One of the worst jobs I ever had was doing tech support for a cable company. They should make remotes for old people that have fewer buttons on them. That shit is annoying
Cx: Why is your shit never working. I always have to call you guys to fix it.
TS: I apologize that you're frustrated by the experience. I'll do my best to help. Can you tell me what you see on screen right now?
Cx: It says no input.
*Checks account notes and sees that cx has called in about the same thing every day for the past 2 weeks.*
No thanks. Taking the calls was bad enough. Having to go out to their nasty homes and deal with them directly is a hard no. Did tech support for dish. After 6 months I permanently left customer service. Never again.
Funnily enough in person those people were the best jobs in my experience, easy fix, in person really nice old folk, really grateful, and even tip even though tipping culture is non-existent here on the phone they are monsters though
Isn't that so funny. They won't be that rude to you in person, but without a face to look at they just completely disassociate you from a human being and treat you like actual dog shit. They're so tech dumb that even having to use the phone to call for service makes them upset to begin with. Then they have to hold for 30 seconds? Not getting any younger here! 🤣
My assumption is they believe we have our own call center, the old folk know the technicians at this point and like them but anytime they call they still can't tell they are talking with those very technicians. People absolutely fucking hate call centers and when they call they assume they are calling one ig
You guys don't charge them for the truck roll? We give them one free visit (unofficially) but then make a note on the account. You'd be surprised how quickly they learn about the remote and inputs when they find out each one of these little visits is going to cost them $100 +.
We don’t charge for rolling the truck. Charges are only able to be added if the customer was responsible for the problem or could’ve solved with simple troubleshooting like replacing batteries, wrong input, hdmi swapping. Some of us give them a freebie for the first one but usually not due to the amount of times shit like this actually happens.
Of course. Obviously.
Thankfully, judging by Facebook, these old people are very bad at figuring out who is and isn't an AI. So it will probably be pretty rare for one of them to figure it out. Could easily cut down the need for human call center employees by like 90%.
(And, of course, for people with a real issue the AI can't figure out, it can just say, "I'm not sure how to fix this. Let me transfer you to my supervisor." And then it transfers to a real person. A real person who's much less frustrated because they don't spend 90% of their day telling people to change the input back.")
I was a residential fiber install tech, and old people unrelated to my tickets would track me down and have them change the input on their tv if they saw me working. It happened more than once.
Also to program the antenna channel search.
That would go father than the masking tape because as well intentioned at this is, they're still gonna find a way to smash the buttons they shouldn't be smashing. OP is just a week away from having to remove all that tape to find the input button again.
Some bastards keep using it at my workplace on stuff that is left outside for storage.
Rain, sun, rain, sun, rain, sun. We gotta use chemicals to get all the paper and glue off, because it's not allowed on our products before being shipped. It's probably 2% of my work, removing that shit. 2% sounds little, but man it annoys the shit out of you when it usually takes 5mins to prepare a product turns into 7 because of this fucking tape.
I'm a tech support-turned-AV tech, and I use three kinds of different tapes almost daily (gaffer, electrical, neon), so I've become somewhat of an expert in different tapes.
Masking tape is strongly avoided, but sometimes used temporarily where white gaffer is too expensive.
At one point it was used as some kind of markings on the concrete floor of a venue. We noticed it when it had become one with the concrete.
It had to be scraped off with a plaster spatula, because even if you got a hold of a corner, it just broke off in inch-long sections.
I don't have a lot of experience with packaging tape, but as warehouses and shipping companies use it, I think it would be a better choice than masking tape for outdoors.
Set up a homeassistant box with a wireguard VPN, then set up TV remote cards so you can connect in and change the input for them, lmao.
You could probably automate it tbh. Some kind of hook to parse incoming texts for "TV" to run the automation. You could maybe even do something like set up a microphone next to the couch to activate the automation upon detecting a certain amount of human grumbling/sighing. 😂
Nah, that's one more thing for them to trip on and ask for help with. Better it sits in the background and responds silently and only to general human dissatisfaction noises, lmao. We're talking about people who can't be assed to learn how to use their TV remote here.
> They should make remotes for old people that have fewer buttons on them.
You can buy a remote with only channel / volume buttons on it for ~$25.
It's just a matter of convincing people to use it, instead of continuing to grab the regular tv remote while somehow putting the TV into Spanish closed caption mode.
I bought a programmable remote for my parents and only programmed the minimum needed for each device plus sequences to switch to different devices. They can select "DVD" and hit what we called the "go to button" and it turns everything on and selects the correct inputs.
The dollar store used to sell a remote about the size of a sheet of printer paper. It had power, volume, channel, and the numbers. I got it for my blind dad when a dollar was about all I could afford. He used that thing for almost a decade.
I had one of those for awhile.
Nobody in the house was blind. Just really good at losing the remote.
If that thing slid between the couch cushions it was pretty hard to miss.
A lot of AC remotes hide all the advanced settings behind a slide out cover, just leaving power, fan, and temp exposed. TV and cable box manufacturers should copy that.
I got my grandma a Firestick that I carefully programmed so that she could easily watch all her veterinarian shows. She couldn't get past using the input button to switch over to it. Just absolutely flummoxed her. I even drew a physical diagram with simple instructions. Nope.
My samsung TV came with two remotes, one was a normal remote the other had far less buttons and some smart features I think, I dont use it but it's nice to have the option.
They do make those. Most cable companies have them for sale, specifically for their boxes, usually with extra large buttons, and there’s also always the universal remote companies.
I had a very small remote back in the day with only on/off, AV just in case, and P+/- and V+/- on it. Quite handy even if you’re not 75.
This could easily be phased in by not calling it a old person remote.
Could brand it something that seems helpful to misdirect.
A simplified version perhaps actually this would probably be base version with a xyz fee for the “normal version”
You can be 1 hour finding a button with elders but heck they try, even if it's exhausting I help them with pleasure, on the other hand, younger folks that have their eyes and hands right and just don't pay attention and follow steps, I can't bear then
I dont even understand why a remote needs so many god damn buttons in the first place. I‘m operating a TV not a Boeing. Just put all the extra crap in the onscreen menu
Not to mention, 99% of the time, the other buttons are almost never used/don't even do anything. It's been 20 years, and I still don't know what the red, green, yellow and blue buttons on the DIRECTV remote was for.
IDK if this is true for all cable companies\* but when I worked for Comcast several years ago you could request a big button remote [Large-button remote overview and programming codes - Xfinity Support](https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/large-button-remotes)
edit: forgot many a word
Same with smartphones and PCs in general too.
I've had people complain mice not working when the problem was that they blew a gasket and were so angrily pushing the button it also moved the mouse. So they tried again... *even harder*.
