The Internet Not for Old People

Alien54 writes to tell us the Daily Mail is reporting that if you want an internet connection and you are over 70 you may be in for a surprise. From the article: "After walking the Great Wall of China and making plans for a trip to Russia, Shirley Greening-Jackson thought signing up for a new internet service would be a doddle. But the young man behind the counter had other ideas. He said she was barred - because she was too old."

Comments

Re:why would HE be reprimanded?

[Joe Random]

He's following company policy. He works there... it is not his problem, it's the companies.

It most certainly is his problem. From TFA:

A spokeswoman said: "It is not our policy to refuse business from adult customers of any age group. However, we do ask our agents to use their discretion when dealing with older customers."

So the entire thing was at the agent's discretion, and he decided to deny this woman service based on her age. My sentiments are the same as the GP's: I hope this guy was reprimanded.

Re:A trip?!

[Bodrius]

I fail to see the Funny. (did the moderators RTFA?).
This comment does seem a bit disrespectful.

The lady said she completed a VISA application to go to Russia, and went to China last year.
She was legitimately comparing the complexity of Passport/VISA requests to a common subscriptions service contract.

Now, I don't know if either country has particularly complex VISA application processes, but even if they are not the accumulation of absurdities, redundancies and mistranslations that government forms often are, they should be definitely comparable.

Perhaps it wasn't the most interesting quote ever, but there is no reason to be condescending.

Re:why would HE be reprimanded?

[BVis]

What color is the sky on your planet?

The idea that the corporation is an entity unto itself controlled only by people in central offices where the front-line workers have no responsibility is BS. Every worker at a company has some responsibility for the company's actions and policies, especially the policies they enforce themselves.

The idea that the corporation is an entity unto itself controlled only by people in central offices where the front-line workers have no POWER is what's accurate. The front line workers might have some responsibility, but which is the larger? Their responsibility to try to change corporate policy or their responsibility to their families, who will go hungry if they get fired? Because I can promise you that in 99% of the cases, if a customer service rep tries to change corporate policy, they will be informed that they are not authorized to do so at BEST, and fired for ruffling the wrong feathers at worst.

Customer service reps are there to make the company look like it gives a flying shit about its customers. They're not there to improve the quality of the product or help the customer beyond a very rigidly proscribed set of circumstances. Management doesn't want to hear what customers want or need, they want to know about how much money they're making. The only time customer service enters into their consciousness is when someone's bitching about how much they're paying their reps or when they make such a massive cock-up that it starts actually biting into the profits. (Which then is typically handled by firing all the reps and hiring new ones... which is usually still cheaper than actually fixing the cock-up.)