Snapfish now works with Firefox.

[redbeard]

I thought I'd post this both as kudos to a site doing the right thing, and also as inspiration to keep giving feedback to sites which require IE. I can't claim credit for snapfish making the change, but I'm very glad I voiced my opinion!

In October 2005 I wrote the following email to snapfish. The only change I've made is substitute my linux forums name for my real one:

Hello,

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this question, but I wanted to
double check before I risk spreading incorrect information by posting a
question on the linux forums asking for a more linux friendly photo
developing alternative to snapfish.

When I'm using my primary machine to access your site (Firefox Web
Browser running on Linux), I don't see the option to "Fix & Enhance" the
photos in my album. This option does appear where the help says to look
for it when I'm in Windows on another machine though. Is this because
I'm not using the Windows web browser? Or am I missing something?

Thanks!

[Redbeard]

At the time, I received this as a reply:

Dear [Redbeard],

Thank you for writing to us.

Please note that to use fix and enhance tool on your own uploaded images, you must have PC with Internet Explorer 5.0 or above version browser.

We are in the process to add this features to non- IE browsers and also for Mac systems. We review customer feedback regularly to determine what Snapfish customers most want and your comments will certainly be a part of that process.

Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

Sincerely,


John
Snapfish Customer Care

I just went in today to see if they had fixed this, and they have! Does anyone else here have a similar story to share? Have you ever contacted a company to ask them to change their site to work with browsers other than IE?

[fingal]

I just went in today to see if they had fixed this, and they have! Does anyone else here have a similar story to share? Have you ever contacted a company to ask them to change their site to work with browsers other than IE?

No, but I wish I had. I think you did a good job there. Effectively you raised the profile on an open source package with a commercial organisation.

Funnily enough, I've had very few 'non-IE' browser problems on most sites. If I have a complaint it might be related to Quicktime multi-media plugins. Some sites use those, and FF has no support as yet.

But I think it's great that you actually stood up and did something.

[Dapper Dan]

I think so too. Just think, if all of us did the same thing redbeard did every time we run into websites that won't work properly with non IE browsers, what an impact that could have. Collectively I doubt we could persuade all such sites to change, but if only some of them did, we will have done a service for fellow and future non-Windows OS users. I'm going to use this as an example to follow and do the same thing! Thanks redbeard!

[redbeard]

Funnily enough, I've had very few 'non-IE' browser problems on most sites.

I would agree with this. I very seldom run into any real issues. Most sites are sharp enough to realize they don't want to turn people away for no good reason and design their pages to work with more than just one brand. Having done a little web development for internal company use myself, I know you would have to work pretty hard to make a page that only works with IE. All of my sites are hosted on Windows servers, use ASP, and I develop my pages using Front Page. Even so, Firefox loads the pages just fine.

What actually got me thinking about this yesterday is the site run by mellon that my employer contracts with to allow us to handle transactions for our stock purchase plan. I called their customer service folks to complain, but all they said was "you have to run windows and IE to use the site" (I had figured that out). I followed up by emailing someone in HR to explain the issue nicely and ask if it can be considered in future contracts.

Whenever I contact a site asking for this to be fixed, one thing I make it a point to stress is the fact that this isn't just a preferred browser issue. By mandating IE they are telling their customers which brand of operating system they need to run. I know everyone here already knows that, but I think quite often the people who read the letter or take the phone call haven't considered this.