Sucky Customer and I wasn't even at work

[MadMike]

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!)

My wife's former neighbor, from when she still had her apartment, had a similar problem. He inherited a phone number that apparently belonged to someone who didn't believe in paying their bills, and was constantly getting harrassed by collection agencies that refused to believe that he wasn't the guy they were trying to reach, and didn't even known him. Worse yet, he was a third-shift truck driver, so these calls were disturbing his rest. He eventually had to changed to an unlisted number.

[Gurndigarn]

We kept getting collect calls from prison. Including one that went "HEL LO. THIS IS A... COLLECT CALL FROM dontyoudarehangupyouasshole, WHO IS IN A CORREC TIONAL FACILITY. WILL YOU ACCEPT THE CHARGE?"

That's about the time I found out that blocking incoming collect calls doesn't block ones from prisons. It took another month to finally get calls blocked from the prison's phone company, too.

[pbmods]

SC: But, this is the number they gave me.

Me: "That's nice." *crickets* (assuming I don't just hang up after that)

[draftermatt]

Our number was previously had by another family. I used to get messages saying "Mary, your glasses are ready" etc.

One day someone calls and asks for Mary. I say you have the wrong number.

"No I don't I have the wrong information" (This is said real pissy)

"Well f**k you then"

At work our number got rerouted with a motorcycle shop's. You would call the shop's number and a message from the phone company would say that you need to call (our number).

Finally I found out what the actual place's number was and called them about it. They knew and were trying to get it fixed.

Nobody got an attitude, but most were like "It said to call this"

"Well wev'e had this number for about 20 years, I think they're wrong."

[Mikkel]

Oh that reminds me. Twenty-some years ago I got a phonecall in the middle of the night, about three if I remember correctly. I took the phone and mumbled my name, the next couple of minutes a woman was shouting at me , she had been waiting since nine and I never kept my promises and I was worthless in bed and we were through for ever and she would kill me if she ever laid eyes on me again. When she was running down and I got my wits together I asked her who she thought she was talking to but she shouted that I shouldn't play innocent and slammed the phone down . I still wonder who she was and what she did to the poor man when or if he showed up .

[Rapscallion]

3:30am. "Hello? Is this XYZ Taxis?"

"No. It's a private number."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." I could hear the music of a nightclub in the background. "I was asleep."

He was good enough to give an apology for a wrong number before hanging up.

4:00 am "Hello?" asked a drunken female voice. "Can I arrange a taxi for..."

"No."

"What? Are you refusing to send..."

"This is a private number. Someone's given you and some others the wrong number by accident." I could hear the nightclub in the background still. Sounds like I was a digit or two from a taxi firm's number.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

"No matter. I get up for work in about an hour anyway."

"Oh my..." I put the phone down on her at this point.

4:30 am "Hello?" I growled.

"Eek!" said a drunken female voice. The line went dead immediately.

Nothing since.

Rapscallion

[RecoveringKinkoid]

This is a bizarre story involving my husband making a wrong number.

I will admit right now that booze was involved and my husband was "one of those people." We aren't proud of this, but it makes for a funny story.

So it's something like 2 am and he and I were doing a little drinking one night back in the salad days of our marriage. Okay, so we were doing a lot of drinking. Hubby is an idiotic drunk.

He remembers to call a friend of his he was supposed to call. He knows said friend is over at another friends house that night. So he calls and get a machine. He says "Okay, this is it. Art, tell Shannon that the secret word for the night...it's MAIDEN (hubby is a big Iron Maiden fan, and so were the guys he was calling). Got it? Maiden. MAAAID-EN. CAll me, man. I'm home. The number is Blah blah blah." He blathered on drunkenly in that vein for a while before hanging up.

An hour later the phone rang. We had turned in. We woke up, but let the machine get it. Some other drunk we didn't recognize was going "DUDE! You got the wrong number, bro, but that was the funniest fg call I've ever gotten!!! You rock! I wanna party with YOU!" And he went on drunkenly in that vein before hanging up.

I was just glad he didn't accidently get some poor little old lady or something.

[ArenaBoy]

3 years ago, when I got my cell phone I didn't have time to record a voicemail message due to school and events and I was a bit lazy about it. An unrecorded voice mail message on my phone usually said my name in a robotic voice and everything so people would get the point. I kept getting calls from this guy leaving messages for Nina, this went on for until I finally recorded the voicemail message and at the time, I was suffering from a cold and my voice was quite deep. Never heard from him since.

[flybye023]

A couple of years ago I renewed my cell phone contract and got a new phone. They were running a program where I could "recycle" my old cell phone so I gladly left it with them.

Fast forward about 6 months I get this voicemail message on my cellphone from the Seaside police department basically saying that I had called 911 but hung up, and to stop messing with them. The message included times and lengths of calls...there were about 10 calls made in a 15 minute interval. I didn't think I had done this 'cause my phone is usually off (I got it "for emergencies") but y'know how you start doubting yourself: Maybe I did leave my phone on and buttons got pushed while it was in my purse?

I check my outgoing calls, nothing to 911. I go online and check my statement, no calls to 911 so I decide to ignore the voicemail message. I mean, obviously it's not me, right? Also, I live in a town about 80 miles away so wouldn't any 911 made from my phone go to my city's dispatch?

A couple of days later I get another message saying I better stop calling 911 or I will be arrested. This time I call the police station and explain that I didn't call 911 and for them to stop bothering me. (said much more politely though). They verified my phone number but I told them I hadn't called 911, and gave them several facts to prove it:

1) my phone showed that I hadn't called 911.

2) the phone company showed that I hadn't called 911. (I called them and they couldn't find any explanation for why the police would be bothering me)

3)one of the times they had recorded, my phone was off and the battery was dead and not attached to the phone.

