I like people like this

[Alpo]

I just got a phone call. Since I did not know the number I ignored it. And they left a message. So I listened.

 

It was a good message. She told me her name. Told me what town she lived in. Reminded me that back in June I had installed a new bathtub and she would like, the next time I was in the area, if I could come out and recaulk because the caulk appear to be sinking. Then she repeated her name, spelling her last name. Gave me her phone number and her address.

 

So I called her. Told her that she had just called me about fixing her bathtub but since I was not a plumber she had apparently dialed the wrong number. She thanked me. Said that she wondered about that because his handwriting was so bad, and she had dialed xxxx, but afterwards wondered if that actually was xx5x. She then said, "I suppose you are xxxx". I told her that I was, and she told me that in that case she would let me off the hook and I did not have to come out and fix her bathtub. I told her I appreciated that because I did not really feel like driving out to her town today. And she thanked me again for calling her back and letting her know. And we hung up.

 

Just a nice lady. And knows how to leave a telephone message. I hope that xx5x gets her plumber for her.

[Linn Keller, SASS 27332, BOLD 103]

Well done and delighted to hear this!

[Eyesa Horg]

I've had a few wrong number messages of that sort with the person admitting I may be the wrong number. I always call back to inform and in a couple cases was actually able to help the caller with their issue!

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

And sometimes just the opposite. Today, I'm scheduled to go to a local Court as a Witness. When I was Served the Subpoena, (in January), I was told to call a number on it to let them know that I'd been served. I did so. Three times. I got a voicemail box every time. Every time the voicemail box said it was a different number. I left a message, but never heard anything back.  

Until a couple weeks ago. Someone from the office called my cell phone and left a message that they needed to speak to me. Now because of previous threads on cell phones, many of you might remember that I don't have my cell phone grafted to my hand like an added appendage like many people seem to, it sets on my dresser and the only time I do anything with it is when I leave the house. 

So when they called, I didn't hear it. Sometime later, I heard it making a noise and figured that someone called it. I listened to the message and called the number back. Voicemail. Again. I identified myself and said that I was returning their call. Court is today, and I STILL haven't heard back from them. 

Now here's the kicker: The message I have on my cell phone SAYS that if the caller wants to talk to me, they should call my LANDLINE, and gives that number. Whoever called OBVIOUSLY didn't pay any attention to that, otherwise they would have called me there. 

[Subdeacon Joe]

We used to get calls on our landline from Little Old Ladies intended for the handyman/maintenance man for what I assume is an assisted living facility.   I'd usually call back and let them know that they had called the wrong number. 

 

I also used to get calls from the Sacramento Jail, all urgently needing to get in touch with someone about....danged if I can remember,  court date? failure to check in?.....and as a courtesy I'd call back and let the caller know that they had called the wrong number, didn't want someone getting deeper in Dutch because the clerk had called the wrong number.  

[Alpo]

This lady called me one time. Left a message on my voicemail. "Susie. I'm going to come down there Friday. If for any reason this would be a bad plan, you need to get in touch with me by Thursday at the latest."

 

She's in Alabama. But my cell phone doesn't charge for long distance, so I called the number back. Told her that she had just called me looking for Susie. Susie did not live at my house so she should recheck the number and try again. And she thanked me and we hung up.

 

About 10 minutes later I get a text. "Susie, I just tried to call you but something went wrong and I got somebody else. I'm coming down to see you Friday."

 

And I texted her back. "Susie still doesn't live here. You still have not gotten in touch with her. Please check your records and verify what number you are trying to dial, because you have called me twice now."

 

Never heard from her again. Didn't even thank me this time.

 

 

On the other hand, my scoutmaster's phone number was one digit away from a black taxi company. And  early Saturday and Sunday mornings he would get woke up by somebody wanting a cab to come pick them up at the Little Savoy or the Harlem Grill (bars in the black section of town). And in his best Amos and Andy impersonation he would tell them that he would be there in about 10 minutes. Then he'd hang up and go back to bed.

[Rye Miles #13621]

My calls are all silenced unless you’re in my contacts. If they leave a message I get back to them if not they’re deleted. I never hear a scammer ringing. It’s such a great feature I can’t believe that everyone doesn’t use it,🙄

[John Kloehr]

I generally let unknown numbers (not in my address book) go to voice mail. I do not trust caller ID as it is easily forged. Most do not leave a message, the few that do are mostly spam or even scam calls.

