Worst web site award
LIC the one company I hate. They have a number of schemes..most of them sound like this to me "you invest 50000Rs every year starting from now and after you die or when you are really looking forward to die we will give you FIVE lakhs" - that is worth peanuts by that time. Essentially you dont get to enjoy the hard earned money you saved and we make sure of it the minute you fell prey to our "scheme".
Anyways I thought I hated the LIC experience the most until I opened a citi NRI account. Well its just my money sitting in a bank. Not much interest..but better than nothing that bank of america pays....no tricks..no schemes..every transaction is online..quick...Its the worst designed web site. There are a million things I hate about the site (although their DD service is pretty fast and good).
Ignore the flying ads and banners and pop ups without a close buttons..these are so common now... There are other bizarre things in this site..
When you click another tab which looks like a menu a totally new window opens up
so you end up creating many tiny windows all of which look alike (I meant ugly) so you dont know which ugly one you are working on currently.
The most interesting "feature" is an existing user always logs in as "guest"! I dont know how they got that messed up (may be just forgot to add a NOT somewhere in the code)
By the way if you forgot the citibank India site and started from the citibank main site thats another totally new path. It will take easily two to three minutes and few clicks to reach to the NRI India site.. (This has changed now...thanks..)
Okay fine you thought you almost got to the login page: The login page says
Use your keyboard to enter your 16 digit ATM / Debit Card Number or Credit Card Number or Loan ID or World Money Card. Well you think whats funny about this..ofcourse I will use a keyboard.. (any other ideas..)
You are wrong..for the next edit box in which you have to enter your password you cannot use keyboard. You "have" to use a mouse and click the buttons on the right. It is a good security feature but somehow makes me think I need to wear a hackers hat and think like one if I need to get to "my" account page..
IPIN is internet PIN... I suppose what is QPIN?
This is how the keyboard buttons look
Th buttons arenot like standard keyboard ones..
The buttons keep shifting everytime you refresh or login so say an automatic tool cannot try and hack..but what is annoying is they allow you to create a password that is case sensitive but the buttons here are not (well you can see are of only one case) and if my password is say "H1BaboOn!" try how long it takes for you to type it.
So far so good..You think you are not too far away from your accounts page. By this time..I am too tired and need a break. Well I just checked they have revamped the site. Its not too bad now...still has all the problems above..Anyways they have redesigned this site two dozen times now - I hope they get it right some day.
Anyways I thought I hated the LIC experience the most until I opened a citi NRI account. Well its just my money sitting in a bank. Not much interest..but better than nothing that bank of america pays....no tricks..no schemes..every transaction is online..quick...Its the worst designed web site. There are a million things I hate about the site (although their DD service is pretty fast and good).
Ignore the flying ads and banners and pop ups without a close buttons..these are so common now... There are other bizarre things in this site..
When you click another tab which looks like a menu a totally new window opens up
so you end up creating many tiny windows all of which look alike (I meant ugly) so you dont know which ugly one you are working on currently.
The most interesting "feature" is an existing user always logs in as "guest"! I dont know how they got that messed up (may be just forgot to add a NOT somewhere in the code)
By the way if you forgot the citibank India site and started from the citibank main site thats another totally new path. It will take easily two to three minutes and few clicks to reach to the NRI India site.. (This has changed now...thanks..)
Okay fine you thought you almost got to the login page: The login page says
Use your keyboard to enter your 16 digit ATM / Debit Card Number or Credit Card Number or Loan ID or World Money Card. Well you think whats funny about this..ofcourse I will use a keyboard.. (any other ideas..)
You are wrong..for the next edit box in which you have to enter your password you cannot use keyboard. You "have" to use a mouse and click the buttons on the right. It is a good security feature but somehow makes me think I need to wear a hackers hat and think like one if I need to get to "my" account page..
IPIN is internet PIN... I suppose what is QPIN?
This is how the keyboard buttons look
Th buttons arenot like standard keyboard ones..
The buttons keep shifting everytime you refresh or login so say an automatic tool cannot try and hack..but what is annoying is they allow you to create a password that is case sensitive but the buttons here are not (well you can see are of only one case) and if my password is say "H1BaboOn!" try how long it takes for you to type it.
