WRONG NUMBER

[blondescales]

I can sooooo sympathize. My phone number is one ONE digit different than the police <sigh>

You can imagine .....

I understand this completely. We get calls all the time for the sheriff's office because people switch two numbers around.

[Kanalah]

One time we had a man named "Tyrone" leave a long-winded message on my mom's answering machine. This was in the 90's and being a single mom - my grandfather did the message.

This guy apparently thought he was calling his "main bitch" and how dare she change her machine message to some other dude, and he was sorry for beating her, but he was drunk and she deserved it.

Luckily we only had the one crazy message.

There was a time I had a series of texts from someone on the opposite side of town trying to set up a drug deal. "Can I just leave the money behind the dumpster at Sonic?" "Why aren't you answering, I need the stuff, man." And then they tried to call me repeatedly.

[NoRedCards]

Years ago, the phone company misprinted the name of a fairly busy local construction company with their number. They would be nice, and tell people the correct number to the construction company. Until the day the construction company demanded that they change their phone number so they could have it. Not asked, not discussed, just demanded. Funny, after that nobody knew what the company's number was. My parents had the number for over 30 years at that point, it wasn't about to get changed.

Personally, I had a work number that was close to a local pizza place, but took some effort to misdial (My number was 4442, theirs was 5552). A couple people I passed along the correct number. Most are still waiting for the order I took.......

[KellyHabersham]

I had something similar. When I called the doctor's office, the person said that whoever called me was the day staff, and she was the night staff, and didn't have any of that information. I asked if she couldn't leave a message or note for the daytime staff. She couldn't, and told me to call during the day. I considered the idea that I had actually gotten an after-hours answering service, instead of the physical office, but wouldn't she have said that? I was a little cranky, and just started deleting the messages until eventually they stopped.

That might've been the case with the woman whom I had spoken to. All I know is that the only way I stopped getting calls for "Wyatt's" parents is when a collection agency started calling, and they were a lot nicer about the wrong number issue.

[notalwaysright]

That might've been the case with the woman whom I had spoken to. All I know is that the only way I stopped getting calls for "Wyatt's" parents is when a collection agency started calling, and they were a lot nicer about the wrong number issue.

I realize I might have sounded slightly childish like, "but I don't wanna call during the day!" But the lady on the phone was so... confused to the point of uselessness. It took like three tries to explain why I was calling. Then when she understood, she implied that since she had not personally made the original wrong number call, it wasn't her problem. If it had been an answering service, I would have been much more understanding and probably tried to call earlier in the day. It's not like I was calling at night, either. It was late afternoon.

I didn't get any collection agency calls, but I believe the last message I got started with "this message is for *Wrong Person* and your test results are in..."

[EricKei]

If you get anything medically related (for someone else) just remember the magic word: "HIPAA" ... more to the point, "This is a wrong number. By leaving sensitive information with me, you risk committing a HIPAA violation."

[Dreamstalker]

Occasionally I'll be the recipient of some probably-drunk texting (the last round was fairly...explicit). Got one yesterday (from the sender of the sext-message) wanting to know if "Raj" was free for dinner this weekend. So someone is either too dumb to know they're misdialing, or someone's actually giving out my number.

I tried a reverse lookup on the number that was texting me, but the free services are useless.

[Nunavut Pants]

I had someone text me repeatedly, asking why I was ignoring him, baby, after meeting last night... Yeah, I think some girl gave a creep my number as a brush-off.

I had someone text and call my phone repeatedly from somewhere in the Philipines! I don't speak Tagalog, and couldn't seem to make them understand that they had the wrong number. At least, not until I started swearing at them...

[Kogarashi]

I tend to only get the wrong numbers when I first change my own number upon moving to a new area (hasn't happened here yet because I kept my upstate NY number when we moved to GA). The most annoying was a constant string of voicemails (I never seemed to be near my phone when they called) for some guy with an Hispanic name (my name is both female and English in origin), constantly reminding him of bills he needed to pay or asking him to call to talk about an account. Despite making sure my voicemail clearly stated who I was and that the number belonged to a private cell phone, the calls kept coming for two months straight. I can't recall if I finally managed to answer the phone when they called and explained that "Hernando" wasn't there, or they finally gave up or something.

