Shockingly, this was due to some JavaScript relying on an older Chrome proprietary API so there's no possible way they actually tested it against their alleged support matrix.
Turns out, their JS minifier was creating code that contained a syntax error. Chrome was able to make it work, but Firefox would silently error out. Rather than try to solve the problem, they blocked any browser that wasn't Chrome.
-_-
Me, to <litigious tech company>: “Your JavaScript fails on IE8 because it now throws an exception when it attempts to set an invalid CSS value. I made a tiny patch but do you have an ETA for the fix?”
LTC support: “We don't beta test Microsoft's products for them!”
Me: “Okay, it was released this week. How's testing going?”
[a week passes]
LTC support manager: “Hey, can we get a copy of that patch to give to other customers?”
My employer at the time paid 7 figures annually for support.
Lawsuits don't cost millions. Court fees are absolutely never that high, and lawyers, while some may be expensive, are generally affordable for ~middle class (or even lower class if someone wants to do pro-bono work for you)
The whole "lawsuits cost millions" thing is a myth perpetuated by big corporations and further relied by normal folk who hear it from somewher else, which probably heard it from somewhere else, and so on.
When you read in the news "X company wasted $XX million in legal fees", what it actually means is "they stretched out the case with a team of very expensive corporate lawyers whoses price ranges are in the millions".
The advice I have gotten from actual lawyers is that it's literally not worth it if you expect to get only a few thousand dollars.
> "they stretched out the case with a team of very expensive corporate lawyers whoses price ranges are in the millions".
Yes - The company stretched the case out with expensive lawyers: Do you think the other side is somehow not obligated to also continue dealing with that case?
Who pays my lawyer while the company stretches the case out? Oops - that's still me.
----
As someone who has actually retained a lawyer for dealing with a previous employer:
1 - Most places had zero interest if the money at play was less than 100k (ie: They would not take the case unless I had a potential win of 100k or more)
2 - They charge ~$350 an hour. Sometimes billing for "intern" work at ~$150 an hour instead. I make good money (~200k) and I can afford less than 23 days of lawyer time a year, assuming I spend my ENTIRE yearly income on it.
That may be, but they can easily cost many tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Lawyers typically bill at multiple hundreds of dollars an hour so it doesn't take a lot of hours to rack up five- or six-figure costs. That's high-stakes poker for most people.
I once sued a neighbor for their barking dog. It cost me over $10,000 before I pulled the plug.
This is especially work considering with this particular company, which has a history of using legal threats to silence critics:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-against-proctorio
I would DEFINITELY not jump at the chance to incur a similar reaction.