Caller has the blues...

[bhskittykatt]

(bonus points for not having any calls for over an hour until I go to put moisturizer on my hands and the phone chooses that moment to ring....)

Me: "Thank you for calling [The Resort]; how may I assist you?"

Caller: "So I know this is the wrong number but I'm hoping you can help me; I'm looking for these apartments and I know they're in [city] or [outside city] and I don't remember what they're called but they're blue. Do you know which ones they are?"

Me:........... *thinking* are you fucking serious? "Um.....no, sorry, I don't know."

Caller: "Are you sure? They're blue!"

Me: "Sorry, I don't know."

Caller: "Well, okay."

Me: o_O

[Ternasthebard]

Caller: "Are you sure? They're blue!"

"Well, only ones I know of are the Eiffel Apts out on 65th street, they've got these blue little windows."

These sorts of callers are the type that make me feel I couldn't easily work in a job that would actually require me to answer phone calls from the outside, I'm always afraid that my brain to mouth filter will fail, probably due to the fact I don't actually have much of one to begin with.

[draggar]

These sorts of callers are the type that make me feel I couldn't easily work in a job that would actually require me to answer phone calls from the outside, I'm always afraid that my brain to mouth filter will fail, probably due to the fact I don't actually have much of one to begin with.

You'd be surprised at how good you can get at that on a moment's notice.

[raudf]

I get wrong numbers. I make them from time to time. I don't get is asking a question completely unrelated to the company's purpose/product and expecting the person on the phone to answer you. Happened a few times when I worked for MW repair and made me glad that the calls weren't really recorded. (Or I gave some poor QA person a great laugh)

Me: *Gives spiel that includes the fact that this a repair center*
SC: *ignores spiel* Yeah, I wanna know when my pizza is gonna get here!
Me: Sorry, wrong number, this is MW repair. (only warning shot these people got)
SC: Just tell me when my pizza is gonna get here.
Me: Well, what is your pizza doing or not doing that it should be doing/not doing?
SC: Wha?
Me: Is your pizza not powering on?
SC: What the hell are you talking about? Pizza don't power on!
Me: Pizza not powering on.. okay. Does the little red light (most items have red lights or some form of light) come on or is it still off?
SC: Seriously? I just want to know when my pizza is gonna get here!
Me: We can have a tech out to repair your pizza by Friday. The Estimate Fee for the trip will be $50 bucks, which must be prepaid and will be deducted if you choose to have the pizza repaired.
SC: THE HELL?!
Me: As I said, we're MW repair, you've reached a wrong number. Have a nice day. *click*

Seriously, I had this conversation three times with what I believe may have been the same idiot over the course of five years. We didn't do pizza unless the bossman ordered and paid for it!

[An Haddock]

Me: Is your pizza not powering on?

This is one of the greatest goddam stories I have ever read and I wish someone would call our shop so I could do the same thing.

[taxguykarl]

Brings to mind those calls I get requesting a quote for rates to Midway...no TAX not TAXI

[Ternasthebard]

You'd be surprised at how good you can get at that on a moment's notice.

I'd agree with you, but my experience, at least in face to face circumstances proves to be different.

One case in point is at near the end of one of my shifts when a woman that I never had seen before, and definitely not a regular, comes into the small grocery store I worked at with a couple noisy kids. While the cashier is ringing up the goods and I'm bagging them, the standard question arrives.

Cashier: "Did you find everything you were looking for?"
Customer: "Well, have you got any muzzles?"
Cashier: "Well. . ." *Obviously unsure*
Me: Duck tape is on aisle one.

Thank goodness for everyone involved that they just looked at me for a second before bursting out laughing.

Maybe with a different job I'll learn how to use my brain to mouth filter if I have to answer a phone, but somehow I doubt that I ever had one to begin with.

[Catwoman2965]

We get calls every now and again from people who want to know what the phone number is for another store in our center. Um, i'm sure management has a list somewhere, but i have no clue where it is, nor do I care. Really?

[MoonCat]

I think those blue apartments are in my town, actually...

