The Old People/Internet Connection Paradox

[Fritzo]

As many of you know, I work for a national ISP. Today's issue I bring before the Board of ATOT is elderly people insisting on using dial-up connections.

We offer DSL, Wireless, and Dial-up. As a rule, the elderly INSIST on using dial-up. We have a $7/month difference between dial-up and our lowest tier DSL (1.5Mb), but they don't want to move.

The paradox is you have the LEAST skilled computer users insisting on using the MOST difficult type of connection, yet they complain and want hand holding when they can't understand why things aren't working.

How shall I deal with this conundrum? You may begin your discussion now.

Being ATOT- I will expect links to some kind of lemon party website, someone calling me an idiot, someone mentioning they like pie, and someone giving a 42 paragraph story about his experience in this matter within the first page of responses.

 

[Kadarin]

Elderly people are pretty set in their ways...

 

[Geekbabe]

A lot of older people use the web infrequently and consider it wasteful to buy an "always on" connection when they don't need one. A lot of people are also on fixed incomes, the $82 yearly difference between dial up and DSL might well not be affordable for many of them.

 

[Beev]

People hate (and sometimes fear) change. Old people are even worse about it. They think their retarded bullshit traditions should never change.

Their kids already made them get the internet, and they'll be damned if you make them get fancy shmancy DSL.

 

[BrownShoes]

I like pie.

 

[PhoKingGuy]

You're an idiot

 

[trmiv]

It has recently come to my attention that not enough people understand how great Dial up internet has been to our lives. Each day we wake up and likely have one or more Dial up internet lying at the foot of our beds. It is wonderful to be able to wake up and smile each morning because of this.

Social & Cultural Factors

Dial up internet has a large role in American Culture. Many people can often be seen taking part in activities associated with Dial up internet. This is partly because people of most ages can be involved and families are brought together by this. Generally a person who displays their dislike for Dial up internet may be considered an outcast.

Economic Factors

It is not common practice to associate economics with Dial up internet. Generally, Dial up internet would be thought to have no effect on our economic situation, but there are in fact some effects. The sales industry associated with Dial up internet is actually a 2.3 billion dollar a year industry and growing each year. The industry employs nearly 150,000 people in the United States alone. It would be safe to say that Dial up internet play an important role in American economics and shouldn't be taken for granted.

Environmental Factors

After a three month long research project, I've been able to conclude that Dial up internet doesn't negatively effect the environment at all. A Dial up internet did not seem to result in waste products and couldn't be found in forests, jungles, rivers, lakes, oceans, etc... In fact, Dial up internet produced some positive effects on our sweet little nature.

Political Factors

Oh does Dial up internet ever influence politics. Last year 5 candidates running for some sort of position used Dial up internet as the primary topic of their campaign. A person might think Dial up internet would be a bad topic to lead a campaign with, but in fact with the social and environmental impact is has, this topic was able to gain a great number of followers. These 5 candidates went 4 for 5 on winning their positions.

Conclusion

Dial up internet seem to be a much more important idea that most give credit for. Next time you see or think of Dial up internet, think about what you just read and realize what is really going on. It is likely you under valued Dial up internet before, but will now start to give the credited needed and deserved.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Give them a senior discount so that the price is the same as dial up?

Seriously, from the sound of it, you would save you quite a bit of money in tech support.

 

[Linflas]

Try living on a fixed income for a few years and maybe you'll begin to understand their decision making process.

 

[spidey07]

Try living on a fixed income for a few years and maybe you'll begin to understand their decision making process.

Yep. And not only that, it's not a necessity to them. They don't really need it so it's not worth it to spend any more money on something they don't need.

 

[lxskllr]

Reverse the pricing, and make DSL cheaper than dialup. That'll reflect the cost of supporting those users.

 

[Sumguy]

Give them a senior discount so that the price is the same as dial up?

Seriously, from the sound of it, you would save you quite a bit of money in tech support.

Fritzo: We're offering seniors a discount on our DSL. With it, the price of a 1.5mb connection costs just as much as dial-up!
Old Fart: Can I get the discount with dial up?
Fritzo: No. In fact, we're raising the price of dial-up for seniors.
Old Fart: When I was a kid, we didn't have any of this internet mumbo-jumbo! When we needed to find information or mail someone, we did it by foot! And we liked it that way!

 

[KeithP]

If your company is offering a service that isn't profitable maybe they shouldn't offer it. Or, at the very least, adjust pricing to make it profitable.

Is someone at your company documenting the support questions you are always getting? They are probably the same questions over and over again. Maybe putting together a tutorial video based on the questions and offering it via the web, DVD and even VHS tape might help reduce the support costs.

-KeithP

 

[PingSpike]

Are you sure they can even get DSL? Yes, you'd think as an employee of the ISP you would know that information but comcast apparently doesn't know where their own cable ends so I consider this a legit question.

 

[RoloMather]

tl;dr

 

[Fritzo]

A lot of older people use the web infrequently and consider it wasteful to buy an "always on" connection when they don't need one. A lot of people are also on fixed incomes, the $82 yearly difference between dial up and DSL might well not be affordable for many of them.

Consider that the fact they may be using the computer so infrequently is it is frustrating to use. My parents were like this. They would check their email once a week on dialup, but now use it more than they watch TV on DSL.

 

[Fritzo]

Fritzo: We're offering seniors a discount on our DSL. With it, the price of a 1.5mb connection costs just as much as dial-up!
Old Fart: Can I get the discount with dial up?
Fritzo: No. In fact, we're raising the price of dial-up for seniors.
Old Fart: When I was a kid, we didn't have any of this internet mumbo-jumbo! When we needed to find information or mail someone, we did it by foot! And we liked it that way!

We're actually going to do something like this We're going to give all of our dialup customers DSL for 6 months at the price of dialup on select cities.

 

[DrunkenSano]

They don't want you young whippersnappers with your new fangled DSL on their lawns!

 

[OogyWaWa]

if the decrease in customer support costs between dial up and DSL is enough to make up the difference in price, they should lower the DSL price. or they could do what some banks do and just get rid of customers that cost them more money than the others do.

 

[FoBoT]

death panels

they'll kill off all the old poeples

problem solved


harry reid will deliver by christmas

 

[RKS]

My in-laws have dial-up and won't change. I think they could get cable at a cheaper rate but they still don't want to move. They already have digital/hd cable so it's not a matter of intrusive installation. To make matters worse they are on-line everyday for hours at a time.

 

[Ausm]

death panels

they'll kill off all the old poeples

problem solved


harry reid will deliver by christmas

I thought the 500 billion trimmed from medicare was going to off them first?

 

[FoBoT]

I thought the 500 billion trimmed from medicare was going to off them first?

either way, THIS PROBLEM, dial up internet being used by old people, will be solved

doesn't really matter how they die, as long as they die, soon

 

[mb]

I like pie.

Mmm, pie.

 

[InflatableBuddha]

Give them a senior discount so that the price is the same as dial up?

Seriously, from the sound of it, you would save you quite a bit of money in tech support.

I like this idea.

Oh and please off me if I ever become this stubborn, curmudgeony and stupid in my old age.