Are Special Characters and Phone no. in Title Tag bad for Rankings? thank u

[jarik]

Hello.

In my two sites painterdublin.com and tilers-dublin.com I am using a special characters in my title and meta description tags. My sites got penalized on 28.9.2012 and apart from other problems I got advice here on seomoz to remove those characters from tags. 
Is it really harmful?

Title1: • Painter and Decorator in Dublin needed? Painting Contractor? 
Description1: • Top quality Painting Contractor, Painter and Decorator based in Lucan, Dublin. online quotation system pictures of work customer testimonials painting tips

Title2: • Tilers Dublin • Tiling Contractors Dublin • 0851390232
Description2: • Top rated Tilers Dublin • Peter & Gavin Tiling Contractors Dublin • Customer reviews price calculator project pictures tiling tips

Of course  I am using those symbols and phone number to stand out and be more visible in the search results, but if it is bad for seo, its probably not worth it. what do you think?

thank you

Jaro

[sherohass]

For sure special characters are not a good idea in title tags.

I do not see a point in including telephone numbers in title tags you can keep it in body or blocks and it will still be picked up by search engine spiders.