Hockey Registration Opens

Whitby Hockey opened their registration this week. Whitby baseball and hockey shared Whitney Hall for in person registration today. This when well. There were 192 baseball players and 221 hockey players registered and 32 coaching applications completed. Some of these where at home registrations.

A small percentage of the registrations are experiencing issues with payment processing status. These are addressed by checking the records of the payment processor and updating the status of the registration accordingly.

I'd like to reiterate that all members are considered registered from the time they complete the process online. Obviously, payment failures have to be addressed. However, no member will miss a registration close date just because the system could not process the payment.

If you are close to tryouts and you have registration issues outstanding, please be sure to let us know that you intend to attend tryouts. We will advise the association. You are, of course, free to advise the association yourself but please be sure to tell them that you are working with us, assuming you have initiated support.

Volume continues to be high with response times around 24-36 hours. Some issues can be addressed much faster.

Support

Last Updated on March 15, 2008

Well, with the start of baseball registration and requests for support getting tax receipts for both baseball and hockey, we are having difficulty keeping up.

However, we also need to provide prompt support. We have put up this post, with a link to it on this Blog's menu (at the right) so it will always be easy to get back to. Here we identify answers to some FAQ in hopes that you'll find what you need and be able to move on without waiting for us. There are a set of entries with headings in this post on:

I Can't Complete Payment
How Do I Get a Receipt
Can't Login - Don't Know User Id or Password
One [or more] of My Children is Not in the System
I Login But Don't See The Kids or The Receipt Is Empty
About User Ids and Passwords

Eventually, we'll make this more sophisticated. And we are adding to it as new issues start to trend. There is a history at the end of this post so you can tell if what's been added.

If your issue is with the system, how to use it, the data in it for your family, or what its doing, please email MSi. Be sure to tell us which sport. We ask your association to bounce any requests of this nature that they get back to you asking that you contact us directly. This is to get you working with the right folks. As well, the association people need to be focusing on getting the season started and such. Besides, the best they can do is forward your email to us.

The first time you contact support, we send back a link to this page. The association may do the same. We're not being rude, we're just real busy right now and are trying to save you time. If you don't find help here, please email us again and indicate that you've tried all this stuff and still require assistance. Same if you came here first. We will eventually get back to your first email but only after we get through the backlog.

We know that not everyone uses computers that often or maybe that well. Our systems may be unfamiliar. From our own experience, we suggest that a good first step is to ask your kids for help. They tend to be familiar with user interfaces and may provide answers or at least confirm that you have a problem.

If you are emailing support, please don't tell us that 'nothing happens' or 'it doesn't work', etc. To provide help, we need to know some details...how did you get to the spot that failed and what happens when you try...does it time out, are there messages, what steps did you take to get to the problem, and such. And please be sure to include your name and the player's name(s).


See also The Registration Support Post


I Can't Complete Payment

In all these cases, it is important to consider yourself registered. Getting the payment is just a technical issue that we will work out prior to the season starting. No one will be left behind because the system had issues completing their payment.

For a variety of reasons, sometimes the payment process fails. One popular reason is that the payment process uses the Address Verification System (AVS). This means that the address you send in the transaction has to be the same as the address on the credit card bill. You can correct the address on during the payment process or go into the system and correct it then start over.


How Do I Get a Receipt

Click Registration and log in.
Click Print Tax Receipt
Select the correct year (more than one may be available).
Print the page.


Can't Login - Don't Know User Id or Password

You may not recall or know your user id and or password. On the login page, there is a “I Forgot My User Id/Password” link. Click this. You will be asked for you email address. If it is the same as the one in the database, the system will email you a user id and password within 15 minutes. Once logged in, you can change this by clicking the [Edit] links beside what/who you want to change.

If your email address is not the same, the system will tell you that. If this happens, please email support. We will update your email address so that this feature will work for you.


One [or more] of My Children is Not in the System

Sometimes, each child has been entered into the system as their own family rather than added to the original family record. It was easy to do this in the previous system. It also tends to surface when we import data for the association.

When this happens, please email support with the particulars such as who you are and what children are on and which are off. We will consolidate the records.


I Login But Don't See The Kids or The Receipt Is Empty

Adding players will do nothing to fix this. This has to be fixed by us. Please email support@msinteractive.ca with the details.


