I work at a university (Australia) and the onus is entirely on students to handle their registration. This is the policy for security and confidentiality reasons. If there is a glitch, then they do have to come in and do it in person. These things happen sometimes; it's just like a self-service checkout breaking down. It isn't a huge failure on the university's part; in fact, it is most frequent when large numbers of students leave this to the last minute and the system gets overloaded. Occasionally I have had students complain to me about online issues with access, registration etc. While it actually isn't my job (I'm an academic, not IT or admin) I usually look at the problem - and would you believe that not once has it been a system problem? I'm stealing PICNIC for myself, too!
Naturally, my job means I'm not unbiased, but the whole 'I'm-paying-your-salary-so-you-better-jump' attitude towards university staff (or anyone, really) grinds my gears. I've only experienced it occasionally myself, but I have had students who are sugary sweet to me but snotty and dismissive to our admin and tech staff. Beyond the rudeness, it gets back to the academics, and it doesn't bode well for you if you are looking for a recommendation. If you have straight A's but you treat those you deem your 'employees' like garbage, how are you going to manage in the professional world?