Is Parentpay any good?

[rad]

They won't talk to parents at all and are incredibly rude and unhelpful.

 

I really hope the school ditches them and goes back to money. I think it's much better for children to see the real coins in their hot little hand and appreciate that when it's gone it's gone, rather than having a seemingly endless supply of money to buy whatever unghealthy delights the school offers them.

 

Just heard from school that it's their cashless till thingy that won't talk to Parent pay, I really don't care. I just wish they'd fix it!

 

1) The customer is the school, if you have issues, speak to your school ParentPay contact, they will help you out. I deal with parents for the school I work at, it works well, if they have a problem, I look into it and fix it. If PP dealt with all parents, they would be inundated with requests.

2) The reason for cashless is so parents dont have to supply cash to students, the students cant be bullied for their money, and also parents can see what the child has bought. All students at school are able to reduce the daily spend. our school it is set at £4.00. The reason for this is so students can buy a breakfast snack and then lunch. Or lunch and a sandwich for after sports events in the afternoon.

3) if thats the case, I am sure the ICT team are dealing with it as best as they can.

 

Sorry, sitting on the fence for your school and ParentPay, it is difficult as a parent to see the whole picture, but believe me, I am sure they are doing their best to sort the issues out.

[Banjogirl]

I'm sure what you say is right but I've had children at the school for eleven years and none of them have ever been bullied for their money or lost it or had it stolen. From my point of view there used to be a system that worked and now there is a system that doesn't work. I can't se what my child has bought because the system is broken, which meant he went on a spending spree in the first week, spent all his money and I had no idea. I didn't know there was pizza to buy at break, or chocolate milkshakes, because the school doesn't advertise that on their shiny, 'healthy schools' website. I've reduced the amount my son can spend each day now but that means he can't save up to have something special one day. He's getting no practice at budgeting.

 

I am a customer of Parentpay. Just because they don't charge me doesn't mean I don't have a relationship with them. I don't want to keep bothering the school every time something goes wrong, which from my two weeks' experience is all the time. It's not the school's fault that Parentpay is useless and I don't want them to think I'm making a fuss all the time. I have a nice relationship with them and I don't want to spoil it by complaining about something they're powerless to fix.

 

Parentpay wouldn't be inundated with parents' problems if their system worked!

[localzuk]

I'm sorry, but you aren't a ParentPay customer. Just like you aren't an EDS customer when you deal with Inland Revenue who use EDS software, or WorldPay when you use a website that uses them as their payment gateway.

 

The school is the customer, and as such they are the people to talk to.

 

Also, please don't take this the wrong way, but your children are just a tiny percentage of those in the school system. New rules were brought in where schools are supposed to keep an audit trail of all income and outgoings, including dinner monies. They also have a requirement to ensure that children on free school meals are not treated any differently, and to protect against the possibility of children losing their money, having it stolen, or them deciding to spend it all on sweets on the way in in the morning etc... Cashless systems are supposed to do this. Also, it is supposed to reduce the admin burden on a school.

 

So, whilst the implementation you've seen has been flawed so far, the ideas should not be ignored simply because the old way of doing things worked for your individual children.

[Tallwood_6]

Back to the topic though parentpay still seem to be having issues a number of us have raised tickets recently using the website only to enquire as to the status via email a couple days later to find the ticket was never recieved by support.

[pcstru]

I am a customer of Parentpay. Just because they don't charge me doesn't mean I don't have a relationship with them. I don't want to keep bothering the school every time something goes wrong, which from my two weeks' experience is all the time. It's not the school's fault that Parentpay is useless and I don't want them to think I'm making a fuss all the time. I have a nice relationship with them and I don't want to spoil it by complaining about something they're powerless to fix.

