Errrr… forgive me if I sound ignorant but – how can somebody call you from a disconnected number? The only way I can possibly think of is that long ago, when PacBell was about to cut off your land line, they would cut off the calls one way first, as a warning. But I don’t remember if it was incoming or outgoing.
Can you hack the number that shows up as your phone number without actually changing your number itself? (sort of like changing your MAC address.)
metronome, you wouldn’t believe the lingering annoyance “'allo?” triggers in me. Years ago, I had a landlord who ranked high on the Most Annoying Callers Ever list. Any time he didn’t understand what was said, or just didn’t know what to say, he would start saying, “'allo?”–over and over. First greeting, or 10 minutes into the conversation, it didn’t matter. Sample conversation:
<ring-ring>
Balance: “Hello?”
LL: “'allo?”
Balance: “Oh, [landlord]. What’s up?”
<several minutes of chatting about friends/family/whatever>
LL: “Before I forget, did the plumber show up? I called him Monday.”
Balance: “Yeah, he was here today, but he said he needed a part he didn’t have with him. He’ll be back with it tomorrow.”
LL: “'allo?”
Balance: “I’m still here.”
LL: “'allo?”
Balance: “Can you hear me?”
LL: “Yeah.”
Balance: “Oh. Well, the plumbing problem should be taken care of.”
LL: “'allo?”
Balance: “If you say '‘allo?’ again, I’m hanging up on you.”
LL: “'allo?”
<click>
Preach it. My message is now along the lines of, “You’ve reached xxx.xxx.xxxx. This is [Balance]. There is no [X Lance], [Y Lance], or [some other vaguely similar name] here, nor do I no anybody by those names. If you are calling for them, you have the wrong number. Otherwise, leave a message.”
This message was developed as a defense against incessant and obnoxious calls by collections agencies apparently cold-calling everyone who shares my last name.
I’ve told this story before, so short version.
I got calls for a company on my home phone. Called them and explained. Their secretary kept sending out stuff with my number on it. For more than three years.
I rang her boss and said that all their customers thought they were idiots.
Haven’t had another call for them since.
I missed a call once on my cell from a KY number. I called it back and the number was out of service. Weird.
Yeah, actually, you can . Additionally, some VoIP services like Skype will display a totally bogus number when you use them to call someone – it’s something like (000)123-4567, IIRC.
As annoying as having to argue with phone callers about whether you’re alone in your apartment, I think having some confused person beating on your bedroom window/wall at 4AM trumps that. Especially if they’re named Donna.
And looking for Steve.
And when they won’t believe you that there is no Steve in your apartment, even if your apartment may be in the basement of the apartment building. And this goes for fifteen minutes, until you finally lose your temper, since after all, it’s four AM. And sensible just don’t go beating on walls/windows at that hour.
For that matter, I’d always been of the opinion that if I’m trying to reach someone in an apartment building I’d start with the intercom system at the front of the building. Then, maybe, consider beating on the wall/window to get someone whom you think should be home. Not so Donna. Five minutes after I get her to leave my windows alone, I get paged via the intercom system. Still looking for Steve.
Now that it’s not four AM I’m wondering whether she was drunk, stoned, mentally ill, or simply recently released from some kind of custodial facility. At the time I was just pissed.
“Ain’t no fuckin’ Thelma here! The damn bitch don’t live here! Well fuck you too!”
I had a similar thing happen to me a few years ago.
I started getting very cryptic messages on my answering machine, usually in an Indian (or Pakistani) accent, something like this:
[Apu] This is Pradeep at 69357. Our x-31 mark 4 is broken. Please send a new one right away. Thank you veddy much. [/Apu]
I ignored the first few, but then decided to actually call the number on the Caller ID. Turns out it was some motel chain, and they were calling my home number because it was published in their directory as the IT (hardware) support number. It was tempting to just start taking the business, but I’m a Mac guy, so I tracked down the home office , and got them to change the number. It took a bit of convincing (doesn’t it always), but I haven’t received any calls lately.
Metronome, if they won’t talk, you could start trying to sell them Amway. Just to be irritating.
There’s a “Your car warranty has expired” machine with a press 1 or press 2 message, no callback number listed operatin in our area. I’m assuming it’s a scam and they’re just cold calling from a list that has nothing to do with any prior warranties. Unfortunately, they’ve gotten ahold of the number for our PA system. The PA system can’t press 1 or 2 and there’s no number to call to complain. So we get this warranty pitch over the PA a couple of times a week.
I’ve mentioned here before the calls I started getting at work from a fax machine. I could have forwarded my phone to our fax, but then I wouldn’t have gotten any real calls. (I didn’t think of transferring it once just to see.) The operator could only tell me it was from the Provincial Court. I started calling their long list of numbers from the phone book, and finally got the secretary who was trying really hard to send some urgent documents to my number, and never heard from her machine again.