Forumite Members › General Topics › Tech › Android Talk › Elderly mobile user
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Bob Williams.
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June 27, 2019 at 5:16 pm #34475
I have just been asked for help by a sprightly 90+ yo lady neighbour. She has more marbles than most around here, is independent, tiny, bombs around at a cracking pace and has never asked my help before. I have made it a vow not to help most of my neighbours, but this lady is amazing and I would like to help her.
She has a mobile, don’t know what it is yet, has lost the SIM and wants another. When she told me what she had been paying Vodafone, I told her about PAYG. She has no internet, does not use it, therefore needs no or very little Data, just wants call minutes and text. I have looked at so many PAYG deals that my head is spinning, came down to monthly contracts at Smarty, ID Mobile and EE. ID Mobile looks good:
30 days rolling contract, £3.99/month, Data Rollover, Bill Capping. 500MB Data, 500 minutes, unlimited text.
She says that the widely-spread relatives and friends that she contacts, are often out, so she will be mostly texting, has no problem with that as she cannot write well due to Rheumatoid, but being an ex-typist, types at Warp 12 and uses her fingers well on a phone. The ‘ID’ plan has unlimited text, so that’s helpful. The only problem I foresee, is that she has no internet, but I won’t mind setting it up for her.
What does The Team think? Anyone have any better ideas? I aim to see her phone (if she ever slows down enough to speak to!) and find out about her previous deal. All advice appreciated.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.June 27, 2019 at 5:55 pm #34478Coverage would be the big thing. ID and Smarty both run of 3.
I’m on Smarty with the small plan, I hardly ever get through 500mMB of data a month so the excess is credited against my next bill. That applies to all plans. If the data use is minimal it should cost about £5 a month after the first month.
Check the small print on ‘unlimited’ texts and minutes, Smarty is truly unlimited calls and texts.
If Smarty is decided upon give me a nudge and I’ll supply a referral link, first month free and £10 Amazon voucher for the neighbour and a free month for me.
June 27, 2019 at 5:55 pm #34479Coverage would be the big thing. ID and Smarty both run of 3.
I’m on Smarty with the small plan, I hardly ever get through 500mMB of data a month so the excess is credited against my next bill. That applies to all plans. If the data use is minimal it should cost about £5 a month after the first month.
Check the small print on ‘unlimited’ texts and minutes, Smarty is truly unlimited calls and texts.
If Smarty is decided upon give me a nudge and I’ll supply a referral link, first month free and £10 Amazon voucher for the neighbour and a free month for me.
June 27, 2019 at 7:18 pm #34483being an ex-typist, types at Warp 12 and uses her fingers well on a phone.
I was browsing on Geek last night and saw this:
https://geek.wish.com/search/keyboard/product/5c079346fd4a2d2243ed8db4?&source=search
I imagine you can get them better / cheaper, but I though it may be handy 🙂
June 27, 2019 at 11:43 pm #34486Thanks Nolan and Ryan. She can use a phone touch screen perfectly well Ryan, doesn’t need a keyboard.
Nolan, looks like it will be Smarty, thanks for the referral offer. I have to contact this very busy old girl and take a look at her phone first, but Smarty will fit her limited requirements. Coverage here is poor: achievable 3G outside all the time, inside occasionally, the Lincolnshire Wolds mask our nearest mast. Text can be done OK inside or out. I know that I will have no problem getting her working with it, as she is still very sharp-minded at 93, hope I have all my marbles if I make it to that age!
I think her initial problems were caused by a niece trying to sort it all out for her over the landline. The niece I have met once a few years ago, tbh she is in her 60’s but not half as intelligent as her aunt.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.June 28, 2019 at 7:02 am #34491She may want to start looking at learning how to do some basic data using operations.
It is getting to the state where most Government forms now have to be filled in on line. She could also probably benefit by the use of things such as the NHS app which both provides advice and a wrapper for accessing stuff at her GPs practice.
June 28, 2019 at 9:27 am #34496I have had the NHS application almost since it first came available, but to be honest I have been a little disappointed with what it can do and the way that it does things. The need for a text response and a code to be keyed in before you can access anything can be a bit of challenge in poor reception areas. I have known the text to take several hours to come through making it frustrating not to say useless. Some GPs restrict the activities that can be carried out, so you may well not be able to book appointments. The symptom checker is a pretty broad brush affair; expert system it is not. It often defaults to ‘see your GP within x hours’, which can be unsettling.
