This is not quite the same thing, but as an example of the importance of proofreading: in one harried incident during the last campaign, I was preparing a batch of flyer cards and accidentally wrote my home phone number instead of the campaign office’s (they both had the same first three digits, being only a few blocks apart).
Naturally, I only realized my mistake once the cards were delivered. We wasted a bunch of time as volunteers patiently stuck stickers over the phone numbers on all the cards. sigh
This was a single wrong number, rather than a directory, but it sure was annoying.
When I was in grad school, someone started trying to send a fax to my home number. Every three minutes, the phone would ring, and if I picked it up I would get that earsplitting whine. Yelling “this is not a fax line” into the phone at top volume did not help, although it did relieve my feelings slightly. I did not have a fax machine, but I did have a fax modem - that was in my huge, heavy desktop computer in a room that did not have a line to that phone. After a solid hour of this treatment, I unplugged and hauled the whole computer downstairs so that it could answer the damn phone. I got a fax of someone’s cake order to a local hotel that was catering an event. Fortunately, it had a callback number on it, which I called to give the woman a piece of my mind. “Oh, the hotel gave me that number - I was so happy that it finally went through!” Really? In twenty phone calls that are not answered by a fax machine, it never once occurred to you to call back and check the number that you were dialing? She didn’t even apologize. I was still so irritated after the phone call that I also called the hotel catering department and told them to stop giving out my number. (They did apologize, although I’m sure they were rolling their eyes the whole time.)
My wife insisted we each get a cell phone – she wanted to be sure I had one so she could reach me. My randomly assigned number is 568-xxxx, which incidentally spells LOV-<my first name>. Purely random luck! So it turns out to be a pretty easy number for her to remember (should she ever lose the auto-dial feature we now all use instead of human memory).
For some reason, my business gets faxes from Sun Trust Bank in Nashville all the time. They send us people’s W2s and mortgage info. I’m not quite sure why they think we are - possibly a title company.
For about the first year, we would call the bank and explain what happened. But we would always either get the run-around (no one would know who to connect us to, and apparently no one can send out a memo) or when we eventually did talk to a person, they would be unapologetic or rude.
So now, they just periodically send sensitive personal information of their customers to the black hole that is our fax machine. Fuck Sun Trust Bank of Nashville, TN.
BTW…I can’t think of a funnier/weirder thing for the OP to be selling by accident. Funnier than being mistaken for a Chinese restaurant, funnier than selling a boring old office building. I’m sure it’s frustrating but…LOL!!
I’m the same phone number as the medical clinic for a local military installation. The only difference is that my number has the local area code, 805, and theirs is 888. I get a call or two a month.
I remember reading somewhere (of course this might be made-up, but it was in a newspaper article!) of this case:
Little old lady has had the same phone number for countless years. A brand new large hotel is built in her neighbourhood, and the phone number is one off from hers. After a few weeks of getting calls at all times of day for people wanting a reservation or whatnot, she tells the hotel and ask if they can change their number. The hotel tells her she should change her number. After a few days of stalemate, the little old lady starts telling people
“Sorry, our hotel is currently closed due to Health Department violations, so we are redirecting everyone to the nearby Marriott.”
The hotel changed its main phone number shortly after.
What good would it do for them if she changed her number? They still wouldn’t be getting their calls.
You gotta wonder about people sometimes.
ZipperJJ, I suspect if you call the SEC and tell them that Sun Trust is violating its customers’ confidentiality, something would be done. They’re damned lucky you’re honest.
And if you have any contact info for the customers, why, you should contact them, too, and let them know how very careful Sun Trust is with their info.
It wasn’t good for the hotel necessarily. They didn’t care either way. They were telling the old lady “if you don’t want to get all these misdialed calls, then change your number and you won’t be getting them.”
My company has a similar name as the local cable company. Both are three syllables, and the first two are the same. We’re also right next to each other in the phone book.
Given that our phone menu gives our name and describes what we do (we’re a software company), and the options don’t make a lot of sense for a cable company, this screens out all but the most persistent idiots. My favorites are the ones who
a) hit redial after I tell them they called the wrong number, then listen to all the menus AGAIN, don’t pick up that it’s the same as the last time they dialed wrong, and still start complaining about their cable when I pick up a second time
b) call on the weekend and leave one or more hysterical voice mails demanding that I come fix their cable NOW!!! because the game is on and they need it!!!
c) call, get through all of the prompts AND the message with our hours and that they are being directed to a voice mail, and leave a voice mail saying “Hello? Hello? Why won’t you answer me? My cable doesn’t work, hello? I think they hung up! How rude! I WANT TO CANCEL!! I AM SO MAD! CANCEL MY CABLE!”
