Post your "oops wrong number" stories here...

Absolutely true. It happened about six years ago.

I DON'T LIKE PEOPLE PLAYING ON MY PHONE!!!!

(ring ring)
Me: "Hello?"
Girl: "Hi Mark, it's Jill. can you pick me up from xxx station?"
Me: "Sure. I'll be ten minutes. You alright?" Thinks: "Hmm, some friend of my sisters from the dance college again."
Jill: "Yeah. You? You sound like you have a cold."
Me: "Yeah, I had one but it's just about gone now. Mandy's not here, but she'll probably be back when we get back here."
Jill: "Who's Mandy?"
Me: "Sorry, Amanda. I still call her Mandy, but everyone seems to know her as Amanda thesedays."
Jill: "Yeah, but I don't know any Amanda either"
Me: "Oh. She's my sister." thinks: "Oh god, now this must be someone that I know. Or at least, some friend of a friend. But why is she ringing me to get collected?"
Jill: "That's not Mark Jones, is it?"
Mark: "Um, no."
Jill: "Ah, sorry, wrong number" (call ends)

So, who knows. I'd have collected her from the station? Then what?

http://img.meetup.com/photos/event/6/a/e/6/event_267366.jpeg

“We need those window frames ASAP, we’re waiting on you”?

In Scottish accent, “ can you pick it up on the way home, sandy’s fuming”?

“Can you get an extra bottle of wine on the way home, we’re running out”?

Erm, their seem to a theme here.

Welcome to my entire childhood. Our number was similarly confused with a local doctor's office. I was always astounded at how many surly old people got really pissed at me when I told them they had a wrong number and instead suspected me of not taking their ailments seriously.

More recently, I had an old woman leave long, cryptic message on my answering machine about how I urgently needed to come by and pick up the "three loaves" or else "they disappear!!!!" followed by a forceful hanging-up of the phone.

Yesterday the phone rang and the Caller ID displayed the name of a phone company, so I assumed it was a telemarketer. They were calling me and having a conversation with someone else at the same time, because when I said "hello?" the guy kept talking to someone else. I sort-of yelled "HELLO?!" and the guy said, "Sorry, can you hold on for a minute?" I was really pissed off about some other things right then and said "NO I CAN'T" and hung up. He called back a minute later and it turned out to be a client. Thankfully, he pretended the previous call hadn't happened.

No, hiding her in the bunker beneath your house to never set her free again, actually. It really is a great book though.

Jo(e?) picked up and the only thing I could think to say was "Do you play the tuba?" The answer was yes! All I could think to say was, "Well, did you know your phone number is 524-TUBA?" The conversation ended there. I just had no out because all my ridiculous questions were answered in the affirmative.

this has been my voicemail message for about two years now, and as far as i'm concerned, SO SHALL IT REMAIN

"hello, the garage"
"yes, do you have a carburettor for a 1995 Ford Fiesta?"

"hold on, I'll just check...[shouts to boss "do we have a carburettor for a 1995 Ford Fiesta?", boss shouts back "not today"]...oh, no, sorry, we're not actually a *real* garage, I forgot".

How we roffled.

"Honey..."

"Huh?"

Oops.

The trouble was, it took all of 5 minutes to get through to the thick ponce that I wasn't "the Buttermarket" ringing them, and therefore I don't know if it's "under 16 night tonight" or whatever. Eventually he just lost his temper and hung up before I could give him the number.

My 2nd line also used to get "is that a massage parlour" quite frequently, and in one week several phone calls asking about "Mrs Phillips and an earring exposition"(?!?), with one Irish girl refusing to believe I wasn't associated with every detail about "the earring exposition"(?!). I miss my 2nd line......

I find this simultaneously horrendous and hilarious.

*actual greeting was along the lines of:
me: hello?
her: hel-LO!
me: hi
her: hiiiiiiii
me: hi
her: (laughs) whatcha doin'?

You didn't call me two years ago asking for a nightclub, did you? :)

RING RING

nick: hello?
incoming: hey amy this is mary, i'm already here, out on the patio at merrick
nick: uh, my name's nick, i think you have a wrong number
incoming: this isn't amy?
nick: um, NO?

