Banks and Ubuntu support for business users

[Bruno Girin-2]

Hi all,

A quick question I'd like to put to the list. The business web site of
my bank doesn't work with Firefox on Ubuntu anymore (it used to), even
though it works fine with Firefox on Mac. A support query I filed
resulted in an answer by email along the lines of "we don't support
Linux".

How would you address such an issue with your bank or any supplier you
deal with to convince them that they have an interest in supporting your
chosen technical solution?

And, as a community, is there anything we could do to help institutions
and businesses support our operating system of choice?

Cheers,

Bruno



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[SuperEngineer]

A suggestion.... use your feet to vote & move bank to one that does
support Ubuntu / Linux... there are plenty.

Regards,

SuperEngineer

Registered Linux User 523667


-----Original Message-----
From: Bruno Girin <[hidden email]>
Reply-to: UK Ubuntu Talk <[hidden email]>
To: [hidden email]
Subject: [ubuntu-uk] Banks and Ubuntu support for business users
Date: Sun, 10 Oct 2010 16:03:45 +0100

Hi all,

A quick question I'd like to put to the list. The business web site of
my bank doesn't work with Firefox on Ubuntu anymore (it used to), even
though it works fine with Firefox on Mac. A support query I filed
resulted in an answer by email along the lines of "we don't support
Linux".

How would you address such an issue with your bank or any supplier you
deal with to convince them that they have an interest in supporting your
chosen technical solution?

And, as a community, is there anything we could do to help institutions
and businesses support our operating system of choice?

Cheers,

Bruno




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[Alan Pope-2]

On 10 October 2010 16:03, Bruno Girin <[hidden email]> wrote:
> A quick question I'd like to put to the list. The business web site of
> my bank doesn't work with Firefox on Ubuntu anymore (it used to), even
> though it works fine with Firefox on Mac. A support query I filed
> resulted in an answer by email along the lines of "we don't support
> Linux".
>

Does it work if you fake the user agent to be Firefox on OSX or Windows?

Al.

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[Alan Pope-2]

On 10 October 2010 16:16, SuperEngineer <[hidden email]> wrote:
> A suggestion.... use your feet to vote & move bank to one that does
> support Ubuntu / Linux... there are plenty.
>

Whilst that's good to know, a list would be even more useful.

http://mjr.towers.org.uk/blog/2007/banking

Thats a start.

Al.

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[Colin Law-4]

On 10 October 2010 16:03, Bruno Girin <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> A quick question I'd like to put to the list. The business web site of
> my bank doesn't work with Firefox on Ubuntu anymore (it used to), even
> though it works fine with Firefox on Mac. A support query I filed
> resulted in an answer by email along the lines of "we don't support
> Linux".

Is it possible for us to see the failure or does it need access to
non-public areas?

Colin

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[Bruno Girin-2]

On Sun, 2010-10-10 at 16:16 +0100, SuperEngineer wrote:
> A suggestion.... use your feet to vote & move bank to one that does
> support Ubuntu / Linux... there are plenty.

I could but I'm not sure that would be very productive.

First, the problem is with the business banking site so it means I would
have to change my business's accounts and therefore change all templates
I have such as invoice templates, etc.

Then, the problem is quite recent. Their business web site used to work
fine with Linux, it's only recently that it started not working. So if I
were to go through all the hassle of changing banks, I would need to
move to a bank that *officially* supports Linux. Otherwise, I may very
well find myself in the same situation with another bank in the future.

Finally, even though there are a lot of banks that have web sites that
happen to work fine on Linux, I am not aware of any one that does
officially supports it and that will actually deal with a support
request any better than my current bank has.

What I'm interested in is the last bit. Whether their web site happens
to work on Linux or not is one thing. But as soon as you send a support
query, you get a canned answer saying they don't officially support it.
What I'd really want to know is what can we do to change that behaviour?

Bruno



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[Bruno Girin-2]

On Sun, 2010-10-10 at 16:35 +0100, Colin Law wrote:

> On 10 October 2010 16:03, Bruno Girin <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > A quick question I'd like to put to the list. The business web site of
> > my bank doesn't work with Firefox on Ubuntu anymore (it used to), even
> > though it works fine with Firefox on Mac. A support query I filed
> > resulted in an answer by email along the lines of "we don't support
> > Linux".
>
> Is it possible for us to see the failure or does it need access to
> non-public areas?

