A Classic I'm Sure Everyone Has Gotten

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

There *is* some logic to forgetting your own phone number.

Agreed. I just switched companies and thus lost my old number and so am still trying to relearn my new number.

The difference is that I at least keep my phone with me at all times and it's the first thing at the top of my contacts list so I can respond with...

"Uhm...damn it! Gimme a sec. <pulls out phone> Sorry, still learning my new number. I don't call myself that often so it hasn't stuck yet. Ah here it is. It's [number]."

And yet, you were perfectly capable of giving me your address though I'm sure you don't send yourself mail. You gave me your name though, unless you're batshit crazy, you don't address yourself by name. But a phone number is completely elusive? Got it.

Now on the flip side is that I have actually had a salesman tell me this. I was interested in a camping deal offered by a third party vendor at a Bass Pro Shop and I was giving the person my contact information so he could set it up to take my payment.

When he gave me that remark I stopped rooting around in my phone, turned and walked away listening to the sounds of a pissed off salesman yelling at me while following me to my car and DEMANDING that I come back and give him the rest of my information. I got in the car and drove off. Not a word, not a gesture. Just left him impotently raging at the unfairness of the universe.

[Skeen]

My home number is very similar to my work number, and it's usually 50/50 as to which I will give out to people.

I've also had to correct my birthdate on a few documents recently, since I have accidentally put my husband's. Oh man, the embarrassment.

[taxguykarl]

Agreed. I just switched companies and thus lost my old number and so am still trying to relearn my new number.

About 1/3 of my custys have to look up their number on their phone. I'm seeing that less now that numbers are portable.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Yep. I get people who have lived in the same house for their entire lives and STILL don't know their address.
Or their phone number
...
Or name

Then you probably talked to my Mom's 2nd ex hubby. He may have been too drunk to remember his name or his address (like the comic strip character Andy Capp) but that little red Toyota truck he drove always knew the way home every night from the paint shop.

[bhskittykatt]

I have derped on my own phone number before. As Chromatrix said, there is some logic to it. When someone gets a new number and says "text me at XXX-YYYY", then I shoot them a text instead of actually recalling my digits. (Though even if I blank out, I can recall it after a few seconds, at least!)

It does not help that Hubby's number is almost the flip of my number (if mine was XXX-YYYY, his would be YYY-XXXX). When my car got busted in to, I gave 911 his number. Dispatch was like, "Are you SURE it isn't XXX-YYYY?" Derp, yes, sorry.

I also don't know other people's numbers, since they're saved as contacts. In the hospital when I had to give emergency contact info out, I put down my parents, but I didn't know their number and Hubs was on my phone so we had to wait. I can call them, but I have absolutely no clue what their number is, and that's my own parents.

[Jester]

I am a very social person, so often give my number out. (And sometimes the people I give it to even use it!) And I am very good with numbers, AND I've had the same cell number for years, through several phones, so I never forget my number. Of course, it helps that it ends in 666, a fact that freaks more than a few people out.

Now, as I said, I am very good with numbers, and actually tend to remember them better than faces or names, and when I was a kid/teenager/twentysomething without trying I had all my friends' numbers memorized. (Though I kept an address book with them in it, just in case.) These days, I don't know ANYONE'S number. I know a lot more people and cell phones make things so much easier. I know people's speed dial number, though. (Mom & Stepdad are 8, for example.) The two exceptions, the only two numbers I know without looking other than mine, are my roommate's and my best friend's mother. The former because his has a very distinct pattern to it (ABC-ABD-EDED), and the latter because she's lived in that same house since before I ever met my best friend, and also because I lived there renting a room for a little while, long before I had a cell phone. So it was actually my home number for a while.

The bizarre side of this memory loss by people that most of you have probably never seen is this: my friend Magic Frank and I (and several other magicians we know) do a trick wherein, at the end, with the spectator convinced we have utterly failed to find their card, we point out their phone number spelled out in cards on the table. It always blows their minds, especially when they don't know us, but the part relevant to this conversation is the innumerable times when the chosen spectator turns to their spouse or friend and asks, "Wait...is that my number?"