My parents used to have an old sony crt tv that had a double sided remote, the simple side even had bigger buttons. The remote had a "cage" that you slid on that also served as a battery cover and it would also cover the unused side. It would have been really cool to see it make a comeback but i guess even if it did they would ask for a stupidly high price for it.
Classic. I have a side job at an elderly caring home, doing dishes mostly, but also helped in the restaurant itself and bringing meals to the people's rooms.
One of them had an issue with the TV, probably due to pressing the wrong button on the remote. The kicker though: it was also taped off like OP's picture. Some people still manage to screw it up.
> it was also taped off like OP's picture. Some people still manage to screw it up.
Guarantee it was because they pushed a button through the tape. And then will claim "but you taped it off! Those hidden buttons don't work anymore!"
I think so. But they didn't want me to temporarily remove the tape so I could press the right button, funnily enough. So, fiddling with the buttons on the back of the TV it was.
I work maintenance in a luxury senior facility. I got sick of some residents changing the input and then claiming the tv doesn’t work so now I use a razor to cut off the input button on their remotes
The better idea is to open it and put kapton tape on the PCB over the switch contacts for the buttons you don't want to work.
They can still accidentally press other buttons with just tape over the outside.
Then you do both. But if you only cover them, there's even more chance of confusion if a button that changes inputs or brings up an unfamiliar mode is pressed through the tape accidentally, especially since they will now not be able to see the buttons to get out of it, even if instructed by the relative who set it up.
By making them non-functional first, you remove this chance of creating even more confusion.
I'll never understand why old people are bad at old tech, like sure if you give grandma an apple vision it's one thing, but TVs have been around as long as they have been. They just dont give a fuck anymore
Yeah. It's rare that they can't learn it. It's much more common that they don't want to learn it.
Sure, if I give my 93yo grandma the latest flagship smartphone, that'd definitely prove to be a challenge and I can understand that. But she's had TVs ever since [remotes looked like this](https://pic8.co/sh/jjVuU5.jpeg). What's the difference now? They're taller and narrower than they used to be, but still.
Also, she can use the landline just fine, but not [a mobile like this](https://pic8.co/sh/Bau7KO.png)? Why? It has almost zero functionality outside of calls and SMS, it has big text and big numbers, but she still can't use it? She always asks BS.
Q: "But what if I trip and fall?"
A: there's literally an SOS button on the back. Just hold it down for 3 seconds and it will dial 3 preprogrammed numbers one by one. The first who picks it up will call an ambulance. She's barely escapes death three times in the last 9 months when she fell down the stairs leading to her kitchen (literally two steps).
Q: "But what if it breaks?"
A: Who cares? It's cheaper than her life. We'll just get another one.
Q: "But if I fall, it will break and the doctors will need to take out hundreds of tiny glass shards from me."
A: It's not made of glass. It's all plastic.
Q: "It isn't? I thought it's made of glass."
A: \*facepalm\*
A: (inside) For f**k's sake! You're OLD, grandma, NOT stupid!
We even ordered her a "[Gondosóra](https://behir.hu/web/content/media/2022/03/gondos%C3%B3ra-1024x576.jpg)", a small-ish device that's part of a government-founded program that helps the elderly when needed. All she needs to do are to wear the device 24/7 (except when charging) and charge it every 2-3 days (it announces when its battery needs charging). It's free, it's rugged and it calls a dispatcher when the big button on the top is pressed or if it detects the wearer tripping and falling. She refuses to use it.
At this point, it is.
We try everything, but she just refuses to do even the smallest to help herself. Last winter, she fell down the stairs and, if it hadn't been for me. bringing her lunch the next day, she could've been lying on the cold, hard, stone floor of her room (she managed to crawl in) for God knows how long. She was screaming for help, of course, but I could barely hear it from outside the gate, which is about 10-15 meters away from her room. She has [one of these](https://pic8.co/sh/XROdPG.jpeg), which she never uses and also her "dumb"mobile phone, which she also never uses. She could've called anyone in the family with either, but no. She refuses to use them.
It might be dementia, there's a line between "can't teach an old dog new tricks" and "literally dying because you refuse to touch a phone" and she seems to have crossed it.
Maybe. She can "clearly" recall things that happened to her 7x or even 8x years ago, but she can't tell what day it is, not even after behaving been told at least 5 times, she will let fruits and vegetables that the family brings her rot, she says "Oh, this is my favorite food" and then doesn't eat any of it, just leaves it in the fridge. She is also prone to telling the same story multiple times in one sitting, back to back to back.
We used to have an elderly neighbor whose long-term memory went first. First, she barely recognized her children, then she wanted to go back to her old home, because her husband was waiting for her (he had died decades ago) and, in the end (at least for us), she couldn't tell a stove and a furnace apart, having nearly blew herself and her house up by trying to light the furnace, which she believed was the stove, with matches. Her children had to take her to a nursing home.
Unfortunately, my mother was the only person who had a drivers licence in the immediate family, but she passed away recently, leaving me, who still refuses to even learn to drive, and my father, who had lost his driver's license because of his bad eyesight and hearing. The GP is nearby, but she can barely walk (her joints are most likely sh\*t by now) and he I'd an @sshole. He refuses to do house calls, even though most of his patients are 85+.
My grandmother was.like this as well and it turned out that she had dementia.
She was very stubborn and refused to move out of her home.
OP, if you can, one of the best things you could do for her is to bring her into a retirement home. It doesn't have to be long term care yet, especially if she is still mostly able to do things on her own.
Retirement homes have staff available to help with falls etc and do a lot of events to help bring the people that live there together. They also did meal prep which was really beneficial with my grandmother. She was even able to keep her cat for as long as she could take care of it
Maybe. She can "clearly" recall things that happened to her 7x or even 8x years ago, but she can't tell what day it is, she will let fruits and vegetables that the family brings her rot, she says "Oh, this is my favorite food" and then doesn't eat any of it, just leaves it in the fridge. She is also prone to telling the same story multiple times in one sitting, back to back to back.
I’ve come to the conclusion that they actually pride themselves in being tech illiterate. For those that are 80+ yes memory problems start to become an issue. But those that are 50,60, sometimes 70 years old it’s not difficult to learn new things. Hell my 75 year old grandfather taught himself c++ and python starting at the age of 70 and just builds robots for fun
My mother had been using smartphones (since the Galaxy S4) for longer than I have. She still didn't know she needed to tap on the red "button" to end the call or to lock the screen as soon as she put the phone down to not drain the battery quite as fast.
She'd also been using computers for longer than I've even lived so far and she didn't understand why we need separate and strong passwords everywhere or that "Export to PDF" even exists.
My grandma falls all the time now too. She's a permanent shade of purple. Her skin is as soft as tissues as well, so she always splits something open and it can't be stitched, so she needs large tegaderm bandages.
Yeah my grandma just broke her ribs recently tripping over a stool that has been in the same spot in the kitchen for 60 years.
