Popups and online payments in Chile

There must be a reason, though technically I can’t see it, why payment integration on Chilean sites is done with popups. I don’t know whose idea it was, but it is a very bad one. On many payment sites you have to reconfigure the browser so it allows the site’s popup windows.

Why are popups still being used? Not just for payments, but also to give users “important notices”. Why do they keep using popups, when most modern browsers already block these contraptions?

And why is payment integration done the way it is done? Web services have been around since 1998, and in Chile we still go through an intermediate window and a dance of requests from one site to another, and that is without even getting into the security aspects.

These payment sites are so badly designed that the times I have had to use them I end up wasting time calling a call center, sending payment receipts, even having a rough time of it.

Oh, and don’t get me started on support for browsers other than Internet Explorer (even 6.0!). What is wrong with the professionals who keep implementing these services?