[Nunavut Pants]

I once had something like that, but in person!

I was getting out of the shower, when I heard knocking on my front door. I told the person to wait a minute, and toweled off and got some pants on. I answered the door, and it was a couple of US Marshals. Turned out they were looking for a previous tenant in the house, who had evidently been doing some Very Bad Things (in addition to trashing the place so it had been almost completely remodeled when we moved in). I told them I had no idea who they were or where they had gone, and that I had lived in the house for three or four years...

That was one of the most curious things that happened while I was in there.

[mathnerd]

I once had something like that, but in person!

I was getting out of the shower, when I heard knocking on my front door. I told the person to wait a minute, and toweled off and got some pants on. I answered the door, and it was a couple of US Marshals. Turned out they were looking for a previous tenant in the house, who had evidently been doing some Very Bad Things (in addition to trashing the place so it had been almost completely remodeled when we moved in). I told them I had no idea who they were or where they had gone, and that I had lived in the house for three or four years...

That was one of the most curious things that happened while I was in there.

Hey, a US Marshal shows up regularly at my house, and actually just left a couple minutes ago. Of course, said marshal is the father of my middle son's girlfriend and is usually dropping off my kid or picking up his kid.

As for wrong numbers, I have a few.

-The numbers for the non emergency police and a funeral home were both just one digit off from my parents' number. My parents' number was something like 2323, the police was 2223 and the funeral home was 2322. They got a lot of distressed phone calls, but they've had that number since phone numbers expanded to 7 digits so they just dealt with it. They still have that number. It got worse when ten digit dialing, plus multiple area codes went into affect for the same metropolitan area. People were resisting the new area code so one of the major hospitals agreed to switch over to the new one. One of the hundreds of numbers they had was the same last 7 digits but with the new area code.

-I got a new phone when I moved two years ago. The old owner of that number was apparently still actively giving it out. I got calls from doctors, lawyers, friends, church groups, her pharmacy, car service shop and many, many others. I tried to tell them that they had a wrong number. Only the hospital responded positively. One of the doctors did to at first, but when the calls kept coming they said that she confirmed it was her number and there was nothing they could do. I called bs and told them there was a case for harassment here, along with hipaa violations and they still didn't get it. I really should have documented all the messages from all the various sources. I knew more about her medical history than I do my own mother. After a year I gave up and changed my own number.

[BPFH]

I was getting out of the shower, when I heard knocking on my front door. I told the person to wait a minute, and toweled off and got some pants on. I answered the door, and it was a couple of US Marshals.

In my case it was three gentlemen from the Illinois State Police. They knocked on the door of my dorm room one morning while I was studying. Looking for someone else, apparently all they had was the address...

[Dreamstalker]

Occasionally I'll get voicemails from a dispatcher for The Ride (taxi service for elderly and disabled run by the MBTA) telling me "your ride is downstairs/out front". Not at our address...nobody in my household uses it anyway. I've called them back and told whoever (they never leave a name) that they have the wrong number, but that doesn't seem to help The kicker is, my name is on my outgoing message. They still left a message for [name nowhere close to mine in any way].

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I used to have a number close to that of a Pizza Place. I started taking orders. Pizza Place changed their number not long after.

[MadMike]

The kicker is, my name is on my outgoing message. They still left a message for [name nowhere close to mine in any way].

Yeah, people don't listen. When I was in my old apartment in the city, I started getting calls for people I never heard of. And I lived alone, so there was no reason for anyone to call for anyone other than me. I'd come home from work and find messages for other people, despite my outgoing message stating my name (i.e. "Hi this is Mike...") I tried changing it to something like, "If you're calling for Mike, leave a message. If you're calling for anyone else, you have the wrong number." I'd like to say that put a stop to it, but I'd be lying.