A British senior citizen who has travelled the world thought she’d like to try visiting faraway places from her home via the internet.  When she went to sign up with an internet service provider, however, there was a glitch: Because of her age, the company assumed she was too dim to comprehend the contract, so they rejected her service request.

The 75-year-old would only be allowed to sign the forms for the Carphone Warehouse's TalkTalk phone and broadband package if she was accompanied by a younger member of her family who could explain the small print to her.

Mrs [Shirley] Greening-Jackson, who sits on the board of several charities, said: "I was absolutely furious. The young man said, 'Sorry, you're over 70. It's company policy. We don't sign anyone up who is over 70.'

"Later a young lady said company policy is that anyone over 70 might not understand the contract. She said, 'If you would be prepared to go to the shop in town and take a younger member of your family we might give you a contract.’”

If I were a “younger member” of Mrs Greening-Jackson’s family, I’d tell those bozos to take a hike.

Predictably, an MP is heard calling for anti-ageism legislation, and I’m not unsympathetic to that approach.  But even more fitting, I think, would be to watch the Carphone Warehouse go bankrupt as the population continues to age.  Given well-established demographic trends toward an older population, any firm that refuses to provide services to seniors is going to run very low on customers in the near future.

h/t: Michael Kruse