Online camp applications, good grief!

amother

OP ↓

Today at 2:22 am

Previous DD had a paper application. I filled out all the easy stuff in a couple of minutes with a pen. Then later when I had a few more minutes I went back and did stuff that needed a bit more research like look up her teacher's phone numbers as a reference. When everything was filled out I mailed it in and shoin.

Fast forward not very many years and now it's all online. I am very computer-competent, thank you very much but it's driving me crazy.

First of all it's on 7 different pages and you have to go in order and you can't skip any required fields. So no going ahead to put in things I know by heart before I've checked up each thing I need to check up, but then on the next page I'll have to go back into my phone/email/wallet and look up something else.

It won't let you save progress on the current page unless everything is filled out.

One camp demands all your health insurance information. Hello you have not yet decided whether you're accepting my kid, maybe you can make me go look up all the numbers afterward? Maybe the paper application also asked for insurance, I don't remember, but in that case they just wanted a photocopy of the card. I didn't have to correctly copy over strings of numbers.

Then, same camp, decides one of the numbers on my insurance info is not valid or the wrong format or something. I triple checked and tried entering it three times, it's absolutely correct, but I can't move forward with the application because it's required and they don't like it.

Another camp did not have this so I was able to get to the last page of the application. They want all my payment information! To authorize a $650 deposit right away, and to preauthorize 5 more installments with credit card information for the full tuition amount. This camp explicitly said at the beginning that they require references and interviews before accepting anyone so why exactly are they asking for all my money before they've even decided if we're in? I don't have an extra 650 because I'm still recovering from last summer's camps! By June I'll have it saved up, I hope, IY"H. Maybe if they wanted a $100 application fee but I'm not handing over my credit card with authorization for the next 5 months on step 1 of the application process!

Both the money one and the health insurance one I only got to these roadblocks after spending way too long typing in dozens of fields.

I've never missed paper so much.

amother

Nectarine

Today at 4:44 am

amother OP wrote:

Yes its frustrating!

Re the deposit, they alwayse asked for a 500 to 1k deposit for all the years that I sent to camp. But they onky took that on acceptance, not for just applying.

Are you saying they keep the money even if youre not accepted?

Hashem_Yaazor

Today at 7:51 am

On the other side, online forms are much better at data collection. My son's yeshiva had no online form and they had our address wrong, I'm still trying to figure out with them why I'm not getting emails, etc

A paper form needs someone to accurately read the information, accurately type it into some database system, make sure they don't accidentally lose a form... Online forms all get automatically merged into the data collection system with the data the parent inputted, so if there's a mistake, the parent has no one to blame but him or herself.

amother

Whitewash

Today at 7:58 am

I work with camp registration software and have a couple comments
1) they should be able to make adjustments that certain fields aren't collected until after acceptance. It does seem weird that they'd need your insurance information while you are just applying. Once you're accepted you should be able to log back in and submit that information, so it doesn't seem to be configured correctly.
2) it is industry standard to get a card on file for future payments, but there should be language in there that explains how they handle your payment information if you are not accepted.
They could also configure it to take just a deposit, and then put you on a payment plan after acceptance.
3) you can complain about it - if no one complains they won't change the setup or look for a different software provider for next year. If they make it hard to apply people will just abandon registrations,or put in dummy information to just submit the form.
It is"normal" to not allow the form to progress until all mandatory information is filled out, but again it sounds like they way they've ordered it isn't right. Too bad, it is something that if it's done right is definitely easier for the parents!