I've had people call to ask directions to drive downtown (can't help, I don't drive) and I've had people ask me for the phone number for competing newspapers (oh hell no...google it, fool) but nobody asking for something completely unrelated.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

One case in point is at near the end of one of my shifts when a woman that I never had seen before, and definitely not a regular, comes into the small grocery store I worked at with a couple noisy kids. While the cashier is ringing up the goods and I'm bagging them, the standard question arrives.

Cashier: "Did you find everything you were looking for?"
Customer: "Well, have you got any muzzles?"
Cashier: "Well. . ." *Obviously unsure*
Me: Duck tape is on aisle one.

Now I know why we keep the duct tape on aisle 7 with the school supplies . . .

[RealUnimportant]

Our home phone number used to have one digit different to quite an upscale hotel in the same town, but right across the other side. To say we were unconnected is a vast understatement, and we never did manage to narrow down which hotel it was or which number differed... Over the years we had a few amusing wrong numbers, most were usually quickly resolved, but a couple were very persistent in their wrongness.

One time we had the same person call us 5 times, once at 3am... We ended up taking their booking; I feel sorry for the desk clerk that had to deal with them when they arrived, but at the time it was the only way to shut them up.

[bhskittykatt]

One time we had the same person call us 5 times, once at 3am... We ended up taking their booking; I feel sorry for the desk clerk that had to deal with them when they arrived, but at the time it was the only way to shut them up.

In that case, 5 times....they sort of had it coming at that point. Sheesh.

I don't know how many times they dialed the wrong number, but my CW had applied for an internship. They apparently tried to call her but dialed a wrong number and the person on the other end told them "No, I hate [company] and I want nothing to do with [company] ever!" They notified CW's placement counselor, who called CW because she knew that didn't sound like CW at all. She was able to smooth things over and get the company to give CW another call back.

I get screwing with wrong-number callers but that's someone's future career you're messing with there!

[notalwaysright]

My parents used to have a toll free number (a 1-800) for one of their businesses. They had this number for years. One year a certain popular online tax software company accidentally used this number. It would be the number which showed up on a customer's credit card statement, but not nation-wide, or we'd have gotten more calls.

So somebody gets their statement and thinks the charge is wrong, and they call the number listed right there. They get me or my mom answering the phone "Thank you for calling Local Hauling Company, how can I help you?" and reply with "I used your FREE service and got a CHARGE on my credit card! It was supposed to be FREE!" And some callers had the thickest Southern accents that it took me a while to figure out what was going on. Not everyone was like that, some were okay. Others got mad at us, like we were trying to scam them to get their info. Um, you called us and randomly started telling us stuff! We could not get through to anyone at this tax software company to fix this. Eventually we just cancelled the number.

[MoonCat]

The landline at our old house had a phone number that was close to that of a company that made signs. My sister answered the phone once and got this guy sputtering, "Rubber stamps! Rubber stamps!" Keep in mind she answered with "Hello" - not some company greeting. Guy took some convincing that he had the wrong number.

And, years ago, apparently there was a hotline you could call for the Grateful Dead - concert dates, I guess; someone messed up the number somewhere and we kept getting these calls at work. The Deadheads were pretty cool about it when told they had the wrong number, though!

[mhkohne]

In that case, 5 times....they sort of had it coming at that point. Sheesh.

I don't know how many times they dialed the wrong number, but my CW had applied for an internship. They apparently tried to call her but dialed a wrong number and the person on the other end told them "No, I hate [company] and I want nothing to do with [company] ever!" They notified CW's placement counselor, who called CW because she knew that didn't sound like CW at all. She was able to smooth things over and get the company to give CW another call back.

I get screwing with wrong-number callers but that's someone's future career you're messing with there!

Yea, feel bad for that desk clerk though.

job seeker: I once got a call for someone based on their resume, and they put the WRONG number (mine) on it! The hr drone and I spent a couple of minutes with it (I suggested stuff like area code, etc) but the bloody fool actually had the wrong number on his/her resume.