Author Topic: Wrong number stories  (Read 1307 times)

Offline Pangur Bán

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #15 on: June 26, 2018, 01:42:37 pm »
It's not quite a "wrong number" story, but still a phone call story.

I guess I would have been about 18 at the time.  I was still living at home and my brother and SIL paid to have my own phone line installed in my room as a birthday present. The number wasn't unlisted or unpublished (although I did get it unlisted/unpublished later).  I got a phone call late at night, I was asleep and the phone woke me up. I answered and this guy said "Hey, how's it going?" And I said "Who's this?" The phone was on the desk next to my bed, but I wasn't near a light switch to turn the light on to check caller ID.

He said "It's Brian! Remember we met at that party in the summer?" and we chatted back and forth for several minutes, having a totally normal conversation. He sounded like he knew me or friends of mine and then I guess I finally woke up and stated, "You don't really know me, do you? You picked my name out of the phone book" He replied "Yep, you're right. I don't know you and randomly picked your name" and I busted out laughing. He wasn't an obscene caller or anything. He sounded like a person who just wanted to talk. He called me several times over the next few months just to talk about whatever. Never said anything creepy or inappropriate. Only inappropriate thing was the hours he would call me at. They were always pretty late, but that was ok.

Anyway, as time went on I eventually told him where I worked and we met in person.  He was with a couple of friends.  I was working at a department store at the time, so I couldn't talk very long, but he really seemed like a nice normal guy and he was about my age. I don't think we ever saw each other again and he still called to chat after but eventually the calls stopped.  It was quite a weird thing to happen.

If we hadn't chatted for months, I would never in a million years told him where I worked but I felt a certain amount of trust by then and I felt a busy place like a department store was a safe place to meet. I told my coworkers about him ahead of time too so I did make sure I took safety measures in case he did turn out to be a creeper, but he wasn't.

Calling random people in the middle of the night isn't exactly normal but who knows what he had going on in his life. He seemed to be somebody who needed a person to talk to.
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Offline whiterose

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #16 on: June 27, 2018, 08:40:50 am »
This one is from my grandmother's number.

She has had the same phone number since she moved to her house in the early 70s. The area code changed- but the 7 digit number itself never did.

Since she got that number, she has been receiving phone calls for a "Tower Pharmacy". She has complained about hearing the phone ringing very loud while she was in the yard, rushing indoors to answer it since it kept ringing, and then the voice on the other side would say "Tower Pharmacy?".

One time, one of my cousins picked it up and replied "Yes, what would you like?" upon hearing the caller ask for Tower Pharmacy.

We never knew exactly where it was located until for some reason (I think we were going to eat to a famous local calzone restaurant) we passed by it! It was nowhere near my grandmother's house- it was even in a different municipality (albeit same large metropolitan area).

This pharmacy's phone number is one adjacent digit away from my grandmother's number. It is a mom and pop one shot pharmacy and not part of a local or national chain.
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Offline Chez Miriam

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #17 on: June 27, 2018, 10:07:44 am »
I'd completely forgotten the time when somebody moved into the area, and sent out change of address/new phone number cards with my phone number printed on them.  I started getting a rash of calls for Bea and Boo [or something similar], and everyone was insisting that this was their number!

I just kept repeating: "I've had this number for 15 years, so it is NOT their number, it is mine".  I asked some of the more reasonable people to ask Bea or Boo to get in touch when they did find out the correct number [so that I could give out the number to all their friends/family] - which they did, and they wanted me to swap numbers with them, so that their cards were correct. :o

Um, hope.  I may have laughed somewhat, but agreed to keep giving out their number - I think it was 2338 whereas mine was 2388 - which I did to all callers, apart from the (very few) rude ones (who got to figure it out for themselves as reward for their rudeness).
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."  - Julian of Norwich
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Offline whiterose

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #18 on: June 27, 2018, 12:34:55 pm »

they wanted me to swap numbers with them, so that their cards were correct. :o



Is that even possible? I mean, do phone companies actually do that? I have never heard of that. Granted, I live in the USA- so the UK may have different rules. But that is still a very entitled request worth of the Special Snowflakes thread at best- at worst, the Harry Potter one, since I do not think it is possible.
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Offline Chez Miriam

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #19 on: June 28, 2018, 03:02:00 pm »

they wanted me to swap numbers with them, so that their cards were correct. :o



Is that even possible? I mean, do phone companies actually do that? I have never heard of that. Granted, I live in the USA- so the UK may have different rules. But that is still a very entitled request worth of the Special Snowflakes thread at best- at worst, the Harry Potter one, since I do not think it is possible.

