General Chat

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

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 :-|

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

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

If all these companies want me to have a smart phone they can buy me one and pay the bill ;-)

Re the ID. I sold my car before Christmas as I was not driving it and we have a fairly good bus serice. I always hated driving and my OH was always the driver. Once he died I didn't feel the need to do something I hated. But I did renew my driving licence as (if I wanted to) I could still drive. But the reason I renewed it was for ID purposes.

I don't have a smart phone, although OH does, but we are fairly modern (I suppose) in that we have computers, passports and driving licences.

The list of acceptable ID in many places has altered a bit recently and now has many more options, mostly for the benefit of non-computer people.

I always buy any long distance train tickets on line using The Train Line website. It is quick and easy and you have the option of picking them up at the local station, which I do. They are paper tickets too!! :-) Florence, I may have this wrong, but I didn't think you had any trains/stations in The Hebrides.

I think it will be worse when they do away with ticket offices which they are talking of doing tickets will then have to be picked up from some sort of machine at the station which some elderly people will find difficult.

Andys mum, we dont have any trains here lol. Daughter is ferrying it to mainland, then bus to the"big city". Her and her dad are then getting a train elsewhere for a few days!

it looked straightforward online to buy the tickets until she wanted to claim her discount and it failed to recognize her card and also didn't recognize our post code which has been here for years lol.

If you have to spell out your name 3 times and also your email 3 times, then i think there is the problem! Maybe the "international" gentleman that took the details needs a trip to Audiology :-D

I am quite a techie. I have a smartphone, kindle, PC and can mange emails, attachments etc. I can scan, crop etc with my printer.

I do have a driving licence although no longer drive and a passport so ID for me isn't a problem. But I guess at 60, I'm still a spring chicken and was still working until 2 years ago where technology in schools kept me up to date.

But my parents generation is a different matter as most of the women didnt drive back then, had no passports either so for many ID can be a problem.

Florence I am almost 82 would that fall into your parents generation. I too have smart phone, kindle, IPad, desk top PC can edit photos use ecell up to a point ditto word. I understand most thing on the internet and do internet banking. Many of my peers are the same. :-)

I’m also of your parents’ generation Florence. Most of my contemporaries use computers, iPads, iPhones etc. to a greater or lesser degree and I consider myself competent in that field.

Where did you get the idea that few women of your parents’ generation had driving licences? Amongst all my friends, family and acquaintances I can only think of 3 ladies who haven’t driven and 2 of those lived in London with it’s good public transport so didn’t need a car.

I’m sure part of the problem is that my generation have been so constantly told by the media and others that they wouldn’t be able to cope with modern technology that some of them have come to believe it, which is a great shame.

Well I have a bus pass for a couple of years with no problems, I needed to know what time I could use it from as I needed to use it at 09:00 so I had a look in a few places and nowhere had the info I was looking for so when I got on a bus today I asked the driver he said through gritted teeth that I can't use my bus pass before 09:30 I said ok thanks and maybe the next time you go shopping you should get some manners and respect.

ZZzzz, those pensioners who board buses before 9.30 am in our area are known as twirlies because invariably they ask the bus driver, ‘Am I too early.’ :-D

JoyLouise, they are here too, thankfully I'm not one of them because I get the bus at 10:00.

Suffolk Vera And Ann Gloucs, sorry didn't mean to offend you in any way as I know Ann you are good with photos on the PC etc..Its just that when I was at school, none of my friends mums drove a car, it was always the dads that did.

None of my mums sisters drove. Neither do they have a mobile phone or PC and none of my friends parents have any modern tech stuff. Maybe its the area where I was from.
Most of the mums didn't work and stayed home to raise the families, the men went out to work and took care of everyone.
As the man drove everywhere, the women weren't really encouraged to learn how to drive.
Even my dad, an engineer, refuses to have a smart phone and he is more than capable of using one, he just prefers what he was brought up with I guess.

Florence in the hebrides