The power of Google compels you!

[fma_fanatic]

There are days when I'm covering the front desk that I wonder if people have taken their stupid pills. The following was one such day.

Little background - we are a fairly decent sized sales office for our company and we have several unused extensions in our phone system as we're always hiring and have been expanding our space again.

Sometimes people will misdial, so instead of getting the company they want, they've dialed the direct dial number of the extension they want. So if they call 555-1000 they'll get the front desk. If they dial 555-1212, 1212 would be the direct number for that extension. Now imagine that 1212 is an extension not in use. Because it's not in use, the caller automatically gets the front desk.

Now if you got that, then you'll understand the nature of the 'fun' I had yesterday.

It started when I was covering the receptionist for her break in the morning and went on throughout the day.

~10:15 am

Me: Thank you for calling [company], how may I direct your call?
Idiot Guy: Wait, this isn't [bank]?
Me: No, sir, this is [company].
IG: Oh..okay.

Repeat twice more during me covering receptionists' break, Idiot Guy swearing he's got the right number.

About an hour later, I get an instant message from receptionist about the Idiot Guy. I tell her about the fact that he called three times. She says he's an idiot, and I agree.

~12:30pm (receptionists lunch break)

Idiot guy has called back, only this time he is sure that I am somehow lying to him. I assure him that he has the wrong number and even try to explain that the last four of the number is an extension in our office. He huffs and hangs up.

He calls back twice, getting more and more pissy. I finally Google the bank he's looking for after he hangs up on me for the third time and see that there is a branch he's looking for of said bank, only it's on the other side of the county. Additionally the number is no where close to our number.

He only calls once during the afternoon before the receptionist's break and only then, he just hung up from what she told me.

~3:15pm

I made a note of the bank from our previous call and have it written down on our a notepad at the front desk. Idiot Guy calls back, this time very adamant that he is going to get the bank he's looking for.

Me: Sir, I think you do have the wrong number. Is the bank you're looking for located at [address]?
IG: Yes! So is this the bank?
Me: No, this is still [company]
IG: How did you find the info for the bank then?
Me: I used the wonderfully magical Google and found it.
IG:.... *hangs up*

I was surprised he didn't ask if it had the same number, but didn't worry since about two minutes later he called back. Now we have caller ID so I knew it was him. I answered the phone with a bit of a southern accent since I knew he was going to give me crap. I've been told I do have one when I'm tired or aggrivated, and he was surely getting on my last nerve.

Me: Thank you for calling [company], how may I direct your call?
IG: I want to put in a complaint! One of your employees was rude to me! They kept saying they weren't a bank and I know you are!
Me: Oh well, that would be me. We are not a bank, but if you want to call the bank at [number], I'm sure they'll take your complaint.
IG:...*hangs up again*

I never heard back from him, receptionist never heard back from him, so I'm guessing that he got what he needed done with the bank. But seriously? How hard is it to either call 411 or even Google what you need? I had no problem doing it.

[Gimli]

The stupid, it hurts!

[depechemodefan]

A lot of times people will call the library for a website. They say they have a computer. So I tell them, "ok I"m going to google. I typed in the name of the business. Google shows me the web address is....."

A few times I get someone who wants to know our web address. I tell them, "you can go to google and type in Blah Public LIbrary, and that will give you our web address."

[MoonCat]

I've had idiots like that. Can't get it through their heads that they misdialed, or have entirely the wrong number. How do people that stupid make it through childhood?

[Racket_Man]

that is almost a bad as when someone calls my pizza place and says:" OH is this <other pizza place> (not my company)???" after I clearly stated in the openning greeting spiel "Thank you for calling <MY PIZZA PLACE>".

Then to add to the stupidity they ask "DO you have the number to <other pizza place>???"

[Argabarga]

Someone on Craigslist mislisted their business phone number as the number of the house I was living at, so for a while, I got a lot of misdirected people. Most apologized and found another way to get the number, but a small few were ADAMANT that Craigslist COULDN'T be wrong and it was ME who had somehow done something diabolical and hijacked the number from the real owners.