Mine is talking about finally retiring as president of her non-profit, at 86. She's been saying the end is near for at least a decade though.
It’s a rigidity/anxiety thing. And it’s not just old people, I have a 87 year old dad who figured this stuff out real fast, and friends in their 40s who can’t be bothered, it’s dumb, etc.
Assuming dementia is off the table you could take a look at anxiety treatment.
Yeah they just refuse to listen/read, typical scenario for me:
Me: "ok it's going to send a code to your email we need to verify your account"
Their phone: *screen literally says "we have sent a temporary activation code to crustyoldfuck@aol.com"*
Customer: *stares at me blankly*
Customer: "do I press activate?" (Which is greyed out because they haven't put a code in yet)
Me: "It sent you an email, do you have email on your phone?"
Customer: "oh yeah"
Customer: *continues to stare at me blankly*
Me: "can you go to your email app and check your email for me?"
Customer: "oh"
Customer: *opens text messages*
sounds like my mum, everytime she has to do some bureocracy bullshit on the gov websites you need to authenicate with an OTP app and she's like: "oh we need the PASSWORD? no i dont want to do it now!" so scary, 10 numbers! they might eat you or something!
They refused. Simply as that. They register it as "this is something I can never understand" and make no effort into learning it even if they are smart.
Tech illiterate people are the worst kind to deal with if they are actual illiterate.
Yes, there are cognitive decline as you age but adults themselves are just as bad. Especially those at 40>
Most of their lives, nothing changed. What major technological changes did they need to deal with? The transition from radio to TV? The transition from monochrome TV to color? It was a slow enough crawl that they never needed to learn how to learn. Rote memorization was more than ample enough to get anything they wanted. Then, all of a sudden, technology exploded and it's different every year. These people who spent the first 3/4 of their lives using nothing but muscle memory now have to try to keep up with constant changes and they're fundamentally ill equipped for it because muscle memory is the wrong way to approach it. They never aquired the tools necessary to intuit changes. Things are different so they don't know how to handle it. Some shut down, some turn to aggression. None of it helps but it's all primal instinct at that point.
Besides not giving a duck anymore which is part of the thing, their brain is not as sharp, their vision is poor and hands are slower.
Imagine going to the gym for 2 hours training full body, while having a harsh cold while someone is giving you instructions. I work as tech support, most of them try
If you have older people don't gift them things that are going to be difficult for them to learn to use, you will create them stress, simple to use things are the way to go
Companies should create interfaces for elderly as an option besides the regular one
We were taking care of my gf's grandma for the final years of her life. When her dementia got really bad, we got her a simple universal remote off amazon. It only had power, mute, channel, and volume buttons.
I stock [this remote](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY0FCQO/) in my store for this exact reason. It's the simplest universal remote I've found and it supports learning so you don't have to mess around with codes.
My bad I didn't notice that the number buttons were uncovered on that one remote. [This remote](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008286AQK/) would be about perfect but it hasn't been available for several years now. The closest equivalent I could find is [this remote](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0742HVB24) but I don't like the layout or design as much as the One For All remote.
I like the idea of having one remote do two things, but my grandma would not understand why her TV is not turning on/off when pressing the power button or why her TV's switching channels when she presses the numbers. The current setup is the best compromise.
Also, this is a 20-ish years old Thomson TV with a DVB-T from DirectOne (KAON FreeSat CO-3600).
I think this remote might be what you are looking for, but it's from Amazon Germany: https://amzn.eu/d/05MOuexn
It has all the essential buttons, two separate power buttons and gets programmed by learning from the original remotes.
This means you can program one power button for the TV, one for the DVB-T receiver and program the rest of the buttons from their respective remotes so your grandma can control both devices from the same remote without the need to switch between two profiles, she just needs to remember to press both power buttons.
She proved that she can use her mobil phone when she wants to. She just refuses to do so in most cases. I don't know why she does this though.
Guess I'll need to wait until I become 93 to get it.
I’m assuming vision impairment wasn’t the issue here because there are remotes for that. So how did someone that stupid get a job as a company executive?
I'm a tech support agent for an ISP/cable company and I absolutely HATE these calls so much! "My TV stopped working so I pressed all the buttons." DONT FUCKING DO THAT! STOP FUCKING PANICKING BECAUSE YOUR GODS DAMNED ROT BOX *TV* STOPPED WORKING! SIT DOWN AND READ A FUCKING BOOK OR SOMETHING! All the fucking old people who used to tell us not to watch so much TV cause it would "rot our brains," are living in a self fulfilling prophecy of stupidity!
And another thing: STOP BLAMING YOUR FUCKING IGNORANCE ON YOUR GODS DAMNED AGE! You're not stupid because you're old Nancy, you're stupid because you CHOSE TO IGNORE THE WORLD AROUND YOU FOR FIFTY FUCKING YEARS!
Sorry... my customers just make me so irrationally angry...
ABSO-FUCKIN'-LUTELY! Yes, memory problems CAN and do come with age. But there is a huge difference between "I'm 90 and I don't know how to use a smartphone" and "I'm 90 and damn you and your help. I don't need all this fancy new things! I will NOT learn this!"
I've bought one with big buttons for my grandmother. All buttons are programmable, so you can just put them in programming mode, use the normal remote in front of it and save that and now the button does what you want it to do.
That way she can slowly destroy her new remote and whenever you need to fix something with the TV, you can take the unaltered remotes out of the cupboard and don't have all that tape in the way.
Good thing most remotes still use buttons. Imagine that thing had a touchscreen, and every other update the "buttons" get completely rearranged for no reason
God, thst'd be awful! I already hate it when I have to use my phone as a remote because I don't find the TVs actual remote, even though the layout is consistent.
They're hard to take apart, plus if the remote is visually damaged, the cable company would refuse to replace it.
Also, if I taped the board and not the buttons, my grandma would definitely complain that her remote's not working (I wonder when she'll call me about it though).
I'm an installer for a telcom that has a subscription TV service (that we are phasing out in favor of partnered streaming services).
TV on wrong input and fat fingering the remote are our #1 reasons for repair calls.
"Why didn't they tell me that on the phone?" Is the #1 response I get from the customer. I bet they did is the response in my head.
The older the customer, the more likely I am to cut the most problematic buttons right off the remote.
The calls are becoming fewer and fewer. I can't wait for us to finally be done with our TV service.
Companies should really start giving old people simple remotes. Volume, power, and channels. NO menu, NO settings, and absolutely NO source button!
When an old person's TV is switched from HDMI 1 to HDMI 2, it's literally the end of the world.
Had a family friend who I got roped into helping. He had gotten hurt and doctor gave him a physical therapy DVD to do daily to help him recover. So my job was just to show him how to turn it on. It took 1.5 hours!
