Phone Numbers That Aren't Numbers

[tiltjlp]

I'll bet this will give more than a few of you a good laugh, but keep in mind I'm 64, and don't have the memory I once did. I'm also not a texter, and don't want to play a game before I make a phone call. What gripes me no end is the habit many companies have, probably wanting to appear hip, of listing their phone number as words and not actual numbers.

There's no way getting around it, since this new thing is used in TV ads, print ads, and even in the phone book. I notice that more and more companies are now only using words, rather than listing the actual number along with the words. What finally made me post about this is that a local lawyer who has only used Call Tom now lists the actual numbers, since maybe he noticed a drop in new clients.

If I want to order a pizza, I'm going to call 555-5555 rather than IM HUNGRY, even if IM HUNGRY has the best price and just as good pizza. I see this as one more example of the dumbing down of society. Since young people constantly text, I guess they don't even know what a number is. No wonder our math and reading scores suffer when compared to the rest of the world.

I know this trend isn't going to change, but I don't have to like it, and this is my only way of protesting against it. So laugh at me if you want. And I guess a few of you will waste your time explaining to me that it isn't important, but actually it is, since high schools keep graduating young fools who can't speak proper English, can't write a proper sentence, and don't care about anything other than texting.

 

[lionheart88]

I'm kind of with you on this, it's one of the most annoying things when you need to call a company and only have letters to go by. I think it's suppose to help you remember the number and in fact may work but it really pisses me off. To give you an example of what I mean from time to time I have to call Fed Ex to have a package picked up and I don't know their number by heart but what I do know is if you call 1-800 GO FED EX it will put you in touch with them. I have to translate the GO FED EX part of it in real time of course and that kind of pisses me off but I can never remember the actual number. That may just be because I've never written it down anywhere in the first place but I guess my point is as much as I hate it I can live with it if it actually serves some purpose.

 

[faralos]

talk about the dumbing down of american kids, I found out that the schools are no longer teaching kids how to read a roman numeral clock face! i asked my second cousin (she's 12) about reading a clock that they have on their wall (roman numerals) she was lost on what the exact time was! but she looked at her digital watch and told me the time! I agree on phone numbers, the first problem I had with Comcast they tell me to call 1800-COMCAST! I had to study my cell phone numbers to figure out which numbers those damn letters stood for! I hate this why can't people just use numbers...and let's not get into texting with their abbreviations, hell even Federal Express is now called fed-ex, the world is dumbing down at such an quick rate it scares me thinking of our future generation not being able to spell correctly or even to read an older clock face. proof in point was last week when I was shoppingand the cash register computer dies when the lady was giving me change. she couldn't subtract a ten dollar bill from my nine dollar and thirty cent purchase without using the register keypad! I offered her my adding and subtracting expertise but she said she couldn't trust my math!! can you believe that? what is so difficult about subtracting 9.30 from 10.00? so we waited until her computer came back on and she handed me the wrong change anyhow! missing a nickel in the exchange! I had to add my change in front of her to prove she messed up! ah, America... gotta love our educational system...
oh and we gave up years ago on teaching our kids the metric system we still use pounds and ounces and feet and inches so archaic

 

[Kinsey]

John, the only thing going through my mind right now is

Call J.G. Wentworth -- 877 CASH NOW!

 

[tiltjlp]

John, the only thing going through my mind right now is

Call J.G. Wentworth -- 877 CASH NOW!

Howdy Gal. At least that one has the right number of letters. The ones that really make me cringe are the ones that use words with more letters than a phone number has digits. I wonder if phone companies charge extra for what I call phone words.