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.

In message , Graham J
writes
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.

No doubt they will just change the 0181 to 0208 on the replacement batch
of letters they order, and perpetuate the confusion :s

I really can't understand why this has all become so confusing.
Everybody who rings numbers locally in London can just dial the last 8
digits of the 'full' number, so it should be obvious that the dialling
code is 020 from that. I suppose with the advent of mobile phones,
people are more and more used to dialling the full number wherever they
are - I know I frequently do.
--
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)

Steve Fitzgerald wrote:

Everybody who rings numbers locally in London can just dial the last 8
digits of the 'full' number, so it should be obvious that the dialling
code is 020 from that.

Somehow, I imagine there are many people in London who don't know that
they can do that.
--
Michael Hoffman

On Mar 29, 12:12 am, Michael Hoffman wrote:
Steve Fitzgerald wrote:
Everybody who rings numbers locally in London can just dial the last 8
digits of the 'full' number, so it should be obvious that the dialling
code is 020 from that.

Somehow, I imagine there are many people in London who don't know that
they can do that.

The scary thing is that this was such a simple change, and there are
still 59% of the population who don't understand it. Just tax the
stupid people!

On Mar 29, 1:29 pm, wrote:
On Mar 29, 12:12 am, Michael Hoffman wrote:

Steve Fitzgerald wrote:
Everybody who rings numbers locally in London can just dial the last 8
digits of the 'full' number, so it should be obvious that the dialling
code is 020 from that.

Somehow, I imagine there are many people in London who don't know that
they can do that.

The scary thing is that this was such a simple change, and there are
still 59% of the population who don't understand it. Just tax the
stupid people!


They do. Have you heard of the National Lottery?

On 29 Mar 2007 12:31:17 -0700, "MIG"
wrote:

On Mar 29, 1:29 pm, wrote:
On Mar 29, 12:12 am, Michael Hoffman wrote:

Steve Fitzgerald wrote:
Everybody who rings numbers locally in London can just dial the last 8
digits of the 'full' number, so it should be obvious that the dialling
code is 020 from that.

Somehow, I imagine there are many people in London who don't know that
they can do that.

The scary thing is that this was such a simple change, and there are
still 59% of the population who don't understand it. Just tax the
stupid people!


They do. Have you heard of the National Lottery?

That's not a tax on stupidity per se, more a tax on hope.

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.

No doubt they will just change the 0181 to 0208 on the replacement batch
of letters they order, and perpetuate the confusion :s

Well the letters actually also all have the correct 020 number too and are
computer generated so it is more human laziness I suspect. It looks like
they have a standard template for each department to put in its appointments
number and it defaults to the old 0181 version of the switchboard. So it is
not only a useless number but even updated it is the wrong one.

G.

On Wed, 28 Mar 2007 Steve Fitzgerald wrote:

In message , Graham J
writes
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.

No doubt they will just change the 0181 to 0208 on the replacement batch
of letters they order, and perpetuate the confusion :s

I really can't understand why this has all become so confusing.

I can. It's because the London numbers changed from 071 and 081 to 0171
and 0181 at the time they introduced area codes starting 01. Had they
gone straight to 020 at that time, much of the confusion would never
have happened.

Everybody who rings numbers locally in London can just dial the last 8
digits of the 'full' number, so it should be obvious that the dialling
code is 020 from that. I suppose with the advent of mobile phones,
people are more and more used to dialling the full number wherever they
are - I know I frequently do.

And that is of course what you have to enter into a Caller ID phone
memory to get it to display the name.
--
Thoss

In article ,
(thoss) wrote:

I really can't understand why this has all become so confusing.

I can. It's because the London numbers changed from 071 and 081 to
0171 and 0181 at the time they introduced area codes starting 01. Had
they gone straight to 020 at that time, much of the confusion would
never have happened.

They couldn't because it would have caused too much confusion nationally.
There had to be a gap in which 0207 and 0208 (and others) were not valid.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

I can. It's because the London numbers changed from 071 and 081 to 0171
and 0181 at the time they introduced area codes starting 01. Had they
gone straight to 020 at that time, much of the confusion would never
have happened.

I'd shift the problem back even further. Going from 01 to 071 and 081 was
the short sighted move for me. I was at UCL at the time and they went from
having a single telephone number to direct dialling of all extensions at
around that time. So I was underwhelmed at the boasts of a doubling of the
numbering space when just one institution was now using about 10,000 times
the numbers it was. Was there a technical reason why eight digit numbers
couldn't have been introduced back then and saved us all a lot of hassle?