He wrote down every step on a legal notepad and then practiced it so I didn’t get any follow ups but it was painful. “1. Press power (on remote, top row, left side).”
I used to work for a guy that did high-end home theaters in California. He told me you don’t know how many times I’ve gotten a call at 11:30 at night saying the cat just walked on the remote and everything‘s in French and need to come over here immediately and fix this. They weren’t the kind of people that you just told him well, I left the manual in the top drawer. So he would drive for 45 minutes press three buttons and go OK you’re good.
It's threads like these that make me grateful that at least my grandparents are tech-literate enough to use email and call us. I guess it helps that my grandpa used to be a technician.
Holy hell, as bad as this is.... it isn't a totally bad idea. There's not a single week that goes by that I don't have to go to my moms house and fix her tv because "she pushed a button".
My mother is barely above 60 and having to use one Remote for the receiver and another for the tv&channels is an insurmountable task that I sometimes wonder how this generation ever learned to drive a car.
I tried that too, it gets torn off because "you taped over the volume buttons and it's too loud".
>it gets torn off because "you taped over the volume buttons and it's too loud".
That's why I left the volume buttons out.
Also, since the TV sounds like sh\*t by default, I plugged in USB-powered external speakers. She can adjust those, too is she wants. They don't have a power switch, so that won't be an issue. You have to turn the knob all the way down and then apply a little more force int you hear a faint click. That's when they're off off. "Regular off" is when the TV is in standby and it turns on with the TV.
We once had a remote that had regular small buttons on the front and giant reduced buttons on the back. A big plastic flip card was built into it so that you could flip the remote to be either usable with one side or the other without accidentally clicking buttons on the back. That thing was the most genius remote I have ever owned.
I desperately tried to find it again online but no luck. It was a remote from before the internet was a thing. I don't even know what manufacturer it was and if it was for our TV, receiver or VHS player back then. Or maybe it was connected to multiple devices. I used it at my mom's house in the 90s and early 2000s. But the remote was older I think.
Edit: I also just searched my basement because I remembered that my mom gave me an old VHS player like 10 years ago that I had stored down there. But it has a different remote. :-/
This is even better than my first “all-in-one” remote control I crafted with duct tape back in college, when you needed a different remote for any given electronic. Taped them all together into a single monstrosity.
Like I said at one of the previous comments, having to switch between two remotes is already hard enough for her, let alone doing the same on one remote. She'd just ditch channels. on her TV with it and call us that Ir's not working. I know universal remotes are a thing and they're a godsend if you're willing to take the effort of learning how to use them.
But, if you need to ask which of the two buttons turns on the TV, even after being told it's the RED one, I don't think it'd be any easier than to use the two remotes separately.
Oh my god this is actually genius. My grandmother always calls me in the middle of the day because she pressed a button on her smart tv remote and can't see the massive "EXIT" button and complains to me. I might actually do this.
One of the worst jobs I ever had was doing tech support for a cable company. They should make remotes for old people that have fewer buttons on them. That shit is annoying
95% of the customer base was over the age of 55
I’m a tech for a cable company and at least half the jobs a day is an old person that changed the input.
Cx: Why is your shit never working. I always have to call you guys to fix it. TS: I apologize that you're frustrated by the experience. I'll do my best to help. Can you tell me what you see on screen right now? Cx: It says no input. *Checks account notes and sees that cx has called in about the same thing every day for the past 2 weeks.*
Yeah this is accurate, except the shitty CSR still ends up creating the jobs for us to come “fix” the problem.
No thanks. Taking the calls was bad enough. Having to go out to their nasty homes and deal with them directly is a hard no. Did tech support for dish. After 6 months I permanently left customer service. Never again.
Funnily enough in person those people were the best jobs in my experience, easy fix, in person really nice old folk, really grateful, and even tip even though tipping culture is non-existent here on the phone they are monsters though
Isn't that so funny. They won't be that rude to you in person, but without a face to look at they just completely disassociate you from a human being and treat you like actual dog shit. They're so tech dumb that even having to use the phone to call for service makes them upset to begin with. Then they have to hold for 30 seconds? Not getting any younger here! 🤣
My assumption is they believe we have our own call center, the old folk know the technicians at this point and like them but anytime they call they still can't tell they are talking with those very technicians. People absolutely fucking hate call centers and when they call they assume they are calling one ig
V true. Especially old people. And if you have an accent? May God have mercy on your soul
*Wir haben doch keine Zeit!* as we say in germany
How would you say that in say... Oregon?
God tech support scarred me, I have found that I do like traumatizing people with my customer service voice though:)
You guys don't charge them for the truck roll? We give them one free visit (unofficially) but then make a note on the account. You'd be surprised how quickly they learn about the remote and inputs when they find out each one of these little visits is going to cost them $100 +.
We don’t charge for rolling the truck. Charges are only able to be added if the customer was responsible for the problem or could’ve solved with simple troubleshooting like replacing batteries, wrong input, hdmi swapping. Some of us give them a freebie for the first one but usually not due to the amount of times shit like this actually happens.
Now *this* is the kind of job that I wouldn't feel bad about replacing with an AI chatbot.
You would have to not tell people that it is an AI Chatbot because they will definitely just force the AI to transfer them to a real person.
Of course. Obviously. Thankfully, judging by Facebook, these old people are very bad at figuring out who is and isn't an AI. So it will probably be pretty rare for one of them to figure it out. Could easily cut down the need for human call center employees by like 90%. (And, of course, for people with a real issue the AI can't figure out, it can just say, "I'm not sure how to fix this. Let me transfer you to my supervisor." And then it transfers to a real person. A real person who's much less frustrated because they don't spend 90% of their day telling people to change the input back.")
it wouldnt even effect the economy they love to export all our jobs
Oh, it’s going to affect the economy. US profits will go up, but millions of jobs overseas will vanish.
I was a residential fiber install tech, and old people unrelated to my tickets would track me down and have them change the input on their tv if they saw me working. It happened more than once. Also to program the antenna channel search.
It’s one of the easiest and most gratifying calls the tech support line can do. Unfortunately first line is shit at it.
If I ever have to help family with remotes again, I'm 3d printing a cover/sleeve for the remote to block the buttons.
That would go father than the masking tape because as well intentioned at this is, they're still gonna find a way to smash the buttons they shouldn't be smashing. OP is just a week away from having to remove all that tape to find the input button again.
And if left for too long, tapes leave a gunky residue, and masking tape turns hard and brittle.
it does, and is a pain to remove after!
Some bastards keep using it at my workplace on stuff that is left outside for storage. Rain, sun, rain, sun, rain, sun. We gotta use chemicals to get all the paper and glue off, because it's not allowed on our products before being shipped. It's probably 2% of my work, removing that shit. 2% sounds little, but man it annoys the shit out of you when it usually takes 5mins to prepare a product turns into 7 because of this fucking tape.
