Nope, it's an 020 number.

Well done on generating about 30 responses from such a simple remark.

Thanks also for showing that it isn't just me that gets irritated by it.

Mayday University Hospital still sends out appointment letters with an 0181
number appearing on them so I suppose that is even worse than it would be if
they used 0208.

G.

Incidentally, the other day I saw a newspaper aimed at Chinese people in
England. On the front page were the phone numbers for the various editorial
departments.... all of them had the area code 0207, except for the
complaints department, which had the code 0171. It reminded me of the
excellent advert about the Carlsberg complaints department.

In message , John Rowland
writes

Incidentally, the other day I saw a newspaper aimed at Chinese people in
England. On the front page were the phone numbers for the various editorial
departments.... all of them had the area code 0207, except for the
complaints department, which had the code 0171. It reminded me of the
excellent advert about the Carlsberg complaints department.

And I wonder if that might be the crux of all the confusion over the
past few years - sheer laziness?

Instead of sorting out published numbers properly as they should be,
organisations large and small have just cut'n'pasted 0207 over instances
of 0171 and 0208 over 0181, therefore perpetuating the myth, and which
has subsequently been used for other numbers.
--
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

wrote in
:

They must have a lot of people working on that the travel information
line I always seem to get straight through. Apart from the day when
there was loads of snow


The only good thing lately is that you can hit "2" and it cuts out a couple
of the intros.

Or maybe they've done away with them altogether. I'm talking about the
message that you can text A to B from your mobile phone, and the licensed
cab etc etc. You used to have to listen to all that, even if you press
"1" or "2". Now, you either don't have to, or they've removed it.