Useful phone numbers
Besides the standard numbers everyone carries around (girlfriend, mom, bookie), I’ve got a few reference numbers that come in handy on a daily basis:
- Free411 (800-373-3411): Just what it sounds like — free nationwide directory assistance. Every once in a while, you’ll have to listen to a short commercial before getting your listing. Interesting business model — if you’re looking for a business, Free411 will serve you an ad for that business’ competitor, and you can press ”1″ to be connected to the advertised competitor.
- 411Metro (800-411-6387): Same thing, less catchy name.
- Auburn Information (334-844-4244): The Foy Student Union at Auburn University. It’s the information line, where you’d call for campus schedules and things like that. Except there’s a tradition at Auburn of answering any question that a caller comes up with. It’s like having your own talking Google machine.
- TellMe (800-555-8366): This is a voice-driven service that offers the same sort of information you’d find on a portal like Yahoo — sports scores, news headlines, weather forecasts, stock quotes and the like. A cool feature is the ability to flag favorites that can be recalled whenever you call back from the same phone number. You can even play blackjack against a Sean Connery sound-alike.
- U.S. Naval Observatory (202-762-1401): This is the official time of the United States, as determined by a phalanx of atomic clocks.
- Audioblogger (415-816-0205): This service allows users to post audio messages to Blogger blogs. You can even jury-rig a WordPress conduit.
- The White House (202-456-1414): I’ve never called the president, but it doesn’t hurt to have his number in the cell. That way, if he calls in the middle of the night, it’ll show up as “President,” giving me precious extra seconds to sober up.
I also use a number of services via SMS text messages:
- Google SMS (text 46645): Send a text message to Google to retrieve quick snippets of information. I frequently use this to get phone numbers by listing type and area (“pizza 77079″).
- Houston Transtar Alerts: Sign up to get text messages from Transtar whenever there’s a major traffic problem on one of Houston’s freeways. This happens about a million times a day, so you can narrow down the alerts you want to receive by day, time, route and type. I get the Katy Freeway from 7-9 a.m. and 6-7Â p.m.
- Yahoo Alerts: You can get text-messaged alerts on anything from sports teams to Amber Alerts to low airfares. I get the weather every morning.
- Verizon TXT Alerts: Same idea as Yahoo Alerts, but with a broader array of niches, many co-branded (Maxim, CNN, WaPo).
- Facebook Mobile: Takes the social-networking site and puts it in my pants.
In addition to these, why not get familiar with the rest of the N11 family? Here’s what’s available from my phone (a Verizon line in the 713 area code):
- 211: Community services, state benefits, etc.
- 311: City of Houston services
- 411: Directory assistance
- 511: Nothing
- 611: Verizon customer service
- 711: Relay Texas (allows relay calls to the deaf)
- 811: Service to locate underground utility conduits
- 911: Houston emergency services (Good friggin’ luck)
Then there are the toll-free customer service numbers that are nearly impossible to find.
- Amazon.com: 800-201-7575
- eBay: 800-322-9266
- PayPal: 888-221-1161
Got any more useful numbers? Leave ‘em in the comments.
Way to reference the Auburn Hotline. It’s great if you ever need to know important stuff like how many Skittles will fill the Superdome, the exact location of the “Middle of America” (both North AMerica and the lower 48) – its not Omaha like those whiny Counting Crows would have you believe, or the definition of blumpkin.
Thanks for the info Matt! I must work at being more geek-like and get up to speed on all that is out there!
You’ve got the wrong number listed for the Tellme voice portal… it’s 800-555-TELL (8355) not (8366). Aside from that, great post, and thanks for listing the Auburn U. info line.