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Original poster

Rant about things being online only!

170 replies

Noseylittlemoo · 30/03/2022 10:15

My Uncle is almost 92 . He lives alone , independently without help even tho he is almost blind. He doesn't have or use a computer.
He loves gardening and as such signs up for his local council garden waste collections. Previously he has been able to phone a number at the council, giving his card details over the phone to pay for the service. However now they have gone online only so he phoned me to help.
I had to create an account - which obviously he will never use , putting in my email address for contact information. I asked him for his card details but then a one time pass code was needed and he is not familiar with this. So I had to change the mobile number on the account from his to mine and put in my own card details and he will give me the money. The whole process took about an hour when he could have called them and had it processed in 5 minutes.
It also angered me that he is eligible for a 25% reduction as he is over 65. But in order to get the reduced price he was supposed to upload proof of his age and obviously I don't have any of his ID or documentation. He is comfortably off and was happy to pay the full price because he was just stressed about getting it sorted.

Surely the council could look on his previous history to find his age or cross reference with other information held like the electoral register.
It just annoyed me that it took up both of our time and stress for something he could have done independently a lot quicker. There must be others in this situation too.
Rant over!

OP posts:
DGRossetti · 31/03/2022 17:04

Worth noting there is a massive drive in the tech industry to address some of these issues. With the attention-focussing fact being that if your shitty tech starts being unusable for people as they get older then you are going to see your sales drop off a cliff.

This is why Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are all beavering away on digital assistants. To remove the need to read a screen and use a keyboard. Although we're nowhere near ready for that. Maybe we never will be.

ButtockUp · 31/03/2022 17:39

I'm really concerned about this.

My mum has had an account with a particular bank for decades. No problem.

However, a few years ago she was bumped up onto a higher fee paying account which afforded her free AA cover ( she doesn't drive ) free travel insurance ( she hasn't needed it for over twenty years and is , sadly, unable to now) free plumbing and drainage ( she's in a HA property)
Free home emergency ( again she's in HA property) and free mobile phone cover ( she doesn't use one.)

My mum is a rather frail and finds the modern world alien to her.

I phoned the bank to tell them that my mum didn't need this account. They asked to speak to my mum to consent to speaking to me, which she did, and it was agreed that this account was not suitable for her and that she needed a basic ordinary account.
However , they were not able to do this change over the phone and we had to go , in person, to her local branch.

So we did.
The assistant said she'd have to speak to the account manager and the account manager told us to go online and do it.
I told him that mum didn't have online banking and we were told " sorry, we can't change it, it has to be done online.!"

I've tried and tried, but cannot set up an online account for her.

I phoned the bank to explain this but the answer is that I need to go to a branch.

I live over 200 miles away. It's so hard.

EmmaH2022 · 31/03/2022 18:29

@DGRossetti

Worth noting there is a massive drive in the tech industry to address some of these issues. With the attention-focussing fact being that if your shitty tech starts being unusable for people as they get older then you are going to see your sales drop off a cliff.

This is why Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft are all beavering away on digital assistants. To remove the need to read a screen and use a keyboard. Although we're nowhere near ready for that. Maybe we never will be.

How would a digital assistant work, please?
EmmaH2022 · 31/03/2022 18:30

Buttock that is appalling. Have you tried the Ombudsman?

DGRossetti · 31/03/2022 19:21

How would a digital assistant work, please?

How does a digital assistant work ?

Ask Siri Grin

That's where we are being steered.

Personally, I have fuck all faith in anything pumped by marketeers, and have yet to seen any signs of "AI", But I'm sure I'm wrong.

EmmaH2022 · 31/03/2022 19:28

@DGRossetti

How would a digital assistant work, please?

How does a digital assistant work ?

Ask Siri Grin

That's where we are being steered.

Personally, I have fuck all faith in anything pumped by marketeers, and have yet to seen any signs of "AI", But I'm sure I'm wrong.

Yes, see that's my idea of hell.

I think in 20 years banks will start trying to attract customers by having staff.

debwong · 31/03/2022 19:35

Yes, see that's my idea of hell.

Me too.

2MinuteRice · 31/03/2022 20:09

Most councils have a complaint department.
If you search for your council complaints there will be a list.
In ours it will ask you which department eg social services, accessibility.
There is then an online form, telephone number or email address.
Good luck!

