Post
by wunder » Thu Dec 31, 2009 9:46 pm
1. Try to register again for login/password - make sure to check your spam/junk mail folder (my letter with login details was filtered to spam by GMail). If it does not work, try another e-mail address. Also remember that they don't send registration details immediately - I got mine the next day.
2. After getting login, don't forget that despite confusing name (transaction ID) you can use it multiple times to check for available appointments, no need to re-register.
3. Despite what most people think calling around 9am is pointless as the system gets new appointments during the day at random times.
4. From my experience best times to check for appointments are: between 2PM and 4PM, and around 7PM. Also I've seen appointments still untaken on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings.
5. Don't assume that weeks that available in the week selector are the weeks they have any appointments for - in my experience the last two weeks (the furthest in time) are not really there, it is just a automatic placeholder for the future. There won't be any appointments there until those weeks will get closer in time (and there will be more placeholders after them). For example they added first week in February in beginning of December, but first appointments appeared only last week.
6. The search form defaults to AM (morning search). Don't forget to switch it to both so you will get twice as more possible times.
7. Another way to check available dates is to search for specific day of the week - it automatically selects the latest available week with that day of the week. Try searching from Mondays to Fridays and notice that you are getting dates which are in a row (15, 16, 17, etc) - up until the latest one available.
8. If you can't find anything - try again later. I tried 3-5 times a day until I found good time and date.
Don't bother with phones (save your money), as people who work there use the same system and don't have any 'magical powers'.
9. And finally, if you cannot find anything suitable - don't give up. I've seen a lot of last minute appointments which appears out of nowhere 1-to-3 days before the actual date!