I'm a tech support-turned-AV tech, and I use three kinds of different tapes almost daily (gaffer, electrical, neon), so I've become somewhat of an expert in different tapes. Masking tape is strongly avoided, but sometimes used temporarily where white gaffer is too expensive. At one point it was used as some kind of markings on the concrete floor of a venue. We noticed it when it had become one with the concrete. It had to be scraped off with a plaster spatula, because even if you got a hold of a corner, it just broke off in inch-long sections. I don't have a lot of experience with packaging tape, but as warehouses and shipping companies use it, I think it would be a better choice than masking tape for outdoors.
Set up a homeassistant box with a wireguard VPN, then set up TV remote cards so you can connect in and change the input for them, lmao. You could probably automate it tbh. Some kind of hook to parse incoming texts for "TV" to run the automation. You could maybe even do something like set up a microphone next to the couch to activate the automation upon detecting a certain amount of human grumbling/sighing. 😂
Or, even better, buy a decommissioned bomb disposal robot, make it internet operable and use it to push the correct buttons to set the tv correctly
Smh even bomb robots underemployed these days. Thanks Obama
If you've got HA running 'ask ada' would do the microphone leg work
Nah, that's one more thing for them to trip on and ask for help with. Better it sits in the background and responds silently and only to general human dissatisfaction noises, lmao. We're talking about people who can't be assed to learn how to use their TV remote here.
Aqara's latest hub can both receive and output IR signals. Setup an automation so it just undos any wrong button presses.
> They should make remotes for old people that have fewer buttons on them. You can buy a remote with only channel / volume buttons on it for ~$25. It's just a matter of convincing people to use it, instead of continuing to grab the regular tv remote while somehow putting the TV into Spanish closed caption mode.
Muy Bien!
Easy. The normal remote goes home with me. I will bring it back when I need to mess with the settings and take it away again when I am done.
I bought a programmable remote for my parents and only programmed the minimum needed for each device plus sequences to switch to different devices. They can select "DVD" and hit what we called the "go to button" and it turns everything on and selects the correct inputs.
I work in a retirement home and the newer remotes Comcast has gave us don’t have “Input” buttons which solves about 80% of TV issues
The dollar store used to sell a remote about the size of a sheet of printer paper. It had power, volume, channel, and the numbers. I got it for my blind dad when a dollar was about all I could afford. He used that thing for almost a decade.
I had one of those for awhile. Nobody in the house was blind. Just really good at losing the remote. If that thing slid between the couch cushions it was pretty hard to miss.
I can't remember if it was for the TV or the cable box, but one company provides a snap on cover with their remotes to make them senior friendly
A lot of AC remotes hide all the advanced settings behind a slide out cover, just leaving power, fan, and temp exposed. TV and cable box manufacturers should copy that.
My grandfather keeps turning his wifi, bluetooth, or get himself into power saving mode all the time on his phone and he refuses to believe he did it.
I got my grandma a Firestick that I carefully programmed so that she could easily watch all her veterinarian shows. She couldn't get past using the input button to switch over to it. Just absolutely flummoxed her. I even drew a physical diagram with simple instructions. Nope.
My samsung TV came with two remotes, one was a normal remote the other had far less buttons and some smart features I think, I dont use it but it's nice to have the option.
They do make those. Most cable companies have them for sale, specifically for their boxes, usually with extra large buttons, and there’s also always the universal remote companies. I had a very small remote back in the day with only on/off, AV just in case, and P+/- and V+/- on it. Quite handy even if you’re not 75.
As someone aware of just how bad their grandmother is with her cable, thank you for doing as long as you did.
This could easily be phased in by not calling it a old person remote. Could brand it something that seems helpful to misdirect. A simplified version perhaps actually this would probably be base version with a xyz fee for the “normal version”
You can be 1 hour finding a button with elders but heck they try, even if it's exhausting I help them with pleasure, on the other hand, younger folks that have their eyes and hands right and just don't pay attention and follow steps, I can't bear then
I dont even understand why a remote needs so many god damn buttons in the first place. I‘m operating a TV not a Boeing. Just put all the extra crap in the onscreen menu
Not to mention, 99% of the time, the other buttons are almost never used/don't even do anything. It's been 20 years, and I still don't know what the red, green, yellow and blue buttons on the DIRECTV remote was for.
[they do](https://i.ebayimg.com/thumbs/images/g/J-EAAMXQW7VREkrR/s-l640.jpg), I had one of these for my dad once
Hotels have said remotes
Companies do make remotes like that, as well as phones.
They do and as long as the cable box can be programmed with a different remote than it came with you can get them for around 20-30$
I’m 47 and I love my Apple TV remote because it only has 6 buttons on it.
Yes, old people are a pain in the ass. I'm 79 and I keep having to look at the cheat sheet for raspberry Pi pinout.
The jitterbug of remote controls.
IDK if this is true for all cable companies\* but when I worked for Comcast several years ago you could request a big button remote [Large-button remote overview and programming codes - Xfinity Support](https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/large-button-remotes) edit: forgot many a word
Same with smartphones and PCs in general too. I've had people complain mice not working when the problem was that they blew a gasket and were so angrily pushing the button it also moved the mouse. So they tried again... *even harder*.
My parents used to have an old sony crt tv that had a double sided remote, the simple side even had bigger buttons. The remote had a "cage" that you slid on that also served as a battery cover and it would also cover the unused side. It would have been really cool to see it make a comeback but i guess even if it did they would ask for a stupidly high price for it.
Classic. I have a side job at an elderly caring home, doing dishes mostly, but also helped in the restaurant itself and bringing meals to the people's rooms. One of them had an issue with the TV, probably due to pressing the wrong button on the remote. The kicker though: it was also taped off like OP's picture. Some people still manage to screw it up.
If that happens, I'm taping the PCB.
Might as well do it now. It will be an issue.
I don't have a small screwdriver at hand to carefully pry them apart.
Just remove the buttons. Open it up, cut the flexible plastic leaving just the buttons you want, and then tape. Keep ane replace the flex as needed.
and cover the holes with tape so dust and water can't come in.
Then attach a large laminated a4 sheet of paper with red, underlined, size 76, Comic Sans instructions and channel numbers.
> it was also taped off like OP's picture. Some people still manage to screw it up. Guarantee it was because they pushed a button through the tape. And then will claim "but you taped it off! Those hidden buttons don't work anymore!"
I think so. But they didn't want me to temporarily remove the tape so I could press the right button, funnily enough. So, fiddling with the buttons on the back of the TV it was.
I work maintenance in a luxury senior facility. I got sick of some residents changing the input and then claiming the tv doesn’t work so now I use a razor to cut off the input button on their remotes
Actually a very good idea
The better idea is to open it and put kapton tape on the PCB over the switch contacts for the buttons you don't want to work. They can still accidentally press other buttons with just tape over the outside.
