The power of Google compels you!

[Bright_Star]

Calling once & thinking you got the number you thought you dialed & having it explained to you that it isn't would be understandable. Calling again & again is what they call an "Epic Fail". Wow...lol.

[fma_fanatic]

Quoth emax4

I'm wondering why you didn't ask him the number that he dialed, or ask why he still keeps calling the same number when he was already told it was the wrong number. He could be ressing "redial" or manually dialing the wrong number. Too bad you don't have caller ID.

1) we do have caller ID.

2) from what the receptionist told me during the instant message confirmation, he did run the number by her, which was the number he was dialing (555-1212), which, as I explained in the first post was the direct dial number for the extension not in use (also why I tried to explain to him about the extension not in use during one such call).

[Pizzacommando]

A friend of mine and I had phone numbers that were almost identical, but with two digits flipped (555-1234 and 555-2134). We found this out one night when a friend of his misdialed my phone looking for him.

[Rainman]

Is it weird after I read this I pictured you standing on your chair, splashing holy water on your office phone while yelling "The power of Google COMPELS YOU!" lol

[Shalom]

Quoth CrazedClerkthe2nd

I once nearly got my head chopped off (figuratively of course) by a woman because apparently Google put the wrong number for our computer store in its official listing for us.

The number they had led to...a phone sex line.

This reminds me of a story from about 1996.

Quoth Garner Miller

I still remember when this 76-year-old woman called me and asked about
getting one of Apple's warranty exchanges on her PowerBook. I told her
she'd need to call Apple directly, and gave her the number: 800-SOS-APPL.
That's Ess-Ohh-Sss...i.e., 767-2775. She then called me back asking who in
the hell I thought she was, screamed for another five minutes, and was
ready to hang up on me. I couldn't understand what the problem was, so I
had her read back exactly what she'd dialed.

Well, turns out she dialed Ess-ZERO-Ess (707-2775), and that's an ENTIRELY
different sort of phone line. Go ahead. Dial 800-707-2775 and take a
listen. I scared my coworkers I was laughing so hard. :-)

I'm sure that the line in question isn't up anymore, but it used to say "Hi sexy, you've just connected to the hottest cat line in America!"

Yes, that's "cat", not "chat".

[SkullBash]

I actually have a chronic phone problem BECAUSE of teh Googlez. People call our office all of the time thinking we are the Social Security office because they search for "Social Security" and then our city. Since we are an HR department for local government, our website only mentions Social Security, but Google tags us with that and is one of the first few hits. Of course, people do not actually LOOK to make sure that our number is for the correct organization - despite the name of ours occurring in big letters across the top of our website.

Of course, the folks who call are usually polite when I inform them that this is not the correct office, and I do keep the 800 number handy to help the confused souls. But I do get the occasional person who rudely fires back with a snooty, "Well, that's not what GOOGLE said!" Hah! People fall for that one all the time! Can't put anything past you! Of COURSE we are the Social Security office! After all, Google doesn't have automated bots that scan pages all the time and create associated terms that may not always be accurate for your purposes! The Internet never lies, ever! Ugh.

I'm still trying to figure out an explanation psychologically for why people don't realize other alternatives. As if you will suddenly become the bank if the customer in the opening pose calls often enough. As if I will suddenly be employed with the Social Security Admin if someone gets pissed enough over their harmless mistake....