Some people just cannot handle being wrong, even if it's an innocent wrong, I guess.

[depechemodefan]

Sometimes people call us and we give them a number. They call back, saying it's the wrong number. After we ask them to repeat the number, we realize they wrote it wrong, like and "8" instead of a "5", since they have crappy writing.

but a small few were ADAMANT that Craigslist COULDN'T be wrong and it was ME who had somehow done something diabolical and hijacked the number from the real owners.

There is another person with a phone number similiar to mine. My phone number has a repatative number. Like, (xxx)555-5077. I think people call (xxx)555-5007 or (xxx)555-5777 or something. So one day I get some guy asking for Y. I tell them Y doesn't live here. He says, "Yes, he does, this is his phone number I dialed." I would tell him, "no, not the right number." and he would reply, "this is the number he gave me." and I would reply, "You got the wrong number."

[emax4]

I'm wondering why you didn't ask him the number that he dialed, or ask why he still keeps calling the same number when he was already told it was the wrong number. He could be ressing "redial" or manually dialing the wrong number. Too bad you don't have caller ID.

[bainsidhe]

I don't answer my cell phone unless I recognize the number. This is my personal cell phone and my message is "Thanks for calling Bainsidhe, I'm away from my phone etc etc". Yet I'll sometimes get messages looking for other people, both guys and girls. Further proof that no one listens when calling someone.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I once nearly got my head chopped off (figuratively of course) by a woman because apparently Google put the wrong number for our computer store in its official listing for us.

The number they had led to...a phone sex line.

This lady was SCREAMING at me about it and wanted me fired when I told her that it was Google that had to change the number. Even though we could report to them (and we did) there was nothing we could directly to change the listing.

[Bright_Star]

Calling once & thinking you got the number you thought you dialed & having it explained to you that it isn't would be understandable. Calling again & again is what they call an "Epic Fail". Wow...lol.

[fma_fanatic]

I'm wondering why you didn't ask him the number that he dialed, or ask why he still keeps calling the same number when he was already told it was the wrong number. He could be ressing "redial" or manually dialing the wrong number. Too bad you don't have caller ID.

1) we do have caller ID.

2) from what the receptionist told me during the instant message confirmation, he did run the number by her, which was the number he was dialing (555-1212), which, as I explained in the first post was the direct dial number for the extension not in use (also why I tried to explain to him about the extension not in use during one such call).

[Pizzacommando]

A friend of mine and I had phone numbers that were almost identical, but with two digits flipped (555-1234 and 555-2134). We found this out one night when a friend of his misdialed my phone looking for him.

[Rainman]

Is it weird after I read this I pictured you standing on your chair, splashing holy water on your office phone while yelling "The power of Google COMPELS YOU!" lol

[Shalom]

I once nearly got my head chopped off (figuratively of course) by a woman because apparently Google put the wrong number for our computer store in its official listing for us.

The number they had led to...a phone sex line.

This reminds me of a story from about 1996.

I still remember when this 76-year-old woman called me and asked about
getting one of Apple's warranty exchanges on her PowerBook. I told her
she'd need to call Apple directly, and gave her the number: 800-SOS-APPL.
That's Ess-Ohh-Sss...i.e., 767-2775. She then called me back asking who in
the hell I thought she was, screamed for another five minutes, and was
ready to hang up on me. I couldn't understand what the problem was, so I
had her read back exactly what she'd dialed.

Well, turns out she dialed Ess-ZERO-Ess (707-2775), and that's an ENTIRELY
different sort of phone line. Go ahead. Dial 800-707-2775 and take a
listen. I scared my coworkers I was laughing so hard. :-)

I'm sure that the line in question isn't up anymore, but it used to say "Hi sexy, you've just connected to the hottest cat line in America!"

Yes, that's "cat", not "chat".