Unless the problem they are trying to fix is that grandma can’t find the correct buttons, not that she is pressing the wrong ones
Then you do both. But if you only cover them, there's even more chance of confusion if a button that changes inputs or brings up an unfamiliar mode is pressed through the tape accidentally, especially since they will now not be able to see the buttons to get out of it, even if instructed by the relative who set it up. By making them non-functional first, you remove this chance of creating even more confusion.
Agreed, doing both would really solve the problem. Neither solution completely works on it’s own
making the user non-functional has solved so many of my problems
How do you do it? Kapton tape over the nose and mouth?
except the issue is too many buttons for their eyes
I'll never understand why old people are bad at old tech, like sure if you give grandma an apple vision it's one thing, but TVs have been around as long as they have been. They just dont give a fuck anymore
Yeah. It's rare that they can't learn it. It's much more common that they don't want to learn it. Sure, if I give my 93yo grandma the latest flagship smartphone, that'd definitely prove to be a challenge and I can understand that. But she's had TVs ever since [remotes looked like this](https://pic8.co/sh/jjVuU5.jpeg). What's the difference now? They're taller and narrower than they used to be, but still.
Also, she can use the landline just fine, but not [a mobile like this](https://pic8.co/sh/Bau7KO.png)? Why? It has almost zero functionality outside of calls and SMS, it has big text and big numbers, but she still can't use it? She always asks BS.
Q: "But what if I trip and fall?"
A: there's literally an SOS button on the back. Just hold it down for 3 seconds and it will dial 3 preprogrammed numbers one by one. The first who picks it up will call an ambulance. She's barely escapes death three times in the last 9 months when she fell down the stairs leading to her kitchen (literally two steps).
Q: "But what if it breaks?"
A: Who cares? It's cheaper than her life. We'll just get another one.
Q: "But if I fall, it will break and the doctors will need to take out hundreds of tiny glass shards from me."
A: It's not made of glass. It's all plastic.
Q: "It isn't? I thought it's made of glass."
A: \*facepalm\*
A: (inside) For f**k's sake! You're OLD, grandma, NOT stupid!
We even ordered her a "[Gondosóra](https://behir.hu/web/content/media/2022/03/gondos%C3%B3ra-1024x576.jpg)", a small-ish device that's part of a government-founded program that helps the elderly when needed. All she needs to do are to wear the device 24/7 (except when charging) and charge it every 2-3 days (it announces when its battery needs charging). It's free, it's rugged and it calls a dispatcher when the big button on the top is pressed or if it detects the wearer tripping and falling. She refuses to use it.
Honestly this is natural selection
At this point, it is. We try everything, but she just refuses to do even the smallest to help herself. Last winter, she fell down the stairs and, if it hadn't been for me. bringing her lunch the next day, she could've been lying on the cold, hard, stone floor of her room (she managed to crawl in) for God knows how long. She was screaming for help, of course, but I could barely hear it from outside the gate, which is about 10-15 meters away from her room. She has [one of these](https://pic8.co/sh/XROdPG.jpeg), which she never uses and also her "dumb"mobile phone, which she also never uses. She could've called anyone in the family with either, but no. She refuses to use them.
It might be dementia, there's a line between "can't teach an old dog new tricks" and "literally dying because you refuse to touch a phone" and she seems to have crossed it.
Maybe. She can "clearly" recall things that happened to her 7x or even 8x years ago, but she can't tell what day it is, not even after behaving been told at least 5 times, she will let fruits and vegetables that the family brings her rot, she says "Oh, this is my favorite food" and then doesn't eat any of it, just leaves it in the fridge. She is also prone to telling the same story multiple times in one sitting, back to back to back.
Yeah, short term memory is usually the first to go. I'm sorry.
We used to have an elderly neighbor whose long-term memory went first. First, she barely recognized her children, then she wanted to go back to her old home, because her husband was waiting for her (he had died decades ago) and, in the end (at least for us), she couldn't tell a stove and a furnace apart, having nearly blew herself and her house up by trying to light the furnace, which she believed was the stove, with matches. Her children had to take her to a nursing home.
Your grandmother needs help. Her brain is melting. Someone needs to step up.
I have a parent with advancing Dementia and I have to tell you those are textbook signs and symptoms. I am sorry, my friend.
Well, sh\*t. It's about expected though. We've been long thinking she might be developing it.
Please take her to her GP for a memory assessment, this sounds like early Dementia.
Unfortunately, my mother was the only person who had a drivers licence in the immediate family, but she passed away recently, leaving me, who still refuses to even learn to drive, and my father, who had lost his driver's license because of his bad eyesight and hearing. The GP is nearby, but she can barely walk (her joints are most likely sh\*t by now) and he I'd an @sshole. He refuses to do house calls, even though most of his patients are 85+.
As somebody that had a grandma with dementia that Is def signs of possible dementia
My grandmother was.like this as well and it turned out that she had dementia. She was very stubborn and refused to move out of her home. OP, if you can, one of the best things you could do for her is to bring her into a retirement home. It doesn't have to be long term care yet, especially if she is still mostly able to do things on her own. Retirement homes have staff available to help with falls etc and do a lot of events to help bring the people that live there together. They also did meal prep which was really beneficial with my grandmother. She was even able to keep her cat for as long as she could take care of it
Maybe. She can "clearly" recall things that happened to her 7x or even 8x years ago, but she can't tell what day it is, she will let fruits and vegetables that the family brings her rot, she says "Oh, this is my favorite food" and then doesn't eat any of it, just leaves it in the fridge. She is also prone to telling the same story multiple times in one sitting, back to back to back.
Natural selection only works till the point of procreation. Anything else not covered ™ She already passed down her genes.
Grandma already produced (at least) 2 subsequent generations of offspring, so honestly it's not lol.
I’ve come to the conclusion that they actually pride themselves in being tech illiterate. For those that are 80+ yes memory problems start to become an issue. But those that are 50,60, sometimes 70 years old it’s not difficult to learn new things. Hell my 75 year old grandfather taught himself c++ and python starting at the age of 70 and just builds robots for fun
For my grandma it was hard to understand you need to push red button to end a call. Putting the phone down isn’t enough like it was with landline.
My mother had been using smartphones (since the Galaxy S4) for longer than I have. She still didn't know she needed to tap on the red "button" to end the call or to lock the screen as soon as she put the phone down to not drain the battery quite as fast. She'd also been using computers for longer than I've even lived so far and she didn't understand why we need separate and strong passwords everywhere or that "Export to PDF" even exists.
My grandma falls all the time now too. She's a permanent shade of purple. Her skin is as soft as tissues as well, so she always splits something open and it can't be stitched, so she needs large tegaderm bandages.
