We’ve been hitting up against this issue for about six months now, but like so many other Booker bugs it takes a while for a pattern to emerge. We have learned that with a pattern, and screenshots, and multiple examples, it’s far too common for Booker customer service staff to tell us it’s an “internal problem.” This is the language they use to tell us we are doing something wrong. When I pressed this issue and asked what we were doing wrong to cause this glitch, they answered, “You might have too many Booker browser windows open, other than that we don’t know.”
Here is the scenario that has played out about 30 different times in the past 6 months.
A staff member who is only able to see their own schedule and has been locked to a room in Booker’s settings, will put a customer on their own schedule. This is different from a customer making an appointment themselves. Booker calls this an internal appointment.
After a staff member adds the appointment to their schedule, everything seems fine at first. But, sometimes within a few hours and sometimes within a few days, another staff member will say that there is a customer who is NOT theirs on their schedule and blocking their actual customers from scheduling.
It is then that we realize this Booker bug has somehow allowed staff member #1 to add an appointment to the schedule (room or office) of staff member #2 when they can’t even see staff member #2’s schedule. This has caused us a domino effect of chaos.
I have provided Booker with several particular examples of this on our schedule for them to research. They always ask me for more info, screenshots, other documentation, etc., that never seems to do more than waste my time. That’s why this info is here! This is my additional documentation!
The latest word from Booker management on this issue was that they will need to do some research to see if this bug is affecting 5% or more of their customers. If so, they might decide to fix it. WHAT?!
This was reported to Booker on 2-8-19, Question Reference # 190208-000571
UPDATE 2-19-19
I spent several hours over the weekend looking at our staff schedules and correcting this issue of customers being placed in the wrong rooms. I found that every time this has occurred, and it has occurred approximately 45 times over the past 5 months, it was a staff member who added the appointment to the schedule. The bizarre part is that these staff members are “locked” to their rooms in Booker and do not even have access to view any other schedule besides their own.
I left a message for my contact at Booker and updated her with this new information. Again, I am trying to help all I can to find the cause—and a fix!
It’s been a week since I contacted Booker about this. This is still an ongoing problem for us and Booker has not committed to any resolution yet.
UPDATE 2-20-19.
I received a call back from my management contact at Booker yesterday. I appreciate this call because I need to keep the ball rolling on this one. This issue is costing us in terms of time every single week.
My contact told me that Booker programmers identified this bug coming from the Booker iOS app. You would think I’d be happy about this, but I’m not. You see, the last time this bug reared its ugly little head, I was on a desktop Mac using Google Chrome—a far cry from iOS. I could make all kinds of assumptions about the people at Booker and what they are telling me, but I won’t. Let’s let the fact speak for themselves.
Last night I repeated what I did the last time and the bug showed up again. This is the Holy Grail for fixing bugs because once a bug is predictable and repeatable, you know where to look for the problem. So, I once again opened up one of our staff members weekly schedules in a web browser. I added an appointment to her weekly schedule on a day she doesn’t normally work, Thursday, 2-28-19.
Look at what I noticed! Even though this staff member is locked to the same room (office) forever in Booker (shown in the next screenshot), the lock does NOT show outside of her scheduled DAYS.
Booker will likely give me some line about, “This is not a bug, but a feature because this is the way they programmed it.” I’ve heard this too many times before. My response to that would be that if Booker allows me to lock someone to a room because that is this person’s office, then this behavior needs to be what the user (me, in this case) expects from that action (that I do not have to add someone to the schedule on a day they don’t normally work just to use their own office). Having to do this EVERY TIME we allow someone to work outside of their normal schedule would create 10 times the work whenever we need to make that happen.
Come on Booker, we are still waiting.
UPDATE 2-27-19
Since we are still wrestling with this bug most days, I am trying to stay on top of this one. I sent my Booker management contact 2 update emails last week on 2-20-19. Both have gone unanswered. I also followed up with a voice message on 2-25-19 that is still unanswered.
This kind of service, or lack thereof, has been consistent with my 5+ years as a Booker customer.
UPDATE 3-1-19
It has now been three weeks since I reported this bug to Booker and started gathering data, screenshots, etc. as to why this might be happening. I have not heard from Booker or my management contact in over a week despite the fact that I reached out and requested an update. I would love to say this lack of follow-through seems unusual and out of character for Booker, but I cannot.
Lastly, there was an appointment I put on the schedule back on 2-19-19 (see 2-20-19 update) as an example of this bug. I asked that they look at it, gather whatever data they might need to, then let me know when I can remove it since it will mess up our payroll schedule. Again, I have not heard a word back, so I am removing this appointment from our calendar today.
UPDATE: 3-6-19
It’s been four weeks since I reported this bug to Booker—FOUR WEEKS! The only contact has been when I’ve initiated it and there is still no resolution, no acknowledgment that a fix is in the works, nothing! If this doesn’t give you pause about working with Booker, I don’t know what will.
On my own today, I spend some more time digging through Booker’s myriad settings and found this:
Unfortunately, turning this on or off did not change the problem we are having with Booker. In fact, I have no idea what this setting does.
UPDATE 3-11-19
Booker’s lack of follow-through about issues like this completely baffles me.
I left another voice message today for my management contact, Katie. Over a week ago she left me a voice message saying she wanted to update me. Since I had a very full schedule at work that week, I asked her to email me any updates. It has been over a week and I have not heard a word from her. Not a single word.
I called Booker customer service for any updates and nobody knows anything. I am not surprised. I keep giving Booker opportunities to show me they are capable of doing better, but they haven’t figured out how yet.
Every day that goes by with no answer, this feels more and more like I have bruised someone’s inflated ego who does not want others to tell them what to do. Yes, I need to make time to find a better software solution for us. A software solution from a company that wants to make great scheduling software.
UPDATE 4-10-19
It has now been two months since this bug was to Booker. There has been no communication or follow up for over a month now.
UPDATE 7-18-19
We had some crazy scheduling conflicts on our schedules today. As I started to remove the layers of problems and research how each appointment was made, I realized this is the same crazy bug in Booker.
By the way, I contacted Booker support again today regarding this bug. I talked to someone named Josh who was very polite and filled with ambiguous responses to my questions about a six-month-old bug like this. I also sent an email to my management contact, Katie. Let’s see if I hear back from anyone this time around. Fingers sincerely crossed!
It’s been two weeks since this was reported again to Booker and I have not received one word back from them – NOTHING!
UPDATE 3-5-20
For anyone following along with this Booker bug, this issue has dragged on for over a year now with no follow up, or apparent concern, on Booker’s part. So, the only way I can find to fix this annoying chaotic issue in Booker is NOT to use Booker! That’s so sad.
Booker Scheduling Problems 