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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

"I'm so sorry, I've got the wrong number."

75 replies

MrsRajeshKoothrappali · 22/04/2013 14:27

How fecking hard is that to say?

I seem to get weirdo calls all day long from companies (I assume) and 9/10 out of ten they just hang up when I say hello.

I'm with TPS, which has prevented some calls but some still slip through the net.

Am stressed today anyway and this has irked me further.

Meh!

OP posts:

Hobbes8 · 22/04/2013 16:24

For the last couple of months someone has been giving people my email address. She's registered her iPad to me, and booked some flights to lanzarote. I have no way of contacting her to let her know she's got it wrong though. I was tempted to try and get on the flight.

BadgersRetreat · 22/04/2013 16:25

Our home phone no was v similar to one at Gatwick Airport (diff area code, same number)

that was fun....

Crinkle77 · 22/04/2013 16:29

Could you get a phone with caller display?

slatternlymother · 22/04/2013 16:29

Good grief, when we first moved into our house and got our phone number, we had a lady in perhaps her 50's/60's phone us on a bi-weekly basis (at least). It was really, really annoying. Especially when we were really patient, said 'yuo have the wrong number' she'd just go 'ugh' and hang up

One time, when DS was very little and we were just trying to get him to sleep after a very long day, she rang. This was after about 6 months of it constantly. It was actually starting to get a bit weird; I put a thread about it on here I think. DH just lost it and went a bit crazy at her, told her we were trying to get our infant son to sleep so would she PLEASE learn how to dial a phone? He didn't swear or shout, just told her the number she obviously had was wrong and to please stop calling.

20 minutes later, she rang back and I answered. She asked if that was my husband I had spoken to, when I said yes, she told me I had an extremely abusive husband. I showed her in extremely colourful language the definition of abusive and also of harrassment. She hasn't called back since

Original poster

MrsRajeshKoothrappali · 22/04/2013 16:34

"I get calls and texts for somebody called Mohammed whose family and friends seem to treat him as a taxi service."

I know him. We have a Mohammed's Taxis in my town.

OP posts:

SamuelWestsMistress · 22/04/2013 16:51

My parents used to get calls for the local garden centre. My dad was so fed up with this but nothing seemed to be able to stop it. One particular day a very unpleasant lady called up complaining about a pair of Wellington boots she had bought that had fallen apart, the woman called him a moron and a liar for denying it was the garden centre she was speaking to and even threatened with trading standards! Eventually he told her to come back for a replacement pair , a £50 goodwill gesture voucher and a free lunch!

Not sure how that went down at the garden centre. Calls stopped soon afterwards though!

mawbroon · 22/04/2013 17:03

I got loads of people texting me once to wish Archie a happy birthday. Turned out that he was somebody's Grandad and was on his own for his birthday so she got all her pals to text him, except she gave out my number by mistake!

I had nothing better to do that day, so I texted them all back explaining that it was the wrong number and to wish Archie a happy birthday from me

But, as an aside, one of them texted me back and said "sorry, my bad!" I didn't think people actually used that phrase in RL!!!

crazydrunkevilhamster · 22/04/2013 17:07

My number used to get confused with a local taxi firm so I would get calls at all hours from drunk idiots , the phone company sky wouldn't let me change it until is had it for a year
sometimes I would just go along with it and say a taxi was on the way

JackieTheFart · 22/04/2013 17:09

I get lots of calls for various members of the White family. We have had this number for nearly five years.

At first, we were getting loads and loads of calls. About a year into having the number we got a call from the Magistrates Court asking when

PipkinsPal · 22/04/2013 17:12

I get occasional calls from a company asking to speak to Miss Natalie Price. I don't know how many times I've calmly and not so calmly told them that there is no-one of that name on my land line number and never has been. Why can't anyone at that company take the initiative and wipe my number off Miss Natalie Price's record is beyond me. If I worked in a company and dialled a number only to be told that person does not live there I would amend the records. It's not difficult.

Jestrin · 22/04/2013 17:17

The silent calls are auto diallers. If you answer and there is a call handler free you get connected. If not it hangs up. A bloody nuisance!

I have TPS too but I was told that if my call originated abroad then it will come through. I am plagued by those bloody automated messages Urgh!

On a lighter note, Im one digit different from our doctors too and I had a strange message on my answer machine. The caller sounded elderly which worried me. So I did 1471 and managed to call them back. They were ok but did need the doctor.

MimsyBorogroves · 22/04/2013 17:22

The scariest one I ever had was around 1am when I lived in London. I used to leave my mobile on so that now ex could ring me when he rolled in from the pub (all together now...aaaah).

Anyway, I was woken up by the phone ringing. I blearily answered it. A Scottish lady said "Is that you Mimsy?" (using my actual first name!)
"Yes," said I, "who are you?"
"It's your mum! Why don't you know me? What's wrong? Are you injured? Are you okay?"
"You're not my mum," I said. "My mum isn't Scottish and goes to bed at ten. You have the wrong number." I put the phone down.

5 minutes later, she rang again, shouting and screaming about how I had stolen her daughter's phone and she needed to know she was safe. I tried reasoning with her, I tried talking to her. I asked her to dial the number again. I asked her to receite the number she was trying to call. She was. Not. Having. It.

