PEO appointment drops/cancellation experience?

[samneal]

Hi all,

I've been through some of the recent (and not-so-recent) posts regarding PEO appointments for premium service applications. [Moderator edit]

This morning around 7:30am I logged in and was very surprised to see a bunch of slots in Sheffield open for 22 Oct 10am-2pm, and 23 Oct 10-11am. I booked one (even though Sheffield is three hours away!), then using another account at around 8am, found further appointments surface for Sheffield on 29 Oct and 30 Oct. Nothing for Croydon or Solihull, though, which are closer to me.

A lot of the advice on this board (particularly of late, after the system refresh on 1 Oct) points to the 12 midnight opening. I was wondering... have others seen "drops" of appointments coming available at other times? If so, could you share details? Is there, perhaps, a Twitter tag to share when such drops are seen?

Thanks! Sam

[pied_piper]

dude may be it is my paranoia but you are again self promoting your blog most of which is utter rubbish and does not make any sense in technical terms.

[samneal]

dude may be it is my paranoia but you are again self promoting your blog most of which is utter rubbish and does not make any sense in technical terms.

Hi pied_piper, it isn't my blog, actually. I saw it referenced in numerous posts here (and some of your comments as well ) and gave it a try last night. The process it describes (with some modifications) worked very well for securing one of the block of appointments which become available each day at midnight. UKBA's website falls over under the load, which makes things horrible for everyone trying to get a space, with errors and frustration galore. Honeycomb's blog entry, although not perfect, tells users how to navigate the site, even while the UKBA's server falls over repeatedly under load. Or at least, it worked for me.

However, all this is off-topic in any event. What I'd really like to know here is if people have experience of "drops" of appointment blocks at other times during the day, outside midnight... or even single cancellations becoming available during the day.

Anyone?

[samneal]

Hmm, the Sheffield block might have been a fluke today. An agent from Sheffield called to say they had some problems today, and offered to book me in at Croydon instead on the 22nd! Happy me.

Still, it would be interesting to hear others' experiences.