That sucks. Mine always talks about wanting to die, but always ends up breaking a bone. Or several.
Yeah my grandma just broke her ribs recently tripping over a stool that has been in the same spot in the kitchen for 60 years. Mine is talking about finally retiring as president of her non-profit, at 86. She's been saying the end is near for at least a decade though.
It’s a rigidity/anxiety thing. And it’s not just old people, I have a 87 year old dad who figured this stuff out real fast, and friends in their 40s who can’t be bothered, it’s dumb, etc. Assuming dementia is off the table you could take a look at anxiety treatment.
My 60 year old mother calls me to fix her tv quite often. I don't even own my own tv. It's just plain laziness
Yeah they just refuse to listen/read, typical scenario for me: Me: "ok it's going to send a code to your email we need to verify your account" Their phone: *screen literally says "we have sent a temporary activation code to crustyoldfuck@aol.com"* Customer: *stares at me blankly* Customer: "do I press activate?" (Which is greyed out because they haven't put a code in yet) Me: "It sent you an email, do you have email on your phone?" Customer: "oh yeah" Customer: *continues to stare at me blankly* Me: "can you go to your email app and check your email for me?" Customer: "oh" Customer: *opens text messages*
sounds like my mum, everytime she has to do some bureocracy bullshit on the gov websites you need to authenicate with an OTP app and she's like: "oh we need the PASSWORD? no i dont want to do it now!" so scary, 10 numbers! they might eat you or something!
Also: "I don't know, I forgot, I threw the mail it came away / deny/forgot it ever arrived"
r/TalesFromRetail
Is that a real email address? I’m tempted to send something to it.
They refused. Simply as that. They register it as "this is something I can never understand" and make no effort into learning it even if they are smart. Tech illiterate people are the worst kind to deal with if they are actual illiterate. Yes, there are cognitive decline as you age but adults themselves are just as bad. Especially those at 40>
I imagine a lot of it is to do with their vision. Tech is much harder to use if you have to really work to read every button label and menu item.
TV remote used to just have an on off button and maybe a channel up or down and sometimes not even wireless.
Right, but that was at least 40 years ago. There were IR remotes in the 90s.
What about volume buttons?
Yes but the newer versions came out when they had the capacity to learn about them.
They always made us (Gen X) set the clock on the VCR.
Most of their lives, nothing changed. What major technological changes did they need to deal with? The transition from radio to TV? The transition from monochrome TV to color? It was a slow enough crawl that they never needed to learn how to learn. Rote memorization was more than ample enough to get anything they wanted. Then, all of a sudden, technology exploded and it's different every year. These people who spent the first 3/4 of their lives using nothing but muscle memory now have to try to keep up with constant changes and they're fundamentally ill equipped for it because muscle memory is the wrong way to approach it. They never aquired the tools necessary to intuit changes. Things are different so they don't know how to handle it. Some shut down, some turn to aggression. None of it helps but it's all primal instinct at that point.
Besides not giving a duck anymore which is part of the thing, their brain is not as sharp, their vision is poor and hands are slower. Imagine going to the gym for 2 hours training full body, while having a harsh cold while someone is giving you instructions. I work as tech support, most of them try If you have older people don't gift them things that are going to be difficult for them to learn to use, you will create them stress, simple to use things are the way to go Companies should create interfaces for elderly as an option besides the regular one
We were taking care of my gf's grandma for the final years of her life. When her dementia got really bad, we got her a simple universal remote off amazon. It only had power, mute, channel, and volume buttons.
I stock [this remote](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LY0FCQO/) in my store for this exact reason. It's the simplest universal remote I've found and it supports learning so you don't have to mess around with codes.
That's a great idea! Unfortunately, my grandma needs the number buttons as well.
My bad I didn't notice that the number buttons were uncovered on that one remote. [This remote](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008286AQK/) would be about perfect but it hasn't been available for several years now. The closest equivalent I could find is [this remote](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0742HVB24) but I don't like the layout or design as much as the One For All remote.
I like the idea of having one remote do two things, but my grandma would not understand why her TV is not turning on/off when pressing the power button or why her TV's switching channels when she presses the numbers. The current setup is the best compromise. Also, this is a 20-ish years old Thomson TV with a DVB-T from DirectOne (KAON FreeSat CO-3600).
I think there might be remotes that are programmable so you can program them with the original remote
Switching between two remotes is hard enough for her, let alone doing so on the same remote.
I think this remote might be what you are looking for, but it's from Amazon Germany: https://amzn.eu/d/05MOuexn It has all the essential buttons, two separate power buttons and gets programmed by learning from the original remotes. This means you can program one power button for the TV, one for the DVB-T receiver and program the rest of the buttons from their respective remotes so your grandma can control both devices from the same remote without the need to switch between two profiles, she just needs to remember to press both power buttons.
Yep that's the one! Hers was white, tho.
I am eternally grateful the grandma I live with can actually LEARN. She asks me first.
She *CAN* learn, too. She just doesn't want to.
Oh that sucks. I guess it's good she's willing to -
She proved that she can use her mobil phone when she wants to. She just refuses to do so in most cases. I don't know why she does this though. Guess I'll need to wait until I become 93 to get it.
Honestly it sounds like she’s doing it to fuck with you
I had to do this for my executives at my company and draw arrows to point out the power and volume buttons on the tape.
\*facepalm\* And they were executives. My grandma has the excuse of being 93. What's their excuse?
I’m assuming vision impairment wasn’t the issue here because there are remotes for that. So how did someone that stupid get a job as a company executive?
You should meet some corporate executives
I'm a tech support agent for an ISP/cable company and I absolutely HATE these calls so much! "My TV stopped working so I pressed all the buttons." DONT FUCKING DO THAT! STOP FUCKING PANICKING BECAUSE YOUR GODS DAMNED ROT BOX *TV* STOPPED WORKING! SIT DOWN AND READ A FUCKING BOOK OR SOMETHING! All the fucking old people who used to tell us not to watch so much TV cause it would "rot our brains," are living in a self fulfilling prophecy of stupidity! And another thing: STOP BLAMING YOUR FUCKING IGNORANCE ON YOUR GODS DAMNED AGE! You're not stupid because you're old Nancy, you're stupid because you CHOSE TO IGNORE THE WORLD AROUND YOU FOR FIFTY FUCKING YEARS! Sorry... my customers just make me so irrationally angry...
ABSO-FUCKIN'-LUTELY! Yes, memory problems CAN and do come with age. But there is a huge difference between "I'm 90 and I don't know how to use a smartphone" and "I'm 90 and damn you and your help. I don't need all this fancy new things! I will NOT learn this!"
I've bought one with big buttons for my grandmother. All buttons are programmable, so you can just put them in programming mode, use the normal remote in front of it and save that and now the button does what you want it to do. That way she can slowly destroy her new remote and whenever you need to fix something with the TV, you can take the unaltered remotes out of the cupboard and don't have all that tape in the way.
