Wrong Number!
 

Have you ever had a phone number that was similar to a well-used one and you got a lot of wrong numbers?

We've had the same number for over 30 years and I don't want to change it. However, it's almost the same number as that of a barber shop (we get, "can you help me with my dreads?") and a psychologist (usually what happens: a third party calls and leaves personal information about a second party on our answering machine.) :eek:

When I was at Auburn, there was a very desirable corner room on the sorority floor. However, you took it knowing that the phone was one digit away from Auburn's city weather line. No one ever lived there more than one term.

Frustration.

Yes. I've gotten several people calling my cell asking for a Michelle (not my name!). I've people call me about a cell phone that I didnt know I was selling, and people from a place of business trying to track down an employee.

I even had this one dude call me a few months back several times after midnight wanting to talk to someone. I must have been in a dead sleep because I didnt answer it and he left a message. His story was he was a trucker and saw my name and number on craigslist. He was coming through town and "just wanted to meet somewhere to talk." Calling someone and asking to meet somewhere "to talk" after midnight, sounds like a booty call to me. Anywho, that stopped when I had my husband answer my phone for me the last time he called. He hasnt called back. :)

My cell number has been my cell number since December of 2000. I have had zero problems with morons calling me until this year. :(

My cell phone # is one off from a taxi cab company in Ohio! So it rings in the middle of the night all of the time, asking for rides. Sometimes I let it go to voicemail, and the people call right back. You'd think that after hearing my outgoing message, they'd get the hint.

I do keep my phone on ringer at night because there are family members that aren't doing so well, and I've gotten emergency calls at night before. No fun.

I used to have a phone number that ended in 1237, and the local PBS station's number during begathons was had the same area code and first three digits followed by 1234, so during every pledge drive I would get calls from people who accidentally went down one row on the last number. I used to joke that I should take their credit card info and promise them that they would get that Doctor Who mug.

Last year I got a lot of calls inquiring about a car for sale on a car-sale-related web site, and when I checked the online ad, those weren't wrong numbers: my number was the one posted. I thought that the seller was from the other area code for this neck of the woods, but that number was disconnected. Weird. I had to tell people to try e-mailing the seller instead--I hope it all worked out.

When I moved to Baltimore, I got a home phone that apparently had been listed previously to a couple with a bit of financial trouble. We went through months of calls from collection agencies looking for those two. They were quite aggressive and wouldn't take "They don't live here." as an answer. Explaining to ten different collection agencies that called daily that we'd just moved there, and that the phone number was our new number got a little old. We finally got rid of that phone all together and just lived off of our cell phones.

A few years ago, some Spanish-speaking lady would call me all the time and demand (from what I can gather from my meager Spanish skills) that I return her calls because she has been "waiting for days to hear a confirmation." No idea what that was all about...

Live-in gets a lot of collections calls on his work cell phone.

I used to get a lot of people looking for someone in my hometown area. If it was a 585 number and I didn't recognize it, I stopped answering. They were leaving messages for a man, but somehow my outgoing message didn't turn them off. :p

When we moved to a new part of the country I opted to get a cell number with that prefix since we don't have a landline. Apparantly some individual who was behind in numerous bills had that number before me. In addition, he either only spoke Spanish and/or had a spanish surname as I was getting multiple calls daily from his creditors in Spanish .

It took a good 4-6 weeks to get everything straightened out but apparantly the creditors eventually believed that I was not the individual they were looking for. Haven't had any trouble since.

Hopefully I will never have to change numbers again.

In high school, my line at home was one off from Walmart. That got annoying. Now my home phone is one off the Walmart Portrait Studio, but we hardly ever get those wrong number calls.

My old cell phone number was one off from a doctor or a pharmacy- I'm not sure. I got lots of calls from elderly people talking about prescriptions and leaving their social security number!

My mom's phone number is one digit off from the local movie theater--and you can imagine how this played out before MoviePhone! People used to call off the hook asking what movies were playing. Finally I started giving the names of old movies. You wouldn't believe how many people were like "Oh, okay...what time is that one showing?"

For a long time, this teeny-bopper named "Brittany" was giving out my cell number as her own. I had tons of boys calling and even girls who wanted to beat Brittany up! Luckily this was before text and picture messaging became popular, otherwise who knows what kind of crap would have shown up on my phone!

When I was a kid, our number was one off from the sheriff's department and from a local furniture store.

