Why more changes to app

Irish Steve

So, yet again, there have been changes after the original release, and it's not exactly helpful, the relevant people really need to get their act together. I am talking here about the android app, I've given up using the web interface, the new validations are just too clunky and time consuming.

I went to make a payment to a supplier this afternoon, and went through the relevant section, and eventially get to the confirm option, but nothing was happening, and there was nothing on the screen that was visible to indicate why things were not proceeding.

Eventually, I scrolled back up the screen to find an error message telling me that the field could only contain letters and numbers. Fine, apart from one fundamental issue, the field was pre loaded from your database, having been created previously when I created and made a previous payment to that supplier, the reference field contained SC & VL as part of the information sent to the payee, and it would seem that the latest update of the app now won't allow the & to be used any more.

Two questions.


First, why has this changed, it must have worked previously, as I used it not long ago to pay this supplier, and it's in your stored information about the payee? It was working, and I'm not aware of any recent changes in the structure of the interbank payment system data structures. 


Second, if there is an error in the information that's been entered, would it not be a good idea to put the error message on the screen where it will be seen by the user, not put it way back up the screen out of sight, and even more so if the information has been pre populated from the stored information, and not user entered during the transaction?


This  is a classic example of what I will call "Geek" development and testing, the people responsible for the approval are using pre defined data, and are very likely to not actually enter "wrong" data to ensure that the way the system deals with it is actually user friendly. What's been released in this latest update is most definitely NOT user friendly, and I am speaking as a programmer that spent close on 30 years designing, testing and implementing user systems of this nature, so I can very easily recongise when the system for testing and approving has not been properly structured.

Bank of Ireland Reps

Irish Steve wrote: »

So, yet again, there have been changes after the original release, and it's not exactly helpful, the relevant people really need to get their act together. I am talking here about the android app, I've given up using the web interface, the new validations are just too clunky and time consuming.

I went to make a payment to a supplier this afternoon, and went through the relevant section, and eventially get to the confirm option, but nothing was happening, and there was nothing on the screen that was visible to indicate why things were not proceeding.

Eventually, I scrolled back up the screen to find an error message telling me that the field could only contain letters and numbers. Fine, apart from one fundamental issue, the field was pre loaded from your database, having been created previously when I created and made a previous payment to that supplier, the reference field contained SC & VL as part of the information sent to the payee, and it would seem that the latest update of the app now won't allow the & to be used any more.

Two questions.


First, why has this changed, it must have worked previously, as I used it not long ago to pay this supplier, and it's in your stored information about the payee? It was working, and I'm not aware of any recent changes in the structure of the interbank payment system data structures. 


Second, if there is an error in the information that's been entered, would it not be a good idea to put the error message on the screen where it will be seen by the user, not put it way back up the screen out of sight, and even more so if the information has been pre populated from the stored information, and not user entered during the transaction?


This  is a classic example of what I will call "Geek" development and testing, the people responsible for the approval are using pre defined data, and are very likely to not actually enter "wrong" data to ensure that the way the system deals with it is actually user friendly. What's been released in this latest update is most definitely NOT user friendly, and I am speaking as a programmer that spent close on 30 years designing, testing and implementing user systems of this nature, so I can very easily recongise when the system for testing and approving has not been properly structured.

Hi There,

Thanks for getting in touch with us here today. Please be assured that we do appreciate all feedback we receive from our customers and we are sorry to hear that this has been your experience. To look into this further for you we would recommend that you raise this by logging into your account, select services and send us a message and our colleagues here will be happy to help with this.


Thanks Jen