Joining Cycling Ireland - Why so hard??

54and56

Hi all,

I recently started training with a local club and want to join Cycling Ireland, pay the insurance etc but it's not proving very straight forward at all.

I have tried several times since last Friday to register online on http://www.cyclingireland.ie but as soon as I hit the "Register" button up pops a registration box with a "please wait" message and sits there indefinitely. I tried leaving it for up to an hour to see if it would resolve but it didn't and I also tried on other browsers (Chrome, Firefox etc) with no success.



Thinking I had spotted a problem Cycling Ireland weren't aware of I tried calling them and no matter what sequence of options you select in their automated call answering system (which starts with a statement, no matter what time of day you call, that they are handling a high volume of calls, yeah right :rolleyes:) you are ultimately led to a point where you are invited to leave a voicemail or hang up. It's impossible to actually speak to anyone.

Is this typical and if so is there any alternative way to join Cycling Ireland???

dahat

I also had huge issues when trying to get an A4 license for 2017 instead of the LM, the system took my payment as an upgrade not a new license plus I was unable to payy club fees.

After many attempts to call and emails unanswered i managed to get my licence upgraded for calender year and had to pay club fees the old fashioned way.

An awful site with little or help from customer service.

ednwireland

Club secretary sometimes will do it. Can't comment on the registration process the only issue I ever have is remembering my password.

Eamonnator

I am still waiting for C.I. to ring me back.
I left a voice mail this time last year.
I think, they may have forgotten.

Beasty

Think Trump's put Afghanistan on the blacklist - might want to try entering Ireland as I don't think he's got that far down the alphabet yet.....


:pac:

dragratchet

dont bother with the phone line around this time of year. you'll never get a response. i managed to get a resolution this year (i have a problem every year) by leaving a written query via their website.... twas responded to about a week later but at least it did get sorted. the site appears to be endlessly buggy and that situation never seems to change year after year.

morana

Eamonnator wrote: »

I am still waiting for C.I. to ring me back.
I left a voice mail this time last year.
I think, they may have forgotten.

there was a time long long ago when the member came first....

when they had somebody on boards doing all this dirty work....

ht9zni1gs28crp

Funny that, the website was running perfectly in December when it was time to renew licences. Quite easy and straightforward to use and pay Club Membership also.

Beasty

There were issues with linking club fees when they first opened up. They sorted that and things did seem OK during December.

I'm guessing they've ended up trying to fix something else and screwed the system when doing it

As a club Treasurer I've got to say I do not like the new system and in particular the fact you now need to set up Stripe and GoCardLess accounts. Indeed I do not like the way both those organisations do their ID checks and have not given them my passport details. Seems Stripe works regardless and I think GoCardLess is only required for payments. I'm sticking with PayPal and cheques for that as I really don't understand why CI are now essentially requiring clubs to run 5 separate payment systems (with cash being the one I've not already mentioned)

All My Stars Aligned

I've had issues with other website with hanging screens and sometimes using a different web browser resolves it. My default browser is Safari but on occasion changing to Chrome or Firefox worked. Worth a shot!

velo.2010

I'm just looking for a leisure licence for this year but am still being prompted to pay a club fee when reaching the payment page. Emailed them but, as above, no response as yet.

Beasty

I've got my racing licence, but for the 2nd year out of 3 they will have to re-issue it as it does not include the photo I uploaded that is required for racing overseas (and I paid €20 for the privilege)

Did e-mail them a week or two ago about it, but suspect they are snowed under because the latest "new" system is creating so many issues

marvin80

It's a shocking portal/website. I presume membership is one of their main revenue generators so they really need to invest in the website and make it as user friendly as possible.
It doesn't need to be fancy looking - just easy to navigate and use, without any bugs.

Beasty

marvin80 wrote: »

It's a shocking portal/website. I presume membership is one of their main revenue generators so they really need to invest in the website and make it as user friendly as possible.

I think they did, but it didn't work out as they had hoped!

I've got every admiration for the full-time staff that do work there as I know they have to deal with a lot, and suspect there is not any real IT specialism within the organisation - they therefore probably rely more on external consultants

However the organisation has grown, and should be recognising more the wider membership and it's needs, rather than (in my own very cynical view) being focussed on the male road racing side of things

54and56

Beasty wrote: »

I've got every admiration for the full-time staff that do work there

If you pay (or want to pay) €40 or more annually to be a member you should be able to get through to someone. I tried several times to both advise them of the issue with their online registration process and to see if I could register and pay over the phone and I always ended up with the same single option i.e. leave a message. Not good enough!!

