Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
The mystery of 800 numbers
Operators are standing by
Dear Matthew Alice: Why is it that some of the 800 phone numbers have eight digits or more instead of seven? What are the extra digits for? Do I have to dial them all or only the first seven? — Craig J. Hamren, National City
Think maybe this 800-number phenomenon has gotten a little out of hand? You can hardly watch TV or read a label or open a newspaper that you don’t see companies begging us to pleeeeez call them on their 800 lines with our questions, comments, deepest philosophical musings. Want to chat about granola bars? Q-tips? Baking soda? Got a Shredded Wheat emergency? Need some hard facts fast about bean dip? Cool Whip? Saltines? Operators are standing by. There is, in fact, a whole phone book devoted to 800 numbers. Of course the thing most businesses want us to do is order their products. And to make it easy for us to remember what to dial, they transform their numbers into business-related words spelled by the corresponding letters on the phone keypad. That’s great if you sell something that can be condensed to a catchy three- or seven-letter word. As you might suspect, you can order a dozen roses by calling 1 -800-FLOWERS; 1-800-871-DUST will get you air filters; call 1-800-443-TERM if you’d like an insurance salesman to call. But let’s imagine we’re selling beer, and from the 800 number we’re assigned, the closest we can come to a meaningful word is 1-800-555-BARF. This won’t do, of course, but if we advertise our number as 1-800-555-BARFLY, the orders should come rolling in. As far as the phone system is concerned, it’s all the same. Once the 1-800 has been dialed, the system only looks at the next seven digits. Any dialing our customers do after that is ignored, as the switching system connects them to 555-BARF.
Same rule applies to other types of calls, including ordinary seven-digit local calls. In fact, if you’d like to find out what Mom Alice is up to now that she’s had her phone sex line shut down, try dialing 853-NAGNAGNAG.
Here's something you might be interested in.
The mystery of 800 numbers
Operators are standing by
The mystery of 800 numbers
Operators are standing by
Dear Matthew Alice: Why is it that some of the 800 phone numbers have eight digits or more instead of seven? What are the extra digits for? Do I have to dial them all or only the first seven? — Craig J. Hamren, National City
Think maybe this 800-number phenomenon has gotten a little out of hand? You can hardly watch TV or read a label or open a newspaper that you don’t see companies begging us to pleeeeez call them on their 800 lines with our questions, comments, deepest philosophical musings. Want to chat about granola bars? Q-tips? Baking soda? Got a Shredded Wheat emergency? Need some hard facts fast about bean dip? Cool Whip? Saltines? Operators are standing by. There is, in fact, a whole phone book devoted to 800 numbers. Of course the thing most businesses want us to do is order their products. And to make it easy for us to remember what to dial, they transform their numbers into business-related words spelled by the corresponding letters on the phone keypad. That’s great if you sell something that can be condensed to a catchy three- or seven-letter word. As you might suspect, you can order a dozen roses by calling 1 -800-FLOWERS; 1-800-871-DUST will get you air filters; call 1-800-443-TERM if you’d like an insurance salesman to call. But let’s imagine we’re selling beer, and from the 800 number we’re assigned, the closest we can come to a meaningful word is 1-800-555-BARF. This won’t do, of course, but if we advertise our number as 1-800-555-BARFLY, the orders should come rolling in. As far as the phone system is concerned, it’s all the same. Once the 1-800 has been dialed, the system only looks at the next seven digits. Any dialing our customers do after that is ignored, as the switching system connects them to 555-BARF.
Same rule applies to other types of calls, including ordinary seven-digit local calls. In fact, if you’d like to find out what Mom Alice is up to now that she’s had her phone sex line shut down, try dialing 853-NAGNAGNAG.
Comments