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This took place a few years ago. I was reminded of it by a similar incident recently.
A little information is needed to understand what was taking place. See, I worked in a town where there were two very similar telephone exchanges that were geographically adjacent. This resulted in a lot of misdialed numbers, because people trying to call a number like 857-1234 might instead dial 859-1234 by accident, or vice-versa.
I’m sure you can see where this is headed.
The woman came into the shop to complain that she’d been getting a large number of misdialed calls intended for us. I listened to her complaint, sympathized with her situation, but told her that I didn’t have control over how others dialed their phones. There was nothing I could realistically do.
She had a suggestion. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t founded in reality. Her idea was that the shop should change its phone number.
I began to explain why that wasn’t really a viable option, but before I could get out two sentences, she waved her hand in a dismissive gesture and told me she didn’t care about how difficult it was, I should just ‘get it done.’
I had to tell her that I was very sorry, but no.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “I’ve had my number for 20-odd years.”
I replied that it still WAS her number. Nobody was trying to take over her phone number.
“But I keep getting these calls! You have to do something!”
I told her, again, that there was nothing I could do. Misdialed calls have been a fact of life since direct dialing went live, and I don’t see it changing any time soon.
“I already told you how to fix this! Are you thick or something?!” She was getting shrill and bitchy now.
Once more, I told her that I could not change the shop’s phone number. Simple as that.
“You’re going to change your number,” she told me. “You’re going to call the telephone company and do it now.”
Once more, “No.”. I followed this with an invitation to leave, which prompted a string of expletives that could probably curdle milk. Finally, after about four or five minutes of her rage-fueled tirade, she made a threat to sue us, and stalked out
Yeah, sure, lady. I didn’t pick the shop’s number, the telephone company assigned it to us. Even if we changed our number, it wouldn’t do you damn bit of good, because guess what? All the telephone books, ads, fliers, etc. will still be in circulation for quite some time to come. Not to mention I’d have to change all the signage, invoices, business cards, post new ads and so forth. I’m not about to throw thousands of dollars spent on advertising and so forth down the drain, and then spend more to fix something that isn’t my fault. Sometimes life just hands you a bad situation for which there is no real solution, and you have to cope with it the best you can. Deal with it.
A little information is needed to understand what was taking place. See, I worked in a town where there were two very similar telephone exchanges that were geographically adjacent. This resulted in a lot of misdialed numbers, because people trying to call a number like 857-1234 might instead dial 859-1234 by accident, or vice-versa.
I’m sure you can see where this is headed.
The woman came into the shop to complain that she’d been getting a large number of misdialed calls intended for us. I listened to her complaint, sympathized with her situation, but told her that I didn’t have control over how others dialed their phones. There was nothing I could realistically do.
She had a suggestion. Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t founded in reality. Her idea was that the shop should change its phone number.
I began to explain why that wasn’t really a viable option, but before I could get out two sentences, she waved her hand in a dismissive gesture and told me she didn’t care about how difficult it was, I should just ‘get it done.’
I had to tell her that I was very sorry, but no.
“You don’t understand,” she said. “I’ve had my number for 20-odd years.”
I replied that it still WAS her number. Nobody was trying to take over her phone number.
“But I keep getting these calls! You have to do something!”
I told her, again, that there was nothing I could do. Misdialed calls have been a fact of life since direct dialing went live, and I don’t see it changing any time soon.
“I already told you how to fix this! Are you thick or something?!” She was getting shrill and bitchy now.
Once more, I told her that I could not change the shop’s phone number. Simple as that.
“You’re going to change your number,” she told me. “You’re going to call the telephone company and do it now.”
Once more, “No.”. I followed this with an invitation to leave, which prompted a string of expletives that could probably curdle milk. Finally, after about four or five minutes of her rage-fueled tirade, she made a threat to sue us, and stalked out
Yeah, sure, lady. I didn’t pick the shop’s number, the telephone company assigned it to us. Even if we changed our number, it wouldn’t do you damn bit of good, because guess what? All the telephone books, ads, fliers, etc. will still be in circulation for quite some time to come. Not to mention I’d have to change all the signage, invoices, business cards, post new ads and so forth. I’m not about to throw thousands of dollars spent on advertising and so forth down the drain, and then spend more to fix something that isn’t my fault. Sometimes life just hands you a bad situation for which there is no real solution, and you have to cope with it the best you can. Deal with it.
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