So it's not as bad as it seems, only when I get calls at like 10:00 at nite or 4:30 in the morning. I've had about 40/50 calls asking if this is xxxxx's, and I just usually laugh and tell them to use the same number with this "abc" area code. I have asked a couple of callers where they got the number and they told me they called information, so I call information and it's listed correctly and they tell me to call my phone company. So I call the phone company and this guy really try's to help, going through all kinds of different avenues that he has at his disposal to no avail!

I did call the gas station and asked if they had any kind of promo's going through a radio station or news paper, thinking that's how it might have happened but a dead end again.

Any thought's? I'm not changin' my number but I did ask them to. :biglaugh:

No help, but a funny story

About 15 years ago, I lived in Chicago, and my phone number was xxx-xxx-xx5x – the local pizza place was xxx-xxx-xx6x. We used to get call for pizza orders all the time.

Now, at the time I had an answering machine. The greeting was something along the lines of – Hi – this is Carol. Sorry I’m not home, so leave me a message and I’ll call you back.. How funny it was to come home from work one day and find on my answering machine a pizza order.

:biglaugh: :lol: :biglaugh:

My friend had a similar situation.

I know you shouldn't have to do this, but the phone company offers a service (for a fee) where people who call you can either punch in a numeric code or they have a certain number of seconds to "introduce" themselves - you'd answer and hear what they recorded (such as "hey its your mother/brother/whoever) and then you can either choose to let the call through or not.

She said that a lot of the wrong number people would hang up when they realized that had to identify themselves and therefore that they must have dialed the wrong number. It was a pain in the neck for me calling her until she gave me the magic code and then it wasn't so bad.

It cut down on her phone ringing night and day, though - it would only ring if someone punched in the code or identified himself or herself.

Maybe Caller ID would be cheaper and less hassle for you?

Mine is the the same but for two transposed numbers with a popular deli in the area.

I often get calls asking to place an order for pick up, or calls on a Sunday afternoon asking if we're open.

Since you are talking about number mistaking , see this :D

You think that's odd, when I was a kid, out number was xxx-xxx3, Pete's Gun Shop was xxx-xxx5, so we'd get people calling looking for guns, ammo, range times. Eventually I started making stuff up to amuse myself, 'Yes sir, your gun is ready, come right in', 'The government has implimented a 14 day waiting period on ammo right now..'. We'd get about 3 a day.

My number is close to the local movie rental store. I've never figured out why people calling for a business ALWAYS ask isn't this "So-and-so movies?" How many businesses in your area answer their phone "Hello"? (pretty much like ordering a pizza on someone's home answering machine?)

Or one lady to calls numerous times (wrong number) and she'll dial me back 5 or six times, like, yeah I bet that the person I'm trying to call will magically show up in some stranger's house in time to get the phone? I've even offered to look up the number for her.

My newest is some guy calling my cell phone. "Yo, it's me. Call me back." I don't think so. The wierdest of all was when I got a wrong number on my cell, then within 5 minutes, a woman called my car phone looking for the same person that the other guy had been looking for.

In 1986 I opened a pet store called The Bird Nest (now closed)...A couple years later Larry Bird bought the old Sheridan Inn and opened the Boston Connection ( in Terre Haute Indiana) and named the bar / lounge 'The Bird Nest'. Anyone seeking directory assistance and asking for the Bird Nest number would receive the pet store's. Many long distance calls from people wanting to make reservations, see if the game was showing, looking for employment, irate spouses, vendors...etc., many late at night (after midnight). We ended up directing them to the correct number (as a free service).

Chas

Years ago my dad owned an ambulance company. The phone number was 1 digit off from the local dairy (when milk was still delivered to your door).

About 4:30 one morning my dad got a call from an elderly lady complaining about her milk not being delivered. He tried to explain to the lady that she had the wrong number but she would not listen and insisted that she get her milk. Finally my dad sent an ambulance (with the red lights flashing) to the dear woman’s house to deliver a gallon of milk.

I don't mind too much getting wrong numbers and such, but our new number use to be a fax number. The first few months were tough, especially at 3 am. Most got their act together pretty quick, but there were a few.....:mad: :mad:

I finally made up a fax and started sending it to the dunderheads. There was one that tried to fax us at about 1:30 am Monday morning about every other week. I had to fax them about 6 times for them to get the message.

Wrong numbers only bother me except when I answer and the party on the other end is obviously confused and then they blut out, "Who is this?????" To which I respond, "You called me. Who are you?"
Most folks who are polite I just ask what number they dialed and inform them whether they have reached that number and if so there is no one by whatever name here.

James

No help, but a funny story

About 15 years ago, I lived in Chicago, and my phone number was xxx-xxx-xx5x – the local pizza place was xxx-xxx-xx6x. We used to get call for pizza orders all the time.

Now, at the time I had an answering machine. The greeting was something along the lines of – Hi – this is Carol. Sorry I’m not home, so leave me a message and I’ll call you back.. How funny it was to come home from work one day and find on my answering machine a pizza order.

:biglaugh: :lol: :biglaugh:


We have the *very same* issue!!

