Why the powerhouse website is pants

Site reviewed on 16th December 2003

Another consumer facing website which enjoys arguing with customers and being rude to them. This company recently called in the receivers and is likely to be broken up

By arguing with customers I mean telling them "You must use this kind of browser", when in fact the customer probably uses the browser they do for valid reasons - e.g. customer preference, disability access, etc. The Customer is Always Right, except if they use a non IE browser on this site in which case they are shown the door, no questions asked. The customer, by accessing the site using a non IE browser is saying "here I am and this is the browser I have chosen to use", the shop argues with them by saying "Your preferences are wrong. You must use IE 5+". Since when was arguing with customers good customer service? Since when was annoying and turning away 10% of customers a good thing to do when you're in receivership?

By being rude to customers I mean showing them the door because their preferences are apparently incompatible. One wonders however what is going on here that you need an old browser like IE5 to use the site but a modern browser such as Mozilla (which follows standards) is somehow not going to work.

Getting past this annoying "customer go away" sign is fairly trivial with browser spoofing though. This company must have a good reason for turning away 10% of their customers. Now you see why, their code is so broken that if you view the site on a modern standards compliant browser you get this mess. Oh dear! Perhaps they should develop and test for multiple browsers?

I wonder if this standard of testing is indicative of their ability to test the electrical goods in their shops? I would hope not!