Glass houses

I just went through the experience of renewing my IEEE (and IEEE Computer Society) membership with the IEEE web pages. The transaction was, in a word, embarrassing.

Here is my experience:

- After I logged in, the web site complained that I was attempting to start a second session and left me with an empty window. I had to re-load the renewal page to continue. (Not simple press the "reload" button, but re-select the IEEE URL again.)

- The few pages to process the renewal were straightforward, until I reached the "checkout" page. This page had a collection of errors.

- After entering my credit card number, the site informed me that I had too many characters in the number. I had entered the number with spaces, just as it appears on my credit card and my statements. The site also erased my entry, forcing me to re-enter the entire number.

- I used the "auto-fill" button to retrieve the stored address. The auto-fill did not enter a value for the country, however, and nor could I, as the field was disabled. Only after adjusting the street address could I select a country.

- After clicking the "process" button, the web site informed me that I had an invalid value in the "state/province" field. I dutifully reviewed the value supplied by the auto-fill routine, changed it from "MD" to "MD".

- That action fixed the problem with the state/province field, but the web site then erased my credit card number. After entering the credit card number again (the third time), I was able to renew my membership.

If the IEEE (and by association the IEEE Computer Society) cannot create and maintain a check-out web site, a function that has been with us for the past ten years and is considered elementary, then they have little credibility for advice on software design and construction. More than that, if the IEEE cannot get "the basics" right, how can anyone trust them for the advanced concepts?