough for some, but the club can't fix issues outside of it's control be that the strength of WiFi signal or the age of people's technology.
I know that the majority of people on CT won't agree with me and I accept that, as long as it isn't personal, but I do feel that any debate has to have some balance.
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There was certainly one from me. When we were away in September / October I tried it out on C&CC WiFi, which has very similar speeds to many CAMC sites. (I don’t subscribe to that so couldn’t try it on club sites, as it wouldn’t work at all on the free side) At speeds of 1 / 2 mbs, it was not really usable. It was also very slow and jerky at the limits of 4G with speeds of 4/5 mbs. As JVB says the old system used to work at those speeds.
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Arch
I am not so sure. It's really about whether the Club can handle a certain level service. What JVB mentioned might only be a tiny percentage of calls received by the Club Call Centre so perhaps can be disregarded. However if it became a real problem and prevented the Call Centre handling the calls it really needs to it would make perfect sense for the Club either ban the option, perhaps going back to calling the site direct, or imposing a charge for the service, as it already does for overseas phone bookings. Members would still have a choice. Likewise, I think if they start having a higher proportion of members electing to pay on arrival they may well make pre-payment a requirement as well. From an administrative point of view you have to close down loopholes which impact on the efficiency of the system. Best not to get too far ahead of ourselves but the Club does have options.
David
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Avoid the whole thing, dysfunctional booking system, deposits etc. Just turn up at the site and say "Have you got a pitch?" Away from break season, it will probably work a whole lot better.
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Totally frustrated this morning tried booking a site for Christmas, got down to booking and had to put our dates of birth in. The calendar shows 11th November 2022 and I want to get back to September 1942 ! It only goes back a month at a time!
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Woodie. Same here on my android phone it's a fault that was reported in September. The calendar worked on my laptop but that's only a partial solution. I don't think the system was tested adequately.
I realise some would like all this to "go away" and these comments sound like "emotive reactions" (quoted on here the other day.) But the fact is the system has very poor functionality.
The search function is dreadful. To test the calendar I used Hillhead, as a location I got Hillhead in Glasgow and also Hillhead College in Scotland. As a campsite search I got Hillerod in the EU.
So far I have only made one booking, now used. It wasn't a good experience and luckily was made in advance with time to sort it via email complaints. If I had to make several bookings I would give up.
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Out of interest the payment in advance tick box is the default so at present there are complaints that money has been taken in advance because some aren't noticing the default mechanism. So in some ways this has been covered by CAMC.
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