Ok. For starters, let me give you some background.
I live in a town on the north shore of Boston. Let’s call it “Beverly”. We have a pizza place in town called the Beverly House of Pizza who’s phone number is, hypothetically, 544-6822. My phone number is, again, numbers changed to protect the innocent, 544-4682. So, if you dial the second number 3 times instead of twice, you get my house. I’m well aware of this, as I get wrong numbers perhaps once a week. I’ve accepted it, and don’t usually care.
Last Friday night, I was sitting at home, preparing to go out, when the phone rang. “Hello?” I say. “I’d like a large cheese pizza.” “I’m sorry, but you have the wrong number.” “click”
Harumph. No “sorry”, no “oops”, just a click. I was kinda miffed.
Not 2 seconds later, the phone rings again. “Hello?” “click”
Same person. They didn’t bother to check the number. They probably just hit redial, the call back was so quick. And this time, they didn’t even bother to see if it was the right number. They just hung up on me. Now I was a little bit beyond miffed.
Guess what happens? 2 seconds later, the phone rings AGAIN. Again, it was too fast to be anything but just hitting the redial button. I know it’s this person again, so I clear my throat, switch to a slightly deeper voice, and pick up the phone. “Beverly House of Pizza,” I say. “I’d like a large cheese pizza,” comes the reply. Thinking fast, I say “Ok…you’re number 16, it’ll be ready in about 25 minutes, total comes to $6.99.” The woman replies “OK, great,” and hangs up.
After I hung up, I felt kinda bad. She was going to drive to the pizza place in half an hour, and her pizza wouldn’t be ready. But, at the same time, it was just going to be an inconvenience for her, and she did have 3 chances to check the number. And she had also been quite rude.
So, was I justified? Was it some harmless payback? Or am I a real jackass for doing this?