I know that we can take our number with us if we move within the same exchange, but I've no idea whether it was possible to swap two numbers over...  I never thought to find out because my attitude was "nope; never gonna happen".
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."  - Julian of Norwich
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Offline AngelicGamer

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #20 on: June 28, 2018, 07:03:05 pm »

they wanted me to swap numbers with them, so that their cards were correct. :o



Is that even possible? I mean, do phone companies actually do that? I have never heard of that. Granted, I live in the USA- so the UK may have different rules. But that is still a very entitled request worth of the Special Snowflakes thread at best- at worst, the Harry Potter one, since I do not think it is possible.

I know that we can take our number with us if we move within the same exchange, but I've no idea whether it was possible to swap two numbers over...  I never thought to find out because my attitude was "nope; never gonna happen".

If you go outside your area, you will lose the number unless you go to VOIP service like Vonage (spelling?). We have it and, to be honest, we have the phone off the hook half the time because we only really get calls from telemarketers. It's just that we've had this number since... well, since we moved into the suburb some... ok, a very long time ago. I was in 4th grade and that was the late 80s / early 90s.



Offline Chez Miriam

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #21 on: June 29, 2018, 03:55:15 am »

they wanted me to swap numbers with them, so that their cards were correct. :o



Is that even possible? I mean, do phone companies actually do that? I have never heard of that. Granted, I live in the USA- so the UK may have different rules. But that is still a very entitled request worth of the Special Snowflakes thread at best- at worst, the Harry Potter one, since I do not think it is possible.

I know that we can take our number with us if we move within the same exchange, but I've no idea whether it was possible to swap two numbers over...  I never thought to find out because my attitude was "nope; never gonna happen".

If you go outside your area, you will lose the number unless you go to VOIP service like Vonage (spelling?). We have it and, to be honest, we have the phone off the hook half the time because we only really get calls from telemarketers. It's just that we've had this number since... well, since we moved into the suburb some... ok, a very long time ago. I was in 4th grade and that was the late 80s / early 90s.

I never realised I could have taken that number with me [had it 20 years] - but obviously BT wasn't going to tell me to go to a VOIP competitor, when they could stiff me for a new connection [previous occupants had a phone; no connection was needed].

I'm lucky: I can't remember the last time I had a call that wasn't for either of us - perhaps the vet supplies one 3 years ago?  I get more sales calls on my mobile [about 1 a year], but then I don't mind being brusque because I only ever give that number to friends/health professionals, and I'm not paying to receive a time wasting call [they invariably call when I'm abroad, so it cost me money to receive calls ???].
"All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well."  - Julian of Norwich

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #22 on: June 29, 2018, 08:47:40 am »
I remember reading a newspaper article in the Chicago area in which the writer, one of their more popular columnists, started getting wrong number calls for, I think, a pizza place. The people who called him had seen the number on a billboard or mailer. He looked up their number in the phone book and called them to correct the mistake, which they refused because it was too expensive. The calls continued, so he called the business to tell them he would start taking orders. They found a way to fix their mistake after that.
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Offline STiG

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #23 on: June 29, 2018, 09:32:05 am »
I used to work for a public utility.  One of the guys there told me about the time that they were changing a process and had publicized a number for people to call if they were experiencing any issue with the change.  Except they publicized the wrong number!  They ended up putting some sort of interception on the line and a staff member had to answer that line and ask if they were calling about the change or for the homeowner.  If the call was legitimately for the homeowner, the call got put through.  If it wasn't, the staffer dealt with the caller.

(Side note:  they had advertised that the change was going to start on a particular date.  They'd had a couple of glitches and didn't actually make the change on time and didn't bother to update the press release, since it was only a couple of days delay.  But the calls sure started that day with complaints about how awful the change was.  The staffer quite enjoyed telling them that he was sorry they were experiencing difficulties but perhaps when the change actually occurred in a couple of days, it might help.)
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Offline whiterose

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #24 on: July 01, 2018, 08:33:33 am »
Most recent unusual number I received was technically addressed to me- but ended up not applying to me. It was for people whose monthly electric bill was much higher than mine had ever been.

Most recent actual wrong number was asking for Joseph- and came from an area code where I used to live in. Which reminds me of an actual funny wrong number story I experienced many years ago.

Background info: When I moved to Hoggetowne in 1995, all the northern part of my state was under the same area code. About a year later, they created a new area code where Hoggetowne fell under. A few years later, I moved to Cowford- which was still under the previous area code.

