Nationwide B/S says Firefox not fully compatible with their online system!
I complained to Nationwide about "time-out errors" when composing messages to them using their secure messaging facility. i,e when logged in to their Customer Online System.
Response 1: "After checking your internet banking activity Mr ****, I can see that you're being timed out on a few occasions when you try to raise a question. I've also noticed that when using our internet banking service Mr ***, you're using a browser called FireFox. I can confirm that there is an intermittent fault with this browser when on our web site, and there has been ever since we updated the web site back in February 2017. What you might like to do Mr ****, is try a different browser. For example, Internet Explorer version 9 or higher. This should then work absolutely fine for you when you try to send us a message/raise a question."
When asked to specify exactly what intermittent fault: i.e. "Maybe you can explain to me the exact nature of the apparent problem with Firefox and I'll raise it with the techies to see if I can get it fixed." I got back: Response 2: "I appreciate that Firefox works with all other website's and sometimes with our Internet Banking. However, if you want complete success all the time when using our Internet Banking, please try using another browser."
Is the Mozilla team aware of these potential incompatibilities, and what they are, because it seems to me Nationwide is being a bit disparaging towards Firefox - the only browser I ever use.
All Replies (2)
Hi, I don't remember hearing about this problem before. It's a little strange to redesign a site in 2017 in a way that doesn't work with one of the popular browsers. Perhaps it doesn't affect all Firefox uses but only users with certain settings or add-ons?
About how long does it take to "time out" on their messaging system? Can it be reproduced consistently, or is it intermittent?
Hi - thanks for the reply. It's happened quite a few times when composing secure messages. Really frustrating. No warning about time-outs - just an error-message after hitting the Submit button (to send the message) that says something like "we are experiencing technical difficulties - please try again later". Intermittent. I usually take only a few minutes to compose a message - max 5 mins.
I've learned to copy my messages to the clip-board before hitting the Submit button because when it happens I lose everything I've composed without warning! Then I start again, paste the clip-board copy into the message text-box and everything is fine.
Nationwide are really cagey about explaining why Firefox has these problems with their system and not Explorer.
Anyway, I'll not desert Firefox browser in order to accommodate Nationwide, but it may be of interest to the developers to find out why Nationwide has problems with Firefox and not Explorer! Sadly, they won't open up for me.