I don't know who you are, but tell your friends your new phone number!

I thought there was nothing wrong with living in a dorm. And there probably isn’t…if the administration doesn’t screw up.

Last night, just as I crawled into bed, the phone rang. I picked up, and there was someone looking for Christina McDonald. I’ve heard the name before–it’s the name left on my voice-mail after they failed to reset my phone (twice). Don’t have a clue who this girl is, other than she obviously had this room last year. I said roughly that (I was tired, not the most eloquent thing I’ve ever said), and the girl hung up. OK, now I can sleep.

Today, I get a similar call. This time I was awake enough to have a meanful talk with the girl. Apparently she had been redirected to my number by the front desk. Wha?!?! The voice-mail I can deal with, but why the hell would Christina McDonald still be listed as being in this room? I’m gonna talk to the front desk, and possibly the Dean, to get this fixed. They should be keeping their records up-to-date. (Since the person was calling the school, I’m assuming that this girl is in residence again this year, they just haven’t changed her listing).

Funny thing is, I haven’t had this problem until now. But if I get another call before it gets fixed, I’m just saying that I’m getting it fixed ASAP. Unless it interrupts my sleep again.

That is really irritating.

I swear my cell phone number used to belong to a drug dealer. No one else would have as many friends who are ALL complete morons. The refuse to believe me when I tell them that “Ricky isn’t here, you have the wrong number”. I’m just not answering the phone anymore unless I recognize the number.

Heh, had a similar problem with my cell phone number. Months after I got the phone, I had some guy call up and demand to speak to a Mary Smith (don’t remember the name, just that the caller was asking for a woman’s name). I told him that he had the wrong number. He said, “Isn’t this [my cell phone number]?” I told him, “Yes it is, but there’s no one here by that name.” “How the hell do you know? Have you checked?” He demanded. “Because,” I told him. “This is my cell phone and I don’t anyone by that name.” He hung up, which is too bad, because I really wanted to start laying into him about wasting my minutes, etc. etc.

My former co-worker had a similar issue. This guy kept calling to talk to his wife. He must have been mis-dialing. But man, was he ever rude! He would call once or twice a day too.

Co-worker: “I’m sorry you have the wrong number.”
Idiot: “Is this 555-1234?”
Co-worker: “Yes, it is. You must have the wrong number.”
Idiot: “Well, where’s IdiotsWife?”
Co-worker: “This is my cell phone number and there is no IdiotsWife here.”
Idiot: “Then why the hell are you answering my wife’s phone???”

The Idiot started laying into her for answering his wife’s phone without her permission. Then he started accusing her of stealing his “wife’s phone.” Then my co-worker would actually have to start arguing with him to get him to stop calling for the rest of the day.

Co-worker: *“This is my cell phone number! This is not your wife’s phone! You’re wasting my airtime costing me money calling every day! Do not ever call this number again or I’ll call the police!”

IIRC, she finally did call the police and he stopped calling. It had gone on for over two weeks.

WTF?

I kept getting calls for a certain Michael Knoll.

Over and over and over again.

I finally started telling the callers that Mr. Knoll had been eaten by shrews.

I had a similar thing happen recently. I think some deadbeat had given my phone number as his. Some woman called me and said “Is John Smith there?” “Wrong number” I said. She said “John Smith?” I said “Wrong Number.” and it went on like that. I finally said my name is not John Smith, and she said “I think you’re lying.” Are all bill collectors so obnoxious?

laughs Yeah, I’ve had this problem too. When I was in high school, we got a second phone line and I got my own private number. For a while, I was occasionally getting calls for the person who had previously had the number (nobody rude though). Though oddly enough, we’ve gotten fewer calls for surveys and such to the main line. Usually I would get a call (my number comes before the other one), but they almost always wanted someone 18 or older. I’d just tell them there was no one of that description at the number and they’d hang up. Occasinally we’d get a call from them later at the main line, but rarely.

Here in Vegas, this is a common problem as the population is both huge and transient, and phone numbers are recycled more quickly than in other parts of the country.

It wouldn’t be so annoying if it weren’t the same voice on the other end.

Me: hello
Voice: Hi, is Ricky there?
Me: you have the wrong number

Repeat a couple of times a week for several months. After a couple of times, I got to recognize the same two or three voices over and over again.

OK, the first three times you called, I told you you had the wrong number. You think I’m going to put an ad in the paper inviting Ricky to move in with me so I can answer the phone?
Once, back in Indiana, I had some guy call and ask for someone I had never met or even heard of, and told him so. He told me he knew the person lived right across from me and asked me to go and see if that person was home.

I lived in a very rough neighboorhood at the time, and this guy wanted me to wander the streets at night banging on total strangers’ doors in search of someone I didn’t know and invite them into my house to talk to him on the phone.

People are just nuts.

And while you’re at it, change your address, too. We moved into this house in November, it had sat empty for six months before that, and we’re still getting a couple pieces of mail each day for the couple that was here before. And I’m talking all kinds of mail - bank statements, government mail, cheques even. I was writing “not at this address” on them and sticking them in the mail, but after the mailman returned one of those to my house, I started spelling it out for them - “Not at this address - return to sender.” :rolleyes: We’ve decided that we will return the mail for six months, and after that, it goes straight into recycling. I can see missing a change of address for a couple of junk mailers, but your bank statements?

MY folks had this problem. A woman kept calling late at night, after they were in bed, asking for “Mary”. Dad kept telling her there was no Mary at that number, please stop calling. Finally, he told the voice on the other end “She got tired of waiting and went out with Joe.” There was an “Uh, well, okay,” on the other end of the line, and they never got another call. You have to wonder how some people live to grow up.