Well, one day I get a phone call on my cell asking for "Margaret Thatcher". I tell the person he has the wrong number. He says "Is this 555-867-5309?". I confirm that is the number he dialed, but that there is nobody by that name here. He said "I am trying to reach Margaret Thatcher of Caldecott".

Caldecott is a small town just west of Hoggetowne. It had switched to the same area code Hoggetowne did (say, 444) in 1996! By the time I received this phone call, it was 2002. Plus I had had the number for at least one year! So the person must not have talked to "Margaret Thatcher" in over 6 years- otherwise, he would have known about the area code switch!!!

Curiously, that cell number I had at the time is the only phone number I do not recall at all of all the numbers I have had! I remember both numbers I had at my first house. I remember the number of my parents' house in Hoggetowne- with both area codes. I remember the landline I had in Cowford- but not the Cowford cell phone number at all!
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Offline whiterose

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #25 on: July 08, 2018, 05:59:40 pm »
I just remembered this one!

When we moved to Hoggetowne in 1995, we could not get a number till after we had moved to the house. Even though we had purchased the property earlier, we had to physically be living in the house and having an actual telephone device. So we got one like the day after we arrived.

Almost immediately, we started receiving phone calls for a "Dr. Keaton". At first, we were not sure if they were trying to reach his home or office. But then we also began receiving phone calls for him asking by his first name. And for "Mrs. Keaton". And for his daughters "Mallory" and "Jennifer".

I looked up the phone number for "Steven Keaton" in the phone book. Neither his house number nor his office number was anywhere close to ours.

The calls tapered down over the next two years; but they did not quite disappear...

Until one day in 1997, I picked up the phone. And a male voice on the other side says: "Hi, this is Dr. Keaton. Have there been any calls for me?".  :o

I told him that in the nearly 2 years we had owned this number, there had been a few calls for him- but that my family had had this number since midsummer 1995. And our surname is not even in the same language as Keaton.

Well, he got very huffy. He told me that we were supposed to get messages for him and call him to tell him that people were calling for him! He said our not doing so had cost him a lot of business due to lost patients. :o

I was just a teenager at the time- so I got quite scared. I told him that I was going to put my father on the phone. But by the time my father got a hold of the phone, Dr. Keaton had hung up! ???

We never got any calls from Dr. Keaton again. Nor from anyone else asking for Dr. Keaton or Mrs. Keaton either. A few years later, someone did call asking for Mallory- but it turned out to be a classmate who was trying to reach another classmate by that name and had dialed my number instead.

AFAIK, one is not required in any way to do so. Let alone for a stranger.  ::)

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Offline gramma dishes

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #26 on: July 08, 2018, 08:39:48 pm »
What?  No one asked for Alex P. Keaton?   ;D

Offline whiterose

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #27 on: July 08, 2018, 08:57:48 pm »
I used pseudonyms. Real surname in this case is somewhat distinctive.
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Offline ginger aka Gellchom

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #28 on: July 08, 2018, 09:09:41 pm »
This just happened yesterday.  Not exactly a wrong number -- a wrong caller ID, leading to a conversation something like the one Lynn2000 had.

I called my husband's cousin's wife to find out what days they were planning to come visit us.  She answered the phone, "Hi, Ginger!"  I said, "Hi!  I'm sitting here with Husband and MIL (by names). Bla bla bla...."  We talked for a few minutes; I was asking her about each of their kids, her brother-in-law, etc., before asking her when they planned to come for the visit they'd talked about.  There was a brief pause -- I could fairly hear the question marks over the phone -- and then she said, "Oh!  For some reason, my caller ID said 'Ginger Smith.'"  She thought she had been talking to someone else all that time -- and that someone else was her husband's first wife, divorced about 30 years ago!  Who has the same first name as I do. 

No idea why she thought that other "Ginger" would have been here in our city sitting with my husband and mother-in-law, but that's what her caller ID said for some reason.  I was impressed at how collected she was through the whole conversation that preceded the realization that it was I, not Susan Smith -- she was definitely wondering what on earth it was all about. 

When my favorite aunt would get a wrong number, she would always say, "Well, it was nice talking to you!"  So now I do, too.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2018, 01:30:38 pm by ginger aka Gellchom »
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Offline Pandorica

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Re: Wrong number stories
« Reply #29 on: July 09, 2018, 04:22:56 pm »
Some years ago, after my state had added a new area code, we'd get the occasional call for a taxi company.  Their number wasn't that similar to ours, but if they didn't use the correct area code, they'd get us instead of a cab.  They were usually really angry when I told them they had a wrong number.

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