Problems with Coles Financial Services new online site

I’m so cheesed off by CFS’s attitude and all the various excuses they’ve made that I don’t want to install another browser: Safari on iPad is common enough so they can jolly well fix it and refund me the cost of the paper statements until it’s done!

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My partner has an iPad and routinely gets frustrated with Safari vs some web sites. I installed Firefox that often has a superior presentation and is usually more reliable on a site, but sometimes the reverse is also true.

Regardless, it reads like CFS has a debacle on their hands and should be but apparently is not happy to routinely/automatically email or post rmail statements as their obligation until they get it right.

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As the number of Browser options increases it becomes more difficult to code a site or page to render or render properly in all the various browsers. Yes Safari is reasonably popular but depending on who collates stats it appears Safari is about on par with Edge/IE and about 4th popular. Biggest market share is Chrome (GC) with currently about 70% of the market and next is Firefox (FF) with about 11%.

So I would guess most coders would spring for GC, FF and then perhaps either Edge/IE or Safari but it does increase workload substantially to code each page for each rendering.

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I understand this in the context of PC users, and indeed I have a couple of browsers installed on my PC. However I (and I know I’m not alone!) find a tablet or even phone more convenient for both quick tasks and casual browsing, and asking around my younger colleagues this trend is strong and growing. I guess CFS and their products are not aimed at younger generations, but rather at people like me who are old and dull enough to select a product which can be exploited opportunistically (fee-free credit card, used for everyday purchases including food, bills and petrol thus lots of flybuys which translate into new iPads, free hotel accommodation, and replacement appliances etc).
I don’t know what the breakdown of tablet brand ownership is, but I’d lay odds that iPad would be the most common, and that many if not most iPad owners will run the default Safari. So whilst coding may be prioritised according to browser popularity, if website owners want to capture a broad range of the market then they need to put in the effort (and money - let’s not forget we’re talking about a credit card and insurance company who is likely doing nicely out of its customers). Otherwise grumpy old women like me will make a fuss!

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There is a long tradition of ‘we worked hard to create this, so you can work a bit to use it’. There are still websites that state up front which browsers they have been tested with, eg ‘for a best experience use…or…’ This is most common with ‘important’ sites rather than entertainment sites.

The associated culture is ‘if you want to use our site you will use the tools we have tested and support, and we do that on browser market share.’

FWIW over time Apple’s iPad has about 25-30% market share. The rest are Android. Any wonder Google Chrome is #1 for support?

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I think Chrome is the standout “winner” (I use it only as needed so my appreciation of it is more disdain than favour) as Android Phones and Tablets also consume a large part of the market so Chrome becomes almost a standard, and like Safari it’s cross platform sharing is what people gravitate to. I’m not saying you shouldn’t complain about Safari support, indeed do but be prepared for a wait while they decide to properly code for it for the mobile/tablet Safari market which is also distinct from the Apple PC market Safari. In the meantime try Chrome you may have better success with the site.

IE is not likely to be much coded for these days as it is full of holes that are not being patched. Your attempt with it probably failed due to it’s quirks nor is it’s replacement Edge so popular and if this is what you used I could understand why it failed as well. Edge has some benefits over IE in that MS actively support and tinker with it. Many people still confuse Edge with IE as they both come from MS and the symbols look similar.

As I and probably many others do, we use a variety of browsers to suit sites, my first preference is Firefox but I also use Chrome, Chromium in the form of Opera, Tor Browser Bundle (based on Firefox), Cliqz (based on Firefox), and when really necessary Edge. Some sites will refuse to alter what they use, perhaps as they only know how to code for one or perhaps two browsers, or perhaps because they don’t really understand their users or perhaps they just don’t want to for a number of reasons including perceptions of security of differing browsers and we as users need to have some browser change mobility or our experience can suffer. Sorry @PhilT for recovering some of your points as you posted while I was still writing :slight_smile:

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My understanding was that the WWW uses a common language - HTML (whichever version we are up to by now). Unless you are doing something tricksy with your website, it should work cross-platform - as long as mobile users are prepared for a sub-optimal experience. There are also platforms that will optimise a website for all the different browsers.

I realise that the idea of ‘total cross-browser compatibility’ is more principle than practice, but surely any professional website designer will do compatibility testing and fine-tuning? As opposed to what’s happened at CFS, obviously.

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There are different versions of html as well as different interpretations of what items mean or do not mean and how those are dealt with.

Even multiple browsers that all work fine with a page will sometimes display it quite differently and try to process forms in different ways.

They do, for selected browsers, typically Chrome, Firefox, … , … , … , … in order of the browser market share. Because the developers do not have infinite resources they stop somewhere and the rest might or might not work perfectly or at all.

Sometimes there is a debacle from management pressure resulting in premature releases, or just being sloppy w/testing.

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