Can't book covid test or vaccine as the system doesn't believe my name is a real name

[Incogweeto]

So annoying.

My surname is two words. Think 'Bitsy von Mufffling'. When I try to enter it into lots of forms (most recently Royal Mail website) it actually says there are incorrect characters in my name. But more importantly it's done the same trying to book a Covid test in the past and a recent vaccine for a family member.

With the Covid test I just ran the words together and called myself Bitsy Vonmuffling but with the vaccine it needs to be your actual real name so they can find you. I've tried Bitsy Von, Bitsy Muffling, Bitsy Vonmuffling, VonMuffling, Von-Muffling etc and the system won't recognise it no matter what I do. I'll have to do it by NHS number but come on, I cannot be the only person in the UK with a two word surname.

Have you tried von%20Muffling?

This happened to my DD. Except in her case it was the two part first name. Again it said only recognised characters allowed or something similar.

It states in one part to write your EXACT name as registered yet won't accept it. It accepts only short first part. There are no hyphens or anything else, just letters.

So frustrating. Try calling the helpline maybe?

Did you get a letter telling you to book? How does your name appear on that?

I have a friend with 3 word surname, he's over 60, I'll ask him what's happened... But system may think it's all one word, friend resorts to that a lot.

This is why I laugh when people talk about AI and robots taking over admin jobs. Software developers can't even be trusted to realise that surnames don't follow one single format. It's well known issue and yet it keeps happening. Another common one is two-letter surnames like Yi. Some systems say the name has to be min. 3 letters! Is there anywhere on the system to give feedback? Or if you're on twitter it might be worth tweeting a screenshot. There'll be lots of people in a similar position.

It’ll need to be the same way that the GP codes it. Mine has a full stop in between, if that helps.

It’s two words on the letter and two words at the GP. Completely bemused. But it happens all the time and is so annoying. This one says something about how names can’t include special characters (it doesn’t - just a space!) but I’ve had one that said ‘Please enter a valid surname’ which felt quite rude!

Can I just say that I LOVED the Bitsy von Muffling episode of SATC

Sorry, friend with 3 word surname had no problem signing up for jab. It's just you sadly, OP.

I suspect the IT system was implemented by the 14 yr old kid of one of the Tory cabinet ministers - 2 days work for which he'll get a few hundred thousand quid.

It's kind of sad that my expectations from Gov IT systems are so low that I'm ecstatic if the website stays up even if the implementation is so naff you have to enter your password 16 times, complete all boxes in Swahili and stand on your head whenever you press NEXT in order to get to the next form.

It may be treating the Von as a middle name,have you tried with just the latter half? It will be an anomaly based on the way the data has flowed between systems where some have 3 fields for names (forename, middle name, surname) and others have just too (forenames and surname)

I know we often have challenges with ' and - in names even though they are valid. It's a common weakness when someone applies field level quality rules without much previous experience

www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/

try it without the space key