Re: Comcast web support only for IE users; ignores 20% of users using Firefox, other browsers

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Thomas Lord <lord () emf net>
Date: November 19, 2008 12:44:57 PM EST
To: dave () farber net, pfoldes () eidmgt com
Cc: ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Comcast web support only for IE users; ignores 20%  
of users using Firefox, other browsers

On Wed, 2008-11-19 at 08:43 -0500, David Farber wrote:

> From: paul foldes <pfoldes () eidmgt com>

> When I went to the link i got following notice:
>
> Comcast One Click Fix Library *We're sorry, Comcast One Click Fixes
> are meant to run from Internet Explorer Only*
>
> Apparently Comcast is only interested in supporting IE users, and
> doesnt  care about the 20% of the market that uses Firefox, and other
> browsers.
> More documentation for Comcast's lack of concern for its customer's
> needs.


That's a fairly common kind of bug and I'm not sure
it is fair to attribute it to Comcast's "lack of concern".
I would be more inclined to attribute it to the lack
of concern shown by the software industry in not
competing better against IE only technologies and not
being more publicly vocal about the issues.

That said, I would suggest (if you haven't already)
to attack a specific instance of the problem, such
as with Comcast, by making the effort to call them
on the phone and politely escalate until you reach
someone who can hear and understand a report of the bug
as well as solve the problem with your email blockage.

The surest way to "force Comcast to care" is to
demonstrate to them the effect of the mistake on their
bottom line.  That isn't to say that mentioning the
issue on the IP list will be ineffectual at drawing
Comcast's attention *at some level* and *in some quarter* -
I observe that the list has Comcast's attention.
However, if criticism that Comcast finds here is purely
abstract they are unlikely to treat it as a problem
that requires swift operational changes.   On the
other hand if criticism on IP is correlated with dings
on their expenses (such as an increased cost of providing
support) then potential allies within Comcast are
better armed to bring about change.

The least-$-cost-to-you way to fix the problem is
different.   It is probably something like finding
a copy of IE you can use and "clicking the link"
from there.  But you should feel guilty, and for that
I offer a potential palliative:

Note that if IE-only browser behavior did not
depend on restricted-license software -- if it all
came with the full set of software freedoms guaranteed
by the GNU General Public License -- then Comcast
might not specifically be on the hook for fixing the
problem.   Anyone could copy the relevant code and
adapt it for use in other browsers.   (Simultaneously,
MSFT would have less incentive to create IE-only
behavior in the first place and the developers of
web service authoring tools would have less incentive
to use IE-only behavior.)   In other words, in a
free software world, it wouldn't be only Comcast or
only MSFT that could fix the problem: third parties
(even you) could fix the problem or hire someone to
fix it once and for all.

So, the palliative: if you work around the problem
by grousing on IP, perhaps perform a mitzvah that
helps the Free Software Foundation (http://www.fsf.org)

Regards,
-t






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