 

I'd like to say thanks for posting - it is interesting to get the parents perspective and we don't often get it in here (although many people are I'm sure parents too). I'd agree that you are a 'customer' of parentpay - perhaps not in a contractual sense (but then again, I'm not entirely sure about that as they do act as a broker so may be liable in some respects). Meanwhile, while it is not the schools fault, they SHOULD have some fall back in place. With the best will in the world technology will go wrong, whether it's a service like parentpay or the cashless tills or database server or mice living in the core-switch and chewing up the backplane, sometime something will stop it all running smoothly. They should be able to tell you what procedures are in place while these problems are ironed out.

[john]

I'm so glad I've stumbled on this forum. I've had loads of problems with parentpay, as a parent, and their service is dreadful. For everything that is wrong they blame the parents or the schools, even the fact that their website broke due to unexpected demand (at the start of term. Who would have thought it?). They won't talk to parents at all and are incredibly rude and unhelpful. They just keep telling me to send an email but they never reply to them!

 

I really hope the school ditches them and goes back to money. I think it's much better for children to see the real coins in their hot little hand and appreciate that when it's gone it's gone, rather than having a seemingly endless supply of money to buy whatever unghealthy delights the school offers them.

 

Just heard from school that it's their cashless till thingy that won't talk to Parent pay, but it seems to me it takes two to tango and both companies should be working to sort out the problem as they seem to have no idea what's wrong and are assuming it's something in the cashless system. I really don't care. I just wish they'd fix it!

 

Hi Banjogirl, I see your in North Yorkshire, I work for a North Yorkshire School so I can put a school angle on this for you, I know we have all been on at the county's Finance team and the IT Team (who are our first port of call with our contracts for ParentPay as per how its agreed with us and them). They have thus been on at ParentPay and have demanded an urgent meeting to discuss this as its the second year this has occurred and thus its not acceptable, they know how many accounts they have per school, how many schools and thus can do some simple maths to say that every parent will want to put money on dinner accounts etc... I have been told that the council were not getting answers any quicker than anyone else and were having complaints from schools and parents of students at schools who have gone cashless and cannot cope without it. I agree its not acceptable and should not happen and its an embarassment for all involved, especially schools when it does happen.

 

I can assure you that I am certainly forcing this issue with the Local Authority and certainly I will not be letting it rest as its useless when its down, we don't use cashless in my school yet, however we will by next September, thus I need a system that can work and be reliable and this just isn't it looking like it will be.

 

When it is working it makes a big improvement for us in terms of efficiency and cash handling to meet recommendations on cash transference and security of staff going to the bank with large sums of money from the cash based catering and when we took cash for uniform and trips etc it could easily at a busy time of year be several thousand pounds a trip which does put staff under risk of attack, by using this it removes that risk of mugging as well as improves efficiency and it is now proving popular with Parents due to not having to send children in with money for "dinner" and them saying its gone on "dinner" but they snook off site to the local chippy or bought sweets on the way to school etc...

[glennda]

@banjogirl i have to completly echo John's comment above - although this system is not great at present the benifits it brings are very benifical to the school/parent/students as although you have said that you would like the see the money come in in the students hand. Our canteen has seen sales triple (they still don't make money it just covers cost) simply becuase little jimmy doesn't spend all his school dinner money in the sweet shop on the way to school (like I used to!).

 

I two am waiting to here information out of both ParentPay and also our supplier of our cashless systems.

 

Just heard from school that it's their cashless till thingy that won't talk to Parent pay, but it seems to me it takes two to tango and both companies should be working to sort out the problem as they seem to have no idea what's wrong and are assuming it's something in the cashless system.

 

This sounds like a very not thought out comment. yes it does take two to tango but actually parentpay cannot fix the external application held by the school (although by the reports they changed things at there end.)

 

the way we have it is simply

 

Parent pays online - parentpay store file on there webserver with information regarding payment - our cashless system downloads this file - matches against cashless system

 

the first two sections parentpay have control over the third and fourth they have no control over - its not there fault these systems are not functioning enless they have changed things in step 2 which means the collection of the data in part 3 cannot be caried out.

