Sucky Customer and I wasn't even at work

[The cat whisperer]

While in bed sound asleep the other day I recieved a call on my cell at 7 am. The number came up private, but I answered it any way thinking maybe my mom was sick or something. I work nights so most people know not to call me before 10 am or risk death and/or dismemberment. The conversation went like this:

Cat: Hello?
SC: Is this Such and Such Termite exterminators?
Cat: Uh, no. Sorry, you have the wrong number. (Who calls on a Saturday at 7 am for termite control anyway).
SC: Is this XXX-YYY-ZZZZ? (Which is my number)
Cat: Yeah, but I am not in the termite killin' business. Sorry.
SC: But, this is the number they gave me. (Oh, well, if they told you...)
Cat: No sir. You have a wrong number. Good luck on your pest problem though.

I hung up. Not the most sucky customer ever, but at 7 am do not argue with me about what I do for a living. And to top it off, I got another termite call today. This time I simply said "Not it" and hung up the phone.

PS I put this in sightings since I wasn't technically at work. If it needs to be moved just let me know.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I've often wondered two things:

1. How come people who screw up their phone calls can't do so during decent hours, and

2. How come these same people think if they argue with you about who you are or are not, reality will magically change and you will become who they are trying to reach?

File this under "Things I Am Too Stupid To Understand."

[MadMike]

2. How come these same people think if they argue with you about who you are or are not, reality will magically change and you will become who they are trying to reach?

Good question. I went thru the same thing when I briefly started getting wrong number calls on my cell. I'm guessing someone got a new number, got it wrong, and gave out the wrong number, which happened to be mine.

When I told the one caller they had the wrong number, their response was something like, "Well, this is Dr. So-and-so's office, confirming an appointment."

My response was, "Sorry, it's still the wrong number."

Seriously, did they think that was going to change anything? Like my identity, or in this case, my gender, as the name they asked for was undoubtedly female?

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I know! I get that "Well, this is the number they gave me!" As if they expect me to go, "Oh, well, wow. You got me. Let me magically alter the cosmos and become that person, because THAT'S THE NUMBER THEY GAVE YOU."



I mean, really. What kind of a damn do they expect a stranger who they bothered, and don't even have the grace to say, "oops, sorry to bother you, I dialed wrong" to to have?

I used to get wrong numbers nearly every night, all for the same guy, at my old place. A couple people actually said, "Are you SURE he's not there?" Once or twice I said back, "Well, I don't THINK so, but if it turns out he IS here hiding under a bed or something, I'm going to blow his head off with my trusty shotgun. So hey, if he's due someplace with my tv and stereo, and doesn't show up, you might want to check back."

Sheesh.

[AFpheonix]

I love the ones that get my voicemail, which clearly states something along the lines of "Hey, this is Phe, I'll call you back!" and leave a message for like, Mark or someone. Does Mark have a feminine voice? Didn't think so.

[Becks]

I usually don't bother saying, "You have the wrong number" anymore. I stick with "There's nobody here by that name, sorry." That usually works.

[Misanthropical]

A man use to call my house during the day and insist I was Jessica. I would tell him he had the wrong number. I would tell him that no one by that name lived here, but he kept insisting I was Jessica and I would talk to him.

I would hang up on him, so he resorted to screaming on my answering machine that I damn well better call him back.

I finally had it with this ass calling and screaming at either me or my answering machine, so I called the 800 number that he called from and talked to a supervisor.

The supervisor told me they had my number down as Jessica's. I told him that there is no Jessica here and anymore calls from them would result in legal action. I haven't had a call since.

[Canarr]

I had it the other way around; not a sucky, just an amusing anecdote.

A friend of mine, Michael, spent a year and some change in China, and quit his cell phone service before he left. Unfortunately, I didn't get that (and of course had little reason to call him on his cell phone in China), so I never deleted his number from my cell phone.

