The problem of area codes

[kalvado]

You literally only need to memorize 8 digits instead of 10, and makes it easier to be identified as toll free.
Many people are already accustommed to 888 877 866, but 855/44/33/22 looks a hell like a regular area code.

Memorize 800 number? I really never remembered more than 4 digits of any 800 number. and even that for a few seconds while dialing.

Everyone (of a certain age) Sing: "One eight hundred five two eight, one two three four, Best Western".

And how often did you actually call that number?

[1995hoo]

You literally only need to memorize 8 digits instead of 10, and makes it easier to be identified as toll free.
Many people are already accustommed to 888 877 866, but 855/44/33/22 looks a hell like a regular area code.

Memorize 800 number? I really never remembered more than 4 digits of any 800 number. and even that for a few seconds while dialing.

Everyone (of a certain age) Sing: "One eight hundred five two eight, one two three four, Best Western".

I have the urge to post the jingle of a certain ad about donating your car to charity. But I won't do that on the off chance someone knows where I live because I don't want a mob showing up with torches and pitchforks.

[tmoore952]

You literally only need to memorize 8 digits instead of 10, and makes it easier to be identified as toll free.
Many people are already accustommed to 888 877 866, but 855/44/33/22 looks a hell like a regular area code.

Memorize 800 number? I really never remembered more than 4 digits of any 800 number. and even that for a few seconds while dialing.

Everyone (of a certain age) Sing: "One eight hundred five two eight, one two three four, Best Western".

I don't remember that (and I suspect I'm old enough to).

The one I remember is (sung) "eight oh oh, three two five, three five three five " (from Sheraton commercials late 70s and into 80s)
My sister and I used to sing that and intentionally replace the last number with a four (I have no idea if ....3534 was a valid number).

[tmoore952]

In my case, the sheriff's department came to our door with guns drawn. Apparently when our 911 center gets an incoming call followed by a hangup, the assumption is that the phone call was quietly made by someone who is in trouble, to get help. When I answered the door, the deputies asked several times "is everything OK"? (also part of their training, I assumed) Only after we had convinced them what happened did they back down with the questions and the guns.

With the ease of inadvertently triggering the "emergency call" function on cell phones these days, the SOP has changed somewhat. I accidentally did this once when I was high and almost dropped my phone, and somehow as I was fumbling to catch it, it did an emergency call. I quickly hit the hang up button, trying to cancel the call before it rang, but it still went through. Instead, dispatch sent me a text message asking something along the lines of "Is everything OK?". To which I replied "Sorry, accidental dial." They sent back "NO PROBLEM" (caps as in original) and that was that.

My incident occurred in 2010 or 2011, well into cell phone days. My son did this from a land line. (I suspect that call centers have enough info to know the difference). I completely understand the police response to my situation, and appreciated it once I got over the initial incident, and [not trivial from my perspective] after I explained to my neighbors what had caused the incident they had seen. Who knows what they may have thought otherwise.

[vdeane]

You literally only need to memorize 8 digits instead of 10, and makes it easier to be identified as toll free.
Many people are already accustommed to 888 877 866, but 855/44/33/22 looks a hell like a regular area code.

Memorize 800 number? I really never remembered more than 4 digits of any 800 number. and even that for a few seconds while dialing.

Everyone (of a certain age) Sing: "One eight hundred five two eight, one two three four, Best Western".

I have the urge to post the jingle of a certain ad about donating your car to charity. But I won't do that on the off chance someone knows where I live because I don't want a mob showing up with torches and pitchforks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDjX4-LKqCA

This phone number is also fairly memorable:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qhb9_LF7vI

[geek11111]

^^ A regular area code may not end in double digits.

I know.
But honestly, 433 doesnt look different from 432 and 434.

[Scott5114]

I thought the reason for banning repeated digits was because they wanted to reserve those for three-digit service numbers (like the *11s), not because of any difficulties telling numbers apart.

[mgk920]

I thought the reason for banning repeated digits was because they wanted to reserve those for three-digit service numbers (like the *11s), not because of any difficulties telling numbers apart.