About User Ids and Passwords

You can make the user id anything you want as long as someone else isn't already using it.
Passwords can be made pretty much whatever you want as well. Both can be changed by clicking the [Edit] link beside your name once you have logged in. Over the coming months, new features will be added that you will need to log in to access. The "I Forgot" email feature (see above) can always be used to reset the password or give you the user id but we encourage you to set up user ids and passwords that you can remember.


History
Mar 15 - Added I Can't Complete Payment.
Mar 13 - Added I Login But Don't See The Kids or The Receipt Is Empty
Mar 12 - Updated with user id and password change notes; rationale for emailing MSi and not the association.
Mar 11 - Posted

Registration and Tax Receipt Support

It has come to our attention that some of our email replies are not getting back to their senders. MSi Support has received emails indicating that we have not responded, when we have. We are looking into this.

MSi Support should get back to you with in 24 hours. We should also address your issues in that time. Typically, we will get back you in less time; however the support for the implementation of the online Fitness Tax Receipts has slowed the response time down. Compounding the amount of support is that registration data imported for both Whitby Hockey and Whitby Baseball has created situations where some players from a family are missing once you login. What has most often happened in these cases is that there is a family for each player. We need to consolidate these into one family.

We’re happy to work through these issues and we ask for your patience as we do. If haven’t received a reply from MSi within 24 hours, please send another email letting us know. We will work through the associations to get in touch with you in these cases. There is a possibility that our replies are getting file in your bulk mail folders by spam filters. Thanks

Comments

We want to hear from you. Comments can be added to the posts on this blog. We look forward to hearing what you like and what you think sucks. We'll be trying to eliminate the later.

You may know, we're providing services for the WMHA and the WMBA. We have built out a new web site for the WMBA that offers the association a means to post content regularly. Please check it out at www.whitbyminorbaseball.ca.

Updates for both associations are coming up over the next few months. Information on these will be posted here.

Integration WIth Whitby Minor Baseball

We have loaded the 2007 data for Whitby Baseball into the system. There will be some hiccups but most if it is good. If you have problems, email support@msinteractive.ca

The purpose of that is to provide the 2007 Fitness Tax Receipts. These are available for Whitby Hockey on their site. Again, login to the Registration system. It's the same for both associations.

There are instructions on the WMBA web site. Please read them carefully.

Registration for baseball is open at www.whitbyminorbaseball.ca

Tax Credit Receipts Available

A new feature has been added to the web site registration system to provide you with a receipt for the tax credit available on your registration fees.

To get to this function:

1. Log on to the Registration link.
2. Once logged on, you will see a new button on the Registration Summary labeled “Print Tax Credit Receipt”.
3. When you click this button, the system creates the receipt.
4. There is a Print link at the top right of this page.If you have any problems with the state of this receipt, please email support@msinteractive.ca.
   

If you don’t remember your user id or password, or you registered before June 15, 2007 and didn't use the new system, use the “I Forgot My User Id/Password” link on the registration login page.

The system will email you a new user id and password if the email address in the system matches what you give it. It can take up to 15 minutes for the email to get to you. If you don't get the email from the system, consider that it may have been filtered by any spam tools you may have.

You can update your user id and password once in the system. If this doesn’t work for you, please email support@msinteractive.ca.

The folks available at the WMHA and WMBA email addresses cannot help you with these requests. Please do not email or call them for these purposes.

Information on the tax credit is available at: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/whatsnew/fitness-e.html

Profile Update is Here

You can now logon and update your profile. You can change phone number, address, email address, etc.

You can update the user id and or password as well.

Payment Processing Update - New Feature

There have been several folks have some difficulty getting their credit card payments processed successfully. There have been a handful that have had a terrible time getting it to work.

We don't know who's technology is causing the problem. Of course we have good reason to not think it is not ours but we can't prove it's someone else's. We have some technical enhancements that we will be making over time that will dramatically over come most of these issues; or at least narrow down who's fault it is if it happens.

Anyway...there is a new feature that will help making completing the payment easier. At least, it puts the control in your hands rather than having to get support involved. Certainly, if this new feature doesn't get you fixed up then email support@msinteractive.ca for help.

When the payment process fails, the status under the player will read "Electronic Payment Started". This means that you clicked a control that started the payment but something happened before it completed successfully.

If this happens now, there will be a [Reset] link beside the player. Click this to reset the account back to a status where you can start the payment process again. Ideally, this completes after one reset. It make take a few. We suggest waiting about 10-20 minutes if the second time doesn't do it. We have seen that users have big problems then there is no activity for about 20 minutes and then several go through without any grief.