[Ophbalance]

I've found that when I have to manually key in the digits, be it on a phone or keyboard, I'm likely to remember the number. I STILL remember the numbers that I learned when I was 6 or 7 for calling home/family/friends. The problem comes in for numbers that are saved to the various phone memories. I've had to input them once, years prior in most cases, and just never dialed them again. My wife's cell number and even my office direct dial number fall into this circumstance. Since I never actually have to dial them I don't actually have any idea what they are.

[lvceline]

After working in a customer care department, I can say without a doubt that this particular phrase made me want to jump through the phone and slap the living hell out of the person. Okay, so you don't know your own number? Maybe that's a possibility under some circumstances, but it's the actual phrase that is so smart-assy. Obviously nobody calls themselves, but clearly you give other people your number on occasion so that people can call you, so if you have to look for it or something just say so, but saying "I don't call myself" is just incredibly obnoxious.

[bhskittykatt]

After working in a customer care department, I can say without a doubt that this particular phrase made me want to jump through the phone and slap the living hell out of the person. Okay, so you don't know your own number? Maybe that's a possibility under some circumstances, but it's the actual phrase that is so smart-assy. Obviously nobody calls themselves, but clearly you give other people your number on occasion so that people can call you, so if you have to look for it or something just say so, but saying "I don't call myself" is just incredibly obnoxious.

I can agree with this, though I confess I've used the line, but in a "I'm sorry, I don't call myself and am brain farting, just gimme a second" context.

One thing that really irked me at the motel wasn't phone numbers, but license plate numbers. I get a lot of people don't know theirs. But I would have them stare at the reg card and then announce "I don't know it," and shove the paper back at me. If you don't know it, at least make some effort to find out (especially when you can turn around and easily see it through the window). Just because you don't know it off-hand doesn't change the fact that I still need that info.

[Jester]

Until I got my personalized plate, I often didn't know my plate number, which is weird, considering my memory for numbers. But in situations like that, I'd look at them, say, "Um, I don't know it....be right back." And I'd go and do the adult thing, and look at my fucking plate. Not all that tough, honestly.

[Canadian In Maine]

In some industries giving your phone number is clearly a prerequisite and those cases I understand.

It's when it's asked for in a more transient environment (grocery store, toy shop, et al) that I just won't give the number. I have been asked, "Can I have your phone number please?" to which I will politely reply, "No, you can't, it's unlisted."

I use the Magic Jack phone system and I have never had a telemarketer call in the years I've been using it.

If they want my zip/postal code fine, but I'm not giving up my telephone.

[BuryMe]

No, never heard that before.

[lvceline]

I can agree with this, though I confess I've used the line, but in a "I'm sorry, I don't call myself and am brain farting, just gimme a second" context.

One thing that really irked me at the motel wasn't phone numbers, but license plate numbers. I get a lot of people don't know theirs. But I would have them stare at the reg card and then announce "I don't know it," and shove the paper back at me. If you don't know it, at least make some effort to find out (especially when you can turn around and easily see it through the window). Just because you don't know it off-hand doesn't change the fact that I still need that info.

Oh boy, yeah. That was one of the most horrible things about working in that industry, people would put up such a fuss when they had to go out and get their license plate number. I was always amazed when someone actually had their plate # memorized. Most of the time if I wasn't busy I would just look outside and write it down myself after they checked in. I never worked in a huge resort type place so it was pretty easy to just get it that way.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

About 1/3 of my custys have to look up their number on their phone. I'm seeing that less now that numbers are portable.

I transported my phone number to a pre-paid service. But when I went to transfer it to Verizon once I got fed up with their poor quality service...they wouldn't release the numbers.

So had no choice but to get new.

[Racket_Man]

When I pay my cell phone bill every month (I pay instore at a little kisok type ATM machine) I have to put in my phone number and passcode so I tend to remember my phone number.