I encountered one of these people who refuse to believe they’ve contacted the wrong person at work one time. We owed their organization some money, so I had emailed her about the payment. Some time after that, she emailed me about something that had nothing to do with me, and I very nicely emailed her back and told me that she sent the email to the wrong person. Here’s where the story takes a sharp turn: she did not believe me that I was not the person she intended to email. And she kept sending me emails. Which I ignored.
You tell 'em, Jennifer! You go girl!!!
Replying to my own post: Today, one day short of 3 weeks later.
I actually considered making an appointment with my doctor to find out if something Not Good was going on.
If your digestion and appetite are still FUBAR, get thee to a physician ASAP.
Where do you live? I thought you lived in state #51.
Back in the days when one still literally dialed a phone # my dad’s business phone was one-digit different than a pharmacy, a 23 vs a 33. He would get wrong #s someone regularly. Most people would sheepishly apologize & hang up, never to be heard from again. However, this was this one little old lady who argued with him that she dialed right & that he answered wrong! 
I have decided that the CVS prescription renewal system has finally gone over the edge. Last month I got an automated renewal of one of my medications. It was for a 90-day supply, and it was noted on the label that there were no renewals remaining. During the past week I have received two text messages from CVS asking me if I wanted them to contact my doctor to request a renewal. I went to the CVS website, which showed that they wanted to refill the prescription now (not in 90 days).
I called CVS to point out that there is no reason to refill the prescription at this time, since I haven’t even started to use the refill that I was sent last month. The pharmacist checked my records and confirmed what I told her. Then she said that there didn’t seem to be any way to do anything to prevent future text messages or note that I did not need a refill at this time. Considering the problems I had had trying to get other prescriptions refilled timely, I don’t know how they decide when refills need to be processed.
It wasn’t FUBAR, except for that span of a few hours, but I just didn’t have much desire to eat anything other than the things I usually crave when I’m sick. I’ve experienced this kind of thing before, but it didn’t usually last more than about a week.
Now, I’m WANTING to eat things that aren’t thin soups, Tater Tots, cookies, chicken fingers, etc.
Due to current events, I really really hate the increased likelihood (as low as it may be) of my improving life being taken from me just when it was starting to come together in a fashion. But more, I hate all the people who played a part in that increase. I’ve been worried about the other shoe dropping my whole life, and for those people to actually make it seem reasonable is something I can’t forget.
You ok ?
I know someone who had a similar experience back when it was more common not to dial the area code if you lived in the same geographic location. They had a number for their business that was the same as that of an airline except for the 1-800 part, so he would get phone calls for reservations from locals from time to time. Usually he would just tell them just to redial with 1-800 and people would do so, but some people were very insistent and I would get angry. Sometimes they would call multiple times, so he would just let it ring.
//i\\
The worst I’ve ever seen was when I worked for a medical software company doing technical support. One of my coworkers who was just one cubicle over had a phone number that was nearly identical to a phone number for a prison. I think it was just one digit different. That was the number people could call to talk to an inmate. When they would call him, and he had to tell them that they couldn’t talk to their loved one because they dialed the wrong number, they thought he was fucking with them or lying to them. Keep in mind, these are often people who desperately want to talk to someone they haven’t been able to see for a long time, and they might only rarely get to talk to them. So, they were not necessarily in a receptive state of mind. I really felt bad for my coworker. Not only did he have to deal with actual customers who were sometimes upset, he also had that shit on top of it.
I sometimes get calls at work from elderly people; apparently my work number is a digit or two off from a local Medicare advising service. One day I was busy, so when a number I didn’t recognize popped up on caller ID, I ignored it. The person kept calling and leaving partial messages; I gathered this was another confused elderly person, so the next time they called I picked it up.
me: “Good afternoon, Motor Emporium*!”
elder: “…Is this the Medicare office?”
me: “No, this is Motor Emporium. Can I help you?”
elder: “…”
me: “Can I direct your call, or maybe look up a number for you?”
elder: “…I don’t understand.”
I finally got it through to her that she had called the wrong number; I haven’t heard from her since.
* Not actually my company’s name.
I’ve told these connected stories before.
At one time my wife’s one-person law firm had an 800 number. Which rang our landline at home = her office. This was early 90s, so mostly pre-mobile phones and definitely pre-WWW e-commerce. In much of the country, and especially the less populous states, mandatory 10-digit dialing hadn’t happened yet either. So a call within your own area code in those places was dialed the old-fashioned way: as just 345-6789.