The ability to get text reminders/confirmations of bookings that have been made is valuable along with other reminders that the GP may decide are important is valuable. Our only issue is that they then try to call for everything via the mobile. This does not always work so well, especially when reception is weak to very poor as it is for us at home. However, for those often out and about in better reception areas it can be very good, if a little embarrassing in crowded places!
June 28, 2019 at 3:47 pm #34502This lady does not have any medication at all, probably has not been near her surgery in years. She is 93, must walk miles in a day, a keen churchgoer and I don’t think she has had a day’s illness in years apart from the occasional cold, which she shrugs off. She will go to Louth, Mablethorpe, Grimsby or Skegness alone on a bus, refuses all offers of lifts: “That’s what my Bus Pass is for!” Has been known to take a train alone to London, Leicester, Sheffield and other places where her relatives live. My missus and I are the only people she will ask for help and I have helped her in the past, by taking her to a Railway station. She is tiny: shorter even than my missus, who is 4’9″, she looks like a good wind would blow her over. But she is as tough as old boots, out in all weathers. Eats like a horse, don’t know where she puts it. She is an amazing old lass and I have great admiration and respect for her. She jokes that she is very religious but counts two of the biggest atheists in the village as friends: that’s us.
I need to see her now and find out her next step, what phone she has, what service she wants, etc. Just can’t catch her in!
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.June 28, 2019 at 6:15 pm #34507It does sound as though she has life sussed out and if you cannot do it by her age, when will you achieve breakthrough? Long may she continue to enjoy her good life lived the way she can enjoy it, along with your company of course.
On a side note, our disabled daughter has recently found the bus services work well with her mobile. She has grown in confidence, being able to plan trips and know when and where the next bus will be when making the three hop trips to see us. Prior to this break through, she was a nightmare even on point-to-point journeys. Your neighbour may well be so well tuned in to her present way that she needs no such assistance. Though with winter coming, even she might value knowing when the next bus is likely to turn up – as this is not always quite the same as the numbers on the schedule.
June 28, 2019 at 7:55 pm #34513We go to “Walk and Talk” on Wednesdays. We often meet an old dear walking in the opposite direction with whom we always say Hello etc. She rarely appears if very wet, but always asks how many laps we will be doing. (one lap just under one mile, we usually do four). Anyway, a few months ago I said to her that she has been missing for a few weeks. She said that she does not bother if it is too cold. She is not very big, always dresses very smartly (M&S style of a decade or so ago, tweedy) and looks well for somebody obviously older than we are. I decide to enquire her age. Reply, 92! From the same mould as your neighbour by the sound of it Bob.
Les.
June 28, 2019 at 9:01 pm #34515This does not always work so well, especially when reception is weak to very poor as it is for us at home.
Depending on your phone or provider, you might be able to set up wifi calling. I get no signal at my mother’s house, but Three added wifi calling a little while back, and it’s been flawless so far. I just use the phone as normal, and they do whatever makes it work 🙂
June 28, 2019 at 11:54 pm #34518You have to admire that generation, went through the War and rationing, poor housing, made their own entertainment and generally were more self-reliant than most of us who came after. Living in what was Sheltered Housing for the last 16 years, I have seen so many of them pass and they all faced it with grace. A few years ago, I was talking to an old guy in my son and daughter’s village pub. He was a really interesting character, proper old Lincolnshire bloke, had been a Lancaster tail gunner in WWII. He wouldn’t take a drink with us, said his limit was two halves or he would need the loo too many times! (I have learned the truth of that by now myself!)
After he left, the landlord told me what the old fella would not say: he had been blown out of the rear turret over Germany by a Me 109, Lanc was on fire and all his crew died. It was January over North Germany and I know that means heavy snow: he fell out of the sky expecting to die, but landed in a thick snowdrift made bigger by bulldozers clearing the roads, was picked up and taken to a Luftwaffe camp hospital. Absolutely uninjured, but pretended to be, walked out, recaptured, sent to another camp, escaped again, recaptured, sent to a harder camp. He was marched across Germany with hundreds of other POW’s in 1945 and eventually found the US Army. Fed and watered, recovered, he walked about 120 miles, across to British forces. Got home to find his missus had died of pneumonia.
What an amazing bloke, but I was cautioned not to ask him about it as he hated talking about it. Not that I would have done that.
When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
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