New website

[jwilson]

Membership renewal on new website. This is highly confusing. I created a new account and could log onto this forums but not the main site. I realised that my membership had expired. No warning or reminder email. Is that normal ?

Anyway on the website I purchased a years membership but all it did was take a payment form my paypal account to chessscotland. It never gave me any instruction, it never explained what the process was, it never asked me who I as or attempted to take any details so I have no idea where the payment has gone.

Did it know who I was because I was logged on ? Would of been nice of it to say if so.
So now I still cannot access membership areas of site.

I would advise against using this site as it currently is to make any payments.

Please remember that Chess in Scotland, including Chess Scotland, is mostly if not totally run by volunteers. It's real people rather than real time! I don't know the ins and outs of it all, but from my experience of joining and renewing I'd guess that when you do it online the payment gets taken by PayPal (which I know from personal experience with other organisations has good consumer protection) and an email is fired to the membership secretary who deals with it in due course, usually within a day or two. It's Easter time so it could take a little longer than that at the moment.  It seems that the membership secretary also, from time to time, goes through the list of members to see who's membership has elapsed and sends an email inviting them to renew, but people have busy lives so this can sometimes be a little while after the expiry date. It would be great if everything was automated but that takes time and money. When I registered for the website it said I wasn't a member so i pm'd Andrew who updated my account very quickly, taking me at my word that I am a member and inviting me to get back in touch if I had further problems. Great service.