I need a 2pm tee time at your hotel please...

[Lehk]

No way would I let that happen. 5 wrong calls is the limit. I wouldn't look for Brandi's number. I would tell them, in no uncertain terms, that if they kept attempting to find Brandi at my number that I would turn them in for harrassment and go after them to the full extent of the law.

I don't put up with anything like that.

^-.-^

I guess i'm just an evil bastard.

i would act suprised "... oh you haven't heard... i'm so sorry... brandi was *insert means of death here*** last night"

[Seshat]

It's the people who don't acknowledge anything was said other than "hello" and then go on to ask if we're who we just said we were that are idiots.

That's a relief

No way would I let that happen. 5 wrong calls is the limit.

We frequently get people calling for Mr or Mrs Ibrahim. (Or some similar name.)

Unfortunately, it's new people every time. Fortunately, I've just taken to saying 'Are they STILL giving out this number?'

It gets the message across very nicely. Each person only calls once. And every so often, the calls stop for a while: presumably, whoever was trying to contact them was successful and told them they gave the wrong number.

[Boozy]

It gets the message across very nicely. Each person only calls once.

Same problem here, and I dealt with it the same way. Eventually, people stopped calling. I didn't lose enough minutes to be bothered getting my number changed.

Besides, the friends of "Anya" were nice folks, and took the hint quickly.

"Brandi's" friends would have drove me to drink.

[LadyAndreca]

An insurance school in our area either had our phone number before we moved here, or put it on their website as the contact number. It took MONTHS before we convinced the majority of the people in the area we weren't the school, complete with threatening phone messages and people who would call back 3-4 times because they thought they dialed wrong. (I had one woman curse at me because I didn't know the school's actual number, too.) We STILL get them every once in a while.

Also, my roommate has had his phone for three years now, the same number the whole time. Every six months EXACTLY, a bunch of collection agencies starts calling him demanding to speak to "Adam", and get angry when a male voice tells them he's still not Adam, just like he wasn't Adam last time or the time before that.

[Andara Bledin]

People really need to start playing hardball with these collection people.

When they call (and you can always tell when it's a collections person), get all of the contact information, then tell them to never call again or you will file harrassment charges and pursue them to the full extent of the law.

Most places, if you tell them not to call again, will ignore you. But if you threaten to actually go after them, especially after having received their contact information, then you can usually get rid of them permanently.

And you can do this even if you are the person they are after. If they don't have other contact information, then that is a problem for them and for your future credit rating.

^-.-^

[honeypants]

I have a recurring wrong number problem at my job too... I work for a scientific consulting company in the southern US. Our 1-800 number is the same as the number -- with the last 2 digits transposed -- for the repair department of an electronic & appliance Megamart in Canada.

Usually, people don't listen to my greeting "Good afternoon, Company Name," and just start talking about their broken TV. Immediately, I tell them that we are not the Megamart, and give them the correct number. Most of the time, they apologize and that's the end of that.

But several months ago, I had a very annoying woman who would not accept that she had misdialed. I repeatedly explained the similar phone number thing, and that we were scientists in Southern City, USA. It got to the point where I had to hang up on her because she wouldn't stop arguing with me! So I went up to the receptionist's desk to see if she was around, so I could tell her the story. I was just through telling her when the phone rang again. Her hands were full, so I picked it up. It was the irate Canadian woman yelling at me, "You were rude to me! I want to speak to your manager!" I huffed right back at her, "I don't HAVE a manager! This is NOT the Megamart! You HAVE THE WRONG NUMBER!" and hung up again. The phone rang a third time, and I let the receptionist answer it. I don't know what she told her, but the woman eventually stopped calling.

Funny, as I was typing this, the phone rang and it was a call for the Megamart. The caller was very pleasant though and chatted about the weather for a moment.

[Naaman]

We always used to get calls for the local (what used to be called) Social Security office.
Luckily they mostly called at work so they hit the answer phone, although how they could mistake "Hi, you've reached Naaman and Girlfriend, we're not in - leave a message" as any form of professional greeting is beyond me (although it was always funny when they threatened to report me to a manager ) On the few times we were at home and got them it was the typical SC "But this is the number I was given", "Well give me the correct number!", "you're lying!" etc.

We later found out through who worked for the Job centre that one particular office had made a contact sheet and managed to transpose two numbers so they actually were giving out our number. Took a few years before we stopped getting them calls (they withdrew the list pretty quick when it was mentioned, but the clients still had ours scribbled down)