Domino’s Pizza began an initiative to have a central call center to take orders instead of calling your individual local outlet. To make it seem local, they decided to get a phone number in the area code of some of the states that still used one area code for the whole state. You can see where this is going.
1-800-345-6789 was us. In New Mexico the area code was 505 for the whole state. And in NM they they advertised “Just call 345-6789”. Most folks got that right and talked to Domino’s. The ones who added 1-800 got us. Worse, New Mexico is one timezone earlier than where we lived, so 11pm there was midnight for us.
Most folks were nice when we explained they needed 345-6789 or 1-505-345-6789, not 1-800 … A few, and not often the drunk ones, just could not comprehend that we weren’t screwing with them, despite a couple explanations and maybe a callback. We took their pizza orders.
Eventually Domino’s got a single nationwide 800 number for ordering. 1-800-Dominos. And that problem stopped.
Yaay! But … [cue ominous music]
About 6 months later a new problem started. The Barona casino opened outside San Diego CA. Our number was 1-800-345-6789; theirs was 1-888-345-6789. At a time when 800 numbers had been the only kind for decades, and 888, 866, etc., toll free numbers were brand new and rare. The Barona catered to the elderly junket set. Who were not so good at noticing the difference between 800 & 888.
Most folks were sweet. A few were abusive. They got the special Presidential reservation package with lots of free slot credit.
Not long after we cancelled the 800 number. By then long distance was so cheap that it wasn’t really promoting our business.
I had the opposite problem about 10 years ago in my old job. I started getting some complaints that the number for my department online was for a prison. I worked for a large healthcare company and on the official website, my department number was correct. But somehow people were finding the wrong number. I tried several different ways of searching for it before I found the site where the listed number was indeed for the prison. I don’t remember exactly how I did it but I do remember it was a pain in the ass to convince Google to fix the mistake.
If its any consolation, according to the pharmacy tech at CVS last night, they don’t like the renewal system either.
It’s the automated version of “give them everything they had before” which doesn’t exactly work out well either.
I bet, I’ve heard dealing with Google search changes is a nightmare.
I’d been getting my prescriptions filled at CVS for years without any problems. About three or four years ago I started having mobility issues, coupled with an increase in the number of medications I was taking, and going to the store to pick up my medicine became more difficult so I started having my prescriptions delivered. This went well for a year or two, and suddenly delivery became a problem; for some reason before I could get anything delivered I had to call the pharmacy and confirm that I was aware of possible effects of medications I had been taking for years with no problems (at one point there seemed to be an issue with the fact that I had lactose intolerance, and the medications had milk sugar as a filler). I was finally able to get my CVS records adjusted to prevent this but ever since my recent round of hospitalizations and the resulting medication adjustments I’ve started having problems again.
I have in the past sung the praises of my Canadian cell phone provider, Telus. Among other things, when they upgraded their network some years ago so that my old Motorola flip phone would no longer be usable, when I whined at them they sent me a free Samsung J6 with no obligation except to stop bothering them.
But now the fuckers are doing it again. Apparently I’m using their 3G network and starting mid-June they’re going to charge me extra for that “privilege”, until 3G is retired entirely in the spring of 2027. According to the aforementioned fuckers, this is due to “rising costs” associated with maintaining the 3G network.
I’d like them to explain to me how there are “rising costs” associated with what you already have, and apparently no costs at all associated with your never-ending “network upgrades”.
I also notice that among the icons on my phone showing the cellular signal level and my home WiFi signal level, a new one recently popped up labeled “LTE”. So maybe my phone actually meets their new requirements, but maybe “LTE” isn’t the same as “4G LTE”.
Sigh! I’ve been thinking about getting a new phone anyway. I cannot use the Uber app with this one.
There are those who may consider me to be a Cranky Old Fart who wants any further PC OS development to cease immediately and for Windows 7 to become the universal standard until the end of time, and for cell phone providers to just fire all their techies and simply perform remedial maintenance on unchanging existing networks, much as Bell Telephone did with commendable reliability since 1877. And if advocating for technology stability instead of obsolescence every couple of years makes me a Cranky Old Fart, then I accept the award with pride!
I imagine it’s just like the rising costs of trying to maintain an old car that no longer has parts easily available, that keeps breaking down more and more often, and it’s getting harder to find a mechanic who even knows how to work with it. Computer technology advances so fast that a system that is 20 years old (as 3G is) is as obsolete as a vehicle 100 years old.
Sure, that Model T might run if it was maintained properly, but…