 

Every now and then when expecting some contractor or such, I do need to answer unknown numbers... I would say spam/scam calls run about 50% of the times I do answer.

 

And it is clear to me most people do not listen to my outbound message and have no clue how to leave a proper message.

 

 

[Alpo]

1 hour ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

It’s such a great feature I can’t believe that everyone doesn’t use it,🙄

I'm pretty sure that only works with Apple phones.

 

Least wise I was not able to do that in my Androids, and I've had Androids by three different makers. It does not appear to be an option here.

[Pat Riot]

Years ago when we lived in Albuquerque we had a phone installed. No cell phones back then.

Anyway, our number was a medical clinic’s old number. The clinic mostly dealt with the Mexican and Spanish speaking people in the area. Nearly every other day we would get a frantic lady calling speaking in Spanish wanting to speak to someone in the clinic. Usually I could hear a child crying in the background. 
I had a friend of mine write out Spanish phrases phonetically so I could tell these people the clinic’s new number and that my number was no longer a good number for the clinic. 
After numerous calls at all hours of the night I went to the clinic to tell them about this and that they needed to do a better job of letting people know their number had changed. 
They were very apologetic and assured me they would call every patient and let them know their number changed. 
They did take care of it because frantic calls to our house pretty much ended. 
This all came about because the ***holes in charge at the phone company there decided to restructure a bunch of phone numbers. 

[Texas Maverick]

When I first got my cell phone years ago I kept getting calls from debt collectors for the previous user. I would have to inform them she no longer had this number. I got so many I started digging to see if I could find this deadbeat. After some searching I did find her new current number. So now when I get calls for her I let them know she no longer has this number but here is her new number. After a few months I got a call from her and she was mad. Said I needed to quit giving out her new number. I said not gonna happen and she needed to call her different companies and give them her new number. After 15 years I still get calls for her and I still give out her new number. She had over 50 different companies trying to track her down. She must really owe a bunch of money.

 

TM

[Rye Miles #13621]

1 hour ago, Alpo said:

I'm pretty sure that only works with Apple phones.

 

Least wise I was not able to do that in my Androids, and I've had Androids by three different makers. It does not appear to be an option here.

You may be right! Two friends of mine can’t do this on their phones. I thought they were just stupid, which they are, but neither of them have IPhones!

[watab kid]

2 hours ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

My calls are all silenced unless you’re in my contacts. If they leave a message I get back to them if not they’re deleted. I never hear a scammer ringing. It’s such a great feature I can’t believe that everyone doesn’t use it,🙄

this is exactly what i do , leave a message or it gets deleted

[Pat Riot]

37 minutes ago, Texas Maverick said:

When I first got my cell phone years ago I kept getting calls from debt collectors for the previous user. I would have to inform them she no longer had this number. I got so many I started digging to see if I could find this deadbeat. After some searching I did find her new current number. So now when I get calls for her I let them know she no longer has this number but here is her new number. After a few months I got a call from her and she was mad. Said I needed to quit giving out her new number. I said not gonna happen and she needed to call her different companies and give them her new number. After 15 years I still get calls for her and I still give out her new number. She had over 50 different companies trying to track her down. She must really owe a bunch of money.

 

TM

Holy Cow! I thought the problem number I got years ago was bad. 15 years?! Wow!

 

In 2007 I got a new work phone. The number belonged to a lowlife, Charles D., that owed everybody and their brother, I think. I put up with calls for 6 months. 
The worst was Charles had a drunken girlfriend that would call me all hours of the night looking for him. This drunk b**** of a woman would always argue with me and keep telling me to put Charles on. 
I got sick of this woman so I came up with a plan. To cure this when I got up every morning at 03:30 to get ready for work I would call her. I did this for days. She always answered and I always says “Hi, this is Tom, not Charles. Quit (bleeping) calling me!” Then I would hang up. One day she said “Okay! You win! I won’t call anymore, you white bast***!” She was and may still be, black. If she wouldn’t have made that last comment it would have been over, but I decided it wasn’t. 

So, I gave her number out to phone solicitors, door to door sales people, I entered her in sweepstakes and I contacted numerous colleges and health plans on her behalf. 
Months later she texted me and said “I know it’s you. Quit giving my number out to people!”

I didn’t. 

 

 

[Texas Maverick]

3 minutes ago, Pat Riot said:

Holy Cow! I thought the problem number I got years ago was bad. 15 years?! Wow!