When I was maybe 13 the phone rang and an adult woman asked for, I dunno, Rick. I said I was sorry but she seemed to have the wrong number. Then the phone rang again, and it was the same woman, and she said she'd just called with a wrong number, but by the way she thought my voice was very sexy and wondered if I were single. I think I made a weird non-verbal sound and hung up in embarrassment. Partly because my mom was standing right across the room. This kind of wrong-number experience has not repeated itself in the decades since, and compliments on my voice seemed to dry up at some point in college.

But now, in my old age, I sometimes think back on that one special wrong number that one spring night, and reflect on the opportunities of youth while watching the sun's dying light fade helplessly over the western horizon

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there

http://www.nybooks.com/shop/product-file/98/theg498/product-thumbnail-140.jpg

One time in junior high I decided to call 524-TUBA, not really expecting it to be a phone number. But someone picked up and I had no idea what to do. "Is Joe there?" I asked, figuring the answer would be no and that it would just turn into "Oops, wrong number." But he said, "Yeah, let me go get her."
Jo(e?) picked up and the only thing I could think to say was "Do you play the tuba?" The answer was yes! All I could think to say was, "Well, did you know your phone number is 524-TUBA?" The conversation ended there. I just had no out because all my ridiculous questions were answered in the affirmative.

I love this.

i've had a magnet on my fridge w a number for 'clown patrol' for like 3 years and have never called it. i'm sort of terrified of what happens if someone answers.

Bored at work last year, I phoned the number from the album by Scottish band Gun: http://www.amazon.co.uk/0141-632-6326-Gun/dp/B000024DNB and asked for someone by the name of the lead singer.

It turns out that it's now the number of a driving school and I ended up telling the story of the how the number is the name of an album by this rock band to the nice young lady who happened to answer and was thoroughly confused by the whole thing.

I recommend it. The phone call, not the album.

that tuba story is great

there are apparently a lot of deadbeats w/my last name & initial. and a lot of collection agencies who randomly call people in the manhattan phone book.

Abb's tuba story reminds me of that Simpsons ep where Bart prank called the bar asking for Hugh Jass and Mr Jass comes to the phone and Bart has to say "This is a crank call that sorta backfired and I'd like to bail out right now."

my g/f was using my cell phone one night as hers was dead...well, my mother lives on the other side of town, and sometimes I sleep over there if I drink a lot and am closer to there than my house. so I text my mom to let her know, and she replies.

my g/f picks up the phone thinking it's her mom, as the first 3 numbers of the phone number are the same. my mom asks if everything is ok, and my g/f responds "just stressed. hopefully eating will make it better", and my mom responded with something else about see you when you get home.

wasn't until I left dinner that I informed my g/f she'd just had a convo with my mom...my mom was all worried that I was stressed out about stuff when I was actually fine.

Tonight, I answered the phone. This is what transpired.

Woman who called me: Will? It's Jen's mom.
Me: Who?
WWCM: Is this Will? You don't sound like yourself.
Me: Who is this?
WWCM: Jen's mom.
Me: Who is Jen?
WWCM: Is this Will? Will P*rter?
Me: Well, that is my name, but I don't know any Jens young enough for their moms to be calling me.
WWCM: I think I have the wrong number. Is your name Will P*rter? Do you live in [small town directly adjacent to the small town where I live]?
Me: I live near [small town directly adjacent to the small town where I live], and my name is Will P*rter. I think we've covered this.
WWCM: I think I called the wrong number. Is your name really Will P*rter? Is this [my phone number with 2 numbers transposed]? This is Jen's mom.
Me: No, this is [my phone number with no numbers transposed]. Who is Jen? What is Jen's last name?
WWCM: Really? Your name is Will P*rter? Are you sure this isn't [my phone number with 2 numbers transposed]?
Me: Swear to god.
WWCM: Weird. Sorry, wrong number. *click*

Wait, so someone lives 2 towns over with the same name and almost same phone # as you? That is weird.

