to think that almost 14 years after

[FuckThisShit]

the area code for London changed to 020, there seems to be a ridiculous number of total idiots people who still can't get it right?

The code is NOT 0207 or 0208 FFS, it is 020 followed by an 8 digit telephone number. For example, my number starts 020 3xxx xxxx, where the fuck is the 7 or 8 in that then? If I want to dial a number within London I will dial 7xxx xxxx, 3xxx xxxx or 8xxx xxxx. The 020 is irrelevant you inefficient twats

I have seen four, FOUR, brand new shops/restaurants this morning whose twattishness have ordered sign writers to do the 0207/0208 thing. Why? What's so fucking difficult.

AIBU to think they're all idiots?

AIBU to get the RAGE?*

• this one I know I am, but I will continue to do so I fear.

[FuckThisShit]

No Kim it doesn't!

Gerrof thank fuck for people like you I say!

Funnily enough I saw an 01 sign the other day. It looked well odd after all these years.

[FuckThisShit]

Tantrums I love you too. I'm a 3xxx xxxx number too. I may have said 'I know my own fucking number' once or a dozen times after losing my patience.

[Toomanyworriedsonhere]

Me too, me too! I hate it! I thought I was the only one who noticed.
I take great pleasure in leaving off the 020 when I dial a London number.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

Haha did people really pay BT to have an 071 number?

I remember that was the premise of the BT ad - people would get all snooty if they realised that they lived in an 081 suburban outer London area rather than the 071 central London area.

[AmberLeaf]

Thing is, if yousay your number to a London person you may say...8XXX XXXX, but if you say it to a non local person [channels royston vasey] then you say the 020 bit too...it just DOES NOT flow to pause between the 020 bit, it just doesn't!

I know I am technically wrong, but to me its like gateux is spelled like that...but you say gattow IYSWIM.

When did it change to 071-081?

[FuckThisShit]

1990 it changed to 071/081
1995 to 0171/0181
1999 to 020

Yes Getorf, they absolutely did. My late ex-husband's cousin lived just off Clapham Common Southside and was devastated (seriously, I shit you not) and paid for the 071 number. I know of a fair few that did.

But gateaux is French plural for cakes, gateau is the singular. The French rarely finish off the sound of the word as it's spelled, and in Spanish you pronounce pretty much everything IYKWIM.

[limitedperiodonly]

I remember they changed the codes from 071 and 081 to 0171 and 0181 really quickly.

A very anal colleague was beyond angry at this because he had to buy new pages for his diary and rewrite all the addresses in his exquisite black fountain pen handwriting.

He couldn't bring himself to tippex over like everyone else. He had other issues like having cleaning spray and wipes for his desk and phone and he used to spend a fortune at the dry cleaners. Weirdly for a neat freak, he used to go to prostitutes too and he liked the obvious ones.

All I'm saying is that you can take this phone number thing too far...

[limitedperiodonly]

getorf lots of Hampstead is 020 8... Some people there insisted on being 071

[Trill]

I think YAB silly

Nobody says "my number is 891 999081, do they? Even though we all know that mobile numbers begin with 07.

I do remember 0181 811 8181 :o

(please don't call that number, I have no idea who it is)

[GetOrfMoiLand]

lol at people from Clapham and Hampstead paying extra, I wouldn't be surprised if BT had created that advert to drum up that snobbish feeling.

I can't believe it was 1990. I can remember that advert like it was yesterday (why, god, why? Why can't I remember important things?). I was 12.

It does make me laugh that those people with shop signs still saying 01 have not bothered changing those signs for 24 years.

[limitedperiodonly]

Ooh, I see the 071 and 081 codes lasted five years. I thought it changed much more quickly than that.

The other thing Mr Neatfreak used to do was memorise dialling codes for areas of the country. So if someone mentioned Nuneaton he'd shout: 'Nuneaton? That's 0...'

It's a life skill but not much of one.

[FuckThisShit]

Yes Trills, but I'm talking about dialling numbers within London. To dial any mobile one HAS to start with 07, wherever one is.

0181 811 8181 was Saturday Superstore. The postcode for comps was W12 8QT. Stuck in our heads forever!

[Trill]

Maybe I misunderstood there - it looked like you were saying that there was not need to write the "02" part at all... and that sign writers should just write the numbers that come after 02.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

OOOH don't get me started on people who say mobile numbers wrong.

it is 07989 123 456

NOT 0798 9123 456 or any other variant.

[Trill]

I thought 0181 811 8181 was Live and Kicking

[FuckThisShit]

Ha Getorf - I posted something on FB earlier saying that 1990 was actually only ten years ago! EVERYONE has agreed with me so I'm right

[Trill]

I agree GetOrf - I can't remember numbers unless you tell them to me in the right pattern.

[FuckThisShit]

Going Live, that's right. But it was also Saturday Superstore and Swap Shop as well.

No Trills, I mean the signs written 0207 xxx xxxx are WRONG.

[Trill]

One day someone is going to get a missed call from an unknown number, google it, and end up here.

Sorry person-from-the-future - we are just making up numbers to illustrate the correct way to say a phone number. We don't know who called you.

[FuckThisShit]

Hahahahahahahahaha!

[GetOrfMoiLand]

It was MUCH better in the age of Mitfords.

You could just say Kensington 856 and people could judge where you lived with ease.

[FuckThisShit]

Zackly Getorf.

[Trill]

I don't know my landline number. Nobody does. We only have it because the internet insisted.

[GetOrfMoiLand]

1990 was only 10 years ago.

And then you do the sums and think oh fuck...

[GetOrfMoiLand]

I have got a really cool landline number, really easy to remember, but we never use it and the phone plugged in it is always turned off.

Who uses landlines nowadays apart from older folk?