Bangkok Bank is busy sucking Microsoft’s ‘certain body part’
June 3rd, 2008 | by Sajal Kayan |Until today i used to be a big fan of Bangkok Bank. In fact everyone in my family and even their companies have been using Bangkok Bank as the primary bank, in many cases their only Bank. I was quite happy with their service, only recently opened an account in another bank for certain cool features that they have which is not the point of my rant here.
So… what changed today? Well I tried to do my first login to my BizIBanking (yeah lame buzzword) account. Following the instructions in the email, i clicked login and instead of the login screen I got…
This is quite lame. I thought that one of the biggest banks wont try to push down an American capitalist product down the throat of not so rich Thai users, there must be a mistake. So i called up their friendly call center. After numerous IVR selections I finally got thru to their friendly staff.
(approximate conversation - my memory gets weaker when my head gets hot!)
Me : My new BizIbanking account doesnt work. I use firefox and it says I must use IE.
… at this point he made me restart my browser and try to login again. i told him it doesnt work and reminded him i use linux and firefox and dont have IE.
He : Oh, sorry sir. The script of the website is works on PC only. So you have to use IE.
Me : But i am using a Linux PC which has Firefox on it.
He : You must use IE
Me : But windows is unsafe. No computer in my office has windows. windows and IE is easily hackable, do you want my account to be hacked?
He : but the script is made for PC….
Me : I have recently opened account at K-Bank and they dont have any such thing
He : because they use another script
Me : Aha… so i must use K-Bank for my company accounts then.
HE : Have a Good Day.
At this point I nearly stormed out of my office to goto the bank to close my account, then i realized its past the banks closing hours. I decided to play with user agents. I changed my user agent to “IE 7 on Vista” using the User Agent Switcher firefox plugin.
Changing User agent, everything works fine!!!
Most such websites usually don’t work on Firefox as their programmers are lazy.. but in this case it does work on Firefox. I really wonder what is their hidden agenda behind attempting (poorly) to block firefox users from visiting their site???
I need a windows box at my office to do some graphics stuff, can I get the bank to pay for the license since they force people to use Microsoft’s bloatware?
Moral of the story : Usually when people say that “I can’t switch to Linux cause xxx site doesn’t work” they think its the fault of the software. They must realize that usually it is the fault of the software, but rather some evil corporation serving their wasted interests.
4 Responses to “Bangkok Bank is busy sucking Microsoft’s ‘certain body part’”
By burlight on Jun 12, 2008 | Reply
I am surprised that you were a BIG fan of this shitte bank. Their service is the worst. It’s like Thai Ra-cha-kan office. I closed my account with them immediately after their counter service treated me like a child asking for candy.
By nrmlfx on Jun 28, 2008 | Reply
Unfortunately my company is using this bank. If I have another choice I’ll close this account for sure.
By Robyn Gruffydd on Jul 11, 2008 | Reply
Try the Siam Commercial Bank
Their service is GREAT. Their staff are friendly, helpful. We have been using them for several years now and have always had supreb service.
Their web site works (not sure if it works with linux though)
They give the impression that they value you as a customer in contrast to the bank mentioned above.
By the dude on Jul 22, 2008 | Reply
I despise Bangkok Bank’s iBanking site… Try Siam Commercial Bank if you do a lot of online banking, it’s a lot better.
I can confirm that you can use Firefox with SCB. Don’t expect too much though, Thailand still has a long way to go when it comes to online banking standards.