She doesn’t know it yet, but we are about to drag my mother-in-law kicking and screaming into the 21st century. We are getting her a cell phone. She’s 70 years old and drives alone, sometimes at night. She needs a mobile phone in case of emergency. We’ll convince her of that. But she’s techno-phobic. She doesn’t even like using a remote control for her TV.
We have a several old phones, so hardware is not a problem. I have a Motorola Timeport I picked up for €3 from work. It seems to be the cell phone we have that looks the most like a normal phone. The menus are way too complicated, though. I wish I could disable everything except the phone book. All she needs to do is to make and receive calls.
Following vowe’s advice, I bought a prepaid SIM from Tchibo for €20, including €10 credit good for one year. All domestic calls cost 35 cents per minute anytime. That’s simple enough to remember, and Tchibo coffee shops are all over to buy more credit.
We’ll give her the phone for Nikolaus on December 6. We’ll have to think of a way to put it in her shoes.
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Won’t she crush it when she wants to dress up and have a walk?
If my Oma needs help with the menu functions of her cell phone (saving numbers, …), she goes to the local post office. They are quite helpful there.
Laura, are you talking about the German Post, the yellow German Post? That can’t be, last I heard, you can’t even buy stamps at a post office.
Yes, I am. And oddly enough, I don’t have any problems to buy single stamps at my post office.
Not that I have any explanation for this “Kundenfreundlichkeit”. It’s a little scary.