Original poster
Noseylittlemoo · 31/03/2022 20:58

@2MinuteRice funnily enough the email address for the council I used was one that I had used last year when I ended up being charged twice. It wasn't a complaint email address however when I received the email reply it came from a complaints address .
I hope like a PP said that we will come full cycle and go back to people / accessibility first.

OP posts:
Original poster
Noseylittlemoo · 31/03/2022 21:07

It actually really frightens me how life will become once I am in the age category who can no longer keep up with the tech advances. Like most people I would like to retain my independence as long as possible. I don't have children but I don't want to be that older relative to my Step daughter or Niece/nephew who always needs help. As @Exhausteddog mentioned earlier - yes I did have other stuff to do rather than spend an hour and a half on my day off sorting out something for my Uncle . Especially something quite basic that I'm sure both of us would prefer that he could organise independently. I hate the idea of becoming that "burden".

OP posts:
EmmaH2022 · 31/03/2022 21:16

Nosey my mum has a couple of friends who pay someone to do their admin.

My goddaughter wants to work in tech like her dad, but my objection is relying on someone else full stop. As I say, if I get to that age, which frankly I'd rather not, I think we might see a u turn.

Like pp, I sometimes help neighbours with it but only if it's essential. If it's something they want to buy online, I don't want the responsibility of entering their card number.

Are techies still keen on the Internet of Things? I have hated all this crap for so long. It's tiring.

FlowerArranger · 31/03/2022 21:18

@ButtockUp - why not write to the bank’s CEO?

This seems to be one of the quickest ways to get something done these days when you hit a brick wall because staff are on a ‘the computer says no’ treadmill.

XmasEveshopper · 31/03/2022 21:31

I would love someone like Joe Lycett to highlight how crazily hard it is to access some of these services without the internet. He loves writing a good letter when bureaucracy goes wrong.

areallthenamesusedup · 31/03/2022 21:37

I don't mean to be flippant but I genuinely think this is one of the reasons why people are so angry all the time now.....people feeling disempowered, out of touch, dealing with anonymous organisations who design systems around themselves and not customers......I have been trying for 10 days to get my energy provider to get a direct debit set up. For some reason there is a glitch or flag on the account. No idea why. They don't know either. Never any issues before. I am literally on attempt number 23 with automated bots. My neighbours son died recently....they have called the specialist BT bereavement line 7 times over his account.....the specialist line that is supposed to handle callers sensitively.....they are having to repeat the story each time. The computer keeps saying no.....

EmmaH2022 · 31/03/2022 22:20

are absolutely agree.

Whyamiwastingtime · 01/04/2022 00:49

My dad is 80 odd loves Linux and his hobbies include fiddling about with raspberry pi s and messing about with computers. He does not own a mobile phone and doesn’t want one.

workwoes123 · 01/04/2022 06:32

Why is this happening ? Is it just down to saving money / reducing employees?

I’m kind of protected from this as I live in France which has an army of public service workers that (currently) can’t be sacked, so they are really slow to make the move to online- only. The UK is much further ahead on this : every time we come back from a visit my phone is full of new apps for parking, bus tickets, ordering in restaurants etc.

Original poster
Noseylittlemoo · 01/04/2022 07:24

@workwoes123 . At first I thought the issue must be reducing staff. But it doesn't really make sense in relation to the original situation I posted about.
Apparently my Uncle had phoned someone at the council and they had given him instructions what to do/ what to tell me.

Then I sent the email which clearly someone read. They forwarded it to another department whose representative called me. She said she had heard from a lot of people saying the same as me, and she is going to feedback and organise the refund for me. This seems like an awful lot of time and admin spent on one case. Imagine how many payments they could have processed in the same time if they had kept the pay by phone option!

OP posts:
DGRossetti · 01/04/2022 17:16

Just for some balance here, one reason why I love things being online and detest them being telephone based is because having a DW that uses a wheelchair means you can't use a lot of ticket booking systems, and are forced to "call us" - which today alone has meant one fucking hour waiting on the phone to speak to someone. Or in my case no one, as when the call got to the head of the queue it "mysteriously" dropped.

When DW could transfer it was easier to book an aisle or end seat and get on with it. But now she needs a specific parking slot we're condemned to the hold music.

If you ever go to a venue and the accessible seats aren't taken, there may be a reason ...

FlorencenotRatchet · 01/04/2022 17:32

I would recommend Blind Aid.
Some amazing resources and support.

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