Police department, pizza, casino…ok, well, my SO’s number is one off from the local funeral parlor. So every now and then we’d get messages leaving instructions for what to do with the body. Slightly, morbidly amusing. And I can only hope the bodies eventually ended up where they were supposed to be…
Last night at work.
me: rings application group
anonymous programmer (ap) : “Hello?”
me: “Err, hello, is that application group?”
ap: “yes.”
me: “I’m ringing because such and such failed…”
ap interrupts: “I think you’ve got the wrong number.”
me ??? :“but isn’t this application group?”
ap: “yes. oh, what I mean is you’ve got the right number but the wrong person.”
me: “oh, err??”
ap: “sorry about that.” click
**Cold Caller: **Hello, I’m calling from SomeTelephoneServiceCompany. This is just a quick call. Your company uses our website for directory enquiries and…
Mangetout: Do we? I’ve never even heard of you. This is a cold call, isn’t it?
**CC: **I’m calling from SomeTelephoneServiceCompany. This is just a quick call. Your company uses our website…
**M: **Really, I don’t think we do use your website; we use the phone directory, or we make a voice call to directory enquiries.
**CC: **Your company uses our website for directory enquiries and I’m just calling to talk to you about…
**M: **Why do you keep saying that? I’m sure we don’t use your website; I think I’d be aware of it if we did.
**CC: **I’m calling from SomeTelephoneServiceCompany. This is just a quick call. Your company uses our website for directory enquiries and …
**M: **<click>
Weird.
That’s really funny. No, honestly.
But I’m “different” – or so they tell me.
A few months ago, I kept getting calls (on my cell) for “Tonya.” Finally, I saved the number that was calling (I think it was the same woman each time) and I answered that number “Tonya’s not here. Go away.”
I wish I’d’ve been able to come up with something with more…zing.
About 25 yrs ago someone had the bright idea of throwing big expensive “Over the Hill” parties for people turning 40 in my hometown. Mind you that is a nice thought, and perhaps many people threw these parties for their SO and parents, however, it distressed the hell outa my Mom when she answered the phone and someone wanted to celebrate her turning 40.
So she told the caller that she had died and was the sister staying over to help the grieving family. The 39yr turning 40 in question had died violently in a flaming car wreak, the eldest son had just failed out of college, the youngest daughter’s kitty had just choked to death on a frog, etc. By the end of the call the person at the other end was quivering, sobbing mess.
Don’t piss off ILCMom. She plays mean.
Out for coffee a few months ago with some friends, when a call comes in on my mobile:
ring
Me: Hello
Her: Hi, is this Vagus?
Me: Sure is.
Her: (very bright & bubbly) Hi Vagus its Jill
Me: … yes.
Her: This is Vagus?
Me: Yes
Her: It’s me, Jill
Me: So you said.
Her: Don’t you remember me?
Me: Can’t say that I do.
Her: YOU B@SATRD!!! Did you think you could just screw me & never talk to me again. Blah blah blah, said you loved me, blah blah blah, I hate you! Etc etc……
Me: Umm, I really don’t know what you are talking about.
Her: This is Vagus???
Me: Yes, we have established this already.
Her: What’s your last name?
Me: Its S******.
Her: Oh my God, I’ve got the wrong Vagus!
Me: That would account for a lot of things.
Her: Sorry!
click
The phone rings, and I pick it up. Understand, they phone me.
me: Hello?
phone: Hello.
(silence)
me: Hello?
phone: Hello!
me: Who is this?
phone: Don’t you know?
me: No.
phone: You must have the wrong number.
me: Right, sorry.
(puts phone down)
I still don’t know whether it was a prank call, or done deliberately. I have no idea why I took their word for it that I’d phoned them.
I had this happen to me once as well. I kept getting a phone call at my father’s house, where I didn’t live asking for me. I knew the girl since I went to school with her. So after a couple of times I called her to find out what she wanted. When she asked how come I never called I told her because I hadn’t seen her in years. Very strange.
I walked out of my house this morning, and there was a ten-speed bike lying on its side in the middle of the sidewalk. Just lying there. No one in sight.
