Really, lady, you dialed wrong

[mwm]

So my phone rang and I answer it. I say, "Hello?" and am greeted with the following conversation:

"Yes, my name is Lisa Sheehan. S-H-E-E-H-A-N. Two 'E's. My social security number is <number>."

"Um, excuse me?"

"My name is Lisa Sheehan and my social is <number>."

"Ma'am, I'm not sure what this is about. I think you--"

"I'm wanting information on Covered California."

"Oh. Um, I'm sorry, ma'am, you have the wrong number."

"What?! Isn't this <phone number similar to my 888 number, with 2 digits different>?"

"Oh, no. This is <my number>. I think you may have hit 4 instead of 7 a couple of times."

"No! I can tell you what number I dialed and I dialed the right number!"

"I don't know what to tell you. I'm not even in California. I can't help you."

"Well! I never!" <click>

It was quite a surreal wrong number call, but the part that really floored me was how readily she gave her name and SSN over the phone, unprompted. All I had said was hello, and she was ready to give me all the information a phisher could want.

So, what's your weirdest wrong number incident (you calling, or getting called)?

[Steerpike]

We have a phone number one digit from the local fish and chip shop, so every Friday and Saturday night without fail we get phone orders for half a dozen battered oysters, two mussel fritters and a scoop of chips. One night I am going to yield to temptation and take their orders

[jali]

eta: This is not a wrong number story. I'm just griping here.

Every single day:
Ring...
:jali standard greeting which includes the name of the firm:

Caller: "Someone called me from this number."
Me: "There are about 50 architects working here. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure who called you."
Caller: "Well, they didn't leave a message."
Me: "Do you know any architects or are you familiar with HKS?"
Caller: "Can't you just page to see who called me."
Me: "I'm sorry, we don't page in our office."
Caller: "What company did you say this is?"
Me: "HKS."
Caller: "What is HKS?"
Me: "An architectural firm."
Caller: "Oh." :longest pause you can imagine: "It must be my brother. He's an architect."
:transfer call to the caller's brother:

Of course it might be a cousin, mother, sister, friend, neighbor. Sometimes it's a consultant from an engineering firm who might ask me to name all of the architects in the Atlanta office to see if they can guess who called.

I generally ask if they listened to the message and they NEVER LISTEN TO THE MESSAGE. They just call back and quiz me.

[Solfy]

That would be this one. What do people hope to gain by arguing with you? Were you suddenly going to say, "Just kidding! This really is California, we were just messing with you."

[Solfy]

Originally Posted by jali

Caller: "Can't you just page to see who called me."

I can imagine how professional that page would sound:
"Would the person who just dialed (555)867-5309 please pick up line four? Dialer of (555)8675309 - line four, please."


When I was a night receptionist at a car dealership, I had fun paging people using the exact pronunciation that the caller gave me. The more manged, the better.

Today some genius in my building (of ~350 people) tried to send a fax over the paging system. The sound of dialing and then two minutes of periodic beeping was broadcast through the whole damned building. Loudly. Twice.

[Pere]

...

[mwm]

Originally Posted by Solfy

That would be this one. What do people hope to gain by arguing with you? Were you suddenly going to say, "Just kidding! This really is California, we were just messing with you."

Yeah, that's what I don't get. I guess I should have said, "I'm sorry, ma'am, what was your name and SSN again? Oh, and I need your address. Also, to verify your identity, could you give me your mother's maiden name, the name of your first pet, and the town you grew up in?"

[sturmhauke]

I had some guy leave a message on my home number once, apparently looking for his lawyer. He was hella drunk and rambled on about court dates and such. Another time I got a call from a Sears; some kid got caught shoplifting and made up a fake number for his grandmother that happened to be my number.

[Jaglavak]

A couple months ago I got a call from Chicago, some dude with a thick southern accent looking for Jardine. In fact his accent was so thick it took me a minute to figure out WTF he was talking about. But he was pleasant enough. After I told him it was a wrong number he asked about the weather out here and bitched about the heat wave back there. Funny guy.

[Lungfish]

The only wrong number story I have is where I got invited to an engagement party after I got talking to the man who mistakenly called me.

[wring]

At one point I kept on getting messages from a carpet company, calling long distance. I wasn't going to call them on my dime, but wondered why they kept on leaving messages when my outgoing message said "and if you're calling from the carpet place, YOU'VE GOT THE WRONG NUMBER!"

When I was a kid, our phone number was one digit off from a Catholic school, so mom used to get their calls a lot. She said she was sorely tempted to answer yes, when the caller would ask "Is this Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs?"

