// May 26th, 2006 // No Comments » // Personal
We have this thing in Jersey called a Manpower return. All companies need to make this return once a year.
Stupid point the first – my company only employs one person … ME!
Being a technosavvy kinda guy I had asked to complete the return online. I received the email yesterday and was overjoyed to see this excerpt:
You will be sent a secret PASSWORD by POST after the registration period has been closed. This will also be used for future returns
They want me to fill out a form and then they’ll pst me something to allow me to fill out another form. Had I done this by post then they would have sent me the form, I fill it out and send it back. End of story.
Stupid point the second – what is the point of having an online process that relies on the postal system? It’s not like this is internet banking or anything.
The best bit? I log onto the initial form to request a password to access the real form, fill out the fields and click submit … BANG! … 500 server error and not in a nice handled way.
Stupid point the 3rd and 4th – if you’re going to mailshot then make sure you’ve destruction tested the app first! Oh and any web app that doesn’t handle exceptions or errors has no place in the public domain
Finally this morning I logged back into the form to try again only to be met with:
Your company has already been registered to complete the online Manpower Survey.
Stupid point the 5th – if you don’t keep your users appraised of where they stand in the registration procedure they will not trust your application.
</rant>