So far so good..You think you are not too far away from your accounts page. By this time..I am too tired and need a break. Well I just checked they have revamped the site. Its not too bad now...still has all the problems above..Anyways they have redesigned this site two dozen times now - I hope they get it right some day.
posted by priyums at 3:28 PM
7 Comments:
pria,
with this post atleast you let your steam off. By the wae, more than microsoft, IAS questions here comes the toughest one, you not only need out of box thinking, you may need out of world thinking to answer these..
priya is wondering about what is QPIN..let me shoot my next questions, what is APIN,HPIN ? guesses welcome.
we already guessed IPIN is Internet PIN. but we are not sure either.
now coming to website design issues..
i am damn sure, the web designer must be a bank employee only. ask me why ?
according to citibank, u cant do anything in one page. trust me it's so worse, that if you want to see that page top and if you press the TOP link, it shows the top in a new window..?!@#$%
dont panic, it's my imagination, but i am afraid citibank may use it while they upgrade ?(!@#$%) their current website.
allright, coming back to my finding about the connection between the website designer with a bank employee.
I derived this conclusion with the following statement.
// nothing could be done in one page in the site and nothing could be done in one counter in the bank.//
RHS :
If you want to find what is the working hours of the bank, you need to go to 2-3 counters to get the answer. you dont dare to question this, coz this is the oorina culture of a bank employee coming to answering questions in a bank.
LHS :
If you want to login you need to go past atleast 2-3 windows to get the actual login window. Ironically, If you want to find out what is the working hours of a branch, i am afraid, you dont have enough memory in the computer to hold that much page in your system.
LHS = RHS therefore here comes my conclusion, website designer must be a bank employee.
eehaa..mind blowing. where is my padma booshan ??
I dont listen raaga at nights, simply the reason raaga always say, citibank is the easiest and fastest way @#$% bla bla bla... more worse than seeing our captain film in High definition Plasma. imagine the close up shots, even a child refusing to eat food would eat 4-5 unlimited meals.
ammakal of india, note panunga. but cost you much. you could try this is in a portable TV, but u'll be only showing the thopai to the child which wont be scary enough to get done with the food.
itha sonna enna paithikaaran nu solraanga.
Citibank - Australia.
somebody stop me, writing this...if i have a keyboard which citibank have in its site, it might stop me typing.. but that's not the case now..enna anatha vudunga..
citibank australia is far good coz they dont have the counter culture, this is what i thought when i first visited citibank here but left to see they only have a unattended reception culture.
In detail, you enter the bank which will welcome you with a automatic good ting tong.. you go to the unattended reception and press the ting tong again manually. this sport will be so interesting, that you'll be ting tonging 10-15 minutes to see a receptionist coming on your way. Here comes she..
'good morning sir, sorry for keeping you waiting, how can I help you, sir'
your manasaatchi will be saying, varum pothu morning thaan but ipo afternoon aayiduthu. and it's no more good for any time of the day.
but varava azhagaa irukarthu naale, your, if anyone opposes (atleast my) mugam will be saying he..he..
that's allright, can i have some information about NRI services. then they goes, let me connect you to a appropriate consultant, wont be longer sir.
they give you such a feeling that you are just back from india, enquired about the NRI services. what i mean by india feeling here is, you wont be getting any urupadiyaana informations but the time taken will be like a return journey to madras.
aaha, i am nearing the completion of my anathal and it's very much coincident to hear citibank ad from raaga, // click on the banner now to sign for your Rupee checking account // ada naathaari, nambala kolai case la ulla podaama amaithiyaagamaatange pola iruke...
vaazhga citibank. valarga avargal service. Like they say - Bring India closer to us by all means.
steam off......Hmph.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Hi All
Priya, If you have put in your money in Citibank, then you have to put up with that "Stupid" website as long as you have your money in it. But recently we have come across another website taht is equally worse.
Thats www.vfs-usa-co.in
But difference is, we dont have to put up with this for so long, only till one need to book a Visa appointment date with the US consulate.
Here are the following features one comes across...
