Similar Phone Numbers and Crazy People

[PatchO'Black]

I have been using a voice-mail service, and my message goes along the lines of "You have reached (insert phone number here), a private residence. I am unable to take your call at this time. Please leave your name and number and I will get back to you." This gives the person the number they actually dialed, lets them know they haven't reached a business, and doesn't give out any sort of personal information.

[KellyHabersham]

Speaking of similiar numbers, this is one which I just got:

A woman with a Southern-sounding accent called asking to speak to the parents of "Ryan/Wyan", because they needed to update his records. Upon looking up the number, I found it belonged to a company which deals with medical supplies/services, so I'm wondering if I should call them back to let them know that they have the wrong number listed in their files. (this isn't the first time I've gotten a voicemail on my cell phone about a kid with this name)

[RxBoy]

Speaking of similiar numbers, this is one which I just got:

A woman with a Southern-sounding accent called asking to speak to the parents of "Ryan/Wyan", because they needed to update his records. Upon looking up the number, I found it belonged to a company which deals with medical supplies/services, so I'm wondering if I should call them back to let them know that they have the wrong number listed in their files. (this isn't the first time I've gotten a voicemail on my cell phone about a kid with this name)

Places like that will most likely stop calling after a few attempts. Where I work when we have to contact a patient about a problem with the processing of the prescriptions, we call them and leave a message if nobody is home. If our call is not returned within 48 hours, we call them a second time. We leave a second message if nobody answers. If another 48 hours go by, we simply cancel the prescription until they either call us back or come in the store. I would bet that after 2 or 3 calls they will stop calling and just wait for Ryan's parents to call them.

[KellyHabersham]

Well, the thing is.....the number which was left in the voicemail was for the company's billing department, and because the message was about Ryan's billing address needing to be updated, THAT is why I'm thinking I need to contact them to let them know they have the wrong number.

[Bandit]

I used to have a phone number that used to be a garage's number before they changed ownership and their number.

Even with an outgoing message of "If you are calling for car repairs, hang up now. YOU HAVE REACHED THE WRONG NUMBER. If not, please leave me a message."

It even continued after I moved to a city 400km away in a different area code. The old number had the message "The customer is not at XXX-YYY-ZZZZ. It has been changed to AAA-BBB-CCCC" from the phone company.

For six months I was talking to people who wanted an oil change. I kept talking as long as possible before I told them they were idiots and this call cost them a few bucks as it was a toll call. :headbang:

Idiots.

B

[EricKei]

Retail strikes again...it's getting a bit creepy (tho the comic is written weeks ahead of time). Maybe he's One Of Us ^_^ ...That, and psychic.

[emax4]

Anyone ever have fun with this?

I had some lady call me, and I told her she had the wrong number. Seconds later, same woman, I said, "nope, still wrong". At the third time, I concluded that instead of manually dialing the number, she probably just kept hitting "Redial", not realizing she had not dialed the correct number and that "redial" would not fix it.

So I had started to engage her in conversation:

Lady: so what are you doing
Me: (slightly disguised voice): Ah, nothing, just laying here
Lady: Did you talk to blah blah blah yet?
Me: No, I hadn't talked to him. I think he said he was moving out of state...
Lady: Oh.. are you ok? You sound different..
Me: Eh, I'm not feeling too good. i'm just resting right now, taking a bath
Lady: You're taking a bath?
Me: yeah (yawns) Well, I am not feeling too good so I better go
Lady: Ok, talk to you later...

I DONT RECOMMEND DOING THIS because the person could simply check their outgoing calls (easier on cells than landlines) and see that they have indeed called the wrong number, and it can come back to bite you. Still, I had fun with it...

[KellyHabersham]

*just thought of another story to add to this thread.....although this one is from the viewpoint of the person who'd dialed the wrong number*

My family had gone out of town for something, and my sister's then-boyfriend (Max) was housesitting for us......I can't remember if he was staying there, or just stopped by to check in on things once a day. After we got back from the trip, "Mirna" (a cousin's then-wife) called us and said that she'd tried get ahold of us while we were gone, but that the guy who was watching our house was really rude and wouldn't put her through to anyone and acted like he didn't know who she was/what she was talking about.

