USPSA Online Self Squading Automated E-Mail issues

[CHA-LEE]

For the third year I am using the USPSA Online Self Squading system for the Mile High Showdown. This year seems to be the worse yet when it comes to the USPSA Online Self Squading system in emailing the Squading PIN numbers to the shooters. Out of the 150 competitors in the match I have had to manually provide PIN numbers for about 100 of them. Yes, I validated every single shooters e-mail address was valid before saving it in EzWinScore. Yes, I reminded them to double check their Spam/Junk e-mail folders for the automated Squading PIN number e-mail. Some of them did have the e-mail in their spam/junk folder, but the majority of them never got an e-mail at all from USPSA.

Needless to say getting called, texted, and e-mailed from 100+ shooters to manually look up and give them their self squading PIN numbers is a huge pain in the ass. If I knew it was going to be such a failure I would have simply squaded the shooters manually and then dealt with the whining after the fact and manually shuffled people around as I am sure it would have been less work to deal with.

I escalated the issue to the USPSA IT people, but they couldn't find any "Issues" with the automated e-mails not being sent out. They also claim that this isn't an issue that has been raised to them before. Personally, I am calling bullshit on that as I find it hard to believe that two thirds of the shooters e-mails magically vanished into some internet black hole. Secondly this has been an issue in the past and I was on the receiving end of this failure for a couple of matches I have registered for myself this year.

I know that the helpful members of the Brian Enos forum can't "Fix" this issue. But it would like to know if there are other match directors that have experienced the same failure can speak up to confirm that there is in fact an e-mail issue at USPSA HQ. Hopefully we can at least produce a unified front to the USPSA IT guys to prove that there is in fact an automated e-mailing problem and it needs to be fixed. The USPSA Online Self Squading system should reduce the workload of the match staff, not increase it.

[ChuckS]

Why did they have to contact you? This is from the squadding page:

Pin Numbers/Squadding Code - You may use either a match-specific squadding code provided by the match registration staff, your PIN (from your Front Sight label), or personal password set in your profile to select your squad.

I am not saying that your observations are incorrect but all the shooters are given 3 choices to get in (unless they are not USPSA members). I have to admit I don't remember any issue with self-squadding (other than rejection of "squadding" by the spell checker) that last few times that I used it but I may have used one of the alternate methods.

[BritinUSA]

Looks like Area3 has had similar issues with the PIN numbers. https://www.facebook.com/USPSAAREA3

[ChuckS]

I just dug through my archives for the last Area 2 (2015). Cheryl sent out an email with a match password. I don't see any evidence of a robo-email. It seems that they (Rio) did the same for the 2014 A2.

Edited May 2, 2015 by ChuckS

[CHA-LEE]

Why did they have to contact you? This is from the squadding page:

Pin Numbers/Squadding Code - You may use either a match-specific squadding code provided by the match registration staff, your PIN (from your Front Sight label), or personal password set in your profile to select your squad.

I am not saying that your observations are incorrect but all the shooters are given 3 choices to get in (unless they are not USPSA members). I have to admit I don't remember any issue with self-squadding (other than rejection of "squadding" by the spell checker) that last few times that I used it but I may have used one of the alternate methods.

Match Specific PIN works, but most shooters didn't get the auto email from USPSA.

Front Sight PIN works, but shooters are lazy and instead of reading that option they would rather call, text, or email me asking for their PIN number.

Personal Profile password does NOT work. I have tried this myself and proven it does not work for my match and others.

[MarkCO]

We bagged it for Noveske after i saw all the issues and we are just going with Practiscore. So much easier.

[brisix]

As a competitor I had the same problem. My email is correct and nothing was in my junk folder. Below is the email chain from USPSA saying the problem is with Match directors

Dear Brian:
Thank you for your inquiry. We have had some issues with the system, which we are working on; however, self-squadding for major matches is something that is set up by the match officials, not USPSA. You will need to contact them to find out what you need to do regarding problems with the squadding issue.

I hope this information helps. Please let us know if you have any other questions, or if there’s anything else we can do.

Sincerely,

Val

Sent: Monday, February 02, 2015 7:28 PM
To: office@uspsa.org
Subject: Self Squading Issues

I have had two matches in a week, Area 4 and Indiana 400 where I do not get an email with my pin for self squading. I did check my junk folder. I also tried my USPSA website password and that does not work either. Both matches have my correct USPSA number. Why is my website password not working for self squading if my USPSA number is the correct one listed for the match. Any help/insight would be appreciated. Thank you

[CHA-LEE]

Awesome response from USPSA.......

[furyalecto]

I informed them last year that it was getting bad. I got a more knowledgeable response. I probably used a different email address.

I don't think there is much they can do. They aren't blacklisted, they just aren't white listed. Too much spam has everyone cranking down on the filters.

It's almost pointless to use the system. It was nice while it worked.