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I should be ashamed of myself!

(31 Posts)
glassortwo Wed 17-Apr-13 11:53:40

shock I have just shouted at a bloke on the phone to 'GO TO HELL' and hung up.

I am tired of the same company calling to ask for a Toby Oldman, told them no one of that name lives here till I am sick of hearing my own voice. shock

absent Wed 17-Apr-13 11:58:02

glass I know the feeling. The previous owners of this house took their phone number with them, so we were allocated one that had belonged to someone in Melrose Court or somewhere – not this address anyway. I am so fed up with phone calls for that man and his wife during the last three and a bit years since we moved in. I even have people disbelieving me when I tell them that he/she doesn't live here or that no, I am not Mrs L. I think GO TO HELL was certainly justified in the circumstances.

gillybob Wed 17-Apr-13 12:01:19

My mum and dad used to get loads of calls for someone called Mrs Joy until my dad finally snapped and shouted I am not Mrs Joy I am Mr Bloody Furious grin

glassortwo Wed 17-Apr-13 12:07:35

grin I just couldnt help myself, thought it was DD calling from work then heard the voice, I had been in the middle of changing beds and my head was inside a duvet cover and had to run to answer the phone.

nanaej Wed 17-Apr-13 12:10:20

Oh I have someone who calls for the person who was obviously the 'owner' of our number at some time...soooo frustrating. Every empathy glass

Greatnan Wed 17-Apr-13 12:42:33

My landline number used to belong to the local campsite and I get lots of calls for them. I explained to one woman that I was not the campsite and she should look on line for their new number, but she rang back twice more. In the end, I confess to being a bit firm with her (but it is not as easy in French!)

gracesmum Wed 17-Apr-13 12:54:36

I'd have just taken the booking Greatnan my Mum once hd somebody ring to book afternoon tea for an entire coach party who refused to believe she wasn't the Dryburgh Abbey Hotel. It was only when she said she really didn't have anough cups or chairs and would they mind sitting ourside on the garden furniture that they accepted who she was smile

kittylester Wed 17-Apr-13 13:11:35

I think you should have sais something much much worse glass grin

janeainsworth Wed 17-Apr-13 13:50:48

Our home phone number is obviously closely related to the district nurses or doctor's clinic and I am constantly amazed at the number of people who leave messages, even though we only have the standard BT message, not a personalised one.
One querulous woman left a message demanding an appointment for her husband.
Feeling a sense of civic duty I rang her back so she wouldn't be waiting in vain for the clinic to ring her.
She was quite disbelieving and indignant that I wasn't the district nurse and I certainly didn't get a thank you for my trouble grin

FlicketyB Wed 17-Apr-13 15:18:01

We used to have a number similar to the local hospital and a local car dealer, the same numbers, but two transposed.

Fortunately as we both worked full time and the children were out at school all day, they didn't bother us too much as the answerphone message made it very clear we were neither hospital nor garage. However if I had a midweek day at home, it could sometimes be really irritating, because, as others have said, people do not believe you when you say you are not the person/place they wish to contact.

For several years my parents used to get woken up every night with a phone call to a fax machine, somebody had obviously misdialled a number into the automatic send out memory of their fax machine and whatever was sent out at night was sent to them. Whoever should have received it, clearly never missed it. BT were completely unhelpful and it was before the 1471 system. In the end they would unplug their phone when they went to bed and replug it in in the morning

nanaej Wed 17-Apr-13 15:30:35

At our previous house we often had people mis-dialling for Wimbledon Riding Stables trying to book riding lessons Some got quite cross with me when i said i was not the stables as though it was my fault!hmm

sunseeker Wed 17-Apr-13 15:55:58

We have had the same number for around 20 years but a few years ago a woman kept calling and asking for someone we had never heard of. Each time she rang we politely said she had the wrong number and no-one of that name lived here. The last time she rang she became quite indignant and said "Well what is the right number?"!!!

Nelliemoser Wed 17-Apr-13 16:20:42

When we had our first phone in Ilford we had constant phone calls for the RSPCA. It took years for them to stop. It was never possible to find out where they should have been ringing.

I also had the odd experience of someone ringing me at work and quoting me the telephone number that a few months earlier had been my parents.
It felt very strange.

nanapug Wed 17-Apr-13 16:41:13

Apparently we sell logs, and people will not believe us when we say we don't!!

absent Wed 17-Apr-13 16:47:09

My parents' telephone number was one digit different from that of the local chimney sweep. My mother got tired of answering the question "When can your husband come and sweep our chimney?" especially when he was halfway across the world on a business trip.

Nelliemoser Wed 17-Apr-13 17:00:19

With such things as phone numbers old addresses etc.

I have just taken delivery of a parcel from an Amazon purchase for my DD with her maiden name and our home address on it. A much needed bigger size baby sleeping bag which I will now have to forward!

She has only lived here for about three months since leaving home home nearly 16 yrs ago! So what can you expect! wink

Enviousamerican Wed 17-Apr-13 17:45:27

I Kid you not,I just got a phone call from a male person that said"Hello,grandma?" I said "Sorry you've dialed the wrong number."He Then started pressing buttons on his phone and then hung up. As far as I know I'm nobody's grandma especially a grown up person. I guess in this day and age you dialed a wrong number is outdated. what do you say? You punched the wrong number?

ninathenana Wed 17-Apr-13 17:48:50

We too suffer from the people who don't take care when dialing. Our number is one digit different to a very popular local gastro pub.
Calls at all times of the day angry

Greatnan Wed 17-Apr-13 17:49:04

Nellie, when I order from Amazon it asks for my billing address and a delivery address as I am often sending things to various grandchildren.

grannyactivist Wed 17-Apr-13 18:22:30

My current phone number is the same as my last one, but with two digits transposed. When we left our previous home my husband's gran moved in, so she had my old number. Gran later moved to a nursing home and died. A few months later I received a phone call from someone who had mis-dialled and thought she was calling gran (whom she didn't know) in order to ask her for a phone number for .........my father in law. I share the same name as my husband's late gran. The ensuing phone call could have been a Monty Python sketch. grin

Notso Wed 17-Apr-13 18:26:17

I think your response was very restrained under the circumstances glass grin

flowerfriend Wed 17-Apr-13 18:46:08

Why is it that even when you have explained that you are not the medical help the caller thinks you are, you still get a list of all the symptoms?

FlicketyB Wed 17-Apr-13 19:07:07

One, unnamed insurance company, keeps sending DS all the mail relevant to his policy to our address. Ds lived here for 6 months 12 years ago. He has rung them time without number to give them his new address.

We have agreed the next communication will be returned to sender with a note saying You have been rung twice a year for the last 12 years with DS's current address. Please check your records and send direct to him.

I did this quite successfully some years ago when BT refused to spell our name correctly on the account after we moved house, despite having correctly filled in the form - and reminded them. We were concerned that when the directory came out our name would not be where people expected it to be. When the misspelt bill arrived I sent it back saying 'I will pay this bill when you spell my name correctly. Please check your records. It was back properly addressed in less than a week!

susieb755 Wed 17-Apr-13 20:48:26

We once had the same number as the international research journal Nature -only they were in the states and we were in Poole - scientists all over the world would ring us, they may have been intelligent but couldn't work out international dialing codes!

cathy Wed 17-Apr-13 21:16:12

Thanks glass your thread made me chuckle* with your go to hell comment.

Get them to take your number off their system, it happened to me and that's what I did.