What most likely happened is that "Mirna" called the wrong number, and refused to believe that whomever she was speaking with was NOT "Max".

[EricKei]

I actually got a call today where the caller immediately admitted that he had the wrong number and apologized, then hung up -- the thing is, he didn't ask for anyone, and it sounded like he was calling from a business...Hrm.

[BeenThereDoneThat]

Several years ago, hubby started getting calls on his cell asking about some apartments for rent south of Orlando (we live near the Atlantic coast, about 60 miles away from that area). After a while he remembered to ask where the people who called had gotten that number and they said it was on a sign by the road. He got one of them to read him the rest of the sign and he called the apartment people to let them know their signs were printed wrong. Basically, they told him he could go piss up a rope, they weren't changing their signs.

So naturally he started having fun with it. He'd either say oh no, you don't want to rent those places, they're full of (name nasty vermin/creepy-crawly insects)...or he'd say sorry, those were rented a long time ago. I think the idiots finally got the picture and changed their signs.

[Andara Bledin]

I've dialed, realized after it started ringing that I totally screwed up the number... fingers didn't do what I was trying to make them do... so apologized and hung up. I could have hung up before that, but I've always thought it was rude not to at least stick around long enough to not be a hang up.

^-.-^

[Argabarga]

Must be an unwritten rule of the universe that EVERY phone number has had at least one deadbeat debtor living at it for just long enough for it to get on someone's collection list....

I kept getting calls from a credit card company at my old apartment. They just would not believe, even after I patiently explained it half a dozen times, that this was a rental unit and the guy they were looking for was probably the former tenant who'd neglected to give them his new address and number FOR A REASON.


-Can I speak to John Doe
-There's no one here by that name
-This isn't 555-1111?
-It is, but there is no one here by that name
-But this is his number! We have it on file!
-This is a rental property, he probably lived here before me, and I've been here for 2 years
-Oh, well, where can we reach him?
-I haven't a clue, I don't know him
-Oh, well, we'll call back later then.
-Excuse me? He won't be here! He DOESN'T LIVE HERE
-Well, where does he live?
-I DON'T KNOW! Please stop calling me!
-So, he doesn't live there?
-NO, TAKE THIS NUMBER OFF THE LIST!
-Okay, we'll do that, sorry.

And the very next day, we got to play the game again! Went on for months!

And if you thought that was bad, that was nothing compared to when the POST OFFICE started delivering someone else's mail to me, and neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor gloom of night was going to convince them that they were in error for giving me mail that was addressed to a person of totally different first and last names (and based on a preponderance of evidence, a different gender too)

And don't get me started on the fact that it wasn't even the right house address, I was getting mail for 1190 when I lived at 1200, and in a walk around the block, it was my observation that 1190 didn't exist, the numbers on my side went from 1100 to 1200, and the letter carrier had simply decided that I was "close enough" that it must be me! Considering they were all bills and court orders, I can think of a pretty good reason why the addressee gave an address that didn't really exist

[EricKei]

If you ask them to take yer number off the list and they don't do it, either --

a> They're legit and don't care that they're breaking an FCC reg and/or Federal law.

b> They're not legit so it doesn't matter what you say.

Either way, report them to the FCC...

[emax4]

I read somewhere that robocallers have the software set up so that if it detects the audio signals of a disconnected number, it no longer calls that number anymore.

Example: Y'ever call a number, hear some soft white noise, then louder white noise followed by the increasing pitch of "doo Deee DEEE. We're sorry. Your call cannot be completed as dialed. Please hang up, check the number, and dial again..."

There's a .wav or .aif file out there on the internet somewhere of that same recording. You can use that as your answering machine message. So when telemarketers or collection agents call, the software will hear that recording, and then (hopefully) no longer call it. If you use this method, be sure t alert those who call you the most so that they'll know to expect that recording if they do have to leave a message.

