Over the past few weeks, I get 'container contains no data' error message when doing internet banking with Standard Bank. Most alarming when you are making a payment and this message pops up.

Anyway, a bit of internet research reveals that this problem could be related to Firefox and programmers doing their thing for IE only.

So I write on the secure messaging system in order to ask them whether this is the case and if so when are they going to sort it out. I received a call from the local branch a day or two later, advising me that I must phone the call centre. I said no ways am I going through that hoop - they should be calling me. Then I get another call from another branch person who tells me the same thing. I tell her get your people to phone my people or I find a bank that programmes for all browsers.

So then I get a call from a third person who tells me it is all my fault for not knowing how the internet works and how systems work, and I should be using IE or maybe I should get Opera cause she knows their system works well in opera. I told her I have been using their banking system since time began and before she was born and that this was a new problem since some hot programmer decided to tweak their system and not test it properly. That was just ignored. She sounded very knowledgeable until, she assured me that the mac users were having the same problem cause they use Firefox!! Ah.....says I, They actually use Safari....so now you are telling me that both Safari and Firefox are not catered for and you are now telling me that it is the banks problem not mine. Well she wasnt going there and I must phone their technical guys and ask them what is going on.

So I suggested that perhaps as my bank, they were the ones that should be phoning me and putting out some technical papers to warn their customers on these issues and then fixing the problems. The alternative for clients is to find a bank whose systems are designed for all browsers.

We know about the banks inabilities to communicate and assumptions that customers are always wrong and don't know anything, but I was wondering whether anybody else out there was experiencing the same problem with the data messages?