[glennda]

PP have around 80% of the online payment market in almost 3000 schools and a proven system.Other systems can't give you as many local schools with proven successes in using online payments to contact and talk to about the system,

 

just looked back through the thread and this comment made me laugh

 

 

Any comments like to be added by @ParentPay or @ParentPayCEO on there services currently

Edited September 13, 2011 by glennda

[pcstru]

This sounds like a very not thought out comment. yes it does take two to tango but actually parentpay cannot fix the external application held by the school (although by the reports they changed things at there end.)

 

No they can't. But when Parentpay sell into a school they claim to work in 'partnership' with the cashless suppliers. We've had a couple of problems bouncing back and forth between Parentpay and Nationwide, both of them seem to default to a position of "it's their fault". It certainly never seems to be much of a partnership - or if it is it's pretty dysfunnctional.

[Banjogirl]

I have an account with HMRC, not their IT suppliers (who are terrible too!) so naturally if I have a problem I go to HMRC. But I do have an account with Parentpay so i do have a relationship with them, and when their system isn't working for me it's natural to ask them what's happening. For them to say we don't know and we don't care isn't very helpful.

I was in our local primary school this morning. They have just started with parentpay and it's not working. The secretary is not the cheeriest person ever but i did feel very sorry for her as she's obviously fielding a lot of flak about parentpay and she was being very nice to people who were understandably frustrated.

When schools start with Parentpay do they have a couple of months where they test it out before parents can use it? A lot of the problems seem to be teething troubles which should have been sorted out before it went live.

I know cashless systems are good for schools but they're not neccesariy good for parents and schools shouldn't assume that they are just because that's how it looks to them. I really like the idea of being able to pay for large things like trips online but at the moment I'm constantly worried that the money I've paid has disappeared as I can't see what's happening. It might seem like just a few teething troubles to the school but it's already cost me quite a lot of money (my son buying stuff I didn't even know was for sale, and my not knowing because that part of the system is broken) and it feels very wibbly-wobbly. At least with real money you know when you've got it and when you haven't!

[elsiegee40]

ParentPay is causing many headaches at the moment for both sides.

 

Working in a school, I can see the advantages of having a web based system for handling payments. It saves so much time.

 

As a parent, I love it. A short text from one of my offspring and their lunch card can be topped up wherever I am. Payments for school trips, etc actually make it into school!

 

However, I can also see that some parents have problems with card payments and/or the internet and, because of this, schools cannot go entirely cheque/cash free and must have systems in place to handle these.

 

That said all of the above is only correct, IF the darm system works in the first place and, I'm afraid, ParentPay is doing very good adverts for alternative methods such as ParentMail's +Pay.

 

ParentPay needs to fix things quick; they may be the most common cash system for schools, but ParentMail is probably the most common email platform and schools won't feel so worried about dropping ParentPay and adding +Pay instead.

[Banjogirl]

And I really hate companies whose names have a capital letter in the middle. Especially ones connected with education.

[jacomus]

Is anyone having *more* problems?

 

I keep on calling and getting the same poor guys on the phone who can only send my problem to their technical team. I try and not rant at them but it's hard! we've probably lost 6/7 working days dealing with the fall out of the lovely system not working.

[pcstru]

Is anyone having *more* problems?

 

We are still having multiple problems, some old some new. We have one issue that has been outstanding since June. Communications have been poor and responses slow. We are getting a bit chewed up dealing with complaints from staff and parents and I'm frankly starting to wonder why we should pay the renewal.

[Steven_Cleaver]

I have been having major various issues with the ParentPay system for over a week now, Parents couldn't access the site as it went down last week for a day or two, staff that were here unable to access the site to deal with Parent issues. Dozens of Parents phoning the school which I can quite understand being a parent myself as I would be irate, but taking up considerable time of Admin and Finance staff in probably the busiest time of the year due to issues with the ParentPay system.

