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Original poster

Will DH need a phone for track and trace (pubs/bars)?

112 replies

Fuckinellitsme · 16/04/2021 17:25

Not sure whether to post in here or Coronavirus so opted for here for traffic.

Last summer when we went to pubs we were able to check in using my phone, but I keep hearing that this time around everyone in a group needs their own phone/app to check in, even if they live together. If you've been out this week, have you found this to be the case? There have been stories in my local paper about older people without smartphones being turned away from their local - not sure if this is government guidelines or just down to the individual business.

DH doesn't have a phone and doesn't want one - will be still be able to go to the pub (or anywhere where you have to check in)?

OP posts:
Blimeypinkers · 16/04/2021 23:34

The app is useless. It doesnt work properly so there is no point in using it

Nodal · 16/04/2021 23:38

I've followed all rules and am vaccinated. I won't use the app because it doesn't work properly and I don't trust the accuracy, knowing the shoddy way it's been coded. I've been to 2 pubs this week and went out a lot last summer to bars and restaurants, in different parts of the UK, and it wasn't an issue.

DonGray · 16/04/2021 23:40

No, businesses are supposed to offer paper and pen based tracking as an alternative
" you must make sure that there is a method of checking in that does not rely on the customer using a smartphone or other technology in order not to digitally exclude people without access to these technologies."

www.gov.uk/guidance/maintaining-records-of-staff-customers-and-visitors-to-support-nhs-test-and-trace

Dobbyafreeelf · 16/04/2021 23:45

@MrsJBaptiste

Why do some people have no intention of ever getting or using the app? Did you never go out last summer? To a pub/restaurant/gym?

I haven't used it recently but surely if a pub asked you to sign in via the app, why not just do it?

@MrsJBaptiste Because
  1. it doesn't work
  2. it is susceptible to being hacked
  3. I don't want to
  4. I don't have available memory on my phone
BackforGood · 16/04/2021 23:48

People commenting on how does he manage without a phone must be in their 20s. I'm only 33 but remember a time without mobile phones.

I'm in my mid 50s and obviously have lived more of my life without a mobile than with it but before mobile phones, everybody had landlines. This man claims not to have ANY phone number. That is quite different.

MixedUpFiles · 17/04/2021 01:25

I started life with a rotary phone in the kitchen and knew to always carry money for the pay phone. I still have enough sense to know an adult at least needs a free voip number even if they are willing to venture out into a world without public telephones sans mobile.

PomBearWithoutHerOFRS · 17/04/2021 01:57

I'm 50 and still remember the days when not everybody had a landline. You would ask people if they were on the phone before asking for their number. My parents got a party line land line (shared with next door neighbour) in about 1981. We thought we were really getting posh then Grin

YukoandHiro · 17/04/2021 02:12

How would he contact the emergency services if he wasn't with you and there was a crisis? I'd be giving him a pay as you go honestly

CeeceeBloomingdale · 17/04/2021 02:18

It's been in the press this week that a man was denied service due to no smartphone and it's wrong of the pub, there is supposed to be a way to record your details without a phone.
www.google.com/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/covid-19-pub-and-restaurant-apps-risk-discriminating-against-older-people-without-smartphones-says-charity-12275009

Re the name of the app, the government spent a good few weeks calling the forthcoming app track and trace last year before its launch. It was then established it didn't do half of what Boris and Matt had promised so they changed it subtlety to test and trace just before launch.

CeeceeBloomingdale · 17/04/2021 02:24

@YukoandHiro

How would he contact the emergency services if he wasn't with you and there was a crisis? I'd be giving him a pay as you go honestly
In the same way people did before phones were widespread? Using a phone box, a neighbours phone or asking to borrow a phone from a stranger if possible, shouting for help etc. My dad has a serious medical problem and when I was a child we didn't have a phone so my mum would run to a friends house a few streets away to call an ambulance. I'm mid forties, I didn't have one until I was an adult so survived the teenage years without being contactable. The human race survived for a long time before mobiles.
Original poster
Fuckinellitsme · 17/04/2021 07:00

Gosh so much Shock that he doesn't have a phone! He absolutely doesn't want one, PAYG or otherwise. As PPs have said people managed before mobiles and he does quite happily.

I'm 48 and we didn't have a landline at home until 1986. We did have a payphone on the corner right next to our house though which I used to give out as 'my' phone number (I could hear it ring from my bedroom Grin).