Yea, save those numbers for still undefined future special services.

Mike

[ErmineNotyours]

In my case, the sheriff's department came to our door with guns drawn. Apparently when our 911 center gets an incoming call followed by a hangup, the assumption is that the phone call was quietly made by someone who is in trouble, to get help. When I answered the door, the deputies asked several times "is everything OK"? (also part of their training, I assumed) Only after we had convinced them what happened did they back down with the questions and the guns.

With the ease of inadvertently triggering the "emergency call" function on cell phones these days, the SOP has changed somewhat. I accidentally did this once when I was high and almost dropped my phone, and somehow as I was fumbling to catch it, it did an emergency call. I quickly hit the hang up button, trying to cancel the call before it rang, but it still went through. Instead, dispatch sent me a text message asking something along the lines of "Is everything OK?". To which I replied "Sorry, accidental dial." They sent back "NO PROBLEM" (caps as in original) and that was that.

My car was broken into one evening about a year ago, so I had to dial 911 to report it.  Then for some reason my phone would pocket dial 911 and I would hear an alarm sound from it.  This usually happened at the start of a work break.  This went on for a month or two before I figured out I had not made any outgoing call since that 911 call, so the phone kept redialing it.  I removed the call from my history and that took care of it.

[7/8]

You literally only need to memorize 8 digits instead of 10, and makes it easier to be identified as toll free.
Many people are already accustommed to 888 877 866, but 855/44/33/22 looks a hell like a regular area code.

Memorize 800 number? I really never remembered more than 4 digits of any 800 number. and even that for a few seconds while dialing.

Everyone (of a certain age) Sing: "One eight hundred five two eight, one two three four, Best Western".

Here's some phone numbers I remember well despite never calling them.

1-800-267-2001 Alarm force (Youtube link)

Celino and Barnes, injury attorneys, call 854-2020 (Youtube link)

439-0000 Pizza Nova (Youtube link)

This one I remembered the jingle, but only some of the numbers: 800-588-2300 Empire (Youtube link)

[mgk920]

You literally only need to memorize 8 digits instead of 10, and makes it easier to be identified as toll free.
Many people are already accustommed to 888 877 866, but 855/44/33/22 looks a hell like a regular area code.

Memorize 800 number? I really never remembered more than 4 digits of any 800 number. and even that for a few seconds while dialing.

Everyone (of a certain age) Sing: "One eight hundred five two eight, one two three four, Best Western".

Here's some phone numbers I remember well despite never calling them.

1-800-267-2001 Alarm force (Youtube link)

Celino and Barnes, injury attorneys, call 854-2020 (Youtube link)

439-0000 Pizza Nova (Youtube link)

This one I remembered the jingle, but only some of the numbers: 800-588-2300 Empire (Youtube link)

Or the earlier Empire Carpet jingle when most of Chicagoland was in the 312 area code.

Mike

[vdeane]

Celino and Barnes, injury attorneys, call 854-2020 (Youtube link)

Same, except I remember 454 (the exchange for the Rochester office) instead of 854.  That number works much better with the jingle than the 888-8888 number.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

Even over here I still remember a phone number from a distance learning company, +34 902 20 21 22, 902 being the prefix, or "area code", for national rate numbers (obviously the +34 wasn't part of the ad, I only add it to denote it is a number from Spain).

[ZLoth]

"Four-forty-four-fifty-five-five-five that's the number for the classifieds" for a long-defunct daily paper in Sacramento

[7/8]

Celino and Barnes, injury attorneys, call 854-2020 (Youtube link)

Same, except I remember 454 (the exchange for the Rochester office) instead of 854.  That number works much better with the jingle than the 888-8888 number.

The first time I heard the 888-8888 version I laughed, it just sounds awful!

That reminds me of another one that's easy to remember: Hurt in a car, call William Mattar 444-4444 (Youtube link)

[JayhawkCO]

In the Twin Cities when I was a kid, "488-8888, Pizza Hut delivery is really great."

