Incompetent browser detection woes
Norman Richards wrote
I have to agree with Norman on this one. I too stumbled upon MBNA's recent upgrade while attempting to pay my bill online. The first thought that came to my mind, was how dare they alienate non IE/Netscape browsers. Paying a bill shouldn't require specialized functionality that only IE/Netscape can provide. For crying out loud, its an https connection where a few parameters of data go back and forth. Anyway, my next thought was, I wonder if they even attempted to test their site with Safari. I, like Norman, have the Safari debug menu enabled and once I told Safari to masquerade itself as Netscape all was well.
The real question is why in the world would they restrict certain browsers from rendering the site. Id be okay if they had disclaimers saying, "best viewed using internet exploder version X". At least then they are not writing code to alienate me. They are merely stating that it may not function properly using another browser. The key word being may. If they aren't sure that it won't work, don't tell me it won't. I did send in a nastygram stating my position. Of course, I have not heard back.