[Seoul, Now] Unfriendly Website Administration in a City of 9.4 Million

Login and Authentication Errors on the Seoul City Website
Not an Issue with the Website Itself, They Say
Private Companies Resolve Similar Problems with Simple Notification Messages

To post or report on the Seoul city website bulletin board, you must log in. The same applies when trying to apply for education programs conducted by the city.

When you click the login button on the Seoul city website, a 'Seoul City Integrated Member Login' window appears. You enter your ID and password and then click the login button. It would be great if it ended there, but the login does not work. The reason is unknown. Repeated attempts yield the same result. No error message or notification window appears. You check the settings to see if pop-ups are blocked. There is no problem.

At times like this, it is easy to think you entered the ID or password incorrectly. You try again. Even after changing the password and entering it, the login does not work, so this time you try to find the ID and password. There are three methods for verification: mobile phone identity verification service, i-PIN, and joint certificate verification.

You smoothly complete the mobile phone identity verification procedure as instructed. Since you are using your own phone, you think there is no reason for it to be wrong. Contrary to expectations, at the very last step, you encounter an error message saying 'Real-name verification failed.' You decide to try another method. You try the joint certificate verification method. You enter the certificate password, but again, a message appears saying 'An error occurred during joint certificate authentication.' That can't be... it doesn't work. The i-PIN verification method is the same.

You repeat this process two or three times. Meanwhile, 10 minutes have passed. You start to get annoyed. You consider calling the 120 Dasan Call Center but quickly give up. To talk to an operator, you have to go through several steps. Moreover, you don't know how long you have to wait to speak to someone. With ARS guidance and chatbots, it's hard to hear a human voice these days. You call the contact number posted in the login authentication confirmation section. Although it is a weekday morning, all lines are busy. After several minutes of patience, the call connects. It is the welcome voice of a 'real person.'

At this point, mind control is necessary. The other party probably has no idea what is going on. The connected place was an outsourced company managing the identity verification module. They say there is no problem with the authentication. You go on a long search for the website management department. Your original purpose was to apply for education, but while struggling to log in to the website, the application period for this session has passed.

You decide to make some effort to find the cause. As inquiries continue, the other party says, "Did you use Google Chrome as your web browser? Have you tried other browsers?" You realize your oversight.

With the help of the outsourced company, the additional information gathered is as follows. In some cases, login or authentication fails due to conflicts with other programs or reasons difficult to explain clearly on certain web browsers. In such cases, resetting Chrome settings or switching browsers allows normal operation. If you don't know this method, using another web browser may work normally.

This is a compatibility issue between Chrome and the website, but it is not easy to identify and solve the fundamental cause, according to related workers. I encountered the same situation when accessing Woori Bank's internet banking website. The bank solved this problem by simply displaying a small window to customers. A single message saying, "If the same issue repeats, please use another web browser (Chrome, Whale, etc.)" would have sufficed.

At a certain commercial bank, even if the login procedure is completed correctly but login fails, user convenience is assisted through a simple message guide.