I made my first online purchase in 1996. It was a pair of jeans from Lands End. The motivation for that purchase was to evaluate and understand the online shopping experience. As I recall it was EZ and fairly fast (even on my dial up). I am very comfortable with the online shopping process and have purchased (too) many items.
A few years back, when MBNA introduced SHOPSAFE. This is basically a temporary credit card number that is restricted to one vendor for a limited time and dollar amount. Fantastic! I loved not having to worry about my credit card number being stolten from an online site. And MBNA had a good way to minimize problems related to stolten cards. I have used SHOPSAFE over the years with very little trouble ... that is until Bank of America bought MBNA.
Like many, I was very unhappy that BOA bought MBNA. I have my share of BOA stories ... and none of them are good.
At first, everything was fine. Then one day the SHOPSAFE app stops working for me. Usually apps stop working because I use Firefox so I try it with internet explorer. Still nothing. When I look at the program error message (you all know how to do that right? EZ. NOT) I see it is trying to grab an unsigned ActiveX component. I do not allow unsigned ActiveX because it is very unsecure.
By the very fact that half of all the eyes reading this have now glazed over, we know EZ has left the building.
Basically BOA was blocking my use of SHOPSAFE unless I agreed to put my computer in a compromising position. Is this stupid or what?!? If you think the ActiveX security hoopla is overblown, read this recent article.
While I love to bash BOA, I have to say that Citibank managed to break their version as well. And when you call either company's help-not line, nobody knows anything about it. I figured it out because I am a techie ... what about the rest of the folks?
Oops, gotta run and buy some stock in PAYPAL.
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