Who Could Have Ever Imagined?????

 I am going absolutely nuts with the reservation system/s at the El Cerrito Pool.  Here's the story, ala emails. I think you'll go nuts too!

El Cerrito Swim Center <el-cerrito@rectrac.com>	Tue, Oct 27, 5:36 PM (4 days ago)
to me

 

Hello Swimmers, As some of you are aware, the online website for reservations crashed today a few minutes  before reservations went live at 4pm. We have been in contact with our vendor  who provides the online service and they are looking into the issue.  Because of this, we are stopping reservations for the day and pushing our  reservation timeline by 24 hours. This means:   Residents can register online on Wednesday 10/28 at 4pm Non-Residents can register online on Thursday 10/29 at 4pm   We are so sorry about the inconvenience, if this changes at all we will let you know.   Thank you, Swim Center Staff       El Cerrito Swim Center <el-cerrito@rectrac.com> Wed, Oct 28, 12:59 PM (3 days ago)  to me Hello Swimmers,   Unfortunately the issues with our system have not been resolved. We hate to do this, but we have to push registration  by another 24 hours. Resident Registration will begin on Thursday, October 29th at 4pm Non-Resident Registration will begin on Friday, October 30th at 4pm Somethings in the system may change based on the updates. We will send an email with those changes  so you will not be surprised. As soon as we know what those changes are, we will let you know. We are so sorry about the inconvenience, but are working hard to get this resolved! Thank you, Swim Center Staff Thursday, Oct 29th, 6:54 PM El Cerrito Swim Center <el-cerrito@rectrac.com> ys ago)  to me Hello Swimmers, Thank you for your patience while we are trying to fix the issues with the reservation system.  Reservations will still take place at the following dates/times: Residents: Friday, 10/30/20 at 10am Non-Residents: Friday, 10/30/20 at 2pm We understand this is not ideal, and not the way we want reservations to happen.  But with November being only 2 days away, we need to get something out quickly.  Please keep in mind you will only be able to reserve the FIRST WEEK of November, 11/1/20-11/8/20.  The remainder of November we are still working on and will get out as quickly as possible. The vendor was not able to find a solution in the module we had been using, so we had to switch to a different module  within the online system. We are sending these instructions out tonight so you can play around in the system to get used  to it before it goes live tomorrow. You will not be able to book anything, but you can see what it looks like. Please follow these steps in order to reserve a lane: o Go to www.el-cerrito.org/onlinereg, log-in, and click on “Swim Center Reservations” (as you would normally) o In the top “Activity Search Criteria” the page will default to the correct Category and Type.  You will have to select a Subtype based on your lane preference (if it is left on All Sub Types,  not all the lanes will be visible as only the first 500 appear on the page): o Family Lanes o Fitness Lanes 1-2 o Fitness Lanes 3-6 o Fitness Lanes 7-10 o Masters Lanes o Click “Search” o The subtype you selected will appear below based on lane number first (example: Fitness Lane 3 will  appear before Fitness Lane 4), then by date and time (there may be one or two date/times that are not in order,  keep scrolling down) o Once you find the lane you would like to reserve, click on the green + button to the left. The lane will  appear at the bottom of your screen in a green box, and a blue – will appear next to the lane o A red x means that lane is not available o To reserve multiple lanes, repeat the steps above until they all appear in your green box at the bottom of the   screen o If you are registering more than one person in your household in multiple lanes, you can put all  of the lanes you want into your shopping bag. You will assign household members to them later. o Once you have all your lanes selected, click “Add to Cart” at the bottom of the screen. PLEASE NOTE,  YOUR LANES ARE NOT GUARANTEED UNTIL YOU CLICK “ADD TO CART” o If there is more than one person in your household, it will go to a new screen o Each household member will be listed with the lanes selected appearing under each household  member o Select the correct lane for the correct household member o ONLY SELECT ONE HOUSEHOLD MEMBER FOR EACH LANE!  Will show a “Problem reservation” in a later step if you select the same lane under more than  one household member. o Click “Continue” o If there is an additional household member swimming in your lane with you, click  “OPTIONAL – ONLY CLICK IF an additional household member will be joining my lane” o If you do NOT have an additional household member swimming, continue to the next step o Read the waiver, and click the box “I agree with the above*” then click “Continue” o Select “Proceed to Checkout” to complete the transaction o Complete the transaction with appropriate Credit or Debit Card Number  (Visa, MasterCard, or American Express Only), then click “Continue” o Print or save your receipt to show the day of your reservation We realize and understand this has been a stressful process, and hope that by next week we will have a  better solution for the remainder of the November reservations. If you have issues while you are registering, please keep in mind that the office is closed,  and the phones may not be answered right away. We will be monitoring email and responding as quickly as we can.  You can email your questions to recreation@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us. Thank you, Swim Center Staff This email was sent from the El Cerrito Recreation Department. Please see attached files for important information.  If you have any questions, please contact us at (510) 559-7000 or by replying to this email.  Visit Us at www.el-cerrito.org/recreation Register Online at www.el-cerrito.org/onlinereg  Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday 8am-4pm Tuesday & Thursday 8am-6pm         Friday, Oct 30, 1:56 pm Hello again Swimmers! Sorry for the massive amount of emails, but we are learning this system along with you!   After sending out the tips and tricks below, we realized that one of the search criteria is not working the way  we described. In the Additional Search Criteria when selecting “Show Sections with X Spots Available?”,  select "1 Spot", but the in Subtype please make sure to still only select ONE Subtype and not ALL Fitness Lanes.  Selecting all will not bring up all available time slots and only show very limited options. Some tips and tricks for the new system: o Remember the lanes had to be separated out in order to show all lanes on the screen (it only allows 500 to show  at one time). You must select your lane criteria in “Subtype” at the top and then click search o PLEASE KEEP IN MIND that if someone places a lane in their cart (not just the green box at the bottom of  the screen) before you, once you click “add to cart” it will go to a screen saying “The MAX ENROLLED  Count has been reached.” You can click the cancel button to be taken back to your previous screen. o There is an option to search by available lanes only, which also allows you to have more than one  Subtype of lanes on your screen: o In “Activity Search Criteria” hold the control button down and select all Fitness Lanes  (1-2, 3-6 and 7-10) - Do not do this step! Only select ONE Fitness Lane option! o Click on “Additional Search Criteria” under the “Activity Search Criteria” area o The second box on the left labeled “Show Sections with X Spots Available?” select “1 Spot” o Click Search, and it will bring up only lanes that are available to reserve o If you have a specific day you can swim (for example, you can only swim on Sundays), in the “Additional Search Criteria” box you can selec t a specific day of the week and click Search o Remember, anything you change in Activity Search Criteria or Additional Search Criteria,  you must click the Search button afterwards o Please be aware, the more you limit your search, the less that will show. You can always click the  HOME button at the top, then click on “Swim Center Reservations” again to be brought back to the  default settings. Also know, this is only for November 1st through the 8th. We are working on the rest of the month and  will hopefully have a solution early next week.   If you have issues while you are registering, please keep in mind that the office is closed, and the  phones may not be answered right away. You can email your questions to recreation@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us,  we will be monitoring this email and responding as quickly as we can. Thank you for your patience, Swim Center Staff   This email was sent from the El Cerrito Recreation Department. Please see attached files for important information.  If you have any questions, please contact us at (510) 559-7000 or by replying to this email.  Visit Us at www.el-cerrito.org/recreation Register Online at www.el-cerrito.org/onlinereg Office Hours: Monday & Wednesday 8am-4pm Tuesday & Thursday 8am-6pm ReplyForward     Friday, Oct 30th, 3:23 PM

