Online parking renewals...you just know before you start that it's not going to be that easy
Picture the scene...you've been reassured by a letter from Ealing Council that you can renew your permit online so you wait until the last few days before it runs out to renew it. You even get your own personal PIN number! You hesitate....can it really be that easy? Can I really avoid the deli counter style wait at Perceval House, scanning the pulic address system for my winning number to appear? Well, the letter is telling me in bold type I can do it ONLINE. They MUST want to make efficiency savings I think to myself, I ought to give it a go... So I go online, I find the right page on their website, I enter my name, I even find last year's council tax bill in a pile of papers next to the computer. I'm on a winning role! I enter my post code. It's located my address! This is all going to plan. I enter the found Council Tax number....it's recognized!. I can't believe it, BUT, no sooner have I clicked NEXT, a red box appears. The name and address i've entered are not a match. Maybe its under my partners name I ask myself. I try again. No, not recognised either. OK, don't panic. It's offering another method. Enter the car registration number and upload the council tax bill. All can be saved I try to tell myself. Except...the site can't upload more than 1 micro bite of information. Why do I bother?...Tomorrow morning, I'll be at Perceval House, clutchling my number, waiting for the attention of the 1 council employee who hasn't gone on holiday in August to print out a permit. Damn those dreams of online efficiency. I should have known it was never going to be that easy. :(
Alex Watson ● 5514d3 Comments ● 5513d