It's very easy:
      * Go to www.hsbc.co.uk (so now you know what bank I'm talking
        about)
      * Click the "Log on" button in the "Business" box on the right

At that point, it should take you to a login page but in my case it just
takes me to a blank page.

Bruno



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[Bruno Girin-2]

On Sun, 2010-10-10 at 16:19 +0100, Alan Pope wrote:

> On 10 October 2010 16:16, SuperEngineer <[hidden email]> wrote:
> > A suggestion.... use your feet to vote & move bank to one that does
> > support Ubuntu / Linux... there are plenty.
> >
>
> Whilst that's good to know, a list would be even more useful.
>
> http://mjr.towers.org.uk/blog/2007/banking
>
> Thats a start.

Thanks Popey, that's a start indeed. However, this site doesn't
differentiate between personal and business banking. In my case,
personal banking works a treat but business banking with the same bank
doesn't. The email response I got to my request does confirm that in
their case personal and business banking are on different platforms,
which explains why one works and not the other. I wouldn't be surprised
if it was the case for other banks.

Bruno



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[Vince Marsters]

On Sun, 2010-10-10 at 16:55 +0100, Bruno Girin wrote:
> It's very easy:
>       * Go to www.hsbc.co.uk (so now you know what bank I'm talking
>         about)
>       * Click the "Log on" button in the "Business" box on the right
>
> At that point, it should take you to a login page but in my case it just
> takes me to a blank page.

I've just tested using Chromium on 10.10 and it appears to be working OK
- I got a screen asking for a username. Perhaps using a different
browser may be an option until HSBC fix the site for Firefox?

Vince


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[Vince Marsters]

On Sun, 2010-10-10 at 17:09 +0100, Vince Marsters wrote:

> On Sun, 2010-10-10 at 16:55 +0100, Bruno Girin wrote:
> > It's very easy:
> >       * Go to www.hsbc.co.uk (so now you know what bank I'm talking
> >         about)
> >       * Click the "Log on" button in the "Business" box on the right
> >
> > At that point, it should take you to a login page but in my case it just
> > takes me to a blank page.
>
> I've just tested using Chromium on 10.10 and it appears to be working OK
> - I got a screen asking for a username. Perhaps using a different
> browser may be an option until HSBC fix the site for Firefox?

Also now tested with Firefox 3.6.10 and get a log on page as well. I
wonder if it is the version of Firefox you are using (is it the beta by
any chance)?



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[Yorvyk]

On Sun, 10 Oct 2010 16:55:44 +0100
Bruno Girin <[hidden email]> wrote:

> On Sun, 2010-10-10 at 16:35 +0100, Colin Law wrote:
> >
> > Is it possible for us to see the failure or does it need access to
> > non-public areas?
>
> It's very easy:
>       * Go to www.hsbc.co.uk (so now you know what bank I'm talking
>         about)
>       * Click the "Log on" button in the "Business" box on the right
>

Works with FF here 'Step 1 of 2: Enter username'
If I enter a a (fictitious) user name I get an error message.

Try clearing cookies.


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[Tony Travis-3]

On 10/10/10 16:55, Bruno Girin wrote:
> [...]
> It's very easy:
>        * Go to www.hsbc.co.uk (so now you know what bank I'm talking
>          about)
>        * Click the "Log on" button in the "Business" box on the right
>
> At that point, it should take you to a login page but in my case it just
> takes me to a blank page.

Hello, Bruno.

The site WFM using Firefox 3.6.10 under 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS.

Bye,

   Tony.
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and Health, Greenburn Road, Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9SB, Scotland, UK
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mailto:[hidden email], http://bioinformatics.rri.sari.ac.uk/~ajt

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[Colin Law-4]

On 10 October 2010 16:52, Bruno Girin <[hidden email]> wrote:
> [...]
>
> What I'm interested in is the last bit. Whether their web site happens
> to work on Linux or not is one thing. But as soon as you send a support
> query, you get a canned answer saying they don't officially support it.
> What I'd really want to know is what can we do to change that behaviour?

I don't think there is anything you can do to _force_ them to support
linux.  They (presumably) have no contract with you to support Linux.
I think the only thing you could do would be to threaten to move
banks.

