Key Pads Foil Clever Marketers

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So I was trying to call a business to make sure my bill was correct, and their 800 number had the name of the business as the last four digits. And yet, they didn't provide the actual numbers for people.

Since I just switched to a Blackberry with a non-classic keypad, I had to google to remind myself which letters go with which numbers. If I weren't at a computer, I was going to have to draw a picture of a phone.

Note to companies: It's fine to have easy-to-remember phone numbers, designed with the classic keypad in mind. But your customers shouldn't have to give themselves a headache trying to picture a phone in order to call you.

Comments

  1. bobvis7:44 AM

    When I first read this title, I thought I read "Key Pads Foil Markets". I wonder why I would have had that on my mind...

    I got a Palm Centro just last night (with the corresponding keyboard issue). I hadn't thought of this issue until you just mentioned it. Thanks. I didn't even get to make a telephone call on it yet!

    It has to be even tougher on the Blackberry Pearl users. I think they have letters over their number keys, but they don't correspond to the ones they would need for dialing a phone number.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bob Murphy4:57 PM

    Bobvis,

    You're right! I didn't even realize I was dialing the wrong number until I went to press the "A" and an asterisk appeared, instead of a number.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous8:20 AM

    Draw a picture of a phone? Jeez, can't you just do this in your head?

    ReplyDelete
  4. bobvis4:58 PM

    It isn't that you can't do it in your head. It's that it's annoying, and we shell out big bucks for our phones, which a growing number of people are using. The point isn't that this is an insurmountable problem facing the world today. It's just annoying.

    ReplyDelete

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