 

In 2007 I got a new work phone. The number belonged to a lowlife, Charles D., that owed everybody and their brother, I think. I put up with calls for 6 months. 
The worst was Charles had a drunken girlfriend that would call me all hours of the night looking for him. This drunk b**** of a woman would always argue with me and keep telling me to put Charles on. 
I got sick of this woman so I came up with a plan. To cure this when I got up every morning at 03:30 to get ready for work I would call her. I did this for days. She always answered and I always says “Hi, this is Tom, not Charles. Quit (bleeping) calling me!” Then I would hang up. One day she said “Okay! You win! I won’t call anymore, you white bast***!” She was and may still be, black. If she wouldn’t have made that last comment it would have been over, but I decided it wasn’t. 

So, I gave her number out to phone solicitors, door to door sales people, I entered her in sweepstakes and I contacted numerous colleges and health plans on her behalf. 
Months later she texted me and said “I know it’s you. Quit giving my number out to people!”

I didn’t. 

 

 

Yeah, I had a boss that was a real a$$hole one time and he was always threatening me and my team over little things. I started giving out his address and phone number to solicitor. I even signed him up for some magazines including penthouse and playboy. He never did find out where there were coming from . LOL He was eventually fired for incompetence.

 

TM

Edited March 18 by Texas Maverick

[Eyesa Horg]

16 minutes ago, Texas Maverick said:

Yeah, I had a boss that was a real a$$hole one time and he was always threatening me and my team over little things. I started giving out his address and phone number to solicitor. I even signed him up for some magazines including penthouse and playboy. He never did find out where there were coming from . LOL He was eventually fired for incompetence.

 

TM

Did similar to an a..hole peer. Signed him up for every gay magazine I could find. Back then it was just post card and check bill me later. Turned out there were other folks in the garage doing similar to him! Near pee'd yourselves, when one day he comes into the garage and says " come out and look at this", he's all in a hissy! 3 of those Post Office bins full of junk mail. He had been informed he would no longer receive mail at his home mail box. That was pretty much the last any of heard about it! And he was still an a..hole!

[Irish Pat]

I have a private line that rings direct in my office and does not go through the secretaries and switchboard. It is my private line. Wouldn’t you know it is one digit off from the donut shop!!! half my super secret calls are for donuts. One wrong number recognized my voice and was convinced that I had gone to work at the donut shop and was not at the bank any longer.  Irish ☘️ Pat

[Subdeacon Joe]

If we are going to get into texts, a couple of years ago my cell number got spread around some sort of eatery/bar in Healdsburg CAax the numberof one of the girls working there.  For about 2 months I would get at least once a week a text asking her to cover for someone who couldn't make it in. I always replied so the sender knew that the person wasn't ignoring  the texts.  Got some nice banter going on. 

 

 

 

 

[Pat Riot]

@Texas Maverick & @Eyesa Horg 

Those are hilarious revenge moves. 
I had a manager I despised. I took about a hundred of his business cards and I wrote “Looking for a good time” on each one. I would post them on bulletin boards in topless bars, regular bars, 7/11s, liquor stores, men’s room mirrors, anywhere I found a bulletin board. 
I don’t know if anything came of it but I enjoyed it. 

[Stump Water]

4 hours ago, Alpo said:

I'm pretty sure that only works with Apple phones.

 

Least wise I was not able to do that in my Androids, and I've had Androids by three different makers. It does not appear to be an option here.

 

I have Android OS and have it setup that way.

 

In settings, my schedule for Do Not Disturb is Always.  Then, in DND settings, What can interrupt DND, for People I select Contacts and for Apps I select Texts. 

 

If you are not in my contacts my phone does not ring.  I get a bleep for all texts, but nobody texts me.

[Rye Miles #13621]

1 hour ago, Stump Water said:

 

I have Android OS and have it setup that way.

 

In settings, my schedule for Do Not Disturb is Always.  Then, in DND settings, What can interrupt DND, for People I select Contacts and for Apps I select Texts. 

 

If you are not in my contacts my phone does not ring.  I get a bleep for all texts, but nobody texts me.

Exactly how my IPhone works!

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

9 hours ago, Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770 said:

And sometimes just the opposite. Today, I'm scheduled to go to a local Court as a Witness. When I was Served the Subpoena, (in January), I was told to call a number on it to let them know that I'd been served. I did so. Three times. I got a voicemail box every time. Every time the voicemail box said it was a different number. I left a message, but never heard anything back.  

