1280834 - Bank of America recommends other browsers on OSX & Linux

Status: REOPENED

(Web Compatibility :: Site Reports, defect, P1)

Description

[Aki Sasaki (not active)]

The BofA supported browsers page recommends Safari or Chrome for OSX, and there's an alert at the top of the site when browsing with Fx Nightly.

Comment 1

[Hallvord R. M. Steen [:hallvors]]

The warning appears due to this JavaScript accepting Firefox only on Windows:

https://www1.bac-assets.com/pa/components/bundles/gzip-compressed/xengine/Global/1.0/script/global-customer-jawr.js


if (!(b.win && b.msie) && !b.chrome && !(b.win && b.firefox) && !(b.mac && b.safari)) {
userMsg = b.browserSupport.content.unsupportedBrowserType
} else {
if ((b.msie && b.version <= 9) || (b.chrome && b.version <= 47) || (b.firefox && b.version <= 43) || (b.safari && b.version <= 7)) {
userMsg = b.browserSupport.content.unsupportedEndOfLife
} else {
userMsg = b.browserSupport.content.supportedBrowser
}

Comment 2

[Yury Delendik (:yury)]

I contacted BofA and opened ticket. For some reason they cannot reproduce that on their side. My ticket was placed on hold until more similar requests will be received.

Comment 3

[Aki Sasaki (not active)]

Even if they can't reproduce, they can see that Firefox is not listed under OSX on https://www.bankofamerica.com/information/supported-browsers/ , right?

Comment 4

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Thanks for reaching out Yury.

Adam, can you also try to get in touch and ask why non-Windows Firefox is unsupported?

Comment 5

[Aki Sasaki (not active)]

I sent an email to abuse@ , and called customer support.
My ticket is 360305T .

Comment 6

[Aki Sasaki (not active)]

2nd callback, I think they finally understand that I want Firefox added to the list of supported browsers on Mac.

Comment 7

[Aki Sasaki (not active)]

3rd callback: they're passing on my message as a talking point to the company that manages their site in their next weekly meeting.  There's no way to follow progress; some changes take months to roll out.

Comment 8

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Thanks Aki.

> There's no way to follow progress; some changes take months to roll out.

This is normal. Sometimes it's all about finding the right people -- Adam will take another stab at outreach when he's off PTO (next week).

Comment 10

[Adam Stevenson [:adamopenweb]]

Sent an email to a contact we have at BOA. Not sure if he still works there.

Comment 11

[Adam Stevenson [:adamopenweb]]

Received a response from our contact:

"This is not a bug.  You can find the latest support model here:
https://www.bankofamerica.com/information/supported-browsers/
 
Our Firefox/OSX usage has dropped below 1% of traffic and is no longer officially supported."

Comment 12

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Can someone with a BoA account take a screenshot of the "alert at the top of the site"?

Comment 13

[Robert H. Bernard]

Attachment: Banner: BofA Online Banking doesn't like new Firefox.tiff

I am using Online Banking on Bank of America using Mac OS 10.7.5.
When browsing to the web page that suggests supported browsers, Only Mac OS 10.9 and higher are allegedly supported.

Please note that I have not experienced any errors with the when using Mac OS 10.7.5 or the previous version 10.6.8.

With regard to the comment above that asked for any contacts with Bank of America regarding tech support, I did reach a support manager who said she was in Las Vegas Nevada. The number she gave me was 877 800-1722. Note that I was not reporting any Online banking per se but only reporting that alerts on my account were going into my SPAM.

Comment 14

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(In reply to Mike Taylor [:miketaylr] from comment #12)
> Can someone with a BoA account take a screenshot of the "alert at the top of
> the site"?

You don't need an account to see it -- just visit https://www.bankofamerica.com/ in a fresh Firefox profile (on Linux, at least; presumably on Mac as well).

(It helps to use a fresh browser profile, because if you happen to click the "close" button on the alert-message, it doesn't seem to show up again on subsequent loads.  They must set a cookie to remember that they've already alerted you, or sometihng.)

Comment 15

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

> You don't need an account to see it -- just visit https://www.bankofamerica.com/ in a fresh Firefox profile (on Linux, at least; presumably on Mac as well).

Ah, right. I had mis-read and thought this was a warning for pages post-login. I can see it on the homepage.

Comment 16

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

Attachment: Screen Shot 2016-07-25 at 10.12.24 AM.png

(marking tiff screenshot as obsolete, browsers generally don't like that format)

Comment 17

[Carter Trout]

Just want to ensure everyone understands the situation: 

In contrast to comment 13, I am seeing the message on Firefox v48.0b10 on OSX 10.10.5: "Our site may not work properly for the browser you're using. [supported browsers link]"

In the email from BofA's rep, he said Firefox on OSX is not supported, which is consistent with the site behavior. He referred to the BofA support page, which still shows Firefox logo as a recommended browser, and so I suspect they haven't updated the support site yet. 

What does "official support" mean to companies like this? For QA, BofA is already testing Windows so it should just work for OSX, correct? What else is there? 

If we can't get official support and the site should just work, I am going to ask BofA to remove the message to users - would that be sufficient for our needs?

