So really, you're getting $5 off for starting the process without Flash. If you already have Flash installed, you'll never see this page and never get the discount code.
Obviously they should stop requiring Flash, but the title doesn't seem to accurately describe things.
If you are using Chrome on a desktop or laptop:
Open a new tab in your Chrome browser.
Type “chrome:plugins” in your URL address field.
Under Adobe Flash Player click the checkbox next to Always allowed to run.
They are just delaying the inevitable. I bet there's some higher-ups at FedEx who still like flash and refuse to give it up.
I suspect this is just a delaying action - a vain attempt to retain some of their web order volume - while they frantically write the replacement for their Flash component.
Seems like a reasonable stopgap as long as they're working on fixing it.
Though you're probably right. They'll have an updated version asap.
The main machine I have with closed source software gets only one credit card, with a low limit and that is for steam.
I would be setting up VM for this. More likely I would just call and get what I need or switch carriers.
I live less than 2 miles from a FedEx ground hub. I would rather walk the 30 minutes in both directions before enabling Flash for FedEx. WTF are they thinking? Pay that money to a developer to fix the problem instead of to your customers to limp along for a few more months.
Take into consideration that while the bare functionality of Flash has been "replaced" by HTML 5, there is nothing that really comes close to actually replacing Flash the IDE, especially not in a way that Flash developers find amenable. I've been working with a group to convert a Flash game to HTML 5, and, to put it lightly, it's a massive mess. There is currently no clear migration path. The market is really lacking there.
Even Adobe has given up on pretending like Flash is a solution for applications now; the IDE has been renamed "Animate".
In any case, FedEx is pitting itself against Google and the web community in a way I doubt they really understand. Whichever upper-mid-level manager green-lighted this is pretty naive.
There are plenty of people on machines without good flash support, various mobile devices and odd browsers. There are tech savvy people who know flash is an entry vector for viruses. Then there are people who just can't figure out how to install it.
5 years ago I would have believed the loss in that column of the ledge would be smaller than rewriting an app. Today, recreating the app should be cheaper than ever and more people have already moved on from flash. 5 years from now this will be example of some kind, I think it will be an example of how not to hold onto dying tech.
I wonder if this is a color of money thing. Are the management team attributing that $5 to IT to paint them as being an even bigger cost center and shame them into catching up with to 10's? I can't wrap my head around this.
No other courier has ever done any of these things.
Users would enable flash to watch the video, because that's what users do, and then it'll be enabled for the rest of checkout.
I'd be really curious to see some numbers on how successful this has been for them.
Cue a day of my weekend spent fixing a dead laptop.
I would think AWS and Azure would have cleaned up grabbing all those transcoding dollars by now. It's not like the impending death of flash was a surprise to anyone.
If anyone by chance knows a bank with remote deposit software that isn't Java in the browser, I would love to know about it.
Not even for $5.
This is their current and common practice here in Portugal. Fsck them.
Blame the government, not FedEx.
Also, I got a delivery by UPS in France once, and they made me pay the custom duties (which was fine, for a parcel valued at 400€), but also added their own «paperwork fees» that were as high as the custom duties, and were pretty much unexpected.
That is not the way business should be done. There should be a social responsibility part in every company. Extorting money goes against that.
Yikes. You had a bad experience once with a company that's pretty reputable. Now you hope thousands of people lose their jobs and investors lose their money. This seems disproportionate, to say the least!
Taking your argument one notch up: I hope and believe that this kind of coercion should be discouraged and that a company that insists on doing this must fail. Society cannot put value in these behaviors in any way (paying them 50EUR is giving them value). If you work at a company that mistreats their customers by extorting money from them then it would be better if you start looking for another job (better as in: better for us all). We have to work towards a system/society where the place we work should be a choice and not a last resort thing that our survival depends uppon (slavery). That is the base pillar of the free market ideology or any other ideology worthy of discussion (put in your favorite *ism here).
If you are an investor that is willingly and knowingly putting money in a company that behaves like that and expect to get your profit back because of these tactics then you should lose your money. We cannot work based on extortion or forceful positions.
These are just my opinions. They don't take away the fact that FedEx is acting improperly.
Your vendor selected to bill the duties and taxes to you.
Yeah, like enabling flash is an update. Good move, Fedex.