[Anacanapuna]

I work in a call center. Where do I start?

The wierdest wrong number I ever got was when I worked on an account that filled orders for vitamins. The caller must have had our 800 number next to her doctor's or something. She was having symptoms of some kind and needed me to patch her through to her doctor. I told her I couldn't, that she'd called [Company name here] and not her doctor's office. So she wanted me to tell her what she should take. I was really tempted to advise her to take a double dose of laxative, but I held my tongue, took a deep breath, and persuaded her to try calling again.

[Solfy]

I may have told these here already, so if they look familiar just skip ahead to the next post.

A friend's apartment kept getting collect call requests from someone in prison with a wrong number. They quit answering and let their machine get them, so I got to hear, "This is a collect call from: 'Pamela! Pamela I know you're there so just pick up! Pamela PLEASE! I'm so lonely!'"

Mom got a call years ago from what sounded like a little old lady asking for [Solfy's Dad's first name]. This wasn't unusual - the line of work he was in had people calling looking for him to fix things for him now and then. She told the LOL that he wasn't home. "Well of course he's not home, he's supposed to be picking me up!" snapped the LOL.
"I don't know what you're talking about, he is at work right now," replied my puzzled mother.
"No he's not!" yelled the LOL into the phone, "This is his mother and he's late picking me up!"
"His mother died two years ago, ma'am. You have the wrong number."

[Pere]

Messages Gone Astray, or, Who the hell is this?

[AuntiePam]

Mine wasn't a wrong number, but I thought it was.

Caller: Is this Pom?

Me: [after taking a second to realize some folks might pronounce Pam as Pom] Yes.

Caller: How do I get to 101 k d lang?

I'm thinking he's looking for a Canadian radio station.

After some confusion on both sides, turns out he was looking for an address (101 Kathy Lane, it's for sale). He'd found the city hall building and got my number from the after-hours notice on the door.

[Borborygmi]

Another phone follies story that is not actually about wrong numbers.

A few years ago one of my coworkers was given a Blackberry so everyone could bug him 24/7 instead of just bugging him during working hours. He did not change the outgoing message that was left there by the previous user of the Blackberry, who apparently was a Chinese woman. The kicker is that the message was super-short; it could not have been more than 1-1/2 seconds long. So while people, myself included, may have been prepared to leave a message if Bob didn't actually answer, they were probably first expecting the usual blah blah not answering the phone right now blah blah leave a message and I'll blah blah blah. People probably were not expecting:

問候！ [beeeeeeeeep]

I suspect this effectively screened out a lot of callers for him, though, so point to Bob.

[Elyanna]

I have been getting calls from a person for nearly two years now. The first couple of times I picked up & once I figured out they had the wrong number, tried to explain as such to them. But sadly, they seem to be elderly and not all there in the head. I don't pick up and I've even blocked the number now, though I can see that they've called in my online call log. They call about once a week.

It's more sad than funny. I hope they find who they're looking for.

[Anacanapuna]

Don't we all, hon, don't we all!

[severe delays]

I once had an elderly lady keep calling me about a medical appointment. She somehow must have confused my number with the hospital or something. She understood that I was just sitting about at home but the number she had matched mine. In the end I told her to hang on and just googled the number of the hospital and gave her the number. Yay for the internet and making life easier for older people.

In tangentially related news, I was sent by one manager to the office of another manager to deliver a message. The message being "Get off the fucking phone, I'm trying to call you". I am nothing if not dutiful.

[Flying Saucerian]

I'd imagine most of us are familiar with the wrong numbers who call several times just to make sure...

[Anacanapuna]

Hey, I do that. The people I call, y'never know, fuckers could be just dodging my calls!

[Harry]

One Saturday evening I got a call from a babysitter looking for a parent. She thought she had called one of the local clubs. She did it four times, about 10 minutes apart. The first time, I said "You have the wrong number." The second time I said the same thing, and the third time I added "...there's no one here by that name." The fourth time, I said "You still have the wrong number, and there's still no one here by that name." She said "Well you don't have to get snotty about it." I said "You're the one ruining my evening...you haven't heard 'snotty' yet." Then I found out where she was trying to call, looked up the number, and gave it to her. It had one digit different from mine. She apologized, and she said thank you, so that was nice.

[Wolf Larsen]

Had one woman calling her doctor seeking pain medication. When I told her I wasn't her doctor she said "Are you sure?"

Got a call for some woman named Diance at three in the morning from an angry sounding male voice. I almost said "Her mouth is full right now, I'll have her call you when I'm done".

