Please read below FAQs in advance of ECA booking portal opening or if you come across any technical issues. Feel free to email eca@stepasideetns.ie however it might be faster for you to resolve the issue with the information below as the PAC inbox is run by volunteers and responses might take a few hours.
Questions about the online booking process:
The ECA PayPal booking system has been designed to be intuitive and easy to use. But we have created this guide to help parents that are doing the booking for the first time and to refresh the memory of parents who have used the system in the past. We hope you will find it useful.
How do I book a place?
All Extra-Curricular Activities are booked and paid online, using a secure PayPal system: https://www.stepasideetns.ie/registration-extra-curricular-activities/
You should have received an email with the date and time when the ECA booking portal will open. Once the portal is open, please click on the link and follow the instructions.
We can only accept bookings that use our online portal for payment. We regret that cash payments will not be accepted.
How can I prepare for booking activities quickly and without any issues?
- Ideally set up a PayPal account in advance, make sure you know your login details (please test them) and that the account or card associated with it has sufficient funds.
- If possible use a laptop or desktop computer instead of a hand-held device (phone, tablet, iPod etc.)
- Be ready to book at the time when we open the booking portal. Again, we will give notice of when booking portal will open.
How does the booking site work?
We recommend that you have your PayPal login details ready to go before you start the booking.
Please click https://www.stepasideetns.ie/registration-extra-curricular-activities/ and follow the following steps:
1 - Click on the name of activity your child(ren) would like to attend
2 - Please fill in the details of the child(ren) and click the 'Send your booking' button.
3 - Click ‘Go to my cart' to review your selection. Click on 'Detail' under each activity to review all details added to this booking. You also have the option to delete any activity from your 'Cart'
(You can add multiple activities to your cart before you move on to “View my cart” & “Proceed to Check out”.)
4 - If you would like to add more activities to your booking for this child or siblings click 'Go back to school activities' and repeat the steps above.
When you are happy to move to the payment functionality please click on “Proceed to Check out”.
5 - Enter the payer name and email address and click “Paypal check out”.
6 - Pay using your PayPal account or your credit/debit card.
You'll get an email confirming your payment.
NB: Remember a place in an activity is only confirmed when payment has gone through, so you need to move on to checkout and complete payment as soon as you can please. Added activities can only be held in your 'Cart' for 30 minutes or until the class is fully booked. Please note that last september some classes were fully booked in a few minutes. Once the class is fully booked, your reservation will be removed from your Cart if payment wasn’t completed.
Is my booking confirmed once I add activities to my cart?
No. Once you have added all activities for your child(ren) to your cart, you must proceed to check out. Adding activities into your cart alone will not reserve them, they are only confirmed once you have proceeded to check out and the payment has gone through.
What is the quickest way to pay?
We recommend you use a PayPal account for a quicker and better checkout experience. PayPal is quicker than paying by debit/credit card, as you only need to add your login details and click one button to pay - booking complete. If you are using a debit/credit card you must fill in your card details and address, which takes longer. Also some users who want to use credit/debit card might find that PayPal is forcing them to use a PayPal account. See reasons why below.
Do I need a PayPal account?
No, you do NOT need to have a PayPal account, you can use the option called ‘guest checkout’ to pay by Credit or Debit card instead by following the instructions at the checkout page. However, this option may not always be available to all customers for several reasons.
Can’t pay with debit/credit card - PayPal is ‘forcing’ me to log in to a PayPal account. Why?
If you are booking on a phone or using an email address associated with a PayPal account, most likely PayPal will not allow you to use a credit/debit card and may ‘force’ you to log in to your account.
Other reasons why the option to pay by debit/credit card not always available to all customers?
Some reasons include:
- PayPal may not allow ‘guest checkout’ based on a variety of reasons e.g. issues relating to customers browser, cookies, locale, IP etc.
- Fraud prevention: PayPal has fraud prevention measures in effect so in some cases, PayPal may prevent a customer from using the ‘guest checkout’ if they think the transaction poses a risk.
- Email address: An incorrect email address or an email address that PayPal was unable to verify.
- Location is not supported: The ability to allow customers to pay via PayPal through ‘guest checkout’ is determined by your local PayPal organisation’s security and risk management policies, which may affect payments using foreign cards.
- You may have reached the maximum number of times you can check out as a guest using the same card. Usually after 10 transactions PayPal requires you to open an account.
There should be an option to check out your booking using a debit/credit card, however we cannot guarantee that this option will be displayed on all devices for the reasons above.
What if I can’t remember my PayPal login details?
Simply click the ‘forgot my password’ link and a new password will be sent to your email address. Please note this may take a few minutes. Once you have received your new login details you will need to add your booking to the cart again, which will also take a few minutes. Ideally you should check your PayPal account beforehand and make sure you have the right login details and that the card / bank account associated with this PayPal account is up to date.
Why do I have to add my children’s details for each activity?
We offer a ‘multiple booking system’, allowing parents to add activities for more than one child to their cart in one transaction. Many parents have more than one child in the school and we need to know which child will attend which course and print important details including emergency phone number, allergies etc. for each trainer.
Why was my booking cancelled?
Your booking will be cancelled if your payment is declined by your bank, which may be due to insufficient funds or because your bank detects an irregular payment.
My PayPal checkout doesn’t work, or times out, why is this?
Outdated browsers can often cause issues for people using the PayPal checkout (an issue experienced by a few parents in the past). In this situation we recommend using a different device. Please make sure that your computer software is up to date to avoid these issues. Ideally use a laptop or desktop computer instead of a phone, iPod or tablet.