[Sapphire Silk]

When I had a pay-as-you-go cell phone I started getting calls and messages from a collection agency for some guy...about six months after I got the phone. I would ignore it for the longest time but after four calls in the space of 20 minutes I'd had enough.

Well, she called back the next day and I demanded her supervisor as I was pissed because we had to go through the same crap all over again. "

Totally illegal. Creditors cannot call a cell phone because the owner must pay for the call.

And they cannot harangue you, harass you or abuse you in any way. FTC Fair Credit act: it's a $10,000 fine if they do this. I throw that at creditors who try to give me this kind of crap, and they stop immediately.

My story is minor compared to others here, but I used to rent a house with friends and we'd get collection calls for someone with my first name and last initial. So when the caller would ask if "Bainsidhe" was there, I'd say "speaking" and then have to tell the collector they had the wrong person and number. Fortunately we didn't get those calls too often. .

I had this happen with one of those payday loan places. They left a rather lengthy message on my answering machine with my real first name, but wrong last name. They weren't abusive actually, but did end with, "you might want our services again someday, so please call and make arrangements with us."

Because my answering machine says, "Hi you've reached Panacea, please leave a message," I knew the calls would not stop so I called them, explained the person they were trying to reach had my same first name but different last name and they were very nice about it and promised never to call again. They didn't.

I guess my situation was the exception not the rule.

There is only one proper response to this -- first, make sure that you have the person who left the message on the line, and then grace them with a quotation from the great sage, Gallagher:

"Are you THAT f***ing STUPID?!"

With any luck, problem solved.

I've actually tried that. It doesn't work, or at least it didn't for me.

When I moved to North Carolina from California, I kept my cellphone so people could get a hold of me until I got local phone service. Two nights after I arrived, I got this series of calls from a drunk around 2am.

Drunk: HEEYYYYYY! Mike!
Me: You have the wrong number.
Drunk: Mike, where are you!
Me: YOU. HAVE. THE. WRONG. NUMBER! *click*

A few minutes later.

Drunk: Mike! You bastard, why'd you hang up on me?
Me: I'm not Mike. You have the wrong number. I am in North Carolina and it is 2am. Please quit waking me up.
Drunk: Let me speak to Mike.
Me: WRONG NUMBER!

A few minutes later.

Drunken Bitch: Why won't you put Mike on?
Me: There is no Mike. You have the wrong number
Drunken Bitch: Who are you?
Me: No one. You have the wrong number. Please quit waking me up. I am trying to sleep.
Drunken Bitch: BITCH! WHERE'S MIKE! I WANNA TALK TO MIKE NOW!

I hung up at that point and turned my phone off. When I woke up the next morning to a series of abusive calls, and finally this one sorta sober one saying,

"Mike, I don't know who that bitch is you gave your phone to, but you need to whip her ass."

Needless to say, I blocked that number after that.

I can imagine the conversation when they actually got hold of Mike though.

Drunk: Man, your new girlfriend is such a bitch. She wouldn't let us talk to you.
Mike: what new girlfriend?
Drunk: the one you gave your phone to. She kept hanging up on us.
Mike: I don't have a new girlfriend and I didn't give anyone my phone. You were calling the wrong number, dumbass!

I just keep coming back to this thread. I got another one of those contractor calls this morning - at least, I think that's what it was. When I said they had the wrong number, the lady asked for my social security number so that she could confirm who she was talking to. WTF who gives that out to random people that call?

I said "No", and hung up on her, and she immediately called me back. I let the machine get it.

Scammer. No contractor needs your SSN.

The thing with collection agencies is -- at least in the US -- they HAVE to ID themselves as collection agencies whenever they call. I think they can ASK if the target person is there, first, but they then must immediately give their spiel before proceeding.

Correct! And they have to stop calling if you ask them to.

But most will argue with you because some deadbeats will deny they are that person to try and dodge the collection call . . . and some who are not deadbeats but just tired of the constant harassment (and I'll admit, I've done this, until I learned the FTC rules. Now I just quote them at the callers and the calls stop).