Don't bother trying to pay your household charge yet - the site isn't work properly

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Brendan Burgess

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You can now pay the charge on www.householdcharge.ie

Being a responsible citizen, I decided to pay mine online. But it's very badly designed and, isn't allowing me to do so.

Here are my comments

1) It marks the mobile phone field as a required field. Does that mean that people who don't have mobile phones don't have to pay the charge?

I left it empty and it did not cause a problem.

2) It does something called an "address search result".

We have matched the address you entered to the following address. If this is your correct address please click "Use Address". If this is not your correct address please click "Search Again" or click on "Use Entered” in Option 2 below.
Click to expand...
Have they checked it against my PPS number? They should make this clear.

3) Why do they need a security captcha. The one I got seemed very difficult to read
tioneybr l'austerità

How many people know how to do an à ? I had to search around for it?

4)
There was an issue processing your request.

To return to the homepage of the Household charge System please click here
To try again please click try again
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5) If the problem is with the captcha, they should say this.

I have now got this message 7 times.

Most of the captchas are very difficult to read.
I tried the audio captcha twice and that was even more difficult.

6) They should provide a phone number on this page if people are having problems.

7) I found the phone number, but I have now been holding on for 8 minutes and no reply.
 
After 10 minutes holding, and on at least the 10th attempt, they answered the phone just as I successfully registered.

Note: You will need these details to access your account again. Please keep them safe.


First Name: Brendan
Last Name: Burgess
Account Reference Code:

You have completed registration successfully.
Your Account Reference Code will now be sent to your email address.
NOTE: If you are paying by Direct Debit you will need to verify your email address.
Please read the email for further instructions.
 
The woman answering the phone told me that so many people are paying today, that the system is slow.

And they have asked the IT dept to fix the Captcha.

I suggested that they switch it off until it works.

Brendan
 
I'm having the same problems Brendan

I was on hold for 14 mins but the girl was no help and was pawning me off with rubbish reasons as to why it wasn't working (site down and/or captcha problems)

When I click on forgot password (in case that was my issue) the site tells me I am not registered even though I have received a "registration successful" email from them

I agree that the Capthca phrases are very difficult to read
 
RTE report that 2100 have registered so far.

To meet the 31st March deadline, and assuming 1.5m register online (which won't happen), 16,000+ need to register each day.

If the website can't cope so far, how will it cope with more demands?
 
I registered and paid yesterday, Tue 3rd Jan 2011.

It did an address search, and found my house in its database. I am interested in that, as it means they already have some sort of database.

I spelt my address "36 xxxx xxxx", but it matched me with "36 xxxxxxxx", with no spacing.

In fairness, both versions make sense, with or without spaces.
 
DB74 said:
Can you log in to the site now Brendan?
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I have decided not to bother until they solve the problems.

The manager did ring me back and told me that they have terrible problems with the captcha.

He could not tell me the purpose of it.

Brendan
 
Protocol said:
RTE report that 2100 have registered so far.

To meet the 31st March deadline, and assuming 1.5m register online (which won't happen), 16,000+ need to register each day.

If the website can't cope so far, how will it cope with more demands?
Click to expand...

That's pretty embarrassing if a site can't cope with 2100 users in a day! I think I'll wait until they get a handle on the teething issues before I go near it.
 
Are they matching addresses with the Voters Register and/or the database from ESB Networks as was indicated in discussions when the charge was introduced?
 
OK, I just registered.

Got through it without much difficulty, but I wasn't able to leave the mobile phone number field blank - unlike Brendan's experience earlier.

Logged in again, and tried to pay. Got a server error message, so can't make a payment at the moment!
 
gipimann said:
Are they matching addresses with the Voters Register and/or the database from ESB Networks as was indicated in discussions when the charge was introduced?
Click to expand...

My guess is not from the latter (anyway probably prohibited under Data Protection legislation) on the basis that the ESB Networks has my townland (otherwise unused) and the match did not include said townland.

Once I got past the email page, it was plain sailing including payment.
 
I must have hit a temporary error - I logged out, logged in again and was able to make the payment.
 
I managed to register, though they didn't like my address and I had to confirm it.
Then they didn't like a payment by Laser and kept telling me i was an invalid Credit card number. I refreshed and recommitted to laser but it didn't work.
Finally managed to just setup a Direct debit mandate although that isn't what I wanted to achieve.

Dreadful website.
 
I had no problem registering although the captcha was a bit difficult to read and it was just by chance that I got it correct.

They dont seem to want my money mind you - anybody else have any problem with payment.
 
staff,
Have you completed the section where you tell the site what type of water scheme you use and declare whether you're exempt or not? Took me a while to work out that process and couldn't pay until I had done it.

If I recall, when your account details are displayed, there's a "NEXT" button at the bottom of the page.

The information in the "self-declaration" page states that the list of unfinished estates is available in the FAQs - however when you go to look for them, there's a list of phone numbers only.
 
Hi Gipimann,

I did try the NEXT button but it wouldn't accept it - so I just came out of it and went back in and it was then happy enough to take my money. Seems to be just some initial starting up problems.

Staff
 
I managed to register, according to a confirmation email I received (although the registration process froze when I clicked 'create account'). Can't login to my account though, despite numerous attempts. It just freezes.

I was also surprised at how difficult the captcha words were. When I tried the audio version I had to laugh it was so unintelligible.

Considering we are all pretty annoyed at having to pay this in the first place I am amazed at the problems they are having with the site already. It's the last thing they want when they are asking people to go to the trouble of registering and paying.

Anyhow, I'm sure I can now look forward to lots and lots of reminders to pay, from a flawed but zealous system.

 
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