Wrong Number!

[carnation]

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.)

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.

[ThetaPrincess24]

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.

[AnotherKD]

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.

[Shellfish]

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.

[AOII Angel]

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.

[Miriverite]

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...

[agzg]

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.

[ComradesTrue]

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.

[AlphaFrog]

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.

[sweetmagnolia]

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!

[LatinaAlumna]

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!

[MysticCat]

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

[AGDee]

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.

[lovespink88]

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!!

[aephi alum]

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. 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.

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.