Booking with no signal

A booking is the one thing the app will not take while the phone is out of signal — and that is deliberate.

Before a slot can be promised to a customer it has to be checked against the diary for clashes, against the customer’s plan or package, and against what the rest of the team have already taken. None of that can happen on the phone alone. Saving one blind would mean giving away a slot that may already be gone — worse for the customer than being asked to wait a minute.

What you see

A popup headed No signal, which stays on screen until you deal with it. It has two buttons:

• Try again — sends the same booking again. Use it once you have a bar or two.
• OK — closes the popup and leaves the booking on screen to send later.

Nothing you have typed is lost either way. The wizard stays open behind the popup with every step as you left it — pet, service, team member, time — so you can walk to the end of the drive and send it then.

If the signal drops halfway

You get the same popup. A check before sending cannot help if the connection goes while the booking is on its way, so the app looks again at that moment rather than guessing.

What does still work with no signal

The day’s schedule, walks (route, wees and poos, photos), notes and checklists are all kept on the phone and upload when you are back in range. Bookings are the exception, because they are the only thing that has to agree with everybody else’s diary.

Example

A walker in a park with one bar tries to book next week’s visit, gets the No signal popup, taps OK, finishes the round, and sends the booking from the van with every field still filled in.

FAQ

Why can’t it just save the booking and send it later?
Because it would be promising a slot it has not been able to check. A queued booking looks confirmed to whoever made it, and to the customer standing there — and it might land on a slot a colleague filled an hour ago, or one the customer’s package does not cover. Everything that is safe to do offline the app already does offline; a booking is not one of those things.

Have I lost what I typed?
No. The popup sits on top of the booking; behind it every step is exactly as you left it. Tap Try again, or tap OK and send it when you have signal — either way you are not typing it in twice.

I tapped Try again and got the same popup.
The phone still has no usable connection. One bar showing is not always a working connection — move, or wait until you are back on Wi-Fi, and tap it again. The booking stays on screen in the meantime.

It said “change a booking”, not “make” one.
You were editing a booking that already exists rather than creating one. The rule is the same: a change has to be checked against the diary before it can be promised, so it needs signal too.

It said walk, or class, instead of booking.
The wording follows the service you are in — a walk for walkers, a class for trainers, a booking for grooming and sitting. It is the same popup.