Colin

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[Colin Law-4]

On 10 October 2010 16:03, Bruno Girin <[hidden email]> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> A quick question I'd like to put to the list. The business web site of
> my bank doesn't work with Firefox on Ubuntu anymore (it used to), even
> though it works fine with Firefox on Mac. A support query I filed
> resulted in an answer by email along the lines of "we don't support
> Linux".

Have you tried disabling all the FF add-ons in case it is one of those
causing the problem?

Colin

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[Alan Lord (Gmail)]

On 10/10/10 16:03, Bruno Girin wrote:

> How would you address such an issue with your bank or any supplier you
> deal with to convince them that they have an interest in supporting your
> chosen technical solution?

There were several Government "security" announcements a few months ago;
Germany, France & Australia IIRC, who all recommended that their
citizens stop using IE and switch to something more secure.

Google for them and send them to your bank.

HSBC and their subsidiary First Direct have always worked for me if that
helps.

AL



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[Jacob Mansfield-2]

the fact that you are using ubuntu has nothing to do with it. I suggest that you write a complaint to your bank explaining this, and how their tech support team was rude and refused to help with the matter. I find that threatening to move to a rival service can be verry effective in these situations
Jacob Mansfield
Programmer

On 10 October 2010 17:27, Alan Lord (News) <[hidden email]> wrote:

On 10/10/10 16:03, Bruno Girin wrote:

> How would you address such an issue with your bank or any supplier you
> deal with to convince them that they have an interest in supporting your
> chosen technical solution?

There were several Government "security" announcements a few months ago;
Germany, France & Australia IIRC, who all recommended that their
citizens stop using IE and switch to something more secure.

Google for them and send them to your bank.

HSBC and their subsidiary First Direct have always worked for me if that
helps.

AL



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[Simon Greenwood]

The HSBC website used to cause problems with my wife's PC running Firefox 3 on Windows. 3.5 seems to be happier.

s/

On 10 Oct 2010 17:38, "Jacob Mansfield" <[hidden email]> wrote:

the fact that you are using ubuntu has nothing to do with it. I suggest that you write a complaint to your bank explaining this, and how their tech support team was rude and refused to help with the matter. I find that threatening to move to a rival service can be verry effective in these situations
Jacob Mansfield
Programmer

On 10 October 2010 17:27, Alan Lord (News) <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> On 10/10/10 16:03, ...

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[Alan Pope-2]

On 10 October 2010 16:55, Bruno Girin <[hidden email]> wrote:
> It's very easy:
>      * Go to www.hsbc.co.uk (so now you know what bank I'm talking
>        about)
>      * Click the "Log on" button in the "Business" box on the right
>
> At that point, it should take you to a login page but in my case it just
> takes me to a blank page.
>

On the Mac in Chrome it takes me to a page which asks me to download
some shonky security software. If I click 'no thanks' it takes me
here:-

http://www.business.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/bib/personal

Also I get a logon screen further in the process at:-

https://www.business.hsbc.co.uk/1/2/!ut/p/kcxml

And it asks me to hit a logon button. Do you get that? Can you click it?

Cheers,
Al.

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[Tyler J. Wagner]

On Sun, 2010-10-10 at 16:55 +0100, Bruno Girin wrote:
> It's very easy:
>       * Go to www.hsbc.co.uk (so now you know what bank I'm talking
>         about)
>       * Click the "Log on" button in the "Business" box on the right
>
> At that point, it should take you to a login page but in my case it just
> takes me to a blank page.

It loads fine for me as well, on Ubuntu 10.04 amd64 with Firefox 3.6.10
and a whole pile of add-ons enabled.

Tyler

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[Andy Braben-2]

On 10 October 2010 19:50, Tyler J. Wagner <[hidden email]> wrote:

> On Sun, 2010-10-10 at 16:55 +0100, Bruno Girin wrote:
>> It's very easy:
>>       * Go to www.hsbc.co.uk (so now you know what bank I'm talking
>>         about)
>>       * Click the "Log on" button in the "Business" box on the right
>>
>> At that point, it should take you to a login page but in my case it just
>> takes me to a blank page.
>
> It loads fine for me as well, on Ubuntu 10.04 amd64 with Firefox 3.6.10
> and a whole pile of add-ons enabled.
>
> Tyler

It works fine for me as well with FF3.6.10 and I use it regularly.

Regards,
Andy.

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