1) A person is allowed to reschedule an appt only one. But that cannot be to a date earlier to the existing date. Lets not forget the fact that he gives us the option to view an earlier date. Thats a good "UN-Usable" feature. Also note that this is a written rule in this website.
The next one that I will mention is an unwritten rule.
2) A person can see only once the available dates when he/she goes thru the process of booking a date. Assume you have canceled the process of a booking a date the first time, then the next time you go thru the same process, only some dates are available. I would like to know what kind of a filter they have used.
We have found out that we have to delete all the DS156 and 157 and redo it and have them ready in a state to just book the appt.
3) The next point is I accept technologies keep growing, so is the people's smartness to get things done faster. To avoid automation of this website, they have an "Image recognition" process which we are familiar with. The images are are so blurred that an old person with thick glasses will never be able to decipher the letter. Sometimes the lower portion of the image is hidden. So how will a person identify is a letter is "g" or "a"? Obviously, I enter a "a" instead of "g", it errors out and now "displays" the same image with opening up the lower portion of the image.
See image1 - Is this an "e" or "c"?
I cannot understand the goal of this website. All I need is a Visa date and should it matter how and what kind of measures I take to book an "Earlier" date? The worst is the "Illogical" User interfaces that one has to encounter!!!
The old paper system as better in many ways..atleast you are sure what you were doing..And if you have to walk to a bank you better make sure you really need to withdraw!
I had this very bad experience with online banking. Bank of America lets you have a savings account, A checking account and I have a credit card with them (which I got but I never use so never check the statement. The credit limit is say X dollars.)
One time when I need to send some big chunk of money to India (as a cheque) I went and used the online thing to transfer money from my savings to checking. And then send a cheque to India. What I didnt see is my transaction when I transferred Savings to Checking had failed. So my checking didnt have the required money (although savings has more than what I transferred) so this instead of bouncing (IT IS A FEATURE that is free I believe Bank of America later told me) charged the excess on my credit card. (My credit limit is only X dollars (this amount must be a lot more than X say X*10) so ideally this should not be allowed.
For example if your credit limit is 1000 dollars you cannot use your credit card to buy an item for 2000 dollars.
But I believe even if you cannot do it..your Bank Can. So I was not checking my statement and the excess was charged on my credit card. Whats the problem. If you have to pay using your credit card in CASH (Note this is very important) it is immediate so it will start charging an interest on the amount the very next minute and the interest was an easy 4%. So I didnt know about this and checked when I had already lost 250 dollars on the interest in a few days.
Ideally the cheque should have bounced (This is a feature for your protection so your cheques dont bounce that is added for free for everyone but you must CALL to CANCEL it)
OR If your savings has the money and checking does not and if you overcharge they probably can take care...(
OR you think if your credit limit was only 600 dollars they SHOULD have called you again to charge 6000 dollars on it..
There was no linking I knew of between my credit card and accounts..they said that I have to call them to cancel the link (otherwise they provide this feature for free again CALL to CANCEL)
So CHECK your statement. Although it makes no sense (it will be like a legal document) double check your statements for new features added. Once you do something online save the transaction before the window closes or crashes.
This is the biggest challenge with new technology - it is so easy for you to sit at home and do things..but there are numerous costs involved an tricks to take away your time and money that are being forced on you without your knowledge. They save because they dont need now people to be employed for doing all this. Web site problems are considered your carelessness.
Srikanth - angeyum ithe kathaiya..
That citibank ad before every song in raaga really annoys me and any web site you open rediff..chennaionline..deccan herald..citibank ad lendhu thappave mudiyathu..
Antha citi top makkal ellam pottu oru tvlai intha ad poite irukama mari..Kadhulai ketutey irukara mari pannanum....
Sari nee adikadi citibank ana poriyama..antha receptionist peru enna sonnai.....!?
ppriya- Un Usable feature..bugs ellame microsoftlai are known as "Knowledge Base". Antha articleku ponaina workaround tharuvan..as simple as reinstalling windows....
@priya,
en ethavathu complaint panna poriyaa, vendaam pls. vitudu. ava enna seiya mudiyum, paavam, u know...it's not her mistake.. hehe..
Post a Comment
<< Home