Someone once gave out my phone number as the emergency contact at their child’s school! I’d already had the number for at least a year when I came home to find a message on my voice mail asking me to please call St. Something-or-other Elementary regarding little Johnny’s illness :eek:

When I called the school to explain the mix-up, they were as puzzled as I was, but at least we managed to get things straightened out with a minimum of fuss.

Come to think of it, I got a lot of wrong numbers at that phone number. The most annoying was one guy who called 4 or 5 times in the space of less than 10 minutes early on a Saturday morning and didn’t appear to understand either English or French (I was living in Montreal at the time) until I lost it and yelled at him to leave me the fuck alone!

Since someone mentioned bill collectors I get tired of them calling for my ex girlfriend all the time. It’s been over a year people and she’s in another state. UPDATE YOUR RECORDS.

However it continually branches and gets worse. I’ve started getting calls on her new husband and in one particularly interesting call it was for my ex-girlfriend’s current husband’s mother.

What kind of a network of connections am I getting in here? Soon will I be getting bill collections on my ex-girlfriend’s ex-husband’s mother in law’s college roomate?

However I haven’t encountered any rude collections yet. I tell them to look in Denver for her and to tell her she still owes me $1500 while they are at it.

I had an employee once give me a false number – he’s a long story, and only the phone part is relevant here. The number alone should have been a clue: 489-8765.

Every time Sydney was late (twice a week or more), I’d call this number and leave a message – no one ever answered, it was just this man’s voice (not Sydney’s) on an answering machine. As Sydneys attendance problem got to be worse, the messages got more forceful. I never thought to leave my number – Sydney knew the number to the shop.

It took months, but eventually I called and got the poor guy whose number it was. He’d been going crazy trying to figure out who the jerk was who kept calling looking for Sydney. It was me!

You’ve been getting calls for months? Amateurs.

When we moved to Michigan, we were issued a psychiatrist’s old office number. While the bulk of the calls ended after a few months, we sporadically got calls for years. Including one fairly memorable one:

*“Hello?”

“Hello, I need to speak to Dr. So-and-So.”

“Ummmmmm…I’m sorry, he doesn’t have this number anymore.”

“What? Are you sure?”

“Yes. We’ve had this phone number for 20 years.”

(disbelieving) “Christ. Well, ah, can you tell me where to reach him?”

“Sorry, no.” (For all I know, the guy’s retired by now.)

“Well that’s GREAT! NOW what am I supposed to do??”*

Hell, buddy, how should I know? You haven’t tried to reach your psychiatrist for 20 years, and it’s my problem?

Oh that reminds me of another story. I kept getting messages on my machine for a guy they usually went something like this

“This is Bob, Ray your shift is changed to X from Y and the meeting has been moved to date Z.”

What was alarming though is after about four of these (roughly one a week) it became clear that this was the FIREHOUSE that was calling. Here’s some fireman with no idea he’s on duty and missing (what I assume) are important meetings. Finally I called back and got someone who understood what I was talking about. After that the messages stopped.

My current telephone number gets a lot of calls from people trying to reach a local welfare office.

You’d be amazed how many people immediately launch into elaborate descriptions of their personal situations without any hesitation. It’s hard to find the right way to interrupt.

Can’t really top this, but…

About six months after I had moved to Vegas, I got this message on my machine… now, I know this is ill-advised, but I was job hunting at the time, so I had both my first and last name on my OGM…

Anyhoo…

Voice on answering maching- Hello, this message is for Joe Blow. This is Bob Generic from the Really Ineffective Security Company. I was just patrolling at The Trucking Company You Work For, and door number twenty four is open.

It was fairly late when I got the message, so the next morning, I looked the trucking firm up in the phone book, called them up and told the receptionist that they might want to think about hiring a new security company. I told her, “My name is on the outgoing message, so the guy had to know he’d dialled a wrong number.”

I just figured they should know…

I called back a few days later to follow up- I was being eaten alive by curiosity. Apparently the security guy was torn several new bodily orfices.

I’ve had a phone number that not only once belonged to a Filipino (I was awakened twice by an operator asking if I’d accept a collect call from the Philippines) but also another guy named Jeff Olsen!

The worst problem was with our current number, it had been previously assigned to somone named Rodriguez. We were having at least two calls a day from people speaking Spanish. We also have caller ID so I was able to find the main source of those calls: an apartment building. The sort of apartment building which requires visitors to call a resident in order to be buzzed in. I called the building’s manager and had our number taken off. That pretty much put an end to the problem.

Years ago right before my wedding to Mrs. BD I realized that the local phone book had my old number in it (timing issues due to the time it takes to update the databank after a move).

Since I was expecting a lot of out-of-town visitors I called the number to see if it had an automatic forward. I was surprised that somebody picked up on the other end. I explained to the guy that I had his number before him and that I was getting married with out-of-town visitors who may show up and try to contact me and would he please give them my new number. He was somewhat grumpy but agreed to help. So I gave him my new number and told him that after the wedding he could just say whatever he wanted to to anyone who called.

I had one call at my house the day before the wedding from a friend who thought it was hilarious that I could get a complete stranger to forward my number.

Sometimes even grumpy people are nice guys.

Bubba

When I first got my cell phone, I apparently got a number that used to belong to a guy named Tyrone.
I got tons of calls for Tyrone, usually late in the evening. Most of the time, when I answered, the caller would ask “Who is this?” It got really tiring, and once, when I answered “Hello.” I was greeted with “Who the #@! is this?" and I went off with "Who the #@! am I? This is my #@!ing phone, who the #@! are YOU?” They just hung up.

Luckily, we moved and I got a new cell number and the Tyrone calls quit coming.