The system prompts you to make sure that you have not received an email from the payment processor confirming your payment. You can confidently click yes on that if you haven't even been able to get to the page to enter your credit card detail.

We hope this helps.
Cheers

User Id/Password Reset Is Here!

If you have forgotten or misplaced (or you never knew or it's just not working) your user id and password, you can click the I Forgot My User Id/Password link under the Logon button on the logon page.

The system asks you to enter your email address. If it matches the one we have in the database, the system emails you a user id and password. If it doesn't match, then send an email to support@msinteractive.ca and we'll get you fixed up. (...careful to catch that the user id has a dot (period) between the two names)

Soon you will be able to logon to update the user id and password to any value you like. Well, user ids have to be something someone else hasn't already picked.

Mozillia/FireFox

We have determined that we have more Firefox issues than we thought. Actually, its the same issue, it just shows up in more than one place. We are working to correct these problems and will post an update to this when complete.

If you are using Firefox and you notice that the page seems to freeze or otherwise not do what you think it should, please try using Internet Explorer.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

The Early Discount End Date

The $50 discount for early registration is scheduled to end at midnight, July 31, 2007.

We know we have folks that are having difficulties logging on, can't find their Family Id passwords, or otherwise can't get the process done.

No one will miss the discount because of a system problem. If you email support@msinteractive.ca by July 31 describing your problem, you will have until August 7, 2007 to complete the transaction to get the discount. You do not need to email the association email addresses as well. Just make sure you keep the copy of the original from your Sent Items in your mail, in case we don't get the email (HP published a study that concluded that 1 on 140 emails do not get delivered). You could also cc yourself.

Incomplete Accounts - Players Not There

Some are noticing that they only have one player listed after they log on. This happens for several reasons. I explain them below.

If you send an email to support@msinteractive.ca, we will use the old system's data to add the players to your account. This is usually done the same day.


The data from the previous system is not the same format as the new. Bringing the data over was sometimes difficult. To date, we have noted these situations developing for the following reasons:

1) One player registered early.
If one player was registered this year before the new system went in, such as in the case of registering to go through rep tryouts, only the registered player is in the account. If registration occurred this year, we grabbed what was there and didn't go into the previous year's data to see if there where any other players to being over.

2) Players registered as two families.
Some times, folks would register one player. When the sibling was old enough to play, they registered that player. The old system did not have an account, per se, so we have a mix of new players added to an existing family or as a new family. Rather than add the new player to the existing family, the new player is added with the new family process of adding guardians and players. The new system attempts to call out that the account is for all the siblings.

3) Player didn't play last year.
We only brought over data from the last season. If a player wasn't i the data last year, the player isn't in the new system. We can look through previous year's data to find the details and add the players.

Profile Maintenance Update

End of July is the new target for implementing the function to maintain your profile as well as self serve user id/password inquiries.

This will give you control of updating attributes such as your name and address, phone numbers, email address, etc.

This feature will also provide you with the ability to make your user id anything you want, as long as it hasn't already been taken, and change your password.

There will also be a feature added to reset your user id and password, in case you forgot it or didn't know what it was. This will work if your email address is the same as the one we have in the association's database. If your email address does not match what's in the database, you'll be back to emailing MSi Support to get that fixed up.

So, if you can wait for it, enjoy your summer for a few weeks. If you haven't already registered and you just can't wait, email support@msinteractive.ca and we'll get you fixed up with your account.

Registration Event Fiasco

Tuesday evening, the WMHA tried registering new players. At the scheduled start time, they lost their Internet connection. No word, yet on why. It was bad. Thanks to all those that hung around. It should have been a much better experience. Online registration at home was continuing. The system is okay...it was the connection in the lobby that had the problems.

More as it develops.

User Ids and Passwords

Some are getting in okay but others are stuggling.
The user ids created for WMHA users are firstname.lastname, like john.smith
The password is the numeric Confidential User Id Number. You may have received it in the mail recently. If you don't have it, we are planning to make this self serve by mid July. Until then, email support@msinteractive.ca and we'll get it to you.

For new players and or new families, you must attend a registration event.

Registration Launches

It's off to what seems a good start. There is some general mass confusion about the user ids and passwords but we'll get through it. The system itself has been well received, so far.

If you have comments, we'd like to hear from you!

Cheers

Intro

allRight! Let the journey begin.

I'll be posting news, help, feature descriptions, and such. The primary Help System will continue, for now, to be the wiki at http://msiworks.pbwiki.com/

More as it developes.