Comment 18

[Mike Taylor [:miketaylr]]

> In the email from BofA's rep, he said Firefox on OSX is not supported, which is consistent with the site behavior. He referred to the BofA support page, which still shows Firefox logo as a recommended browser, and so I suspect they haven't updated the support site yet. 

Yeah, it's confusing. But if you look at the Windows logo below, you see Firefox is included. And it's not included under the Apple logo ("Mac OS 10.9 or higher".

> What does "official support" mean to companies like this? For QA, BofA is already testing Windows so it should just work for OSX, correct? What else is there? 

"Official support" typically means if customers call in with problems they will or won't help you depending on what browser you're using. It's a way for them to filter out problems that a very small percentage of their users face.

Of course, *real* web-facing differences between Windows Firefox and Mac (or Linux) Firefox are extremely rare (excluding platform-specific issues like printing, I guess).

> If we can't get official support and the site should just work, I am going to ask BofA to remove the message to users - would that be sufficient for our needs?

Yep, I think so.

Comment 19

[Robert H. Bernard]

I opened a FF bug report about BofA and then found another bug (this one) that had reported the same thing earlier.
I use BofA online banking every day and have not had any problem with FF.  I am just going to ignore the warning until I have an issue.
I also am only on Mac OS 10.7.5 (Lion); years old.  Maybe BofA has encountered some users that are using the newer versions of Mac OS X.  But my experience with Mac OS X upgrades is that there are frequent automatic updates soon afterward, and that's why I wait until 2 or 3 updates are issued and then the OS is usually stable.  I've never had a problem case where the app vendor recommended using a different browser and it solved my issue; it's generally pilot error or the app has a non-intuitive feature.
Bob

Comment 20

[Aki Sasaki (not active)]

(In reply to Robert H. Bernard from comment #19)
> I also am only on Mac OS 10.7.5 (Lion); years old.  Maybe BofA has
> encountered some users that are using the newer versions of Mac OS X.

I'm on OSX 10.11.6 on this laptop and can use BofA's site just fine with both Fx and Fx Nightly, so I'm guessing this bug is either a mistake or a matter of a smaller testing matrix as mentioned in comment 18.

They said they'd send in a request to remove the warning for OSX Fx in comment 7, but certainly more reports might help expedite.

Comment 21

[Robert Helmer [:rhelmer]]

I'm not seeing this message on BofA anymore on macOS Nightly... they seem to have landed a redesign recently.

Can anyone confirm?

Comment 22

[Carter Trout]

Attachment: Screen Shot 2017-12-05 at 3.47.57 PM.png

I am still seeing the message in Nightly 59. See attached

Comment 23

[Carter Trout]

Attachment: Screen Shot 2017-12-05 at 3.48.19 PM.png

attached is the list of BofA's supported browsers

Comment 24

[slash28d]

As of this month's bill pay, I'm no longer getting the warning (Mac 10.14.1, FF 63.0.3), although they still don't list FF as a supported browser on Mac.

Comment 25

[Firefox Bug Husbandry Bot]

See bug 1547409. Moving webcompat whiteboard tags to keywords.

Comment 26

[Jeroen Kruis]

The list of supported browsers still does not explicitly mention firefox under macos, but "A browser that supports TLS version 1.2 or higher" has been added.

https://www.bankofamerica.com/information/supported-browsers/ now shows me a big green checkmark, along with the text "Your browser: Firefox 95.0 / Thanks for keeping your browser up to date." The warning is no longer displayed.

Comment 27

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

(In reply to Jeroen Kruis from comment #26)

https://www.bankofamerica.com/information/supported-browsers/ now shows me a big green checkmark, along with the text "Your browser: Firefox 95.0 / Thanks for keeping your browser up to date."

Same here (on Firefox on Mac and Linux).

The warning is no longer displayed.

Indeed! (specifically, the red bar shown at the top of https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=8774367 is now no longer present)

I think we can call this FIXED rather than WONTFIX, since the issue has been addressed.

Comment 28

[Daniel Holbert [:dholbert]]

Just for fun, I confirmed that I can still get the red bar to appear if I use an old browser-version, e.g. by launching Firefox Nighlty 2017-01-02 via mozregression. It says You are using an unsupported browser version. Learn more or update your browser.; and it's entirely appropriate when running an old build like that.

So: they do still have the logic to show that red "unsupported browser" bar, and they've updated it so that it doesn't warn for current-Firefox anymore, which is great.

Comment 29

[Dennis Schubert [:denschub]]

Unfortunately, this is still valid. We're shipping an intervention for this site, but if I disable the intervention on about:compat, I still see that banner. :(

Comment 30

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The bug assignee didn't login in Bugzilla in the last 7 months.
:karlcow, could you have a look please?
For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.

Comment 31

[Oana Arbuzov [:oanaarbuzov]]

The unsupported browser banner is still displayed if I disable the Intervention.
https://prnt.sc/PrdOO3100wgE

Tested with:
Browser / Version: Firefox Nightly 101.0a1 (2022-04-19)
Operating System: Mac OS Monterey v.12.1

Comment 32

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The bug assignee is inactive on Bugzilla, and this bug has priority 'P1'.
:denschub, could you have a look please?

For more information, please visit auto_nag documentation.