Fast forward 14 months, he's back, and we're planning a few things, get together with a couple of people and catch up. I text message him a few times over several weeks - generic stuff like, "We'll meet at five", "Come over when you're done", etc. Never got an answer, but didn't really expect one, the messages were just to let him know when and where.

Now, one night, we were sitting at a friends, watching a few DVDs and goofing off, when I heard my cell phone ring in the hall. Got up to get it, but of course it stopped before I reached it. Checking the display, it read Michael's name. Why would he call me, when we're sitting in the same room? Of course, he hadn't. So, I hit redial to call back my mystery caller.

SG - Strange Guy (heavy Eastern German accent)
Me - Me

SG: Hello?
Me: Hey; you just called me?
SG: Oh, yes; is this <full name>? (Okay, who is this guy, and how does he know my name? I later noticed he'd left a message on my voice mail, and had gotten my name from there.)
Me: Yes, that's me; what can I do for you? (I'm polite that way)
SG: Yeah, well, I was just wondering... where do you live? (Alarm bells went off there. Why would someone call to ask me that?)
Me: Uh... around Mannheim somewhere. Why? (Technically true)
SG: Ah, Mannheim is good... I was there to help build the new train station! (That's nice...)
SG: See, I was a bit worried, because I've been finding these strange messages...
Me: <Insert first attempt to explain the whole "old number thing"; by now I'd figured out that apparently, the company had re-issued Michael's old number. Didn't even slow him down, though.>
SG: ...and you see, this is my wife's cell phone... (Oops. Didn't want to increase the divorce rate in the east even more!)
SG: .... but she's never been to Mannheim. Well, I have, to build the train station...
Me: <Insert 2nd attempt; trying unsuccessfully not to laugh. My friends weren't any help there.>
SG: Have you ever been to Chemnitz? (City in Sachsen I've never seen.)
Me: No, but I've been to Dresden. (No idea what prompted me to say that.)
SG: No, that can't be, either, she doesn't go there... (It sounded like he was mostly talking to himself now.)
Me: Okay, glad I could help. Sorry again about the mishap.

Click.

Again, he wasn't sucky; a bit persistent, and it doesn't exactly portray a lot of trust for him to check his wife's phone messages, but more funny than annoying.

[Linda]

My phone number is often printed in the local paper as being that of a local recruitment agency. (Well, they do print their number, but with an extra 0 in the middle, which makes it mine if you follow). I have so so many phone calls a day asking for information about available jobs, and more than a couple of times a week I get something along the following lines...

Me: Hello
Idiot: Hi there - I'm after information on <insert job here>
Me: I'm sorry, this is a residential number. The number you need is .......
Idiot: Well, this is the number in the paper so...
Me: It's wrong. The number in the paper has 9 digits. It should have 8. The number you need is......
Idiot: Can't I give you my details anyway? And get someone to call me back?
Me: This is a residential, private number. I can't do that.

This goes one of many ways. I rarely get an "OK no probs". Usually get "You are so unhelpful". Or "I'll have your job for this".

My answerphone is even better. My message is "Hi this is Linda. This is NOT ...... Recruitment agnecy. Their number is .......... If you are phoning this private number to speak to Linda or ...... please leave your message."

Usually 3 or 4 messages get through my cunning message...
"Hi I'm calling about .......... job. My name is...... My phone number is ...... My mobile number is....... My address is ......... My National Insurance number is .........

Occasionally for people who have been hired and need to leave details for their new employer, I've had bank details left too.

It's a good thing I'm not an identity thief!

[Anakah]

I had the MOST annoying guy who would call me and speak spanglish. Y'know some spanish and a hint of english? He called me EVERY hour on the hour the ENTIRE time I was trying to sleep. The first time he did it, I rejected the call because it was a number I didn't recognize.
The second time I picked up the phone and politely told him he had the wrong phone number.
The third time I text him saying; "STOP calling me"
And right after I did that, guess what?!
He called me again. THIS time I was getting beyong irritated. I had to go to work soon and he kept me up the whole time. Note: I would have turned off my phone but its my alarm clock.
So finally he asks for the same person again and I was beyond pissed.
"STOP CALLING MY EFFIN NUMBER!"
He finally stopped.

