Daniel Marino

Limiting Access to Users

A few months ago, I realized I was drinking more coke than usual. I started logging the the codes underneath the coke caps so I could get free stuff. I’ve got enough points now to download an album from connect.com. I logged on from my Mac at work to browse their music selection and got this nasty message saying that the website only supports IE 6.0 and above. This makes me so irritated. I can’t understand why a business would alienate so many potential customers like this.

While I’m naming names, mycokerewards.com is limiting user access on their website too. I tried logging onto their site too from my night job and got an error message saying that I needed to have Flash 8 installed. No problem I thought to myself. I’ll just use the non-Flash version of the site. WRONG! Mycokerewards.com doesn’t offer a non-Flash version of their website. I decided to write a nasty letter to their customer service saying how they were alienating potential customers, and that it was inhibiting the user experience, blah blah blah. I just got an email back saying they value my input. Awesome! I’m sure my email has long since been deleted.

I don’t understand while super-companys like Sony (connect.com is their version of iTunes) and Coke are limiting themselves to others on the web. Why would anybody build their website for IE only? Is IE capable of performing functions that other browsers can’t? Why would any megacorporation build an all-Flash site without a non-Flash option (some of us are still using dial-up)? Besides, all-Flash sites went out of style three years ago.

Disclaimer: I should now mention that despite my disdain for mycokerewards.com, I am still collecting points, so if you have any and would like to support my addiction, please email them to dan [at] iamdanielmarino [dot] com.