DH is 37 and had a mobile in his teens but only because his mother insisted he did. When he lost it he was delighted because he hated it so much. Honestly, he manages absolutely fine without one - might be different if we had a busy social life or whatever but we don't (as a PP said, not everyone has friends!).

Most important thing is, we can go for a pint next week!

OP posts:
DinosApple · 17/04/2021 07:07

Last night out, way back when, I was able to do it on paper as my phone had 1% and the friend I was with hadn't brought her phone.
The bar maid looked a bit miffed. It is a bit extra work for them tbf- especially if lots of people need to manually sign in like that over an evening, but it didn't take long for me to write my details.

MayIDestroyYou · 17/04/2021 07:27

@PomBearWithoutHerOFRS

I'm 50 and still remember the days when not everybody had a landline. You would ask people if they were on the phone before asking for their number. My parents got a party line land line (shared with next door neighbour) in about 1981. We thought we were really getting posh then Grin
Wherever did you live?

I'm several years older, have never lived without a phone, and don't ever remember needing to ask anyone in England (from the 60s onwards) if they had a phone - everyone did. (University in the 80s, pre-mobile was the only time I had to rely on a communal phone for making calls, or the college porters for bringing messages phoned to the Porters' Lodge.)

Did you never go out last summer? To a pub/restaurant/gym?

Nope! And I could manage another twenty years without needing to visit a pub!

RampantIvy · 17/04/2021 07:29

The number of public phone boxes has decreased massively, and of those left so many get vandalised that the chances of finding a public working phone are very slim. And given that most mumsnetters never answer the door without a written appointment three weeks in advance Grin the chances of letting a complete stranger use your phone are also very slim.

Yes, I think it is odd not to be contactable by phone in the 21st century.

clary · 17/04/2021 07:32

[quote Chunkymenrock]@fuckinellitsme It is definitely Test and Trace. What you have sent must have been entered incorrectly. That's appalling on an NHS website. I can assure you it is definitely Test and Trace.[/quote]
Agreed, it's definitely Test and Trace. I work in NHS comms and that is dreadful on an NHS website.

clary · 17/04/2021 07:36

Meant yo say you can deffo give your details on paper. There are certainly people who don't have a phone. My personal phone won't support the app so f I don't have my work phone with me, that's what I do if asked. Tho IME lots of places are not bothering if they have your booking details.

Original poster
Fuckinellitsme · 17/04/2021 07:50

Yes, I think it is odd not to be contactable by phone in the 21st century

He is, though - he uses my number. But very few people ever need to contact him. Just work, really, and they rarely do.

OP posts:
Brokenrecord3006 · 17/04/2021 07:51

I've never used the app and not had a problem going anywhere. One place actually refused entry without the app but it was no biggie and we went elsewhere.

I've noticed at the moment, with eating and drinking outside, that I've not had to check in anywhere yet. I assume it's for inside only?

ineedaholidaynow · 17/04/2021 08:23

@Fuckinellitsme did you not have friends when your DD was growing up?

Does she have friends?

RampantIvy · 17/04/2021 08:27

How did you and your partner contact each other before living together? Email?

Original poster
Fuckinellitsme · 17/04/2021 08:55

@ineedaholidaynow no, I didn't, not really - there was one mum at her primary school I was sort of friends with, that's it. We lost touch when DD left that school. DD doesn't have 'real life' friends but talks to lots of people online and is quite close to some of them.

@RampantIvy we moved in together very quickly after we met but he lived at home before that, so I would call his house phone/he would call me from it.

Lots of people don't have friends or family - it's not brilliant and does get lonely sometimes but it is what it is.

At least we can go to the pub next week, that's the main thing Grin

OP posts:
changi · 17/04/2021 09:51

The human race survived for a long time before mobiles.

My husband has a mobile phone but he's never got into the habit of using it. Most of the time the battery is flat or he's mislaid it somewhere.

Friends and family often contact me if they need to contact him, or ring the house phone.

ineedaholidaynow · 17/04/2021 09:55

What numbers do you give as emergency contacts to school if you don’t have phones, family or friends? I would hate for the emergency contact to be social services.

Blueeyedgirl21 · 17/04/2021 09:58

I don’t have a land line, neither do most of my friends !

ineedaholidaynow · 17/04/2021 10:03

@Blueeyedgirl21 I assume you have a mobile though