She phoned me again and again. She told me she was ringing the police.

I told her that was a good idea, rang the police non-emergency number myself, gave my phone number and explained what was going on. Then I turned my phone off and went back to sleep.

Fucking ex didn't even bother ringing that night.

gallifrey · 22/04/2013 17:25

The other day we had a call from someone wanting to book a table at a pub, we explained they had the wrong number and when we googled the name of the pub it is just down the road from us and looks really nice and their number is just 1 digit different from ours.

HorryIsUpduffed · 22/04/2013 17:25

Oh I'm reminded of our worst wrong number

We came home after holiday and found a few messages on our machine. They were all from an obviously elderly lady in distress, trying to reach her family because she wasn't feeling well. They were from days before but we had no idea who she was or what her number was.

I hope to God she got the number right eventually

AbyCat · 22/04/2013 17:31

Our old number in our student flatshare was one digit away from the local sorting office, and they used to put cards through the doors when they couldn't deliver a parcel - most of these cards were completely smudged in the rain or whatever so a 6 looked like an 8. We'd get so many calls each day asking for their parcels to be redelivered that we had to leave an answerphone message saying that we were not the post office. When this still didn't work we left one saying that they were calling the wrong number and anyone who left a message demanding a parcel on this number would have their post redirected to El Salvador (not my idea!) and loads of people would leave messages complaining that the post service was going downhill and they wanted to speak to a manager about it.
The worst was when the postmen used to call the number at 4am to call in sick. Some colourful language was used then!

CinnabarRed · 22/04/2013 17:35

XH and I moved into our new flat and inherited the number from the previous owner. Who, it turned out, had been running an escort agency from the flat below....

It was reasonably entertaining for a while, and the calls tailed off once we discovered which free paper carried her ads and persuaded them to pull them.

It turned more sinister when we got a call from the Murder Squad - it turned out she'd done a runner with her ex's daughter, and then the ex turned up dead in a ditch somewhere.

I'd love to know the outcome of it all.

HeadfirstForHalos · 22/04/2013 17:35

I had one a few months ago from an old dear.

She said, "Is that you Margaret?"

Me, "No sorry, you have the wrong number"

Her "No, this is Margarets number"

Me, "No you definitely have the wrong number, there isn't a Margaret here"

Her, "Well why did you answer then?"

Then she hung up on me.

Next day she rang again, "is that you Margaret?"

Me "No sorry, you really do have the wrong number"

Her "" and hung up again.

The kids think it's hilarious to ask "Is that you Margaret?"

UnscentedStillRomantic · 22/04/2013 17:40

I had a woman phone up once. 'Hi Unscented...' and launched non stop into a great conversation about stuff/people/events I knew nothing about.

I didn't know her It turned out that she thought she'd rung her daughter who was also, by total coincidence, called Unscented (not actually Unscented but ykwim)

By the time we'd worked it all out we were both completely exhausted.

TidyDancer · 22/04/2013 17:47

My home phone number is one digit away from a local funeral home. You can just imagine the calls we have had over the years....

I also had a message on my mobile from a very distressed young lady trying to tell her dad she was on her way home and had a man with her. I tried to call her back to say she had the wrong number, but could never get her. I hope she was okay.

RedlipsAndSlippers · 22/04/2013 17:55

We've recently been getting calls and messages from an elderly lady looking for Marion, I've explained a couple of times that she's calling the wrong number, but all I get is "Well she answered this one last time!" We've been living here for four years, so I sincerely hope Marion hasn't been answering our phone!

CruCru · 22/04/2013 17:59

A few years ago I had repeated calls from a woman trying to RSVP to a children's party invitation. I explained that I didn't have children and therefore didn't know anything about any children's party. Although my number was the one she'd been given, it was still the wrong number.

I think she rang about four times after this.

MissFredi · 22/04/2013 18:04

The pizza delivery store I work in ha a similar number to a Chinese around here. I keep answering the phone with the name and these people insist on asking me for crispy duck!

Not that I would turn down a crispy duck pizza

merlincat · 22/04/2013 18:07

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SoleSource · 22/04/2013 18:16

Years ago, I had many.months ofphone calls in the early afternoon from a man asing for Eddie. I had no.idea who Eddie was so pokirely told tge caller he had the wrong number for months..

I told my boyfriend about this caller (we lived together). He told me that the calker wasasking for him! Eddie is his first name. I knew him by his second name. Wierdo.

Tinkerisdead · 22/04/2013 18:35

Lol at Eddie.

We get calls all the time for the couple that used to live in our old house. They were an elderly couple who moved elsewhere in our village. We then brought the number with us to our new house.

But we answer and its always realllly posh people like Chummie from call the midwife. "Hellllllooooo peter old chum its meeeee your longlost brother from new zealand! How the devil are you?" And we have to say sorry he moved in 2010! To his brother. I mean how can you not tell your brother you moved? And worringly we had a call from his mothers care home saying they really really needed to talk to him.

We often wonder if they have his mothers body and saying "will he ever come to collect her do you think?"

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