No, this isn’t a Barbara Stanwyck movie. It’s just something we’ve found ourselves saying a lot. For the past five years.
We moved into our house in November of 2008. That meant we got a new-to-us phone number. But, as it turns out, not new to the world.
The previous account holders appear to have been a “Don and Irene Plantain” (not their real names). We got a lot of phone calls from health care providers checking on Don’s condition. And then we started getting phone calls from creditors. If we were home when they called, we’d tell them they had the wrong number. If we weren’t, we’d try to call back. Some of these creditors were very persistent–or at least their automated messages were.
(Note to people programming these calls: My answering machine cannot legally confirm or refute identity. And your statement that the recipient should hang up if they are not the correct party? Yeah, my answering machine doesn’t know how to do that. Because it’s an answering machine. Rethink your lousy, non-binding strategy.)
Along with those, we got calls from restaurant delivery people trying to drop off pizza and Thai food. We’d explain that they were clearly at a security box that needed to be reprogrammed, because they were not reaching the person who’d ordered the food.
One day, I asked the guy trying to deliver food, “Where are you?” And that’s how we know Don and Irene’s address. A year or so later, I found Irene on Facebook and asked her to update her phone number. She insisted that the box at their condo complex was not programmed with their number (clearly a lie), that they had given up the phone number a few months earlier (clearly a lie) and that she had “good reasons” for changing it. I told her that we were getting continuous messages for them, and would like to pass them along to her. She told me to leave her alone.
Later, her mother called to wish her a Merry Christmas.
We emailed the condo homeowners’ association and asked them to reprogram the box, so at least we don’t have to explain the situation to pizza delivery people anymore.
The calls waxed and waned over the years, as, apparently, did Don’s health. We’ve gotten phone calls from Medicare and Senior Services, and most recently from individuals and companies who are trying to provide services and equipment to Don. We continue to tell the callers that they have been given the wrong number. Invariably, they ask if we know how to get in touch with Don and Irene.
No, I do not. And I don’t particularly want to. But we sure do want Irene to provide a phone number that will result in actual medical care for her husband. Because as things stand, we’re not sure he’s getting it.
I have experienced that both in my last apartment and with our new number. For 7 years I got nasty creditor calls for a particular man, to the point that I once told the creditor I want to know where he is, too because I was so sick of the calls. From what I understand often the account gets sold to another collection agency so even if you’ve told them it’s the wrong number the new group is going to try to call all possible places.
At our house we’ve gotten calls for one person, usually creditors, and once a collect call from jail, and every once in a while we get a call from a social worker at a hospital letting us know an elderly woman is getting released and needs a ride (or somethig). I definitely try to return those calls!
I had the same thing happen in New Jersey; the previous account holder’s creditors kept calling. There didn’t seem to be a health element to the situation, though.
When I lived in an apartment in Oakland, I kept getting messages left on my machine in Chinese while I was at work. Then, one day, the guy called while I was home and I told him he had the wrong number. He did not speak English, and kept trying to talk to me in Chinese. Finally, he put me on hold while he apparently found someone who spoke a little English. This person got on the phone and asked for Susie in heavily accented English, and I said he had the wrong number. He asked if I was sure (?) Yeah, I’m sure. He asked if I had a roommate named Susie. He was just convinced Susie must be there, and also so informed they were calling from China and this was an expensive call. Sorry about that, but there really is no Susie here. I don’t have her bound and gagged in the other room. He then asked if I had her new phone number or any way to contact her. No, I don’t know her! Anyway, they never called again, so it wasn’t as bad as your ordeal. But, it was weird. And, like you, I felt bad when they kept trying to call when I wasn’t there, and I had no way to let them know that they had the wrong number. I had a feeling they were calling from China.
I don’t understand why people think that you’d have some sort of forwarding number. I mean, I do understand it if they’re calling from another country, because there’s not reason for them to know that you wouldn’t. But I’m amazed at how many of the people trying to reach the “Plantains” will ask multiple times if we know how to get in touch with them. I’ve started saying, “I’m sorry. She’s a total stranger who gives out my number.”
What a story! Callers like that can be relentless – especially when they’re looking for someone who owes money. I had a cell phone number years ago that must have been someone else’s or else someone just gave out that number, because I got calls for months and months insisting I was this person who I wasn’t and that I owed money to this company etc. The funniest part was that they were looking for a man…and yet still couldn’t believe I wasn’t him! Honestly.
That’s what happened to me in New Jersey, too.
Oh, that sounds horrible. A few years ago, my cell phone started ringing pretty relentlessly – it appears that someone had my number first, and ran into a fair bit of financial distress, and creditors started calling. I never went so far as to call back & try to correct anyone, though. If I answered, I explained that I wasn’t the woman they were looking for . . . if they left a message, I just deleted it.
But what you’re dealing with is FAR FAR worse.
Have you looked into changing your number? I know that seems drastic, but I’d just want to be done with them.
We haven’t yet–it’s not so constant that we feel the need to change the number–but I can see how we could get there.
What a nutty story. Sounds like Irene doesn’t want to get those calls either, but it’s not fair to you to get them. We’ve occasionally received calls – but we’ve had our phone number for a long time (10+ years) – so someone at this point would have to give our number out purposely…
At this point, she is intentionally giving out our number. There’s just no other way this is still going on, particularly with new care providers and equipment suppliers. And I’m sure she doesn’t want to get these calls, but her motivations are, shall we say, suspect.
What a pain! My worst “wrong number” situation was when my number was very similar to the number for a property management company. I’d get lots of phone calls expressing interest in various apartments. I was tempted to start telling them to mail me checks, but obviously I never did that.
When I lived in New Jersey, I had a similar situation. The outgoing message on my answering machine said, “If you’re looking for XXX YYYY, this is not their phone number.” It made no difference.
oh geez. The worst I’ve every had was a doctor’s office who garbled someone’s number on their chart in a way that changed it in to mine. I called them to tell them they really needed to fix the typo and quit leaving someone else’s messages on my answering machine. When that didn’t work, I wrote down the name they used in the message, looked up his number, and called him myself. My message was something like “I’m terribly sorry to invade your privacy this way, but wanted you to know the results of your prostate test, which your doctor left on my answering machine even though I’m a total stranger. You might want to talk to them about that.”
A doctor’s office once faxed someone else’s test results to my work fax number. I told them that they needed to confirm the number, and they were lucky it was me. They agreed.
(My co-workers wouldn’t have done anything nefarious, but I’m not sure all of them would have thought to shred the pages.)