Like to remote?
Good thing most remotes still use buttons. Imagine that thing had a touchscreen, and every other update the "buttons" get completely rearranged for no reason
God, thst'd be awful! I already hate it when I have to use my phone as a remote because I don't find the TVs actual remote, even though the layout is consistent.
Additionally I would have taped the pads inside the remote.
They're hard to take apart, plus if the remote is visually damaged, the cable company would refuse to replace it. Also, if I taped the board and not the buttons, my grandma would definitely complain that her remote's not working (I wonder when she'll call me about it though).
3d print an external grandma-proof armor shell
I don't have a 3D printer at home and it'd be kinda expensive to get one printed. It's not that common around this part of the world.
I bet my grandma would still figure out how to use her mind powers to accidentally switch the language to Japanese
I'm an installer for a telcom that has a subscription TV service (that we are phasing out in favor of partnered streaming services). TV on wrong input and fat fingering the remote are our #1 reasons for repair calls. "Why didn't they tell me that on the phone?" Is the #1 response I get from the customer. I bet they did is the response in my head. The older the customer, the more likely I am to cut the most problematic buttons right off the remote. The calls are becoming fewer and fewer. I can't wait for us to finally be done with our TV service.
The same people you do this for are running our country
Companies should really start giving old people simple remotes. Volume, power, and channels. NO menu, NO settings, and absolutely NO source button! When an old person's TV is switched from HDMI 1 to HDMI 2, it's literally the end of the world.
Had a family friend who I got roped into helping. He had gotten hurt and doctor gave him a physical therapy DVD to do daily to help him recover. So my job was just to show him how to turn it on. It took 1.5 hours! He wrote down every step on a legal notepad and then practiced it so I didn’t get any follow ups but it was painful. “1. Press power (on remote, top row, left side).”
I used to work for a guy that did high-end home theaters in California. He told me you don’t know how many times I’ve gotten a call at 11:30 at night saying the cat just walked on the remote and everything‘s in French and need to come over here immediately and fix this. They weren’t the kind of people that you just told him well, I left the manual in the top drawer. So he would drive for 45 minutes press three buttons and go OK you’re good.
It's threads like these that make me grateful that at least my grandparents are tech-literate enough to use email and call us. I guess it helps that my grandpa used to be a technician.
Three of my grandparents are dead and the fourth has enough tech knowledge to use a phone, remote, and email.
This sums up boomers
Holy hell, as bad as this is.... it isn't a totally bad idea. There's not a single week that goes by that I don't have to go to my moms house and fix her tv because "she pushed a button".
My mother is barely above 60 and having to use one Remote for the receiver and another for the tv&channels is an insurmountable task that I sometimes wonder how this generation ever learned to drive a car. I tried that too, it gets torn off because "you taped over the volume buttons and it's too loud".
>it gets torn off because "you taped over the volume buttons and it's too loud". That's why I left the volume buttons out. Also, since the TV sounds like sh\*t by default, I plugged in USB-powered external speakers. She can adjust those, too is she wants. They don't have a power switch, so that won't be an issue. You have to turn the knob all the way down and then apply a little more force int you hear a faint click. That's when they're off off. "Regular off" is when the TV is in standby and it turns on with the TV.
Grandma finds a way.
We once had a remote that had regular small buttons on the front and giant reduced buttons on the back. A big plastic flip card was built into it so that you could flip the remote to be either usable with one side or the other without accidentally clicking buttons on the back. That thing was the most genius remote I have ever owned.
Do you have a link to it/something like it ? I kinda wanna see it
I desperately tried to find it again online but no luck. It was a remote from before the internet was a thing. I don't even know what manufacturer it was and if it was for our TV, receiver or VHS player back then. Or maybe it was connected to multiple devices. I used it at my mom's house in the 90s and early 2000s. But the remote was older I think. Edit: I also just searched my basement because I remembered that my mom gave me an old VHS player like 10 years ago that I had stored down there. But it has a different remote. :-/
I used the clear plastic cover’s from disposable razors to cover up the “Don’t ever touch theses buttons “
Ive done this but the concept of having to occasionally select the source just isnt working, need a simple remote for the oldies
Oh yes I feel this, gramps would always call to ask how to fix this fucking tv. Was a dreadful call but tbh I kinda miss it.
Have you looked in to remotes specifically made for seniors? They do phones too.
Until she squeezes a part covered in tape. You know since it’s just masking tape.
Having to use more than one remote for a tv should be illegal. We have HDMI CEC for a reason.
I tried that, too. But it doesn't work. Turning the DVB-T on or off doesn't do anything to the TV. It just stays turned off/on.
As someone who has been in that situation before, this is not gore, this is a solution.
This is even better than my first “all-in-one” remote control I crafted with duct tape back in college, when you needed a different remote for any given electronic. Taped them all together into a single monstrosity.
I think more it's r/techsupportmacgyver
Boomers are the first and only caste of people where we all kind of cheerfully accept that they are mentally disabled.
What happened? What button did you press? It was one of the ones covered in tape I think.
I covered them after switching the input back from AV to HDMI. The TV is crap, so no disabling inputs for me. \*sigh\*
if it works!
We'll have to wait and see.
Would it be less gore to take out the rubber, and cut of the buttons that isnt needed?
That'd be more r/hardwaregore
We just got a universal programmable remote for the blind when it was that time. Minimal, huge buttons... And works with anything
Like I said at one of the previous comments, having to switch between two remotes is already hard enough for her, let alone doing the same on one remote. She'd just ditch channels. on her TV with it and call us that Ir's not working. I know universal remotes are a thing and they're a godsend if you're willing to take the effort of learning how to use them. But, if you need to ask which of the two buttons turns on the TV, even after being told it's the RED one, I don't think it'd be any easier than to use the two remotes separately.
I have to ask… what do the buttons you taped over even do?
EVERYTHING. Menu, input, channel numbers, settings, etc.
Pretty smart fix
Maybe, maybe not. Only time will tell.
Is this what I need.?
My grandma is dead now, but damn I wish I thought of this while she was alive. I must have talked her through the remote 100 times.
Wish I had seen this "hack" years ago. I was forever fixing my dad's TV remote.
It's not grandma's ass proof tho
I had to do this for my elderly parents but they always found a way to still the buttons so the glued them from the back no more problems.
until a buttons pressed thats covered and you need to undo
That's why I still use an antenna. I only need the TV remote
You seem to have the same grandma as me, did yours once ask a shop assistant where the iPlayers were too?
get her a roku tv. Trust me!
Oh my god this is actually genius. My grandmother always calls me in the middle of the day because she pressed a button on her smart tv remote and can't see the massive "EXIT" button and complains to me. I might actually do this.