Wrong number

[REDREAD]

Brigham Young University's Newsnet reported in November on Marilyn and Elton Pierce of Provo, Utah, who because their telephone number is easily confused with a BYU information line, estimate they have received 25,000 wrong-number calls in 14 years (averaging to five per day). Marilyn, in her 70s, said she didn't have the couple's number changed because she doesn't mind the calls and in fact rather enjoys talking to people. [BYU Newsnet, 11-29-04]

Something similiar happened to me (although not this extreme) in our first house which had a number very similiar to the hardware store .. Can't say I enjoyed it though

[CougarQuest]

Yeah, when I moved I received a phone number that used to belong to a pizza joint before they went to that '1111' number. That only lasted a couple of days before Ma Bell got a call from me and I received a new number.

[Redsland]

Some extensions here at work are close to numbers for various Sears departments.

In he dorm, my number was close to the "Info Line." Pre-Internet. People would call asking the hours for the cafeteria, or the mailing address for forms, or which movies were playing, or what the forecast was. I usually tried to answer. I was probably wrong a lot.

[RedFanAlways1966]

Prior to my soph. year at Ohio University they installed phones in each and every dorm room on campus. The phone number for my room was one digit off from the number to reserve racquetball courts at the Student Center (Grover Center for those who are familiar). And in the 1980's racquetball was very popular and it was a must to reserve ahead of time to get on a court.

My roomie and I used to get wrong number calls all the time for racquetball reservations. At the suggestion of a friend... we starting reserving courts and times for all the "wrong number" calls. We'd answer like usual, "Hello." The caller would say, "Uh, ummm, is this Grover Center?" We say, "Yep. What can I do for you?" We'd tell them that they could have court #4 at 12:30 pm this Saturday. Never found out, but I'd assume that there was a lot of fights and arguments going on at Grover Center when people showed up for their reservation and there was no court for them!

The things we do when we are young!

[RosieRed]

Nothing to do with a wrong number, but talk of OU reminds me: Sophomore year, we realized that the phone numbers to the individual dorm rooms didn't change from year to year. So the poor saps who lived in the same room we did our freshman year received many a phone call, along with rooms that our friends lived in.

My parents' phone number was once printed in a sale flyer for a furniture store. Talk about a typo! They got a LOT of phone calls the week after that.

[CbusRed]

When I lived down on Campus one year, SBX bookstore put out a flier all around campus right before spring quarter started, telling people to call ahead and have their books reserved for them. only problem was, they typoed and put our phone number, which was actually 1 digit off from SBX's number.

[Unassisted]

Originally Posted by CbusRed

When I lived down on Campus one year, SBX bookstore put out a flier all around campus right before spring quarter started, telling people to call ahead and have their books reserved for them. only problem was, they typoed and put our phone number, which was actually 1 digit off from SBX's number.

Golden opportunity for revenge, man!

"What titles did you need? <pretending to write> Got it. You're all set. Pick that up on the day before classes start."

[CbusRed]

Originally Posted by Unassisted

Golden opportunity for revenge, man!

"What titles did you need? <pretending to write> Got it. You're all set. Pick that up on the day before classes start."

um.......no.........I did not do that...........not once............I would never do such a thing............not even to a cute sounding nursing student..........

[LawFive]

My parents still get at least one phone call per day intended for a local Dodge dealership, and have ever since they've had the number (25 years). Two digits reversed.

[RFS62]

I had a software company back in the 80's. When we got our 800 number, it was one digit different from the Metamucil Hotline, which is apparently printed on the packaging.

You have no idea how many disgruntled and confused Metamucil users there are out there. Our phone rang off the hook, and these folks were, shall we say, cranky to start with.

A lot of elderly people in dire need of Metamucil.

It took a couple of days to get a new number, and thankfully we hadn't published ours yet on our literature.

[SandyD]

When I lived in Tucson, I consistently got phone calls for a Mrs. Martin. They had MY number for Mrs. Martin. It think she had that number previously, and her name was on a list somewhere that never got updated.

I had a hard time convincing them that there was no Mrs. Martin at that number.

[Yachtzee]

I used to get calls for a guy named Todd who apparently put down my number as his contact number for his job at McDonald's. They were constantly trying to get a hold of him, either because they needed him to come in and help out or because he had missed his shift without calling. I finally told them they should fire the guy because he gave them the wrong phone number and he's always missing his shifts. The calls stopped shortly after that.

[RedsFan75]

Wrong numbers can be interesting in other ways too... Our number in Bethel, if you transposed the last 2 numbers, was the number of a woman, whose elderly mother kept transposing them and calling us. It was harmless, although at times frustrating, but we never let it bother us because she was nice, and apologetic...

One morning at 1:00 am she called. Was sick, and trying to get her daughter. She hung up, and in a few minutes got our number again. So when she hung up, I called her daughter. When I explained who I was and what was going on, the daughter thought I was calling because I was upset, but, I was concerned about the lady, as she was calling at that time. Daughter hung up and called her mom. I called the daughter the next day and checked on her, and she was in the hospital. Had to stay in the hospital a couple of weeks. We got calls from the lady for almost a year before she eventually moved in with the daughter.. She was nice, kinda like talking to my grandmother.