I’ve recently seen a fair amount of advertising with phone numbers listed with letters instead of numbers. Listings like 555-SOLD are fine, so long as you also list the digits associated with the letters. My Treo, and many other smart phones like Blackberries and iPhones, doesn’t have a way to associate numbers with the letters advertised. The take-home message is that letters in numbers went out of style with the advent of modern technolgoy and using them as an advertising tool means that many prospective customers won’t be able to call you.
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Aaron Traffas, CAI, ATS, CES
twitter.com/traffas | aarontraffas.com | aarontraffasband.com
Aaron Traffas, CAI, AMM, CES, is an auctioneer from Sharon, Kansas. For the last 22 years he's worked for
Purple Wave. Aaron served as president of the
Kansas Auctioneers Association in 2017 and on the
National Auctioneers Association Education Institute Board of Trustees from 2009 through 2013. He is a past instructor at CAI and co-wrote the original ATS and AMM designation courses from NAA. An active contract bid caller, he has advanced to the finals in multiple state auctioneer contests.
During the summer, Aaron operates a farm in south central Kansas. Aaron is an active singer and songwriter and the
Aaron Traffas Band's latest music can be found at aarontraffasband.com as well as
Spotify,
Apple Music and
Amazon.
By Col. Ryan Wankel 11 December 2008 - 3:44 am
I have a Samsung Blackjack II and it won’t translate the numbers. I have tried many times and usually have to pick up a landline to figure out the numbers.
By Col. Ryan Wankel 10 December 2008 - 10:44 pm
I have a Samsung Blackjack II and it won’t translate the numbers. I have tried many times and usually have to pick up a landline to figure out the numbers.
By Aaron 11 December 2008 - 10:15 am
@Col. Ryan Wankel –
Thanks for the comment, Ryan. Does the Blackjack II have a full keyboard like the Treo or does it have the keyboard with multiple letters on the same key? That poses a more serious problem, as someone entering numbers based on a non-standard keyboard layout may actually call the wrong person!
By Nick Mallare 10 December 2008 - 10:30 pm
Actually, you just need to type in the letters, and the phone translates them.
Try it.
Nick
By Aaron 11 December 2008 - 10:14 am
@Nick Mallare –
What phone do you have? That process sure doesn’t work on a Treo or Q. Mr. Wankel reports it doesn’t work on a Blackjack.
By Nick Mallare 11 December 2008 - 3:30 am
Actually, you just need to type in the letters, and the phone translates them.
Try it.
Nick
By Aaron Traffas 11 December 2008 - 3:14 pm
@Nick Mallare –
What phone do you have? That process sure doesn’t work on a Treo or Q. Mr. Wankel reports it doesn’t work on a Blackjack.
By Aaron Traffas 11 December 2008 - 3:15 pm
@Col. Ryan Wankel –
Thanks for the comment, Ryan. Does the Blackjack II have a full keyboard like the Treo or does it have the keyboard with multiple letters on the same key? That poses a more serious problem, as someone entering numbers based on a non-standard keyboard layout may actually call the wrong person!
By Robert Mayo 11 December 2008 - 2:34 pm
This has been a pet peeve of mine for some time. I did however discover recently that my Treo has a touchscreen dial pad feature that shows the corresponding letters on the numbers.
It is still a pain in the butt.
By Aaron 12 December 2008 - 9:42 am
Whoa! Thanks for pointing out the dial pad. I’d never noticed it before.
I still agree that the days of assuming everyone can access a phone with the correct letters and numbers matched up are over.
By Nick Mallare 11 December 2008 - 4:07 pm
@Aaron: BlackBerry from Cingular [AT&T, obviously]
Nick
By Sarah Sonke 11 December 2008 - 5:30 pm
I didn’t know this – thanks for sharing!
By Robert Mayo 11 December 2008 - 7:34 pm
This has been a pet peeve of mine for some time. I did however discover recently that my Treo has a touchscreen dial pad feature that shows the corresponding letters on the numbers.
It is still a pain in the butt.
By Col. Ryan Wankel 12 December 2008 - 2:16 am
@Aaron – The Blackjack II has a full QWERTY keyboard. Sometimes it is really fun, for example: if I dial 1-800-PICK-UPS the screen will say “18008*” Oh well, the price we pay to be able to type a message quickly on our phones.
By Col. Ryan Wankel 11 December 2008 - 9:16 pm
@Aaron – The Blackjack II has a full QWERTY keyboard. Sometimes it is really fun, for example: if I dial 1-800-PICK-UPS the screen will say “18008*” Oh well, the price we pay to be able to type a message quickly on our phones.
By Nick Mallare 11 December 2008 - 9:07 pm
@Aaron: BlackBerry from Cingular [AT&T, obviously]
Nick
By Sarah Sonke 11 December 2008 - 10:30 pm
I didn’t know this – thanks for sharing!
By Aaron Traffas 12 December 2008 - 2:42 pm
Whoa! Thanks for pointing out the dial pad. I’d never noticed it before.
I still agree that the days of assuming everyone can access a phone with the correct letters and numbers matched up are over.
By Dual Sim Mobile Phone 2 November 2009 - 1:04 pm
nice