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smile.co.uk

I found this terrific sounding online bank, smile. I was especially thrilled because they have an ethical investment policy, which means that my money will be invested in things like recycling initiatives, renewable energy, not killing bunnies and the like. I read all the details and began to apply, but then I discovered that my password would be a 4 digit pin (eek!) and 5 bits of personal information (double eek!), what happened to a 12 digit alphanumeric password?! So I went back to check some more details and discovered they only support Windows, they don’t even support Macs! Like blimey! The Internet is made up of almost 100% open and non-proprietry technologies! So I wrote to them, I wonder if they will reply. I really fancy this bank.

Hi, I’m keen to use your service, but my choice of operating system is Linux and my browser Mozilla 1.4.

The web is a bunch of open standards, all the technologies you require (bar Windows) are open and multiplatform technologies. Will you support my custom? At first I was sure you would since HTML, Java, XML and SSL are all completely supported by my platform and browser but reading all the details I realise that maybe you don’t.

I would be very dissapointed to find that you’d turn me away.

Thanks and I look forward to your response,

Max Howell

* crosses fingers *

If you think I’m just whining, here’s another perspective - how would you feel if the channel tunnel operators said they couldn’t ferry you to France because they didn’t support your car? Bloody Internet Explorer has ruined the web for people like me.

Update! They support Linux, they support everything! Great company, much impressed :-) More details in the comments..

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2003 at 20:31 and is filed under Imported. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses

  1. I got a nice response! Some of it seems a little recycled, but there’s definately some tailored customer service in there and I’m really impressed! Also the outcome looks good, so I’m also really pleased :)

    Hello Max,

    Thanks for your message and your encouraging feedback about smile.

    I’m really sorry that you’re having problems using smile on your Linux computer. We certainly don’t want to prevent you from having or using a smile account.

    Unfortunately Linux is not an operating system that we officially support at the moment, and we’re aware of problems using the banking service with some Linux web browsers.

    The problems occur because of the way some browsers interpret the JavaScript and the layers on the smile webpage. Sometimes you might not be able to click into fields to enter information and the drop down menus and buttons
    won’t operate. You can solve this problem by using the TAB key to move around the page, the cursor keys to operate drop down menus, and enter to use a button. I’m unsure if this is an issue with Mozilla 1.4 . Please feel free to give it a go and let us know how you get on.

    When the banking system was constructed the vast majority of Internet users were using the web browsers Internet Explorer ( IE 5 ) or Netscape ( 4.x ). These are the browsers the site had been designed around, and tested with
    and therefore the browsers that we officially support.

    Recently the number of people using ‘alternative’ browsers has increased considerably, Netscape have also released versions 6 and 7. These new versions don’t respond in the same way to the site as the previous versions. You’ll still be able to access and operate your account using these browsers, but you may have to resort to using the keyboard as opposed to the mouse because of the problems described above.

    We’re currently working on some fixes to the banking system that will address these problems by removing reliance of the banking system on JavaScript. Our aim is to eventually support a much larger range of web browsers on a variety of operating systems.

    From customer’s feedback though we’ve found that it’s possible to successfully apply bank on smile using a Linux PC. The best results with the smile website are using the ‘Konqueror’ web browser for the KDE environment. This can be downloaded for free at http://www.konqueror.org.

    For Macintosh users the best results are with the new Apple ‘Safari’ web browser. This works really well with the site, but you need to hold down the ‘CTRL’ key whilst clicking the mouse to use the drop down style menus.

    When you first apply for your account we’ll ask you for a 4 digit security code and 5 other pieces of memorable information. e.g. a memorable name, or the first school that you attended. We’ll always ask you for the 4 digit code and one of the other pieces before you log in. The other 5 pieces of information can be anything you like, you don’t have to use the ‘real’ answers so to speak. If you would prefer to use an alphanumeric security combination it’s perfectly OK to use them here, as long as you can remember the answers for each one! I’d strongly suggest that you don’t write them down anywhere though.

    If you need any more technical help or information, reply to this message or drop us another email at talk_to_a_techie@smile.co.uk or give us a call on 0870 600 0217. We’re here to answer your questions between 8am and 10pm, 7 days a week.

    Thanks

    Phil

    Max Howell July 15th, 2003 at 18:58

  2. Well, at least they don’t only say "should work" or "Li*what*?". And they even suggest Konqui! :-D

    Marcel July 15th, 2003 at 19:13

  3. Hey Marcel.

    Yeah it’s great they suggested Konqueror! Although in some ways I’m really not surprised. I’m not sure if it’s because of Safari, or if it’s because KDE developers are so dedicated, but recently I’ve been finding more and more often that Konqeuror works and Mozilla doesn’t.

    Currently I’m redesigning the look of my site and I can get Konqi to show the site better than Moz. I just can’t get Moz to show it right, the code is verified, I know the markup rules, it’s just not working.. Strange but interesting..

    Anyway smile sound fab and they seemingly will support anything with a web browser. They strike me as a company that knows where it’s going. Soon the embedded world will be the new market and at that point if you only support Windows and MSIE and you’re a web-services company, you may well be dead in the water.

    I think that I’m almost certainly going to switch from Lloyds-TSB.

    Max Howell July 15th, 2003 at 22:08

  4. I use Safari on my Mac - works great, oddly enough seem to hit a problem tho when trying to use drop down menus (maybes something to do with macs having one mouse button) anyways - just holding down CTRL and clicking on the dropdown does the trick. Banked (ooerr) with smile for over 3 yrs since they launched - no compaints here

    Mac User [shall remain nameless] July 16th, 2003 at 1:17

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