 

Unable to run ParentPay Sync software because of issue with their Website so unable to update details Free school meals etc.

 

Incorrect information showing on the NRS (Nationwide Systems) catering system due to ParentPay System.

 

I could go on but you get the drift.

 

Also two other schools in the borough were having similiar issues if not worse.

 

I have introduced or been involved a large number of new IT Systems in schools and I must say that the ParentPay system has caused the most disruption to largest number of groups in school that I have seen, Teachers and Lunchtime staff dealing with Students being worried because they didn’t have money or were in negative balance particularly year 7 parents.

 

IT staff who have spent considerable time looking at the ParentPay system or trying to contact ParenPay about issues , don’t get me wrong as we were one of the lucky ones as we had raised concerns about the system and support before it was introduced and so had a direct contact who resolved issues quickly only issue being one issue would get resolved and we would run into another issue.

 

Admin and Finance Staff who had to deal with calls from distraught parents.

 

To be totally honest, I don’t feel ParentPay have the infrastructure or IT support that is adequate to deal with the number of schools they have taken on and at some point they are going to lose a lot of business

 

Anyway cheers ParentPay, for making what is probably my busiest week of the year probably the busiest I have ever had.

 

Rant over.

[Steven_Cleaver]

We are still having multiple problems, some old some new. We have one issue that has been outstanding since June. Communications have been poor and responses slow. We are getting a bit chewed up dealing with complaints from staff and parents and I'm frankly starting to wmeonder why we should pay the renewal.

 

Don't do it we are starting to think the same.

[jdoyle]

I believe we may be going ParentPay ......... "because the account manager is local" ............

[Banjogirl]

I have been having major various issues with the ParentPay system for over a week now, Parents couldn't access the site as it went down last week for a day or two, staff that were here unable to access the site to deal with Parent issues. Dozens of Parents phoning the school which I can quite understand being a parent myself as I would be irate, but taking up considerable time of Admin and Finance staff in probably the busiest time of the year due to issues with the ParentPay system.

 

Unable to run ParentPay Sync software because of issue with their Website so unable to update details Free school meals etc.

 

Incorrect information showing on the NRS (Nationwide Systems) catering system due to ParentPay System.

 

I could go on but you get the drift.

 

Also two other schools in the borough were having similiar issues if not worse.

 

I have introduced or been involved a large number of new IT Systems in schools and I must say that the ParentPay system has caused the most disruption to largest number of groups in school that I have seen, Teachers and Lunchtime staff dealing with Students being worried because they didn’t have money or were in negative balance particularly year 7 parents.

 

IT staff who have spent considerable time looking at the ParentPay system or trying to contact ParenPay about issues , don’t get me wrong as we were one of the lucky ones as we had raised concerns about the system and support before it was introduced and so had a direct contact who resolved issues quickly only issue being one issue would get resolved and we would run into another issue.

 

Admin and Finance Staff who had to deal with calls from distraught parents.

 

To be totally honest, I don’t feel ParentPay have the infrastructure or IT support that is adequate to deal with the number of schools they have taken on and at some point they are going to lose a lot of business

 

Anyway cheers ParentPay, for making what is probably my busiest week of the year probably the busiest I have ever had.

 

Rant over.

 

Your reply is interesting because Parentpay encourages parents to phone the school when they have a problem but that just means the school is told multiple times of the same problem. I feel really sorry for schools who have got involved and are now having to field angry and anxious parents when there's nothing they can do but apologise. I've tried not to be cross with school but they don't really help themselves as they've put nothing on their website. If they put something on the front page saying there are no updates and that it's the same for everyone and children can still get their meals then parents wouldn't need to ring. I know they don't want to advertise this huge problem but we need to know. I'm wondering how long before it hits the press...

 

I think my son is taking money until this mess is sorted out!

