Numbers is hard to unnerstand...

[MoonCat]

I'm the first to admit I don't have a math-wired brain. Gimme a calculator!
HOWEVER....

Some things even a twit should be able to figure out...
For example:
Let's say the first of the month is a Sunday, just to make this easy. If your ad starts running on the 1st, and runs for 7 days, it will finish up on Saturday the 8th. With me so far? Then you're ahead of 99% of my customers, who think "Sunday to Sunday" = 7 days. No it doesn't...because you have to count the day your ad hits print. Sunday/day one; Monday/day two; and so on.

These are the same ones who say "Run my ad 14 days. Wait, where do I have to start to get two Sundays in there?" Answer: ANY DAY YOU WANT. There is one Sunday each week, so by definition, your two week ad will hit two Sundays. By the same token, there is NO WAY to hit THREE Sundays in a 14-day period. Amazing how often I have to explain this to people.

And when I say (again, random dates), "your ad will expire on July 14th," why do they ask me, "so what's the last day it runs? The 13th or the 14th?" Look, if it expired on the 13th, it would run UNTIL THAT DAY AND NO LONGER. The 14th would have nothing to do with it if the 13th was the expiration day!

Speaking of numbers: Area codes. The first thing we ask you for is your billing phone number. If your area code is 555, and you're calling me in the SAME 555 area code, why do you need to tell me your area code is 555? I love when they ask "do you need my area code?" and I tell them "only if it's a different one." (pause while they think this over). See, probably close to 100% of our calls are local, but anyway logic should tell you that I don't need your area code unless it's different from mine.

Next, credit card numbers: For Master, Visa and Discover, they appear on the card in four groups of four numerals each. Most people's instinct is to read them off the same way. "1234 (pause) 5678 (pause)..etc.
But NO, some people apparently don't register the little hyphens. "123 (pause) 456 (pause)..." Etc. Throws my rhythm off, for some reason.

[Sparky]

Let's say the first of the month is a Sunday, just to make this easy. If your ad starts running on the 1st, and runs for 7 days, it will finish up on Saturday the 8th.

Actually, it will finish on Saturday the 7th.

Not giving you a hard time, I promise. You don't know how long I had to sit here and think about that.

Don't confuse me, MoonCat. I'm not that smart.

[MoonCat]

Actually, it will finish on Saturday the 7th.

Not giving you a hard time, I promise. You don't know how long I had to sit here and think about that.

Don't confuse me, MoonCat. I'm not that smart.

Well, hell, I DID say I need a calculator!
See??

[Magpie]

I can see a couple of them, which I guess is why you're saying "brain burps". We have ten digit dialling here, so it's good form to give the area code even if it's local. I think they've started to roll out the new area code already. (And yes, it's assumed to be the old area code unless someone specifies otherwise, but it avoids confusion if you always list it. Especially for people who are new and don't necessarily know which is the old one).

I assume that it's industry standard for the ad to run on the day it expires? (As opposed to every day leading up to the day it expires.)

[Ironclad Alibi]

We have ten digit dialling here, so it's good form to give the area code even if it's local

It is essential in areas with overlay area codes (two or more area codes for the same area), and for all the cellphone users that are no longer in their original area code.

[MoonCat]

I assume that it's industry standard for the ad to run on the day it expires? (As opposed to every day leading up to the day it expires.)

Yes, it is. Frankly, for me it doesn't make sense any other way. If something's not in the paper, it's expired. If it is in, then it's not expired. Like every other use of the word that I know of...run out, cease, come to an end, die....I mean, if you die, you're expired. If you're still alive, you didn't!

OK, I could see if someone never did this before they might not get it, but the odd thing is that most of the people who say this have been placing ads with us for YEARS. They ought to know what this means by now. I guess it's like people who insist "I bought it here before!" when they're trying to buy, I don't know, say tires, at the grocery store....and so on.

[Chromatix]

Over here in the EU, the difference is more often between giving the international code or not. On websites that require one (for buying stuff, obviously) I tend to give the international code unless the site is hilariously obviously based in Finland. Since landlines are getting less and less common except for broadband, it's quite rare to see a number without an area code.

In Britain, however, there are still quite a lot of small businesses who write, for example, "Littleborough 45678" as their phone number, as that's the traditional way of doing it, dating from manually operated trunk lines. If you didn't know the area code for Littleborough, you'd look that up in the phone book - but since they serve the local area, most people do know it already.

[Magpie]

In Britain, however, there are still quite a lot of small businesses who write, for example, "Littleborough 45678" as their phone number, as that's the traditional way of doing it, dating from manually operated trunk lines. If you didn't know the area code for Littleborough, you'd look that up in the phone book - but since they serve the local area, most people do know it already.

Not knowing how the British phone system works, does this also require them to look up the exchange? In Canada we have 7 digit phone numbers, plus an area code. It used to be that if you were dialling locally you only needed to dial the 7 digits. However, the first three (this was a long time ago) used to be dictated geographically. Everyone close to me would have had the first three. I know that small towns used to all have the same exchange (first three digits), so numbers would be listed as four digits. But you still needed to dial all seven.

[Darkforge]

in britain we have 11 digit numbers, the area code is the first 5 digits. If you are within the same area code you don't need to dial the full 11 digits, but you do if dialling from a mobile or any other area.

at least thats how I think it works, but i'm not a telecomms specialist.

[Chromatix]

In Britain the length of the area code varies by the size of the exchange. The shortest area code is now 020 for London, the longest I've seen is about 6 digits (015xxx I think) for small towns in Cumbria. Large cities usually have four-digit area codes, eg. 0151 for Liverpool. The initial 0 is what distinguishes a national from a local number, and is left out if you dial in from abroad.

The total length of the number (area code + local number) is the same each time - London numbers have 8 digits (usually starting with 7 for inner and 8 for outer London), while that little town in Cumbria would have a 5-digit number.

Littleborough is in an area where several old manual exchanges were combined into a single area code. So the towns in that area all have the same area code (01706), then the two first digits of the local part identify the town, and the final four are unique within the town. Therefore, you can see numbers on local businesses that say "Littleborough xxxx", where "Littleborough" stands for both the area code and the first two digits of the local part.

British Telecom isn't afraid of changing area codes around so that they remain geographic. London used to be simply 01 + 7 digits. Then I think they changed it to 071 and 081 for inner and outer London, and shortly afterwards they changed *all* the existing geographic numbers so that area codes all began with 01. So Liverpool had been 051, and changed to 0151. Some big growing cities (eg. Leeds) got a renumbering at the same time to give them more local-part space, and got new area codes beginning 011. Then they decided London was running out of numbers again, and changed all the existing numbers to 020 8xxx xxxx and 020 7xxx xxxx.

Premium, non-geographic and freephone numbers follow a different pattern. Freephone numbers in particular can be different lengths - a famous example is Childline, which has been 0800 1111 for a long time (it's advertised in many phone booths).

[MoonCat]

I'm beginning to see why speed-dial is not only popular but extremely important...