4)brought up the point that I am in "Smithville" 80 miles away, wouldn't calls from my phone go locally?

The officer on the line hemmed and hawed acknowledged that yes, my 911 calls would go locally and not to them but basically said it was my problem, they weren't obligated to do anything about it but if the calls continued I would be in trouble. Even though I could prove that the calls didn't come from me.

I called the phone company again but they couldn't do anything about it either. They had, however, figured out that it was my old cell phone making the calls. The phone they hadn't recycled but had instead donated to a women's shelter. And been given to a woman in a poor domestic situation. Somehow my number was still attached to the phone. So she's making calls and not getting any help and I'm getting in trouble for harrassing 911.

So resolution, I got a new number and I never donate my old phones anymore (I have no idea what to do with them though).

I feel sorry for that lady though but really, if you're in a situation where you have to call 911 ten times in fifteen minutes: GET OUT NOW! The loser is not worth it!

[Rapscallion]

There is a charity that recycles mobile phones and sends them to Africa for use there. Unless it's serious enough for an extradition warrant, there's going to be no problems if you send it there.

http://www.exodus.co.uk/recyclingmobilephones.html for one- I'm sure you could get something similar for the US.

Rapscallion

[HalloranElder]

Ah yes, the joys of wrong numbers...

Way back when I was a kid, phone numbers in the capital city had 7 digits (with a 2 digit area code) while numbers in the rest of the state were only 6 digits (with a 3 digit area code).

I grew up in the outback, so had a 6 digit phone number. Approximately once a month for about 10 years we got a phone call from someone wanting to contest a traffic violation they had received.

The reason was that our phone number was (ABC) 253474, while the number they were supposed to ring was (XY) 2534746. They would forget to dial the area code (or just not realise they were supposed to) and get us instead.

It was such a regular occurrence that we (Mum, Dad, my brother and I) would just rattle off "you have the wrong number. You need to dial the area code XY before dialing the number" without a second thought.

This went on for about 10 years, and only stopped because the powers that be decided to standardise all the phone numbers in the country with 2 digit area codes and 10 digit phone numbers.

[Imogene]

I particularly used to enjoy the calls that would start off such:
M: "Hello?"
Solicitor: "May I speak to Mr Smith (not my last name, not even close, name changed to protect me from the atrocity that is my name)?"
M: "Which one (There are three Mr. Smiths in the household)?"
Sol: "... Sheila (also, not the name requested, to protect my mother from being identified)...?"
M: "Did you even stop to think about the gender of that name? If not, my Mom has had a gender reassignment that no one in my family knows about, including Dad, and, more than likely, Mom..."
Usually shuts them up.

[walking with scissors]

My friend used to have a phone number that was one digit different than the local grocery that you could call to get your lottery numbers. After taking about a hundred calls and having to tell people that, no, he wasn't the Red Fox, he just started giving out random numbers when people called about the lottery results.

[Polenicus]

I've frequently had bad luck with wrong numbers. Seems every number I get has belonged to someone else, who happened to be A) Popular, and/or B) A business and/or C) behind in bill payments.

The best however was when I lived in Vancouver. My first place I got assigned the phone number of a company called Progressive Engineering. As far as I can tell, they were/are some sort of custom parts fabrication outfit, located on Vancouver Island.

Anyway, I got a bunch of calls for them, for about 6 months, at which point I moved. The move put me in a different area code, and a completedly new number. Hooray, no more Progressive Engineering calls!

... Err, not quite.

Seems one determined fellow, when he got my old number, and Progressive's old OLD number, actually managed to track down what the number had been changed to. Unfortunately, it was MY number he tracked down, not Progressives!

So one day I got a phone call from him on my answering machine. Now, my answering machine quite clearly said 'You've reached the Residence of Polenicus, please leave your name and number after the beep, and I'll get back to you yadda yadda yadda.'

Still, missing that once is to be expected. He left his message, asking for some sort of custom-made component. I deleted it and thought nothing more of it.

He called the next day.

And the next.

And the next.

Each time, he grew more irate, chewing me out BY NAME about how my customer service sucks, and not calling a customer back was NO WAY to do business. He needed this part quite badly, and he needed to know when I could get it done.

When we entered into the SECOND WEEK of these calls, I had enough. The guy was in Alberta, but I figured the long distance charges were worth it to get him to STOP. So I called him back.

P: Me
G: Him

P: Hello, could I speak to G?

G: This is G speaking, how can I help you.

P: Hi, this is Polenicus.

G: Polenicus! I've been waiting to get hear back from you! You need to hire a receptionist or something, I've been trying to reach you all week!

P: No, I don't need to hire a receptionist. This is a private residence. This isn't, and never was the number of Progressive Engineering. My LAST number was the same as the number Progressive Engineering USED to have, but I moved. Please stop calling me.

G: Oh... do you happen to know what Progressive Engineering's number is?

P: No, I'm afraid not. But, if you happen to find out what it is, could you maybe give me one last call and give it to me, so I can redirect all the OTHER people who keep calling for them?

The calls trailed off after that, but never stopped entirely. Every once in a while, I'd get someone who'd try and call Progressive from an old phone book, get the 'Number has been changed' message, and then call me.

[Cia]

Lately I've been getting alot of calls from Colorado mainly Aurora and Englewood. The Englewood one was from Truelogic Financial Corp. - whoever the hell they are - and their message consisted solely of "call 866-555-5555 and reference the following number". Yep, I'll get back to ya....never. Gotta love reverse phone look-up.

I'm going to start answering the phone with "Church of the Psychedelic Shark" for every Colorado call I get.