I have since successfully signed up via Internet Explorer (which I never use) which seems to be the only browser that works with their registration process technology. Why would you make your website functional for just 16% of users??

triggermortis

I've renewed a lapsed leisure license as I'm back in Ireland now, but I still haven't received it. The renewal process was less than easy, I found.

Beasty

Je_suis_Jean wrote: »

If you pay (or want to pay) €40 or more annually to be a member you should be able to get through to someone.

The staff only do what the employer pays them to do. If they don't have the resources it's not their fault - it's the fault of management and ultimately the CI Board

54and56

Beasty wrote: »

The staff only do what the employer pays them to do. If they don't have the resources it's not their fault - it's the fault of management and ultimately the CI Board

That implies the CI Board have excluded "answering the phone" from the job specs of all staff. Bizarre if true particularly as their canned/automated response is they can't get to your call because of the heavy volume of calls they are in fact dealing with which seems to remain constant regardless of whether it's 09:01am on a Monday or 16:30 on a Friday :rolleyes:

Beasty

Seriously?? You're blaming the staff rather than those who employ them?

Beasty

In fact I distinctly recall the President making a big issue over the apparent failure of staff to deal with telephone enquiries during his election campaign. What I do know is I've tended to get responses to e-mails, even if it takes a while. I also know that's a much more efficient use of resources - something that appears stretched in CI at present. Maybe the President himself has now cottoned onto this.

secman

I renewed my Leisure licence on 18th January last, money left account , got email confirmation of membership number but no sign of "printable licence" which in previous years arrived quickly enough after payment.... a few days. It's almost 3 weeks now and I have emailed them twice, the latest being today....got the usual automatic response...Thanks you ...blah blah...volume...blah blah 48 hours.
Not really expecting to hear from them between 5 and 6pm on Saturday:)

nilhg

secman wrote: »

I renewed my Leisure licence on 18th January last, money left account , got email confirmation of membership number but no sign of "printable licence" which in previous years arrived quickly enough after payment.... a few days. It's almost 3 weeks now and I have emailed them twice, the latest being today....got the usual automatic response...Thanks you ...blah blah...volume...blah blah 48 hours.
Not really expecting to hear from them between 5 and 6pm on Saturday:)

If you login to your member profile, then click member licence you should be able to download and print your licence, working for me just now.

velo.2010 wrote: »

I'm just looking for a leisure licence for this year but am still being prompted to pay a club fee when reaching the payment page. Emailed them but, as above, no response as yet.

Surmising a little here, but you may need to ask your old club to unattach you before you can just pay for a licence

54and56

Beasty wrote: »

In fact I distinctly recall the President making a big issue over the apparent failure of staff to deal with telephone enquiries during his election campaign. What I do know is I've tended to get responses to e-mails, even if it takes a while. I also know that's a much more efficient use of resources - something that appears stretched in CI at present. Maybe the President himself has now cottoned onto this.

No business/organisation should offer the option of contacting them by phone if they adopted a policy of not answering phones and routing all calls to an answering machine. If you don't have or want your staff answering calls divert them to an answering service who can filter calls and either route the call to the correct employee or take a note and pass it on. It'd only cost a few grand a year and more than pay for itself in preventing lost membership signups and renewals.

Steve SilverMint

I managed to pay on the 3rd attempt. I'd have forgotten had the club not issued a reminder on renewals. I gave up the first couple of times and it took an age to complete when I did manage it.

morana

the reason they dont answer the phones is because they are printing and collating licences so sort out that massive piece of work and flatten it across the year...

morana

how many of those plastic licences do you have?

you know if you are doing uci races you need a new one each year. thats about 100 ppl of the 29k membership. so thats the printing gone.
can anybody come up with a resuable plastic number???????

Beasty

morana wrote: »

how many of those plastic licences do you have?

you know if you are doing uci races you need a new one each year. thats about 100 ppl of the 29k membership. so thats the printing gone.
can anybody come up with a resuable plastic number???????

Just as a matter of interest are UCI licences not required for the likes of the Ras and Ras na mBan?

I appreciate its still a low number, but they have already done away with plastic cards for non-racers

Beasty

morana wrote: »

the reason they dont answer the phones is because they are printing and collating licences so sort out that massive piece of work and flatten it across the year...

Don't think there was the same level of problems last year, although there had been previously. I'm guessing the new system has created more issues than its solved