Our phone number used to belong to an industrial supply company, or so I gather.....we get messages all the time from customers with questions. Has been going on for a year and a half now, so the humour is wearing off. Makes me wonder whether people actually listen to the outgoing message on machines - I mean, there's nothing about "Hi, you've reached Rachel and Mr. Rachel - we can't take your call, so please leave a message" that even *remotely* indicates that we are a business. :bonk:

But nevertheless - dialed in to my messages on Friday and it seems that someone would like us to send some technical information regarding a boiler and a compressor that we shipped to them last year. Ooh, buddy - you'll be waiting a while. How's *that* for customer satisfaction?

Upside of it, though, is that since it's an old industrial number, we only get M-F daytime calls - so it's just a question of deleting voicemails....we never actually have to go through explanations. Silver linings....

Wrong numbers only bother me except when I answer and the party on the other end is obviously confused and then they blut out, "Who is this?????" To which I respond, "You called me. Who are you?"...

James

Ooh, that's my favorite too! I get that about 1/month at home...

Jerry:mad:

In Nashville (where I am), there has been a big public-ad campaign for the "Urgency without Emergency" phone number to dial instead of 911. Well, the company I worked for was one digit off from the police phone number. When our receptionist would answer the phone, half the time someone would say "Yeah, I need to know how to get my husband out of jail . . ."

Furthermore, we had direct-inward dialing, and the phone number for my extension used to belong to some company called "Carter Backhoe". I'd get very interesting calls . . .

Where I work, our toll free line is the same as one of Sprint's toll free lines except theirs is an 888 number and ours is an 800 number. I would say about 1/3 of the time I walk past the receptionist's desk I hear her say "If you wish to reach Sprint you need to dial an 888 number."

Once I suggested we send Sprint a bill for all the time our receptionist spends correcting their customers. I'm not sure how far that got.

Jaime

p/s don't you Covers dare prank call our office today :nono:

This past winter the Gas company set up an energy assistance hotline.
It was an 866-xxx-xxxx, if you dialed the number without a "1" in front of it,
you got my house, with my number being 866-xxx-x.
I complained to them... that did alot of good.
I actually had on my answering machine,
"This is not national fuel gas, I repeat this is not national fuel gas, you have to dial a 1 first".
I still had people leaving me messages... go fiqure.:mad:
Ed

This past winter the Gas company set up an energy assistance hotline.
It was an 866-xxx-xxxx, if you dialed the number without a "1" in front of it,
you got my house, with my number being 866-xxx-x.
I complained to them... that did alot of good.
I actually had on my answering machine,
"This is not national fuel gas, I repeat this is not national fuel gas, you have to dial a 1 first".
I still had people leaving me messages... go fiqure.:mad:
EdYou could change that out going message to state that national fuel gas assistance hotline has been discontinued. They may wish to change their number after that.:D

my parents phone line was xxx-xxx-xx07 and the local recreation center was xxx-xxx-xx70. we would get calls all the time asking what time the public swim was, etc. we would occasionally have fun with that...."yes mam, the swim starts at 9pm". lol but mostly we would just give them the right number. it was so annoying!

I worked for Reed Manufacturing in PA. They made tools.

Another company was Reid Tool in MI. They made something called "knurling devices".

People used to call asking for knurling devices - thinking they'd called the place in Michigan. I finally got one of that company's catalogs and left it on my desk and would tell people "you need to call xxx-xxx-xxxx" and once I even helped the called find the page number, size, etc. Too funny.

Well I found out where the screw up came from....Sales Genie. I called them and hopefully this will finally end! I had a call last night and asked the caller to call me back if she got through and she did. She told me that she got the number through Sales Genie.

Gotta love it. :whip:

Well I found out where the screw up came from....Glad to hear that you finally tracked it down.

I had a bit of trouble too, a while back: Some seriously intoxicated bloke kept calling me around 2 or 3am for a week or so.

As you know, convincing a drunk is a daunting task, and he insisted that he was calling a friend, and would I tell him to come to the phone? Then, one night when he called, he was for once only moderately plastered. That's when I found out that he had my number on speed dial... (oh, no!) ...and managed to talk him into changing it. Phew... Problem solved.

A friend of mine had the same problem, and used a more direct approach: After a few late night calls, he got hopping mad, jumped into his car, went over to the culprits pad, thumped the door until he was let in, went strait to the phone and reset it (completely - including all speed dials), went home and got back to sleep. :sleep:

/Claes

A few years ago I had the problem of a new businesses number set up that was the same as my home number except you had to dial a 1 first for the business. The company advertised 24 for hour service and I got calls all the time. I tried to get the company to change their number but they refused. So I spent some time digging for info and found out the owners unlisted home number. My answering machine soon had the message.

"Hello you have reached "company X's" 24-hour help line, all operators are currently busy. As customer service is our number one priority we have set up a backup system please hang up a dial our overflow help line at "Owners unlisted number."

So the owner of the business started getting calls at his house at all hours from people looking for immediate customer service. I think he probably had several irate customers when he could not provide any help.

It took a week before the business had a new number and they were running advertisements for the new improved 24-hour service number. I guess the owner did not like dealing with customer directly.