South Africa's disappointing high-profile websites

You forgot to mention Computicket's website, that's always down when there's a high demand for a particular event.
 
Very true, jes.

South African web sites are horrible to use & navigate ..... where are our good web site designers?
 
The South African government and other organisations seem to think that returning an error message rather than reverting to a default is the better option.
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On the bright side, at least they're admitting that something is wrong.

Mike Hoxbig said:
You forgot to mention Computicket's website, that's always down when there's a high demand for a particular event.
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Agreed, though I guess it wasn't mentioned because it's not in the TelCo sector. Computicket is also so craptastic that it doesn't/didn't work properly in anything except IE.

Another high-profile website that sucks is Ster Kinekor. Every time I go there I sigh and shake my head.
 
Yes, Vodacom has got to have one of the worst websites in human history, but you forgot to mention all the large retail chains which also have useless websites, that could give you a nice catalog etc, even let you buy stuff online, but instead just let you download a pdf of the printed specials brochure. (I'm looking at you, Game). Or for difficulty in navigating, try telkomsa.net. Stupidest way of paying your bill online ever.
 
Please don't forget that they are very busy peoples. They are fighting the great struggle. They struggle especially hard to get away with some cash under the table.
 
HawkiesZA said:
Another high-profile website that sucks is Ster Kinekor. Every time I go there I sigh and shake my head.
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Oh my word. Don't even get me started on Ster Kinekor, stupid piece of crap site.

I get surprise everytime I select my area then my about to select my cinema then a crap pop up for a movie appears that totally slows the site down to 1fps a second, then you can't select anything till the dumb pop up is finished and close it.

The site is slow, it's stupid to navigate, and really has one of the worst designs I 've ever come across ever.

Sigh, I hate that blady website. I don't like Nu-metro but atleast their website works better.
 
I had to use Vodacom's websites this morning. Once was to check how much data I still had on a bundle I bought last month. I also had to check on my housekeepers' account. If the maintenance that was done over the weekend made any difference it escaped me... Cell C's site is equally cr@ppy.
 
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Telkom's website rarely has downtime problems, but it can be a frightening process for a new user to find what they're looking for.
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+1. And have you tried their online billing ... it amazes me that such a simple service can be made so incredibly complicated!
 
TJ99 said:
Yes, Vodacom has got to have one of the worst websites in human history, but you forgot to mention all the large retail chains which also have useless websites, that could give you a nice catalog etc, even let you buy stuff online, but instead just let you download a pdf of the printed specials brochure. (I'm looking at you, Game). Or for difficulty in navigating, try telkomsa.net. Stupidest way of paying your bill online ever.
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I don't think you realise just what a major step it is to offer stuff online, firstly, you need to sort out contractual agreements with Couriers (instead of just shipping Mass bulk to stores, they would now have to ship to individuals, totally different scenerios), Banks (trying to work out a decent rate for the Online Transactions, but this is my second point), suppliers, etc.

Secondly, you need to set-up a payment gateway that can deal with the transactions of various Credit Cards and Banks (This is a HUGE process, in labour and Hardware terms, you would have to expand your IT development side ALOT to develop, maintain and hopefully, move forward with this). It's not as easy as you think , not by a looooooong shot.
I'm not even going to in-depth here, there are so many issues that come up from offering Online Shopping, sometimes it just isn't worth!
 
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I remember Vodacom's old site, it was actually very good, i could check my usage and amount of free minutes left and everything, but then they migrated to their "new & improved" site and i cannot even log in!! it says that you can use your same log in as the old one but no, that does not compute for the new site. I could not even make a new one cause it had already got my cell number in the Database! i have reset my password like 3 times (every time i have to send a e-mail to their Support department, which takes 3 days to respond) and everytime i try login after that, it doesn't work!!

i have stopped even looking now :S
 
IOL's new site is absolutely awful. I've just stopped going there altogether now. The useless designers still screwed up the implementation too!

News24 isin't much better me thinks.
 
And the frustrating thing is that they actually feel it is fine, operating like this. There are some decent ones, try Toyota's site....
 
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TJ99 said:
Yes, Vodacom has got to have one of the worst websites in human history, but you forgot to mention all the large retail chains which also have useless websites, that could give you a nice catalog etc, even let you buy stuff online, but instead just let you download a pdf of the printed specials brochure. (I'm looking at you, Game). Or for difficulty in navigating, try telkomsa.net. Stupidest way of paying your bill online ever.
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Yes, South Africa has a LONG way to go in terms of online business. None the big retailers allow you buy their products from their website. They have all completely ignored the opportunity of allowing customers to buy their products from the comfort of their home.

And what about the insurance companies? Overseas you can buy short-term and long-term insurance directly from the company's website using your debit or credit card. In South Africa you actually have to speak to some slimy sales consultant and then you have to hand over your bank account details to setup a direct debit. I don't know about you guys, but I would prefer not to talk to ANYONE when I buy insurance and I would prefer to buy it online with my credit card. Why can't these companies offer this when so many overseas insurance companies do it with ease?
 
Kurike said:
I don't think you realise just what a major step it is to offer stuff online, firstly, you need to sort out contractual agreements with Couriers (instead of just shipping Mass bulk to stores, they would now have to ship to individuals, totally different scenerios), Banks (trying to work out a decent rate for the Online Transactions, but this is my second point), suppliers, etc.

Secondly, you need to set-up a payment gateway that can deal with the transactions of various Credit Cards and Banks (This is a HUGE process, in labour and Hardware terms, you would have to expand your IT development side ALOT to develop, maintain and hopefully, move forward with this). It's not as easy as you think , not by a looooooong shot.
I'm not even going to in-depth here, there are so many issues that come up from offering Online Shopping, sometimes it just isn't worth!
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Even if that were not worth their precious time as you are implying, they could still at least show you what they sell in-store. All their stock and purchases are already included on a database after all. Just look at Makro, for example, they can show you which items are in stock and where. Not always exactly up to date but it's close enough
 
deweyzeph said:
I don't know about you guys, but I would prefer not to talk to ANYONE when I buy insurance and I would prefer to buy it online with my credit card. Why can't these companies offer this when so many overseas insurance companies do it with ease?
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I've never understood this either. Maybe it's a legal thing? Something to do with FICA/RICA/JICA MA JICA?
 
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