You Called the Store

[AccountingDrone]

That kind of thing happens a lot. My Grandma's number is one - number off one for a local hairdresser's. Often they won't believe my Grandma when she tells them they have a wrong number. When/if they get pissy she simply "books an appointment" for them.

LOL
When I still lived in Va Beach I worked for a truck rental company, in the office on Military Highway. At the time I had a phone number that was the same except the last 2 numbers were switched. I normally had no problem telling callers to call the correct number until the company tried to screw over myself and a couple of friends who worked with me. After than I always made reservations for them ... until I moved about 3 weeks later and my number changed.

Oh, my friends and I ended up going to the labor board, and the jackasses who owned the franchise had to track down the past 7 years of employees and correct the pay that had been shorted or not paid

[Samaliel]

Having a wrong number is one thing...

But asking for the very number with which you are connected, i.e. the one you somehow had to dial unless you were connected by the information service, and arguing that you didn't dial it, is way beyond brain misfire...

[wanderingjoe72]

In the case of the hair dresser, I would call their number and tell them about the calls. I would then ask them to make sure they let their customers know what their number is or you will start making up appointments on their behalf.

No reason to create sucky customers for someone that hasn't gotten a chance to fix the situation.

[Setsunaela]

When I lived in NC, We had a similar problem. My last name is Hargis, and there was another family last named Harris. Creepy, creepy coincidences, these were. We lived on 1234 Fox Run Lane, they lived on 1234 (same house number!) Fox Terrace. Our phone number was xxx-xx54, theirs was the same but xxx-xx45. and our listing in phone book was S. A. Hargis, theirs S. A. Harris.
Such a small town that the listings were right next to each other, too.
SOOO many calls to the wrong family. Luckily, they were nice, and we ended up with a system of "call every friday evening and trade messages unless it's urgent"

[Kaylyn]

My parents' phone number used to be one digit off from a new hotel that opened in our town. My dad screens calls and it's very obvious that the answering machine message is for a personal residence. We had one lady call us, leave her reservation info and credit card info on our answering machine, and hang up!

[Sonoma]

Many, many years ago, in the time before the internet & e-mail, there was a teacher at the high school in our town who had the same name as my Dad. We would regularly get phone calls from his students, since the listings were the same in the phone book, and he lived in the same town as we did.

Eventually the calls died down, so he must have either given all his students his number, or he moved.

[Bandit]

My current phone number used to be a mechanic.

It's been bad enough that I've set my answering machine to say "Hello. You have reached 905-NNX-XXXX. If you are calling for car repair, you have dialed the wrong number."

Monday, I worked from home.

I got to tell 8 people in person to get - and check - a current phone book.

I had about a dozen redials.

My poor doggie is now immune to the phone ringing. I'm to the point if I don't know the number, and I'm not feeling , I just leave the ringer off.

B

[Nephy]

Today, a customer called wanting the number to our store. I told her that she was calling our store. She didn't believe me and insisted that she was calling information. I gave her the number to our store.

Wow.. just.. wow. That hurts my head.

I hate the people that call asking the phone number to another nearby location. You were able to find the phone number for THIS location, why the hell couldn't you find the number for the location you were looking for?

I also hate the people that call up asking if a certain location (that isn't mine) has an item in stock. Yes, I can look in the system to see if they theoretically have it, but that doesn't mean that their counts are right, and they do infact have that item. Wanna find out for sure? Call THEM, not ME! Gah.

On a side note, I just have to share.. got the most random customer call the other day.

"Hi, this is Peggy in *Random town* Oklahoma. I was wondering if you had any of the Elvis beanie babies in stock?" (Note: My store is located in Boulder Colorado)

[One-Fang]

No reason to create sucky customers for someone that hasn't gotten a chance to fix the situation.

While I wholeheartedly agree, I'm not sure how the hairdressers could fix the situation. People are stupid and misdial. That really can't be overcome. Even alerting every customer to the idea that some people are getting the number wrong will only have the effect of "that doesn't apply to me - I'm too smart to do that" and they'll ignore it.

[Samaliel]

Am I the only one getting that they didn't misdial or ask for another location number, but asked for the very phone number which they called on ?

Or am I totally misunderstanding the original post ?

[bigpedaler]

Many, many years ago, I used to watch the sitcom "ALF". One episode had a scene of the nosy neighbor lady on the phone to the operator, hysterically asking, "What's the number for 911?"

Didn't think, until one day during the last year of my first marriage, that it could be real.

1st wife's friend WAS that stupid! Her car was broken into, and she's just going OFF about it, wife was listening, I couldn't avoid it, and I heard her say, "I'm calling 911, what's the number for it?"

I wonder if making fun of her friend had something to do with the divorce....

[Dips]

Am I the only one getting that they didn't misdial or ask for another location number, but asked for the very phone number which they called on ?

I think there are now three of us who got it.

My favorite part was when the caller argued with Purplecat that she wasn't talking to Purplecat's store.