[vox] (OT) Online Banking Using Mozilla

[Marc Elliot Hall]

I've used Wells Fargo online banking for quite a while now. Until today,
I've been able to login and access all functions using Mozilla on
Windows 98 and Windows 2000, as well as using KDE and GNOME on Linux. 
Never had trouble. (In the past, I've also sucessfully used Konqueror, 
although not recently.)

However, today when attempting to access my account information from a
Win2k machine at work, my connection was refused. At first, I thought
they were having ssl issues or something; but when the problem persisted
for several hours (and when I was able to log in sucessfully using 
Internet Explorer), I guessed that this was a policy change rather than a
technical issue. 

To see if my concern that Mozilla not be refused could be addressed, I 
filled out a tech support request (using Mozilla! Apparently, only the 
ssl stuff is restricted...) but received no reply after several hours. 
I then called their customer support number (800-956-4442, for the 
curious) to ask what was up. 

Essentially, I was told that Wells Fargo only supports Internet Explorer, 
Netscape Navigator, and Safari. After some discussion, the third tech 
with whom I spoke actually sounded convinced that *he* should be using 
Mozilla instead of IE... but my issue remains unresolved. I asked that 
my inquiry about the support for *standards-based* browsers be escalated, 
and was told that it would be; further, I was told that he would "have 
someone call [me] back". 

Has anyone else experienced this kind of reluctance on the part of large
corporations to support standards? If you have, have you taken or 
considered taking action quickly so that Linux users are not left without
a wide selection of online banking resources?

-- 
Marc Elliot Hall		
P.O. Box 435
Shingle Springs, CA 95682
tel. 530-672-8504
cel. 530-409-0372
www.hallmarc.net