My name is, shall we say, Phillip Wallerstein. I’m a professional Camera Operator. There was, when I was first getting going, a fellow named Peter Wallerstein in the same union. He was a Camera Assistant at the time. ( He’s moved on up the ladder since. )
I used to get random messages on my Panasonic answering machine.
" Hi, Peter !! This is XYZ Productions. We’re going to be shooting an outrageously budgeted national commercial in the British Virgin Islands for 9 days and would like to see if you are available. "
Well, shit. I’m not that guy and I didn’t HAVE that career at the time. First time it happened, I thought it was a spoof call. Second time, I went and looked at the Union directory. Ah-hah.
I called up young P. Wallerstein and told him he’d missed a call on a plum gig and gave him the details. This happened maybe a half-dozen times. Then, eventually, I was hired on a job as the second Camera Operator. He was on as Assistant to the A Camera Op.
It was amusing for a moment. He did thank me most sincerely for having always sent the messages his way.
Otherwise, no. There are other people on the planet with my name but nobody has ever mistaken me for them.
Bastard. Or maybe you weren’t as well known / in demand as he was.
Reminds me of a story that happened to one of my brothers. Who’s a painfully nice & considerate guy, unlike me.
Back in the days of landlines he moved to a new city and got a new local number. And immediately began receiving calls for the previous owner of the number; a wedding photographer. Bro went to the trouble to locate the guy’s new number & would politely tell his callers to call that. But the calls kept coming; evidently the guy was still advertising the old number. So Bro called the guy and said “I don’t mean to complain, but a lot of people are calling your old number and getting me. I’ve been referring them to your new number, but you might want to make sure you’re advertising the right number.”
The photog told Bro to go fuck himself & hung up. Bro stopped referring those calls and instead took reservations for whatever services the caller wanted.
Do not piss all over people helping you; they tend to get righteously annoyed with that.
I did much the same thing. My work number was one digit off of a fairly new wholesale landscaping nursery. I started getting calls for them, and a little bit of online sleuthing turned up the problem: They had my number listed on their website instead of their own. I contacted them to let them know. Multiple times. Finally, I started taking orders for them. Within a few months, the calls stopped coming.
Yeah, people who come up with ideas like this aren’t thinking about collateral damage. No need for him to look up and give the new number to the callers. He could have just told people that they had the wrong number or screened calls and called people back only if hte call was actually for him. At least they wouldn’t have thought they had hired a photographer when they hadn’t.