[Steven_Cleaver]

Your reply is interesting because Parentpay encourages parents to phone the school when they have a problem but that just means the school is told multiple times of the same problem. I feel really sorry for schools who have got involved and are now having to field angry and anxious parents when there's nothing they can do but apologise. I've tried not to be cross with school but they don't really help themselves as they've put nothing on their website. If they put something on the front page saying there are no updates and that it's the same for everyone and children can still get their meals then parents wouldn't need to ring. I know they don't want to advertise this huge problem but we need to know. I'm wondering how long before it hits the press...

 

I think my son is taking money until this mess is sorted out!

 

To be honest we did put information on our website as regards the issues we were having with ParentPay, but I hadn't thought of including information as regards including information about a child never being refused a meal no matter what so we have added this, to be honest we would always do this as I am sure most if not all schools would but should publish this formation under these circumstances so many thanks for the suggestion.

[mikegrant]

Seems that the months and months of development have paid off for me.

 

As I've said before in this thread, we were very unimpressed and it might be worth some of you who are majorly cheesed off and need to move away, try calling WisePay and see if they can help you move away....

[Banjogirl]

School told me happily today that the school cashless system and Parentpay were now talking. Unfortunately I had to tell them that actually they're not! Back to the drawing board for them I suppose. I'm a bit tired of it now. It appears from the Parentpay apology on their website that the problem isn't necessarily with the cashless system but with the communication between the two.

[glennda]

School told me happily today that the school cashless system and Parentpay were now talking. Unfortunately I had to tell them that actually they're not! Back to the drawing board for them I suppose. I'm a bit tired of it now. It appears from the Parentpay apology on their website that the problem isn't necessarily with the cashless system but with the communication between the two.

 

yes parentpay changed half there systems and didn't tell the companies who pay lots of money to them to collect data from them.

 

Also i'm not sure what cashless system your school is using but our supplier of this caused a huge error when doing the year end and did not bring payments over.

[marshharrier]

I think before anyone jumps out of the frying pan and into the fire it's really worth doing your research on companies dealing with payments from parents!

 

Here's my checklist FWIW;

 

1. Are they investing in their product (do they continually develop/improve it? This shows they have vision, commitment and a plan going forward, and it also shows they are making money i.e. are sustainable for the long term)!

2. Are they easily available on the telephone?

3. Do I know where their office is based and could I go and visit them if I wanted/needed to?

4. How many staff do they have? (Are they a garden shed company with only 3 or 4 employees?)

5. Have I seen their accounts for the last year or two? (Are they always late filing their accounts - trying to hide something?)

 

Apologies if this seems like teaching you to suck eggs, but the reality is that it's easy for a company to create a big impression and very few schools carry out the proper due diligence before engaging suppliers (especially in such an important area as this one). I've even complained to our LA that they don't ask proper questions such as 'are they profitable' and 'have their accounts been examined i.e. do they have the capacity to handle 300 schools for example!)

 

The company we use are superb & I looked into every one of the points above before engaging them. It turns out to have been a very good move!

 

HM.

[irsprint84]

The big mistake I made with parentpay int he meetings if not to ask about telephone support but I would automatically thought that the biggest company would have phone support! so I was nieve

[marshharrier]

The big mistake I made with parentpay int he meetings if not to ask about telephone support but I would automatically thought that the biggest company would have phone support! so I was nieve

 

Don't be too hard on yourself irsprint84 - appearances really can be deceiving! ParentPay are not a very big company, with only about 20 or so employees and they don't even have a main office (most of their staff still operate from their own homes). In fact most of the time you actually speak to someone at ParentPay you are speaking to someone in their own home.

 

I should point out that using a small company is not always a problem and in fact can be quite the opposite in a lot of situations (personal service, rapid response, local company etc). In my experience it's usually the transition between being a small company and then becoming a bigger company which causes quite a lot of pain and often requires financial investment, commitment and often different people in the business with big company skills!

 

Anyway I hope I've been able to provide some useful information for the members of this thread.