I got a letter at the start of the month from the DVLA, reminding me to renew my car tax and inviting me to do so online. Great stuff, I can get it out of the way and not worry about it.
I logged on to the site, typed in the cumbersome 16 digit number, but was told there was a problem. On re-reading the letter the DVLA sent, I noticed this:
The earliest date you can apply is on or after the 15th day of the month in which your existing licence expires
Great, so the error I'm getting was because I'm too early. Why not just tell me that? And why on earth can they not process the application, if they've got all the data required to send out the reminder letter in the first place? And why a 16 digit number - wouldn't a shorter number in conjunction with the registration number do the trick?
So I remembered to go back to the site today, and started to fill out the form. I'm not sure what browser they were designing for, but it's not Safari. None of the textareas are large enough to view the number of digits required - for example the CVC 3 digit code should be entered into a text box one character wide. Also, on every page is a dire message about using standard browser features:
The Back button on the browser cannot be used during a transaction. If the Back button was used the page will time out.
So in 2007 our government agencies can't write web applications that cope with browser-based navigation, or conform to basic usability criteria?
Then, whilst entering my credit card details, I got distracted by a brief phone call. I then finished filling out the form, hit submit, only to receive the incredibly annoying message:
Page Timed Out
Sorry this page has timed out and the application or declaration has been cancelled.
So not only is the website cumbersome, but they have set pointlessly low expiration times on their sessions.
On the second time round, after entering my credit card details and hitting next, I'm warned about a £2.50 surcharge for credit card transactions and given the option to switch to debit card payments. Why not warn about the surcharge on the page that collects payment details?
Whilst it's great that car tax can be bought over the internet, I can't help but wonder what crazy process arrives at such an unusable implementation...
Postscript: it gets better ... I pasted the content of this post into their "have your say" comments form and clicked submit, only to receive back the following message:
Your Comments:
Please use 2000 characters or fewer.
Brilliant! Only brief feedback welcome. So I've given them this URL instead. Hello, DVLA! If you want some usability consultancy, I believe you now have my email address.
Technorati Tags: computing, critique, cars, www
Posted by savs at June 22, 2007 11:05 PMThat's not the worst of it, at least you could complete the transaction online. When I used the system I got told like you that you can only apply from the 15th onwards. So come the 15th I go to the site again, only to be told that they have no record that my car is insured and I need to visit a post office to get car tax. Anyhow, the nearest post office that does tax according to the royal mail website is a few miles away. Due to illness/life/whatever getting in the way I only get to do this towards the very end of the month. I arrive at the post office to be told they no longer do vehicle tax so I need to go to /another/ post office a few more miles away. What should have taken about 20 minutes door to door took well over an hour in the end. This 2 week window to get tax is absolutely ridiculous, it should be extended to at least the whole month. Oh, and of course as my car tax is due when the budget happens the amount printed on the sheet is always wrong.
Posted by: Adam Bower at June 23, 2007 9:09 AM