Had an MOT on Thursday at my local test station who are still on trial but supposed to go live Monday
The problems they are encountering are:
1) Will not recognise one of the testers smart card 2) Helpline has taken up to a couple of hours to answer 3) Entering the VIN number gave them 15 options (on the vehicle i took in) which took 10 minutes to get the right vehicle 4) Entering failure details is long winded, flicking back and forth from screens. If a vehicle fails on loads of items, you could be tied up for ages, pushing back other tests 5) They tried printing details on the dot matrix printer which has a single sheet feed, and the paper kept jamming up, they gave up in the end, just laughing at the prospect of working with such equipment 6) They have now had a letter saying they are being taken off line for at least 2 weeks and must wait for a phone call and a visit to get them up and running
From an observational point of view, i would say the whole package looks very dated, old 14" monitors, dot matrix printers, external modems and card readers, wheel mouse that will pick up loads of crap. I can see the dot matrix printers being a big problem, they need to be changed for laser printers asap. With the problems you lads seem to be having, its clear the help desk is vastly undermanned.