In my first house, our number was one off from one of the finer dining establishments. they were 1730 and we were 1780 and 3's and 8's are apparently hard to distinguish from each other sometimes. We really only got calls around the big holidays for couples.. Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve, because it is the kind of restaurant people go to for landmark events (or used to be). I would let them know the correct number and send them on their way... no big deal. My ex-husband got rid of that number last year.

I used to get a lot of wrong numbers when I first got my phone, but it's eventually started to die down.

I got a very, very unusual text once. This person seemed to be sharing information for a background check or maybe tax information...I'm really not sure, but all I know is I got a text with their name, address and social security number. I was like WTF! I wrote back saying "I think you have the wrong number." And they wrote back "PLEASE DELETE THAT TEXT!!!", as if I was a criminal, a text with capital letters was going to stop me.

Why on earth would anyone text that? Not only could they text the wrong number, but what if that person's phone get's stolen or something. Seriously!!

My work number at a former job was one digit off from a nearby pediatrician's office. I got calls intended for them at least once a week.

One year, my husband's dorm phone number was the same as the 800 number for the Polaroid building down the street. You wouldn't believe how many idiots couldn't comprehend that if you want to call an 800 number you first have to dial 1-800. :rolleyes: He bitched at Information Services and they changed his number.

About a year ago, I had a huge problem with Old Navy. Turns out some guy named Jorge (may he roast somewhere warm) opened up an Old Navy credit card, ran up a lot of charges, and skipped out on the bill. For whatever reason, they had my landline as his number. So they were calling ME asking for Jorge. And they wouldn't take "there's no one by that name here" for an answer. Finally I got it through their thick skulls that they had the wrong number. So they stopped calling me - but they put my number on their telephone advertising list. :rolleyes:

And then there was the time I got about 25 voicemails on my cell phone from some chick. Apparently, some guy had picked her up at a bar, had his fun, decided he didn't want to see her again, and gave her a made-up phone number. Which happened to be my cell. Which has an outgoing message recorded in a female voice. And which happened to be switched off (I turned it off because I was flying, and forgot to switch it back on when I landed). She left TWENTY-FIVE voicemails over the span of about 48 hours. She was practically begging him to call her back. In several of the messages, I could hear little kids screaming in the background. No wonder he didn't want to see her again.

Have you seen the Seinfeld episode where Kramer got a new phone number and it was 555-FILK, but movie phone was 555-FILM?

We also have been dealing with a deadbeat having had our number before we did. The calls started the first day we got the phone and the phone company offered to change it, but we were moving in from out of state and had been building the house, so we'd have to call dozens of people. And honestly, we thought it would go away after a while. (Apparently, the previous number holder had just given up the number a few weeks earlier, not the minimum 6 months or whatever. Phone company screw up.)

FOUR YEARS LATER, we are still getting bill collectors and long-lost relatives looking for Sergio. The guy still lives in my town, but his number is unlisted.

LOL I missed this before. That is so funny!

"Why don't you just TELL me of the name of the movie you've selected??"

Love the topic! I recently posted about this on fb. I've had the same number for many years. Every few months, I get calls for "Randall." One of my sorors offered to call the numbers back to find out who Randall is, but the people who call are so nice, I don't want to make them feel awkward.

My parents always got calls for either the animal hospital or the fish commission. Our number was xx5-5xxx so what happened was people just pressed the 5 too hard and got us instead.

At my old number I continually (and I do mean CONTINUALLY) got calls for Harvey Adams. I finally one day said to a caller "who IS this guy?" It turned out he was the immediate past president of the local NAACP among many other things.

Growing up, my friend's house phone was one number off from the local burger place. People were constantly calling trying to place a to-go order. Her dad use to get tried of it and after a while started taking their orders. Felt bad for them when they showed up to pick up their food & there was no order actually made..

I have had my number since 2007, but I still get calls for Allen once in a while. Especially from his doctor! I also get a couple of calls in Spanish where people just start rambling and then when I manage to get a word in edge-wise they realize they've not been talking to whomever they desired. But that happens with EVERY phone since I have a SFla. number!

Last summer a lady called saying that she was my "Aunt Cheryl", being that I do have an Aunt Cheryl in my extended extended family, I went along with it although I had no clue as to why my Aunt Cheryl would be calling me. She started gushing about how excited she was for me to be starting college the next day and to be seeing so-and-so on campus. At this point I realized that she had to wrong number due to the fact that my school started a month later and I had no clue who she was talking about. When I told her this she said, "Oh Maddie, don't joke with your Auntie Cheryl!" My name is no where close to Maddie.