A few years back I had a phone number that was similar to a local Pediatritian’s. I would often get calls in the middle of the night from upset parents who would then get angry with me because I wasn’t the child’s doctor. Even though this made me nuts, I tried to always be patient, since I knew that they were upset for their child. Still, it always makes me go Huh?
I might have the explanation for this. During my brothers time as a telemarketer, he said he would sometimes con-call two numbers simultanesously and remain silent. (Because just being a telemarketer isn’t evil enough, I guess.) He said he’d usually get exactly this kind of exchange. Sometimes, though, it was much much more heated as the two fought about who called who.
Why yes, I am sure he’s going to hell - why do ask?
About 8 years ago I changed neighborhoods and got a new phone number. Not long after I started getting calls for someone named Mohammed Islam. I explained that I was not Mr. Islam, that I had just gotten this number and had never heard of him and therefore had no way to reach him. The usual response was “Oh. okay” and tthen the caller would hang up. I had that number for about 2 years every few months would get a call for Mr. Islam.
About 5 years ago I moved to a different neighborhood and got a new phone number. The weird thing about this is that I still get calls for Mr. Islam at my new number. WTF? How could they know that I migrated from one number to another but not know that I am not now nor have been Mohammed Islam?
Almost every day I get calls asking me if I’m a local Assembly of God church.
Well, no, I’m not, and I have NO IDEA why they assigned us this number when it’s listed in last year’s phone book as belonging to the church. You’d think they could have waited a little longer. We got this number in February, for Christ’s sake.
Nobody’s gotten an attitude with me about it, but I get one or two calls almost every day. I’m getting sick of it.
The funny bit is that between my sorta-Buddhist SO and my sorta-pagan UUish self, we are about as far from AoG as you can get!
Once it was some kind of holiday. We were at my in-laws’ house. I ran home to check on the dog or something–I forget why I went home. The phone rings.
“Hi, this is Kayla. May I speak to Katie?”
(My daughter-Katie…being called by her new friend-Kayla. I think they were about 12-years-old. I didn’t really know Kayla very well and forgot about her. Meanwhile Katie’s cousin is named Kayla and is the same age and is at the in-laws with everyone else.)
“Kayla, I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“May I speak to Katie?”
“KAYLA!! KATIE IS IN THE LIVING ROOM WITH YOUR BROTHER!! I’LL BE BACK SOON!!”
Poor Kayla didn’t know what I was talking about. We still laugh about it. They are still best friends and they are seniors now.
Well, that’s a typical way many telemarketers work. They just read lines from a book.
Possibly when you moved the phone company put an intercept on your old number with a robot voice saying, “The number XXX-XXXX is no longer in service. The new number is YYY-YYYY.”
A friend of mine had a number in the format 123-4444 (usually reserved by the phone company for businesses, but he had had it for a long time). The exchange portion was one number away from the number of a popular Italian grocery, and they would frequently get calls from people trying to reach the grocery. He was an ex-diplomat, and he and his wife spoke a number of different languages, including fluent Italian. It was very difficult to convince some callers that this Italian-speaking person on the phone was not a particularly obtuse employee of the grocery they were trying to contact.
I once worked in a government call-centre in Dundee, SCOTLAND. I was friendly with one of the guys downstairs and we had a jokey-banter sort of friendship.
Apparently one day he got an email about something odd from zelie zelerton. This email included a contact number for Birminham in ENGLAND. I still can’t fathom why he looked at a phone number with a different dialing code and assumed it was me. But he did. And he called and yelled “Yo! Biaaaaaaatch!!!” at a rather unamused stranger. :smack:
Ames, Iowa, circa 1970. The Doug family moves to town and is assigned a phone number only one digit off that of a local beauticians’ school.
After a spate of wrong numbers, the Dougs complain to Northwestern Bell and are given a new number only one digit off that of a local concrete company.
35 years later, they still have that number.
Anyone ever get this call?:
Me: Hello?
Cute-sounding woman: Hi!
Me: Yes?
CSW: Is Alice there?
Me: I’m sorry, there is no one here by that name.
CSW: Oh. Really?
Me: Afraid so.
CSW: Oh, I’m so sorry. I guess I got the wrong number.
Me: Perfectly alright. So, uh… What’s going on?
(20 minute conversation ensues)