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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

in thinking that this is a very odd response to a wrong number

27 replies

Jacanne · 14/09/2007 19:44

DH programmed the telephone numbers into our new phones and obviously put my brothers number in incorrectly. DD1 has just phoned there by pressing the correct button to talk to her Nanny. I heard her say "hello, it's Maddy, Alison. Can I talk to Nanny". Then she started crying and hung the phone up. When I asked her what was wrong she said that Alison didn't know her and didn't want to talk to her. So I rang up and someone answered - I realised that it was the wrong number and apologised. The woman said, very aggressively, "Did you phone up just now". So I said that my little girl had, she thought it was her Aunt's number. The woman said, "Is her name Maddy?" So I said yes it was and the woman said "we thought it was a crank phonecall, someone pretending to be Madeleine McCann, we were quite upset about it".

I was quite stunned by this, surely your first thought would be, "oh a little girl called Maddy has phoned up and got the wrong number". It is quite a common name after all. Fair enough if we'd misdialled the McCanns but as far as I know they don't live in our neighbourhood.

OP posts:

hertsnessex · 14/09/2007 19:45

that is a bit strange.

southeatsastras · 14/09/2007 19:45

the world's gone mad

Alambil · 14/09/2007 19:45

omg how bizarre - you should have told her that she needs to take a step back from the news!!

your poor LO - is she ok now?

LadyVictoriaOfCake · 14/09/2007 19:46

woman was a nutbag.

give your dd a big hug. poor kid

Rhubarb · 14/09/2007 19:47

She's probably one of these posters on Mumsnet whose whole world seems to revolve around the McCann case.

sparklygothkat · 14/09/2007 19:47

FFS, what was she thinking?? That Madeleine McCann knows how to phone England??

handlemecarefully · 14/09/2007 19:48

The woman was a bit of a fruitcake

Probably a Daily Mail reader or other McCann obsessive

Twiglett · 14/09/2007 19:49

unfortunately some people are just self-obsessed, media-driven hysterical twats

littleducks · 14/09/2007 19:51

Seems a bit odd, but who knows what goes into peoples heads first, especially with the McCann publicity atm.

They were probably in a bad mood or just generally upset anyway, we went through a stage of getting lots of wrong numbers, and then one morning i was exhausted, ill just put the baby to sleep and a woman phoned, she asked is this the crickters, i said no, she said is this 63 (our no is 62*) i said no, then instead of saying sorry she said well what no is this then, and to my great shame i said, why dont you just dial the right fucking number and hung up .

I do think they should have been more considerate to a child though, is your dd likely to cry easily, did they shout at her or be very mean?

Rhubarb · 14/09/2007 19:51

Unless...........it is actually a friend of the family's or a relative?

Which would completely account for the fact that they reacted in this way.

As far as you know they don't live in your neighbourhood, but I think they have family all over the place, as well as friends.

Pennies · 14/09/2007 19:52

Daft bint. Some people are really really weird about wrong numbers. I had someone threaten me when it turned out I was texting someone I didn't know. The text he (or she) sent when it became apparent I had the wrng number was really scary.

fizzbuzz · 14/09/2007 19:59

Some people do behave weirdly when they get a wrong number. Our phone number is almost identical to local scondary school, and we are always getting phone calls saying so and so won't be in tomorrow.

However someone phoned our house to report an absence (?) I told him it was the wrong number. He then started going on saying "..you don't sound very happy...you could sound a bit happier on the phone luv...where's the smile in your voice sweetheart etc etcThe worse thing is I was so bemused by it, I actually apologised..What a git!

elasticbandstand · 14/09/2007 20:05

i learnt from a policeman's wife t say, if people ring me on wrong number, when they question my number i say "what number did you want"

michymama · 14/09/2007 20:12

our number is the same as a local campsite and a local hotel. People get quite annoyed when we won't take reservations from them . and /or they ask for the right number !!!

mytwopenceworth · 14/09/2007 20:19

Why not just take the reservations? [evil]

Pruners · 14/09/2007 20:20

Message withdrawn

DeedeePickles · 14/09/2007 20:24

Think yourself lucky; our old telephone number was one digit different from a local(ish) 'massage' parlour. Some of the 'clients' said some very strange things before being told they had the wrong number.

handlemecarefully · 14/09/2007 23:32

Shiver at Pruners. Please tell us more

StarryStarryNight · 14/09/2007 23:47

To the op, yes that was a bit odd. Must have been quite upsetting for your dd.

My mother used to get a little girl call now and then (maybe she just dialled random numbers as she was lonely), she just wanted to chat a little bit.

But, did any of you get a bombthreat as wrong number?

When I lived in North London I had the same phonenumber as Kings Cross Station had before. (Silly how they "recycle" such numbers) One morning somebody phoned in a bomb threat! I could not believe what I was hearing. So I had no option but say "SOrry, you have the wrong number, this is not Kings Cross but a private number now". To which he said "Oh, in that case I am so sorry".

Imagine where I called next.... And how awkward that call was...

tigerschick · 14/09/2007 23:58

I agree that it was a strange response - the likelihood that it was a relative or close friend is very slim!

On odd number connections - my parents used to share 4 digits (2396) with the local bar, vets, school and bus station! They were constantly getting odd calls - but were always polite!

Dh's best mate used to have one digit different from the local pizza place. If the same drunken oaf called twice in a night he'd take their order, reasonably safe in the knowledge that, if they were drunk enough to ring the same wrong number twice, they'd forget ordering a pizza altogether!

Pruners · 15/09/2007 08:33

Message withdrawn

Bouncingturtle · 15/09/2007 08:50

Yes I too have a number 1 different from local pizza place. We have had a few very late night phone calls (I'm talking 1am!!!!) getting us out of bed and causing a panic - I mean you would only expect a call that late at night if a member of the family was in trouble!
One caller rang 3 times - I made a note of his number and rang him during the day asking him to check before he dialled as he kept getting me out of bed... he then told me I had a nice voice and would I like to go out on a date! He was very disappointed to find out I was married

Back to the OP - your poor dd - surely that women realised it was a little girl who was calling!! What a stupid cow - the chances of your dh accidently programming the number of a McCann friend or relative are pretty bloody remote!

gringottsgoblin · 15/09/2007 08:56

actually i can imagine someone being sick enough to make that sort of prank phone call and as you dont know what goes on in this womans life i think you have no right to moan about her. might be strange to you but there was a time when my ex made loads of nasty calls to me that anything odd got me very upset

Bouncingturtle · 15/09/2007 09:01

GG - Yes been there(stalker ex kept ringing constantly, following me and threatening to hurt me and my family), so know how it feels - but I still stand by what I say that the woman would have known a little girl was ringing and she could have just said "sorry wrong number" and hung the phone up instead of saying something that reduced her to tears.
After all it it had been a crank call - the prankster would have had the reaction they were trying to get, if she had reacted in the same way to them!

Turquoise · 15/09/2007 09:07

Years ago I phone home from a payphone and obviously dialled wrong. A woman answered, I said, slightly hesitantly because it didn't sound very like her: "Mum?" and the woman burst into tears and said something like "Oh, at last, at last!" I realised it wasn't my mum, and hurriedly apologised for the wrong number, but I still feel awful over 25 years later - god knows what that woman was all about but my call clearly devastated her.

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