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Love Calm Quiet · Dec 14, 2005, 04:50 PM

So I'm trying to help daughter get set up with high speed access, and I go to BellSouth web site and try to find out if DSL is available at the address she's moving to. Entering the address and clicking "submit" causes me to be informed that my browser is not supported and that I need to use MS IE 5.5 or greater.

Yes, I could use something to trick them into thinking Safari is IE, but I had a better plan:

DUMP BellSouth. Go with CABLE.

I waited through Phone-menu hell to tell two different places at BellSouth WHY I declined their service. Then I went back and found their "Feedback" spot on their web site and told them how much I love them:
JPEG of Complaint Form

If any of you are in BS's district you might want to visit them ( https://www.bellsouth.com/apps/rnr/o...?action=launch ) occasionally and let them know they are not winning customers among Mac users.

It may not do much, but I think Mac users should be vocal about this short-sighted abuse by major corporations. What do you folks think.

Oh, and I remembered to say "Happy Holidays" when I complained.

SirCastor · Dec 14, 2005, 04:58 PM

Sadly, They probably couldn't care less. Losing 1000 people for every hundred thousand (I made up that ratio, but the idea is the same) is a drop in the bucket. They already have a site up, and they don't want to pay another designer to do it again.

I hate corporation's crap like that too. As a Freelance Webdesigner, I have to deal with trying to make IE display things the way I want when every other major browser functions fine. MS is just lazy about standards, and They've pulled the rest of the world down with them.

pathogen · Dec 14, 2005, 05:15 PM

Firefox works that link in a cinch.

I wish Safari was more widely accepted, but it's less about Macs than it is about IT departments who figure they'll be inundated with support calls because they didn't check the standards on anything but IE.

jasonsRX7 · Dec 14, 2005, 05:18 PM

I'll tell you what... I handle our corporate account of a few PRI's, Frames and a T1 that used to be with Bell South, but we switched to AT&T and NuVox. That's a few thousand dollar a month account. Next time they call and ask if they can get our business back, I'll tell them we switched because they didn't support web standards on their website.

- - e r i k - - · Dec 14, 2005, 05:26 PM

Oh no they probably DO care. One disgruntled customer is actually worth a hell of a lot when it comes to word-of-mouth. Especially one who knows how to post on a forum like this. Corporations do anything to stem bad publicity.

SirCastor · Dec 14, 2005, 05:40 PM

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - -

Oh no they probably DO care. One disgruntled customer is actually worth a hell of a lot when it comes to word-of-mouth. Especially one who knows how to post on a forum like this. Corporations do anything to stem bad publicity.

I disagree. Good companies, like HP, care about what customers thing. Phone companies, don't give a hoot. Everyone hates them already.

macaddict0001 · Dec 14, 2005, 06:52 PM

Are they really sticking it to mac users though? Anyone who knows anything about computers probably doesn't use ie anyway, even for windows.

ghporter · Dec 14, 2005, 07:05 PM

Bell South simply doesn't think about it. Southwestern Bell used to have similar issues, but they had the error of their ways pointed out to them and they corrected their web sites. Letting Bell South know that their pages are not accessible to some potential customers will tell them what they need to do to get more customers, and that's important to them. But you can't just complain. You have to go as high up as possible.

Shareholders and other interested parties who wish to communicate with the Company’s non-management directors may direct correspondence to a particular director, or to the non-management directors as a group, by e-mail at [email protected] or by addressing written correspondence to the Office of the Corporate Secretary, BellSouth Corporation, Suite 19A01, 1155 Peachtree Street, N.E., Atlanta, GA 30309-3610.

Letting the board of directors know that there's something wrong is a good way to start.

Cody Dawg · Dec 14, 2005, 07:48 PM

NOT TRUE.

Sorry, we use Bellsouth DSL and it works just fine with Safari and I just went to their site here and it works just fine for testing.

Love Calm Quiet · Dec 14, 2005, 08:00 PM

Well their fastaccess.com may not refuse Safari, but the link (to their package deals (phone + cell + DSL)) as referenced above does.

Which raises the greater puzzle: if they have folks that can write code thats universal, why do they let the others limp along in the 20th century?

Cody Dawg · Dec 14, 2005, 08:05 PM

Every link you give me works with Safari!

What link, specifically, does not work?

Rev-O · 11:35 PM

Originally Posted by Love Calm Quiet

I waited through Phone-menu hell to tell two different places at BellSouth WHY I declined their service. Then I went back and found their "Feedback" spot on their web site and told them how much I love them:
JPEG of Complaint Form

On your complaint form you note that Mac users are 'Well-Healed'... perhaps you meant 'Well Heeled'. Well Healed makes all of us sound like we are recovering from some affliction!

Mastrap · Dec 14, 2005, 09:19 PM

I don't mean to be an ass about this, but spell checking complaints before sending them is always a good idea. Well-healed is not a word.

Cody Dawg · Dec 14, 2005, 10:04 PM

I'm still waiting for the link that doesn't work?

KeriVit · Dec 14, 2005, 10:33 PM

Originally Posted by Cody Dawg

I'm still waiting for the link that doesn't work?

I believe this is what is being referred to...

meelk · Dec 15, 2005, 07:36 AM

whine more. should have just used firefox and moved along. mac users occupy a niche market. regardless of how things "should" be, and what standards are, you should expect this kind of thing. get over it.

Love Calm Quiet · Dec 15, 2005, 08:47 AM

Apologies... about the typo when I lodged the complaint.
...and for omitting the original link:

http://www.bellsouth.com/consumer/new_customer.html

If you've got BS DSL try clicking on "New to BellSouth.
On next page, for "Service Builder" option, click START.
It'll ask for your address. When do and click on ENTER, you'll get the objection.

Interestingly, when you click OK to the objection you'll see the page displayed... and, Yes indeed, its display it totally botched.

macsfromnowon · Dec 15, 2005, 09:18 AM

Yeah... I get the same look that KeriVit shows.

With IE Mac 5.2 It also complains that "Your browser version is not support", but then at least the next page displays properly.

macsfromnowon · Dec 15, 2005, 09:24 AM

CORRECTION: It almost displays right. Most of page shows. Then it seems to hang.

(in Mac IE)

Person Man · Dec 15, 2005, 09:32 AM

Originally Posted by meelk

mac users occupy a niche market. regardless of how things "should" be, and what standards are, you should expect this kind of thing. get over it.

Um, no.

We do expect that kind of thing, but if we just accepted it then NOTHING would be compatible with the Macintosh.

So we will continue to complain.

gopikrishna · Dec 15, 2005, 09:45 AM

Well, they've got several types of weird (careless) coding...
If I put my address in their and use "Road" instead of "Rd", it's says the address doesn't exist.

macsfromnowon · Dec 15, 2005, 01:04 PM

You know, FireFox for Mac gets the warning... but then goes on to display the page perfectly fine.

Makes me wonder about if it's really a Safari problem.