Until a couple weeks ago. Someone from the office called my cell phone and left a message that they needed to speak to me. Now because of previous threads on cell phones, many of you might remember that I don't have my cell phone grafted to my hand like an added appendage like many people seem to, it sets on my dresser and the only time I do anything with it is when I leave the house. 

So when they called, I didn't hear it. Sometime later, I heard it making a noise and figured that someone called it. I listened to the message and called the number back. Voicemail. Again. I identified myself and said that I was returning their call. Court is today, and I STILL haven't heard back from them. 

Now here's the kicker: The message I have on my cell phone SAYS that if the caller wants to talk to me, they should call my LANDLINE, and gives that number. Whoever called OBVIOUSLY didn't pay any attention to that, otherwise they would have called me there. 

Update: I called this morning to check the status of the case, and found out that LAST NIGHT the case was Dismissed Without Prejudice, so I didn't have to even go. Good thing I didn't call yesterday, because it wasn't even done then! It would have been nice of them to call and let me know THAT!

[J-BAR #18287]

In 2002, after 24 years of operating my solo veterinary practice, I closed it and took a job with the USDA inspecting slaughterhouses and food processing plants.  The phone company recycled my old veterinary practice phone number to a new supermarket in town.  
 

About 12 years later I retired from the USDA.

 

 I considered going to that supermarket, identifying myself, and asking if they had any messages for me.  Alas, I didn't have the courage.

 

This thread makes me wish I had done that!!

 

😁

[Cactus Jack Calder]

9 hours ago, Alpo said:

 

On the other hand, my scoutmaster's phone number was one digit away from a black taxi company. And  early Saturday and Sunday mornings he would get woke up by somebody wanting a cab to come pick them up at the Little Savoy or the Harlem Grill (bars in the black section of town). And in his best Amos and Andy impersonation he would tell them that he would be there in about 10 minutes. Then he'd hang up and go back to bed.

We had a # one digit off from a Taxi Co in Yonkers, NY. We used to get those calls at 2:00 am. I tried to reason with people ‘under the weather’. Telling them they called the wrong number. They would hang up and call right back.

After a number of calls I finally tried telling them the Taxi was on the way. That person also called back and got belligerent, demanding  that I get the Taxi there ASAP. I just told them it was a wrong number and left the phone off the hook for the rest of the night.

 

The next day on a hunch I tried calling a number with an exchange number one digit off. The answer was “Junkers Junion”. I asked if this was a Taxi Cab Co.  The answer was yes. That pretty well guaranteed that this was going to continue, so I had our phone Co give us a new number. End of Taxi calls.

 

CJ

 

 

[Rip Snorter]

For a short time I had a land line number close to a Pizza joint.  Had no success in changing things till I took orders and offered discounts.  Pretty quick I stopped getting calls.

[Sgt. C.J. Sabre, SASS #46770]

Just to keep it interesting, our landline is the same as the local Fedex office, with the last two numbers transposed. It doesn't happen much anymore, since they show an 1-800 number online, but we used to get several calls a week for them. Nobody argued when we told them they had a wrong number though.  

[watab kid]

when i got my first smart phone the one after my flip phone the number had belonged to a car dealer [salesman] and i had a lot of bad luck on that one , finally got a clean line assigned , ill say this , the numbers should be scrubbed when deactivated , or at the least when reactivated , there is nothing worse than other folks calls - you have no idea who is calling , no idea XXX they are talking about , andno idea what to do to get rid of them ,  

[Alpo]

You can block them.

 

Or you can put them in your contact list. I have a couple in my contacts that say spam, or telemarketer. The phone rings, I glance at the phone and it says telemarketer, and I push the  declined button.

 

Blocking doesn't really work for spam, because if you block number 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, they'll just call you next time on 1234568. But if it's an actual person that you just don't want to talk to, block them.

[Pat Riot]

4 hours ago, Alpo said:

You can block them.

I wish it worked for first time callers. 
 

EDIT: “Some” first time callers. 
 

 

Edited March 19 by Pat Riot

[Rye Miles #13621]

10 hours ago, Rip Snorter said:

For a short time I had a land line number close to a Pizza joint.  Had no success in changing things till I took orders and offered discounts.  Pretty quick I stopped getting calls.

I had a bank that was one digit off of my business landline phone! Had all kinds of calls for them. I switched my number to a cell phone and silenced all calls except contacts. Customers of mine could leave a message. 

Edited March 19 by Rye Miles #13621