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Ok so my work 800 number is one digit off from a certain states Police and Fire Pension program, periodic wrong number calls, fine. Well these last few days these poor pensioners have been getting more frequent, and quite salty. Apparently, certain state Police and Fire Pension program has sent out a mailing to all their illustrious pensioners with MY WORK'S 800 number. Now we are paying for the pleasure of arguing with people that we can't send them their new cards because they have the wrong number. I even try to give them the right number, but some just won't have it. Twitching. Blargh! Be nice to the poor confused pensioners who are probably getting the run around. Twitching

[This message edited by Crescita at 12:39 PM, June 25th (Tuesday)]

Can you re-record your voicemail to say, "If you are looking for the State Police and Fire Pension program, please dial 800-xxx-xxxz due to a recent typo in their mailing. If you are calling for Crescita, leave a message." and then screen all your calls?

Oh that could work, but I don't know if it would be more or less annoying We have some chatty agents who leave long messages.

Well, further communication with those responsible for the mailing reveals they sent our number out to 15,000 people! Also they aren't too happy with the union right now so they aren't surprised that we have been getting some angry calls. Le sigh.

My # is a digit off from a chemical company. Sometimes a fax machine will tie up my line for hours when someone tries to send me safety sheets or something. very annoying!

Some phone systems, you can set a max time for your messages - people would just give their name and number and you'd call them back for the lengthy chat.

((((Crescita's poor nerves))))

((((poor confused pensioners))))

My job's number was apparently connected to a number a different bank gave out for their mortgage department. It got frequently argumentative as we assured the person that their bank did not change their mortgage to our bank but that they did give them the wrong number.

Sorry to add levity to this thread but back in the old days before caller ID and cell phones the phone number to Grand Auto was one digit off the house phone at our "animal house." At least once a day someone would call thinking the had dialed Grand Auto. Most of the time we would be polite and tell them they dialed the wrong number. Sundays at the house were filled with copius ammounts of cheap beer and 50 cent tacos. If someone called looking for GA but misdialed the number again, we would answer, "Grand Auto, may I help you?" We all knew enough about cars to tell the misfortunate that we had their part in stock and gave a very low price. Still not sure how many people ran to GA to get a $10 carburetor during a "blowout sale."

Levity is welcome Jpapa

Luckily most of them are east coast so the calls are dying down for the day.

My phone number is one digit different from a "make your own wine" store.....
It amazes me how many people leave messages on my answering machine wanting to come in and bottle their wine!
If I answer the phone I politely tell them the correct number...funny thing is most of them call me right back again...
After the second call I don't answer the phone again...maybe I should and book them an appointment to bottle

I'll add that from my experience, recording a new message with a different phone number will only help slightly, if at all.

The reason? No one listens to the message. I can't tell you how many times I have gotten calls for businesses, or people with names that would not even be CLOSE to anyone in my house, messages from those with very heavy foreign accents asking for someone who, based on name, is likely the same nationality, etc.

If they listened to the message at all, I clearly state our names, and the only accent I have is the generic midwest "non-accent". I can't see anyway they would possibly think they have the right number if they listened to even a little of the message.

On the other hand, my MIL pays way too much attention to the message. She is constantly leaving messages that say, "OSXgirl, could you tell Mr. OSXgirl...." The phone is our house phone. We both have the phone number. But I guess since it's my voice on the answering machine, I'm the only one who touches it, and need to pass on messages to DH.

I keep teasing DH that I am going to record a message that just has the cats meowing and see what kind of response we get then.

We had a number that wasn't one number off a business number... it was the same number listed in the phone book (remember those?) To be fair, this business closed right after the books were published and the number was given to us. Still, it got a little annoying when we got a call for them and we had to explain it wasn't theirs anymore and give the caller the number to the main store. It got to the point where I was going to call the main store and tell them they should pay us for every customer we redirected to them. Could have made a bundle...

Oooops, duplicate...

[This message edited by Clarrissa at 8:09 PM, June 26th (Wednesday)]