Part rant, part factual question, odds are better for an answer here I suppose.
One of my credit card companies “upgraded” their online payment system and as part of that process is requiring that anyone who is already registered for online payments re-register. Stupid. I go to register, get to the last screen to confirm my information, click the CONFIRM button and get taken back to the first enrollment screen. Call the cc company and get told, oh yeah, we know all about it, happens to Safari users, we have no idea why, you’re just SOL for making online payments until we get around to fixing it. Oh and we no longer support the latest available Mac version of IE either, so seeya sucker. Damn them and their “screw you Mac users” attitude.
This makes no sense to me. I know nothing about website coding, but is there really different coding for different browsers? If I click on a button, why should the browser I’m using have any effect on the piece of code that the button leads to? I am just completely mystified.
There is HTML code that works the same on all major browsers, code that works differently on some browsers, and code that only works on one browser. It can be very complicated. Developers that care about supporting all browsers will avoid using features that are broken or not implemented on a major browser. Unfortunately, due to cost, laziness, or ignorance, some developers adopt the policy that if their code runs on the latest version of Internet Explorer for Windows, that’s good enough. This is less common than it used to be, since Firefox has become more popular. These are also often the same people who ignore accessibility guidelines for the handicapped.
Every other button and feature on this website works for me. Including the several screens I have to click through to get to the final CONFIRM button that is taking me back in circles. Would a web designer actually on purpose make an entire website and then deliberately use different code for one button? And if not, which in my most fevered imaginings I can’t believe that they would, shouldn’t fixing the button be a pretty simple and straightforward proposition of looking at the line or section of code that defines “CONFIRM button” and changing it so that instead of leading to “first screen” a click on it leads to “last screen”?
I have minimal experience in coding web site but I know enough to know that what goes into coding a web site is immensely more than the average user is aware of or can possibly see. Caching, handling redirects, how hitting the back button affects the flow–just three things that come to mind.
Give me your credit card number and password and I’ll check into it for you.
Each button does something different, and probably has code that is unique.
It’s more complicated than that. The code for “CONFIRM button” is probably using browser features that are unique to Internet Explorer for Windows. It probably is doing much more than just taking you to another screen.
Have you tried using Firefox 1.5 for MacOS X? I found that some sites work using Firefox, but not Safari. Firefox is a free download, so it’s worth trying.
And have you tried switching to another Credit Card Company?
There are lots of them out there, and they are desperate for business right now. Many of them would jump at the chance to have a customer like you, who makes their life easy by doing online payments.
You don’t have to stay with a Credit Company that treats you this shabbily.
In my experience, most of the compatibility problems on web pages are due to Javascript. Microsoft invented their own enhancements to Javascript as part of their “embrace and extend” strategy. BFF (before FireFox), it was common for major sites to have IE-only Javascript and all other users were SOL. I know because I was an Opera user before Phoenix/Firebird/Firefox.
Your CC company probably has IE-only code behind that CONFIRM button, and they haven’t generalized it yet.