 

Hello Swimmers,

 

Thank you for your patience. The swim lane reservation issues have yet to be resolved by our vendor.

 In the meantime we have been working hard to develop an alternate way for swimmers to book lanes on WebTrac, which unfortunately it is not quite ready. Rather than push out these new reservation steps with a bunch of flaws, we are going to work on it through the night to have it ready by tomorrow.

For tomorrow, we are only allowing the first week of November for reservations, Sunday 11/1/20 through Sunday 11/8/20. This way we can try to work through all the bugs and get a system that will work properly. Reservations will take place tomorrow:

Residents Friday 10/30/20 at 10am
Non-Residents Friday 10/30/20 at 2pm

We know this is a short time frame, but with November only 2 days away, we want to allow people to reserve as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your understanding, we will send an email before reservations begin with information on the new process.

 

Thank you,

Beth Frazer

Recreation Supervisor

 

 

 

From: Carol Jameson <cjameson.jameson@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, October 30, 2020 3:23 PM
To: Beth Frazer <bfrazer@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us>
Subject: Re: Swim Center Saturday 10/3/2020

 

Hi Beth,

 

I'm VERY confused and couldn't reserve anything for the coming week. WHAAAAAA!!!!

 It looks like all the lanes are already taken? (As far as I can tell)

 While I appreciate your emails, they are too complex for me to wade through all the content, understand it, and then practice it. 

 Is there anything I can do? It's very frustrating! I've been able to reserve Saturdays for the last two months, even as a non-resident, with your prior system. I hope this new system is less confusing in the future. 

 Complainingly yours,

Carol

 

Hi Carol,

 

I’m so sorry you were unable to get any reservations. Unfortunately everything is already reserved for the week.

 

I would keep an eye out, we do still get some cancellations which will show up on the site to reserve. If not, we will be releasing the remainder of November in some fashion soon, hopefully you can get something then!

 

Thank you,

 

Beth Frazer, CPRP

Recreation Supervisor, Aquatics & Facilities

City of El Cerrito

Recreation Department

7007 Moeser Lane

El Cerrito, CA 94530

(510) 559-7015

bfrazer@ci.el-cerrito.ca.us