I'd say nothing of value is lost in that case. These people are very costly to support. Email has been in common use for at least 20 years. They need to step up to the plate and learn at this point.
I agree. In addition to being pretty damn old at this point the pronunciation of "@" should resolve the "aol.com@joe/joe@aol.com" issue for all but the most clueless (all but the most likely to cost you in support). That case is particularly egregious.
There are times when it is good business to stand on principle, and then there are times to just help your customers a little bit. Email signups are definitely the latter IMO.
might I remind you one of the reasons why Apple have posted record profits over the last decade? It's worth nailing the UX experience to be as inclusive as possible.
It's also worth considering that one of the biggest generational markets (baby boomers) include a lot of those people you're telling us to ignore.
Refusing to send email to someone because your software mistakenly rejects their email address is not exactly being as inclusive as possible, though, is it?
