|
If all these companies want me to have a smart phone they can buy me one and pay the bill ;-)
|
|
We are the same as Joan , we have no passports or D/licence we do have mobiles but not smart phones. Ours only do text and calls so when they send a link in a text we can't use it.
Our doctors do repeat prescriptions by phone and we just pick meds up from pharmacy that we have chosen. We can't do the video calls though to the dr only the phone call. My OH doesn't use internet at all. I use a laptop but that is it. I had to return a parcel and they sent a code for the phone , useless to me so they sent a returns label to my email for me to print off. Good job I have a printer at the moment.
The lack of ID is a nightmare at times . I had a issue at a bank when they asked for ID and wouldn't accept what I had and the woman said everyone has a passport how do you go on holiday , I laughed and said don't need one for UK holidays. She was amazed that we have never been out of the UK. Moved account to another bank in the end.
|
|
I don’t have a smart phone so would want to keep my paper train tickets. But I do have an oyster for the London Tube.
Just collected my prescription, gave them an hour as I had the dentist but still had to wait. Got a reminder that one will still have to get them to check if the stuff is on stock before they download from the cloud( that is the option I will use as then I can get it done anywhere).
Goodness knows where they got the new staff from, one has to write down everyone’s name and ask how to spell it before checking to see if it iready.
|
|
I don't have a smart phone or a driving licence and the world is definitely moving more to these in all sorts of situations.
Hubby went into hospital this morning for a hip replacement and he had to have a covid test before he went in. They told us that we could just bring his smart phone with a picture of the negative test on it. When we said we didn't have one they looked at us as if we had two heads. We were then told to bring in the actual plastic test in a sealed bag. I felt like saying that we could bring in anyone's negative test and how would they know? I decided against saying that as it may have caused more problems.
A month ago we went to Boots to get new specs. and when I went to pay in cash I was told they wouldn't accept it (supposedly because they didn't accept cash during covid). I reluctantly paid on a debit card but told them I didn't think I would be back next year. It seems silly that they wouldn't accept cash in the opticians department but the rest of the shop does accept cash.
I'd like a time machine to go back 50 years to when the customer was the important person in any business situation.
Kath. x
|
|
Although our doctors use online prescriptions, they still have the option of the old paper system for those who can’t or won’t use the new system. Personally I am all for it, it is so much easier.
I am quite with it as far as technology goes, but I must admit my OH isn't as good. He lets me do everything for him and just hands over his devices with a blank look on his face whenever anything needs sorting out.
|
|
So what happens, if like my dad, he doesn't have a smart phone? I dread to think how he would cope travelling by train and wanting to pay in cash and he refuses to have a contactless card for security reasons he says!
As for online prescription orders, its so wrong and not inclusive of all. Many elderly people do not have mobiles or computers so how are they supposed to get their meds?
|
|
Yes Ann I agree about technology.
A couple of days ago, my daughter was trying to book some rail tickets online. For some reason it would not recognize her Entitlement Card which gets her a discount. After trying for ages we gave up with the computer and tel cust services after being transferred several times!
A gentleman said he could do the booking over the phone, fine we said except he did not have very good English and trying to spell out names etc proved quite a chore.
Eventually it was all sorted and he said an email with the tickets would be sent within a couple of hours. So we waited and waited and nothing was sent through.
Another tel call only to be told your postcode doesn't exist and we cant find your booking!! We had to wait until the next day. contact the bank to get the transaction code and then phone back etc.
We did all this and 2 hours later, a very helpful gentleman found the booking.
The problem was someone had misspelt the email address.It was duly sent with the tickets and all is now sorted.
Call me old fashioned, but wouldnt it have been so much simpler to buy the tickets at the station, no emails involved ?
And yes a machine at the Drs to diagnose...but how long do you have to wait to see the machine?
Florence in the hebrides
|
|
The older we get we have to forget more and more to make room for all the new stuff ;-)
My doctors surgery has just gone into internet only prescription ordering with designated pharmacies. How are the elderly without computers going to get theirs?
I refuse to designate my village pharmacy. It closes before the surgery does. It doesn’t always have the meds, sometimes they tell you off for going. I admit I usually go there, but there are times when I would have to take the script back and go elsewhere :-|
|
|
The older we get, the more technology we have to absorb. And the more technology in place means more chance of problems I think.
I know I am getting old, and also live out in the sticks, but a recent trip to London on the train impressed on my mind how much things had changed since my last journey there twelve years ago.
I was staying with my son in Milton Keynes and he had booked train tickets for us all. I do have an Iphone and his first question was ‘Do you have Wallet on your phone?’’ Needless to say I didn’t have a clue. So he looked for me and, yes, there is was, an icon saying ‘wallet’. It was there, I don’t know how it got there and I had never even opened it.
However he downloaded my train ticket into my wallet, showed me how to access it (one for going, one for returning), and that was that. And when we arrived at the station, I hovered my phone over the appropriate place at the turnstile, it opened for me. Magic!
Next we needed to use the tube, silly me thought I would need something in my ‘wallet’ for that. But, no, I just needed a contactless credit or debit card. None of this queuing at the ticket machine. Flash your card in the appropriate place and it took what it calculated was the appropriate fare. So much trust needed here, and in my old mind so much chance of error and access to my money. And also technology sometimes goes wrong. What happens then I wonder? And if you lose your card, or have it cloned, especially in London, visions of the finder having a field day travelling the underground.
I suppose all the above is just advance on my free bus pass which I hover in the appropriate place on the bus, I still wonder who is travelling free with the card I lost a year or so ago.. And contactless cards? What next? Pass in front of a machine at the entrance of the doctors surgery and it will produce a card with a diagnosis maybe. Ah but first you need an appointment to get through the door
|
