TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Need Help With a Telephone Mystery

Re: Need Help With a Telephone Mystery

DLR (news22@raleighthings.com)
Thu, 26 Jan 2006 06:49:49 -0500

> My father told a story from back in the 1940s: for some reason people
> kept calling his phone (obTelecomHistory: WAlnut, a manual exchange in
> uptown New Orleans) when they wanted to contact their local grocery to
> have food delivered. (Yes, some groceries did that 'way back
> when ... PeaPod is nothing new.) Apparently someone at the grocery was
> giving out the wrong number and complaints to the grocery didn't help.

> He finally fixed the problem by responding to the calls complaining
> about slow deliveries: he profusely apologized, and told the caller
> that as a good-will gesture the next order would include some fancy
> lagniappe at no cost to the customer. Presumably the blasts directed
> at the store about its failure to include the promised lagniappe
> finally got management's attention.

When I moved to NC in 87, we were given a number that had belong to a
lawyer. :)

About once a month we got a call and politely told them we didn't know
what his number was and that was it. But there was that one call about
a year after we got the number.

"I've been arrested, can you bail me out?" It was on the answering
machine. So I couldn't even tell the poor guy how bad off he really
was.

The other day, I got a call the caller id showed as a hispanic name
that I didn't recognize. On a whim I answered. (I work at home and try
and ignore most personal calls during the day to the home number.) I
said hello, the other end said in what seemed to me to be a plaintive
female voice, "Maria?". I tried in my non-existent Spanish to tell her
wrong number but she kept repeating that name in a questioning
voice. I gave up and hung up. She called every half hour a few more
times. I called a friend who speaks Spanish and got the phrase for
"wrong number" and tried that. No luck. So I ignored the calls. About
6 that day. The next day we got 2 more then they ended. I was going to
ask my friend to call the caller id and try and explain if it didn't
stop.

Is there any other way to deal with this?

Post Followup Article Use your browser's quoting feature to quote article into reply
Go to Next message: DLR: "Re: The Hazards of Instant Communication"
Go to Previous message: obsidian: "Re: How to Dial US Toll Free from Toronto"
May be in reply to: Jim Haynes: "Need Help With a Telephone Mystery"
Next in thread: Danny Burstein: "Re: Need Help With a Telephone Mystery"
TELECOM Digest: Home Page