[Big John]

Here in (920) area code there is a lawyer ad to call 222-2222, and a competing lawyer ad to call 777-7777.

[vdeane]

Celino and Barnes, injury attorneys, call 854-2020 (Youtube link)

Same, except I remember 454 (the exchange for the Rochester office) instead of 854.  That number works much better with the jingle than the 888-8888 number.

The first time I heard the 888-8888 version I laughed, it just sounds awful!

That reminds me of another one that's easy to remember: Hurt in a car, call William Mattar 444-4444 (Youtube link)

Oh yeah, I remembered there was a 4 number out there... that leaves 1-800-LAW-1010 for Harding Mazzotti (the Heavy Hitters).

[Road Hog]

In France I remember seeing phone numbers on billboards and other signs in 4 groups of 2 digits (i.e. 12 34 56 78). That was in the 1990s.

[geek11111]

Sometimes a phone number may be easier to remember if not obeying the 3-3-4 pattern.
Like, 101-056-7222.
I used to have a phone number similar to that pattern, but when I say: 1010-567-222, 90% people feel confused and don't even know what on earth I was saying. Interesting.

[1995hoo]

Sometimes a phone number may be easier to remember if not obeying the 3-3-4 pattern.
Like, 101-056-7222.
I used to have a phone number similar to that pattern, but when I say: 1010-567-222, 90% people feel confused and don't even know what on earth I was saying. Interesting.

Heh, I knew someone in college who wrote his phone number as 9-SPERM-9. Hardly a surprise that the number is easy to remember all these years later. (I don't remember the actual digits other than that "SP" would have been "77," as 977- was one of the primary exchanges in Charlottesville at the time.)

[CNGL-Leudimin]

In France I remember seeing phone numbers on billboards and other signs in 4 groups of 2 digits (i.e. 12 34 56 78). That was in the 1990s.

They have since added a fifth group (and the first one always starts with 0, which is replaced with +33 when calling from outside France), but otherwise stays the same.

[kalvado]

Sometimes a phone number may be easier to remember if not obeying the 3-3-4 pattern.
Like, 101-056-7222.
I used to have a phone number similar to that pattern, but when I say: 1010-567-222, 90% people feel confused and don't even know what on earth I was saying. Interesting.

An established pattern which helps recognition. 3+3+4 is a phone number, 4+4+4+4 is a credit card, 3+2+4...
Breaking the pattern.. like using comic sans for the text. It certainly can work, but.. 

[1995hoo]

Sometimes a phone number may be easier to remember if not obeying the 3-3-4 pattern.
Like, 101-056-7222.
I used to have a phone number similar to that pattern, but when I say: 1010-567-222, 90% people feel confused and don't even know what on earth I was saying. Interesting.

An established pattern which helps recognition. 3+3+4 is a phone number, 4+4+4+4 is a credit card, 3+2+4...
Breaking the pattern.. like using comic sans for the text. It certainly can work, but.. 

Regarding patterns, I find it distracting when some people use periods to break up phone numbers (e.g., 212.555.1212) because the periods make it look too much like IP addresses. There was an inexplicable fad among law firms, in particular, about 20 years ago to write phone numbers that way. I knew another fellow who used periods to separate the parts of a date (e.g., writing today's date as 12.14.2023 or 12.14.23—I would say the latter, in particular, is potentially confusing unless the context is clear).

[CNGL-Leudimin]

An established pattern which helps recognition. 3+3+4 is a phone number, 4+4+4+4 is a credit card, 3+2+4...
Breaking the pattern.. like using comic sans for the text. It certainly can work, but.. 

Note that phone numbers vary according to the country. In France, as mentioned above, is 2+2+2+2+2. In Spain it can be either 3+3+3, 3+2+2+2 or (in a few provinces like Madrid or Barcelona) 2+3+2+2. I despise that last pattern, and try to change it to 3+2+2+2, treating the first digit of the 7 digit subscriber number as part of the prefix like elsewhere.