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AIBU?

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Original poster

To wonder why schools use ParentPay when it's so fucking awful for parents?

84 replies

DoughnutPrincess · 01/09/2024 14:25

Yet another weekend attempt to book school lunches for the week ahead, yet more random timeout crap & having to load up a desktop because their website doesn't work properly on multiple iOS or Android devices we have in the house. I'm seriously at the end of my tether every fucking week of having to use their poorly designed, poorly implemented "product".

Does the system work better for teachers or something? I could understand why it's being bought if it's a better system for teachers/school staff, but surely I'm not the only parent who uses it and finds it an unintuitive, terribly designed and run piece of crap? Who is paying them ££ to inflict this on parents?

I've been using it for the 3rd year so far and we have years of having to use it for school lunches ahead 😭

OP posts:
TotallyKerplunked · 01/09/2024 17:06

sunshineandrain82 · 01/09/2024 15:14

I'm having nightmare with it.
2 children both left the schools. Need a refund from what was left in there accounts. Can only be actioned by the school apparently. 1 child no longer appears (she left in march so that isn't the issue) but school didn't respond regarding a refund.
Other child is likely to be deleted soon, still awaiting a response for that one.

I simply can't understand why the school needs to action a refund for what is left in the child's parent pay account.

Same here, I hate parentpay.

I've got 1 kid moving primary->middle and another middle->high.

All 3 schools use parent pay and I was told they'd just need a code from the next school to change the account so didn't worry that there was a bit of money left in each account (prob around £15 in total).

Now both kids have all been deleted/archived so that money has disappeared and I cant prove how much was in there. Parentpay say they cant refund any money unless it is actioned by the school, the school say they cant refund as the kids accounts no longer exist, the helpline just say its up to the school and around and around...

Original poster
DoughnutPrincess · 01/09/2024 16:44

Yeah we tried doing a term fully once

It cleared some!

OP posts:
HappierTimesAhead · 01/09/2024 16:36

It's awful! It regularly just clears booked lunches for no apparent reason and we all get passive aggressive emails from the school despite them knowing the issues with parentpay

Original poster
DoughnutPrincess · 01/09/2024 16:33

So wait a second, their business model is focused on punting their shitty system to catering companies, it's not necessarily something a school or council has decided?

I was going to feed back to the school to ask if other parents have issues in the hope when any contract review is done then they can consider alternatives but it sounds like that might be a dead end / pointless then 😔

OP posts:
Hollowvoice · 01/09/2024 16:23

In the case of many schools round here, ParentPay is the choice of the catering company, so schools using that company use that system.

Original poster
DoughnutPrincess · 01/09/2024 16:18

The errors are intermittent. You give up and up back in an hour and it works 🙄

OP posts:
sunshineandrain82 · 01/09/2024 15:14

I'm having nightmare with it.
2 children both left the schools. Need a refund from what was left in there accounts. Can only be actioned by the school apparently. 1 child no longer appears (she left in march so that isn't the issue) but school didn't respond regarding a refund.
Other child is likely to be deleted soon, still awaiting a response for that one.

I simply can't understand why the school needs to action a refund for what is left in the child's parent pay account.

Phoenix9 · 01/09/2024 15:12

Have you tried clearing your browser cookies in chrome?

Panicmode1 · 01/09/2024 15:10

I'm another one not recognising the issues; it sounds horrendous! I've had 4 children at 2 different schools using it and don't think it's any better or worse than other platforms we've had to use over the years (ie at primary/before the boys' secondary adopted it). That said, we haven't had to use it for meals, only trips, so perhaps that is where the issues are.

DancingPhantomsOnTheTerrace · 01/09/2024 15:04

I assumed it was used because it was relatively cheap, because there's no way they could have chosen it based on how good it is to use.

musicalfrog · 01/09/2024 15:02

Is it possible to set a minimum daily spend on this platform? Our school gives them a card that takes from a pre paid balance.

winewolfhowls · 01/09/2024 14:58

No problem here.
Kids pick their own lunches in the morning from a small selection of about five options and they are all the same cost.

TickingAlongNicely · 01/09/2024 14:56

Its been a while since I've had to chose lunches, but yes, on Saturday evening I would sit down with DD, and go through and chose her food each day at a time. Seemed a perfectly logical way to do it rather than going back to the beginning to chose pudding.

Parent pay is more than just Lunches so that's why you get the One Click reminder... (Although school asked us not to use it as it takes longer for money to come through).

Zanatdy · 01/09/2024 14:55

I haven’t had any issues, but then again I just set it up to auto top up and my DD is 16 so I don’t need to check what she’s eaten / not eaten. So I don’t use it much apart from paying for extra items

allthemiddlechildrenoftheworld · 01/09/2024 14:52

@DoughnutPrincess its not just parentpay i have an issue with!! different schools use different ways of accessing material/ microsoft teams, firefly, and another few/ then there are texts! I have absolutely no idea how to access my sons homework! I have made up and forgotten so many bloody passwords that I have given up and have no idea what is going on in either of their schools!! why not just email and an account to pay the money over to for either school?

Original poster
DoughnutPrincess · 01/09/2024 14:48

To the people who say it works fine, how do you choose lunches,pay etc?

We do ours every weekend for the week ahead

Often Saturday daytime, occasionally Sunday afternoon

Do you do it weekdays? The whole term at a time?

It's often showing a random website timeout. And has anyone figured out how to say e.g. on Weds no pudding needed (to avoid the waste from it being a mandatory selection)

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 01/09/2024 14:45

I never had a problem with ParentPay on either website or iOS app.

WorkCleanRepeat · 01/09/2024 14:45

I've been using it for 4 years for both children without any issues.

The product itself is certainly not jazzy but does what it says on the tin.

I wonder why you have such a different experience 🤔 It sounds painfully frustrating.

crikeycrumbsblimey · 01/09/2024 14:41

Parentpay fine for me.

Arbor is an absolute nightmare

Glittertwins · 01/09/2024 14:38

Never had a problem on iPhone for the last 3 years although I possibly use the web site rather than an app.

Original poster
DoughnutPrincess · 01/09/2024 14:38

I'm using Chrome btw, tried on both mobile and desktop.

It still insists on interrupting every login to get us to set up 1 click payments despite Scottish school kids getting free meals across the age group

And it won't let me order all the main choices before puddings, it somehow restricts parents to choosing a main AND a pudding even if a pudding isn't wanted that day (we select fruit on days where DC isn't very hungry then hopefully they'll eat it or someone else could have it, but it seems such an avoidable waste some days when we'd like to opt out)

No app for parents afaik but I'd love to know if I'm wrong? We could use iOS or Android. But knowing parentpay it would just go down with website outages still which is the main bugbear 😫

OP posts:
KenAdams · 01/09/2024 14:37

Never had a problem with it

CandiedPrincess · 01/09/2024 14:36

I've used it for about 10 years and never had any issues.

lemonyellows · 01/09/2024 14:35

QuillBill · 01/09/2024 14:32

Mine had parent pay at secondary school and Wise Pay at sixth form and that is so, so so much worse.

Agree!!!!

NeverDropYourMooncup · 01/09/2024 14:34

Nobody's particularly keen on it on the other side, either. However, the alternatives aren't any better, for all the fancy user interfaces that they try to impress people with and charge through the nose for.