As many of you know I’ve been taking courses in the University of Toronto’s Continuing Ed program. I’ve found a lot of the courses have helped a lot with my day job. This fall I’d like to take a Marketing course on Competitive Intelligence. Unfortunately the University of Toronto has “improved” its e-commerce process. Basically they’ve added the following:

1/ Additional 3 Digit Code

To ‘improve security’ the university has added a requirement to provide an additional 3 digit code found on the back of your credit card. This is called the CVV code and absolute genius. If someone stole my credit card, I’m absolutely certain they would never learn to look on the back too.

In any case on my CIBC Visa Aerogold the CVV code has been completely scratched away. So I’m unable to complete the e-commerce transaction.

2/ E-commerce failure

Once the e-commerce process fails, there is no phone number to call or other resolution path to solve the problem. As far as the University of Toronto is concerned I should close my browser and head on over to York University. Not a good customer experience…

3/ Inability to Try Again

So I went and got another credit card but instead of letting me try again the site has sent me a cookie and won’t let me register for the course again. When I try I get the following error message:

“Validation error.You must correct the following error(s) before proceeding: If you have already selected this course for registration (or to be placed on the waiting list),please click the “Course Basket” tab to continue.

Otherwise, you are already registered in this course(or on the waiting list) and may not do so again. ”

This sounds pretty easy to resolve, just click on the course basket option… Unfortunately its no where on the screen. And again there is no phone number to resolve the problem.

Overall not too good an experience for an organization with goals to educate people on E-Business…