Whoever's Aunt Cheryl this was, she definitely wasn't mine! She ended up being the nicest lady. "Aunt Cheryl" wished me good luck at college too and we had a good laugh. Most random phone call of my life.

(kind of a long story lol)

I'd like to dedicate the song "Shaniqua Don't Live Here No Mo'" to those of you affected by the plague of having inherited someone who was "popular" for the wrong reasons' number.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...deoid=35646281

LOL!! I have been thinking about that song all day!

That's what I first thought of when I saw this thread :D

That's funny.

I have half a mind to put an ad in the local paper for Sergio. From "tias" who only speak spanish, to Capitol One and the video store, I'm sure he would want these messages.

The other problem with having Sergio's old number is when we go to local businesses like Sears Auto or a pizza place, they have our number in there under Sergio's name and address. He even had clothes left at the dry cleaner; I had to convince the guy that I wasn't related to Sergio and to please clean my clothes.

When I first got my cell phone (age 16), I used to get calls for Peter Lu all of the time. I have NO idea who that is, but it sounds like some people wanted $$ from him.

My ex started getting calls in Spanish one day about 9 months ago. I think it was a little kid, but they definitely weren't speaking any English to him. He wanted me to talk to them in Spanish and tell them they had the wrong number, but I was never around when they called and I was too chicken to just call them myself.

Oh, awkward story: a few months ago, I saw I was getting calls from a weird area code and didn't call back cause they didn't leave a message. I found out a day or two later it was Macy's calling because my payment was past due. Woooops!

for a while i was getting calls on my cell phone from spanish speaking people who were calling from out of the country-i don't speak enough spanish to communicate with them, so I just hang up. I have had this number a really long time, but started getting those calls last year. when they come, several calls will come is a week, then nothing for a while and then it repeats. it is aggravating!

I got a call from an inmate once who was apparently being released from prison very soon. He thought I was his good friend and wouldn't believe that I wasn't. He kept saying "quit plain', man."

I also get texts and calls every once in a while for some random girl. I don't remember her name. The last text I remember was one of her friends asking for her purse back. Again, home girl wouldn't believe me and then started getting angry at me. Once she realized that I'm a guy that has never met her, she stopped texting.

My first cell phone number in Houston was exactly the same as the county tax office - it was just a different prefix (there are 3 in Houston). So I would end up with dozens of messages protesting their taxes. I had to change it.

My eldest daughter still gets messages for "Tom" - after 5 years. Her message? "This is Gypsyboots. Not Tom. If you leave a message for Tom he will not call you back, because this is not Tom. If you want to leave a message for Gypsyboots, please go ahead. "

I remember when I recently changed my number to my current one I sent it out to ALL of my sisters. Months later these INCOMPETENTS (though I love them) did not update my number that entire time. So I was at formal business on time, but left to do something really quickly since we did not have quorum yet. Everyone was waiting to get started and we finally had quorum so they started calling me EN MASSE to no avail!

I felt SOO bad for the poor lady who had inherited my number in that short period of time. She got sooo many calls for a girl (me) with a very unsual name! She was not happy from what one of my pledge sisters told me. And this was at least at 10pm too!

I don't have a number close to anything that anyone messes up, but this one time I had a lady call me looking for her granddaughter. She though I was her for a bit and I kindly explained I wasn't, she apologized so much before she hang up that it made me sad. She really was very upset she'd bother me. So I felt bad, right? She calls back right after I hang up and we go through this all again. 3 times that night she called and apologized when she realized I wasn't the right girl.

From personal experiences, I think she may have been suffering from Alzheimer's. I have a grandfather who is and some days he just calls continually looking for my dad. So I understand this poor lady's situation.

The phone number we had before we moved was one digit off from the police stations number. We got a LOT of late night calls! lol

Before I moved, I got a lot of calls for Melanie. Turns out that my prefix was 457 and Melanie's was 451. I finally figured out that Melanie was someone I had gone to high school with.

I just started telling people to call 451 instead.

Someone named Kathy is a real deadbeat. I've had my number since I was 16 (8 years) and still to this day get calls for "Kathy", who owes money to just about anyone and everyone. I don't know why I didn't change it years ago, but now I get the calls once every couple of months, so it's not worth changing the number I've had for so long.