[Derleth]

Originally Posted by Wolf Larsen

Got a call for some woman named Diance at three in the morning from an angry sounding male voice. I almost said "Her mouth is full right now, I'll have her call you when I'm done".

No problem, as long as she was still awake after she finished. You see, he just wanted you to save the last Diance for him.

[Mr. Plumbean]

I used to staff a helpdesk phone that must have been one digit off a pharmacy (this was at a big university, which also houses a huge medical center, and the numbers all had the same area code and prefix). Anyway, we got a lot of messages with names, social security numbers, etc., followed by prescription info they needed filled, usually left by PCAs or other healthcare professionals. SO I would call them back and tell them they had the wrong number (so they could call the right one and get the prescription filled), plus a short tutorial on HIPPA law, which was rarely appreciated, but obviously needed.

[Dragonlady]

My friends phone number is one digit off not only the Army Recruiting station, but the 49ers ticket office.

[Anacanapuna]

Well, thank you for serving ... and GO NINERS!!

Please don't tell my Bronco fan friends I said that.

[Little Nemo]

My response whenever somebody insists they didn't dial the wrong number?

"Well, the phone thinks you dialed the wrong number."

[Lady Mack]

I keep having people call me from several different numbers, wanting a Bodega, THREE towns from here. Cannot understand but every 5th word. And NONE of the numbers from that place are even close to mine.

I'm thinking they really aren't wanting a Bodega, and this number was from before I got it, and was random from a wall somewhere. For what, I don't really want to know.

[BrickaBracka]

*ring ring*
me: hello?
idiot: yo - darrell dare?
me: i'm sorry, i didn't understand you, what was that?
idiot: i SAID is darell there and put him on tha phone! NOW!
me: (fucking with the asshat) i'm sorry but darrell is not here at the moment, can i take a message?
idiot: man - dafuq you talking 'bout? get darrell on the phone. i ain't got time fuh deese games.
me: you don't realize by now that you have the wrong number?
idiot: man...tsk *click*


Believe me or not, I've had someone call my cell looking for either Darrell, or Tony, or Maneesha (sp??) quite a few times in the 13 years I've had the number. It's a 215 area code, which originates in Philly. Guess it makes sense.

[Portia]

It's been going on 8 years since I got my Charleston cell phone and since I started getting calls for Queenie. See, Queenie's supposed to pick people up for church Sunday mornings and she's not always on time. They're always very polite elderly-sounding people who almost immediately realize they have the wrong number when they hear my flat Midwestern white girl voice. One lady laughs now when I answer and has thanked me several times over the years for being a good sport about the repeat wrong numbers; I've joked w/ her that if I weren't 2000+ miles away I'd carry her to church. If folks are still puzzled by my not being Queenie, I tell them they've dialed 6655, not 5566 and they understand.
The only downside is they're 2 hours ahead of me and calling between 6 and 7am my time on a Sunday morning. Most recently I was woken by the phone and in my slumbering state thought it was Tripler calling from Korea via Charleston Air Force Base and answered it "Is this my handsome husband?"
Silence, fumble, fumble, click. Sorry, nice old lady!

[MsWisher]

About 5 years ago some credit counselling service put my cell number on their webpage for support. It took me almost a year to get enough information out of the wrong number callers about where they got the number to track down the location and get it changed. They were all however happy to give me their names, birthdates, SIN and other great information to have had I been an identity stealing maniac but ask them who gave them my number and you would have thought I was asking for state secrets.

About 3 months into the process I considered changing my phone number but my daughter was so appalled at the idea I gave up on it. I've had the same cell number since she was 4, it was the first phone number she ever memorized. It's less cute when you find out that she was 19 when this all went down

[Jaglavak]

Originally Posted by Portia

Most recently I was woken by the phone and in my slumbering state thought it was Tripler calling from Korea via Charleston Air Force Base and answered it "Is this my handsome husband?" "It's a good thing you're pretty!"

FTFY.

[Control-Z]

Originally Posted by Steerpike

We have a phone number one digit from the local fish and chip shop, so every Friday and Saturday night without fail we get phone orders for half a dozen battered oysters, two mussel fritters and a scoop of chips. One night I am going to yield to temptation and take their orders

That sort of thing gets bad enough for some people that they find taking the orders is faster than convincing the caller they have the wrong number.

[hilarity n. suze]

A few years ago I came home to find a long, LONG message on my phone, from somebody's lawyer, about the client's bankruptcy proceeding and how he could hide some of his assets by transferring them to his exwife, and what he could do to make sure he got them back from his ex after the bankruptcy was filed (or finished, or something).

It was great.

I had no idea who the lawyer was, but the client's name was Steve.