Before I start, I should give you a warning that, as discussed elsewhere in our forum that Virgin Media has been reported to be charging calls to some Tesco 01/02 numbers as operator connected 0845 or operator connected mobile calls.

I went through the numbers for Tesco stores a few weeks back and struck out any that were not recognised and for which there was no known replacement alternative.

What seems to be happening is that the old BT geographic numbers are being replaced with Cable & Wireless (C&W) ones. Quite often Tesco branches within one particular STD code area have similar numbers.

Colchester Extra in Highwoods Square has two numbers running in parallel: 203800 and 287400. The former is the C&W one and the latter is the BT one (that is 0120620 is a C&W prefix and 0120628 is a BT prefix). I expect that 287400 may cease to function at some point, just as 288400 has done at Greenstead Road.

On the basis that the main number for each store (which goes through to the same menu as on the 0845 number) always ends 00, and that the prefix for the other branch is 2038, a little look turns up the new number for Greenstead Road......01206 205700.

I understand that changing the last digit to 7 is the number for the Customer Service Desk. Also, according to our listings: 18=Bakery, 19= Customer services, 32= Home Shopping, 38= Opticians, 45= Petrol station, 49= Pharmacy/Fragrances, 65/66/67= Duty Managers.

The main menu has options to be put through to various departments, so knowing the direct numbers probably isn't so necessary, unless you ring them on a regular basis.

Hi

Tesco Express in Crouch Street, Colchester, used to be on 01206 575471, but that is now a spare line, and on the Tesco website the number for that store is listed as 0845 0269718.

Is there any way of tracking down their new landline number?

Dave

Dave Rado wrote on Apr 9^th, 2012 at 3:12pm:

I've joined this thread to that for another Tesco branch in Colchester, because, as I said previously (reply #1), Tesco branches within the same STD code area often have similar numbers to one another.

Dave, you indicated that you didn't follow my explanation of how I located the numbers for the two branches, so I'll explain it differently.


Telephone number prefixes are allocated to telephone providers. For example, 07802 is O2, 07980 is Orange, 07909 is Vodafone and so on. The same goes for landline numbers. Where there is a five digit code such as 01206, then it is usually this plus the next two digits that they are allocated by. Due to historical reasons, most are allocated to BT.

For Tesco branches in other STD code areas, it has been observed that they have been changing their numbers from those on BT prefixes to ones allocated to Cable & Wireless (C&W). C&W is a large communications provider and provides services to businesses, including Tesco.

The old numbers for those branches started 01206 28 which is a BT prefix. I then looked through the list of prefixes within the Colchester code and found that 20 is allocated to C&W. So I made the assumption that the numbers I was looking for were probably 01206 20????.

I also know that Tesco branches (particularly Superstores and Extras) have a block of numbers where the first one, which ends 00, usually goes to the menu for that store, just as the respective 0845 number does. I put this to the number I had previously found and so got 01206 20??00.

So I had narrowed down the possibilities from "anywhere within the 01206 code" to "somewhere within these 100 numbers". That is, the two unknown digits could have been anything from 00 to 99.

Within half an hour I had located the two numbers.


What seems to be fairly certain is that Superstores and Extras have many numbers and that the first one ends 00. We don't know whether this also applies to Express stores or other types of store.

If, for example, Superstores can have 100 numbers (from ending 00 to 99), then I wonder what about smaller stores (Expresses and Metros). Being smaller they obviously don't have as much demand for so many incoming numbers.

They may also be more tricky to find as, going by the 0845 numbers for them which I have tried, they don't have an IVR and therefore it's not a simple case of "fishing" for the IVR in a pool of possible geographic numbers.


Maybe the staff at main branches will be prepared to put calls through internally to other branches. This may be an effective way to avoiding the cost of a 0845 call. If you try it, let us know whether you are successful or not as it may help others in the same position.

The Tesco Crouch St landline number is 01206 205 627 - please could you add it to the database?