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

[DoughnutPrincess]

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 😭

Yanbu, it's a slow death by digital shite. Bring back purse belts and let them learn how to manage cash.

And how does that work in schools that don't have a cafeteria?

We have this issue.

We only book dinners, not puddings though, as all the children get the same pudding each day.

I used it for GS but I just put money on and he could choose what to spend it on in the canteen so not the same as you maybe that was why I didn't have any problems. I also paid for school trips on it and it was easy and never had an issue.

This is due to the transaction fees that the school are responsible for. It's a fixed amount + a % of the transaction.

I used to work for ParentMail, a lot of their schools struggled with the card/transaction fees. Some would set their min payments even higher.

It was a nightmare in poorer areas where parents might have only had a few quid at a time to top up.

I hate that we seem to have to book lunches weeks in advance. For that alone I hate it.

In our old primary the kids chose their own lunch in the morning during the register time. We never had any input into what they were choosing. In juniors dc would only have a dinner on a day they wanted something on the menu, otherwise packed lunch. High school you just load the money and they choose and pay in school.

Not had any issues here but I imagine having to do your own lunch choices for multiple dc is a pita.

I've never booked lunches on it, just put in money. In primary school the kids chose on the day, in high school they order themselves on the day via a different app. Does your school specifically ask you to book the week in advance?

I remember when DD's school had Arbor - I'd get a notification of 'a behaviour issue' with no extra info and no idea if it was positive or negative!

I’ve just booked specific lunches for the next three weeks. There’s very little choice though so it’s an easy decision for the DC to make in advance. Pre Covid there was lots of choice and the menu was different weekly for four weeks before rotating. Now it’s just two weeks then the same again.

The ParentPay account isn't a bank account, it's just an admin system. The money is in a bank account controlled by the school/caterer, which Parent Pay doesn't have access to or control over.

Think of it like taking money out of a gambling account or doing an online refund - You can request it through their system, but it has to be authorised by their end.

Minimum payments are set by the school though, so those of you having issues I'd speak to school. Minimum payment for high school is 1p, old primary school £2.95.

We’ve used it for a few years now with no issues. DC don’t have dinner everyday so on a day they decide they would like dinner I just log on before 8am and order it.

I have no issue with parentpay whatsoever, I use it on a pixel phone so chrome. We also just it for booking ASC and it's great, I've been in an hour before club starts sometimes and changed from 4:15 to 5:30 pick up , or cancelled when I'm going to be out of work early and will pick him up straight from sports or classroom.

I just it weekdays, in the morning afternoon or evenings and at the weekends. Never seen a difference

Try getting money back from them when your child leaves school is impossible. When dd left school there was still £20 in her account. Still 2 years later we don't have it back. Patentpay said talk to school school say talk to Patentpay. Never got anywhere with either one.

I've never had any problems with it but I haven't had to book lunches, just pay for school trips and clubs.

My youngest is starting secondary next week so now I've got it on auto top up and they just choose what they want and pay with their finger print.

Not had any issues with it. I use for older DCs lunches but younger DCs are free. We also pay for trips, etc on it. However, we do not have to choose their meals nor do we have any information on what they have chosen. Our school haven’t linked it all up like that so it’s easy. The children choose their lunch option during registration if they are having school meals and not packed lunches.

Interesting that some of you say your DCs can choose at registration, that would be so much easier

What is bloody awful about it is when your DC leaves school, you have a credit on your account and you can't get it refunded.

So many people are reporting they can't get their money back from the parentpay platform

Do they just delete all your data at the end of the school term when children leave?!

Surely your login will still work for a little while to allow the school to sort refunds?
Or do they just wipe the data?

I find that hard to believe. If true, that's shocking?
Why wouldn't they email parents or add a warning on the account dashboard?!?

Maybe they just deactivate your account?

Would a Subject Access Request to ParentPay be able to retrieve the data they hold so that they are FORCED to give you proof of the money they're holding hostage? You can do them via email and if they don't respond, wouldn't GDPR rights deal with it i.e. report them to the Information Commissioner's Office or something?

I'll need to remember to not fall into this trap in future years by refusing to use it in the final few weeks of school, (I wish I had that fucking option now!), or just going on a spending spree buying anything with leftover £s

Just used it for the first time this morning and feel like I've done something wrong. Its just not great is it! Don't know if its how the school have set it up but I don't like it, I don't like anything about this transition from primary to high school though 😪

Same. We switched from Parent Pay (which I also disliked but could tolerate) and Parent Hub to Arbor for everything and my god it was painful to the extent that the school started sending out additional emails with everything in until the end of term as they were aware of the difficulties everyone was having and said they'd try to sort it over the summer. Fortunately we left that school at the end of term so can't say whether it has improved.

Never had any issues with it, just use my iphone browser

We use Gateway. My DCs are old enough that they started before an online payment system - now that WAS a pain as I frequently didn't have the cash to hand when I needed it, we would be scrabbling round to find enough small change to pay for snack etc. Much easier to click a button!