[Banrion]

I had someone calling my cell phone from France. She would call and leave voice mail while I was sleeping, and NOT leave any sort of callback number. I felt bad for the girl, because the first message was.

"Hi, made it to Paris, just calling to check in, call me back! BYE"

Then the next day

"Hi so and so, didn't hear from you yesterday, hope everything is OK, call me back"

And the next day

"what's going on, is something wrong, PLEASE call me back, I'm in Paris for 4 more days"

The next day

"You sound kinda funny on your voicemail, I hope I have the right number, anyhow call me back"

The next day

[sobbing] "I'm really scared, I don't know why you haven't called me, PLEASE just let me know you are OK"

Finally the calls stopped, but I felt really bad as she obviously had the wrong number, but she NEVER left any sort of contact info. Very strange!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

When I lived in my parent's house, something similar happened. It was past 11pm*, and my mom, who had the flu, was trying to sleep. This chick kept calling over and over. She was polite, but it was PAST 11PM, and my patience started wearing pretty thin.

Finally, I had to say, "look here, it's late, we're trying to sleep, and you've bothered us 4 or 5 times in a 15 minute period. You need to make sure you don't call us again, got it? "

She apologized, and I told her I appreciated that, but enough was enough. She didn't call back.

*See my previous gripe about this happening mostly at indecent hours.

[IT Grunt]

My wife had a similar experience years ago, a couple years before we got married. She was living in an apartment, and had just gotten her phone hooked up. Apparently, a lady who was selling a car had that number listed in the ad. Now she either had the number before, or it had been mis-printed. A guy calls to inquire about the car:

W: My wife
PG: Psycho guy

W: Hello?
PG: Yeah, are you still selling the car?
W: Car? I'm not selling any car. I think you have a wrong number.
PG: This is the number in the ad, now are you selling the car or not?
W: I already told you, I'm not selling any car. You have a wrong number.
PG: Look lady, I want that <censored> car! I have questions about it, now start answering them!
W: Sir, I already told you, I'm not selling a car! I only have one, it belongs to me, and I'm not selling it! You have a wrong number!
PG: I WANT THAT <censored> CAR!!

She finally hung up on him, and never heard from him again, thankfully. Scared her to death though, for a couple days she had visions of this pyscho tracking her down and demanding to see this imaginary car!

Fast forward to the present, we moved into our own house about 5 years ago. After getting our phone service hooked up, fate decided to throw a monkey wrench into the works yet again, and our number apparently belonged to another couple who had apparently moved. Not only that, but this number had apparently been used by others as well. We've had numerous calls from the power company's computer, saying our bill was overdue and numerous calls asking for about three different people with three different last names, and often repeatedly. (Isn't this XXX-XXXX? Yes, but this is a brand new freakin' house, bub. No one but us has ever lived here!)

We started answering the phone with "Hello, IT Grunt residence." People still asked if those people were there.

Then, my cell phone number also seems to have been owned by someone else previously, as I've gotten numerous calls from the /same woman/ asking for this guy. She hasn't called recently, mainly because I sounded like I was ready to kill the last time she called.

By this point, I could almost write a book on the wrong number phenomenon.

[Seanette]

Maybe some of you can confirm or discredit a pattern I think I've noticed in wrong-number calls. In general (there ARE exceptions both directions), women callers are much more polite about it than men callers. Women usually apologize and hang up, men get annoyed with you for not being the person they were looking for. (Yes, I've dealt with polite men and rude women. I'm talking about general trends, not absolutes.)

[Cia]

I finally had to tell some idiots who wouldn't stop calling me looking for the previous owner of my cell number "Look genius, he doesn't own this number anymore. Public health is looking for him and so is his car loan people. Take the hint and stop calling."