'So frustrating': Technical problem pushes back London swimming registration

Some London parents were perplexed after they were unable to register their children in the city's aquatics program on Thursday morning. The city said the problem lies with its third-party registration system.

Registration for the city's summer swim programs was set to open at 8:30 a.m. Many parents adjust their schedules to get the best chance and register their child before the classes fill up.

Kim Lankosz was at her computer and began the registration process right at 8:30 a.m. However, she got an error message at the payment stage and wasn't able to sign her six-year-old daughter up for swim lessons.

"It's so frustrating, especially when you set calendars and alarms and you go through all the planning," she told CBC News. "I entered all my details, it took me to the payment page, I clicked 'submit' and it came up with a card error message."

Repeated attempts to complete the registration process ended the same way. Then she began to receive messages from colleagues and other parents running into the same issue.

"There were about a dozen of us who were like 'What's going on,'" she said.

Seeking an explanation, Lankosz called the city and spent two hours on hold before being told that registration was pushed back to next week. The city posted about the problem on their Facebook page just before 9:30 a.m.

In a statement sent to CBC News, a city staffer apologized for the delays, which he said were caused by its third-party registration system "which is impacting customers' ability to register for our high-demand aquatic programing."

The city said they've pushed the registration back to next week, with no specific time yet set, while the technical issues are sorted out.

"Due to the frustration this is causing customers, and the impact it is having on other resources across the corporation, we have decided to pause aquatic registration today and reset the registration date for another day next week, or once the technical issues have been resolved," said the statement by Jon-Paul McGonigle, the city's director of recreation and sport.

Lankosz said she'll be back online whenever registration reopens, saying the swim lessons are important to making her daughter water safe for summer.

"I'm going to try again, and I hope that I can get into the programs that I want," she said.