Kinda related. I recently recieved a photo in an email from a girl I haven't spoken with in years. The subject read, here's your photo. Under the photo it read, After every photo I have sent you, you keep asking for others, Is THIS what you're asking for? The photo was of her flashing her um. So I responded to the email and wrote, I take it this was not meant for me? The only reponse I got from her was NO. I had gotten other photos from her before, but never resonded.

God bless email autocomplete. =)

When I was a kid my brother dialed the number to his friend Joey's house. His mom answered the phone as she normally would but then proceeded to tell my brother that nobody by that name lived there. He hung up, thinking he had dialed the wrong number, then dialed again, and got her again, and she proceeded to tell my brother again that he dialed the right number, but that nobody named Joe lived there.

Later on Joey came over and said he had overheard his mom saying that he didn't live there on the phone earlier that day.

I called a friend named Takashi once, who went by Tak, and I used the wrong area code, so when someone else answered "Hello" I said "Tak?" and I guess he was momentarily wierded out at someone calling him and demanding that he talk.

And I've also had people who are calling doctors get my machine, and they apparently are not thrown at all that their doctor has an "Uh, this is Nick I'm not home now" type message, and proceed to blab away about their problems.

'is it normal to have a cottage cheese type growth around the tip of my penis?"

When I first moved back to Ohio from Virginia, I changed my cell from a 703 # to a 216 #, and proceeded to get about a dozen calls and texts a day from people looking for the previous holder of that number, somebody named Cedric. Friends, girlfriends, creditors, get-rich-quick schemes. I was only able to keep that number about 3 months before I had to change it again.

I once talked with a guy who worked at an ad agency in London and his partner kept getting calls from people looking to book airline tickets, it was so persistant that he eventually started taking bookings.

Wait, so someone lives 2 towns over with the same name and almost same phone # as you? That is weird.

yeah, lots of great stories here.

no funny stories to relate myself though. in general wrong numbers call at mobile phones seem to be more fun though. (younger people? less serious?)

(feel like contributing this)

http://hookedonhouses.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/vlcsnap-111887.jpg

1) Two days ago, I got an email from one of Frank Zappa's original "GTO" outrageous women. Along with another one saying "Oops, wrong Mark, sorry". That's a bit strange.
― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 18 April 2006 09:23 (3 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I don't remember this at all! Must be true though...

OK, it's over three years, so ..

Hi Mark, My name is Mercy, aka Miss Mercy of the GTO's.I just talked to Arthur last night and he is impressed about the support for him.We have been friends for years, sometmes more.My son called you,he is Lucky Otis son of Shuggie Otis, who he will try to talk into this, but Lucky believe me is quite the gifted performer and was in talks with Art to play with him before he left.Please keep him in mind for this.Let me know you got this please.You can ask Arthur about Lucky.Mercy

"Arthur" is Arthur Lee.

Nice message tho.

Please keep him in mind for this.

Damn, I hope she wasn't referring to the ILX3 compilation!

One time I called my dad and out of habit I accidentally dialed his old number and the guy who picked up answered cheerfully, "You're talkin' to Raymond!", which was a strange way to answer the phone, but also coincidentally is my dad's name, too! There was what felt like a good minute of confused exchanges as I thought maybe he handed the phone to one of his work buddies to pretend to be him (which would totally be my dad's idea of a joke) before I eventually put together what I'd done. I tried to explain, "Oh hey, sorry, this is my dad's old number and his name is Ray, too, and..." And he'd said, "Yeah this is Ray". So I start over, "No, I dialed the wrong number, I'm just calling someone who is also named Raymond, sorry about that." "I'm Ray, who's this?" AAHH! So on the third explanation I just finally trailed off mid sentence and hung up.

I got this at work a couple of years ago: (it should be noted that I work in software development)

me: Hello
caller: Hello, are you the best mechanic in Montreal?
me: um, no
caller: ok bye

eventually he got through to the sexiest man in Jamaica.

I once talked with a guy who worked at an ad agency in London and his partner kept getting calls from people looking to book airline tickets, it was so persistant that he eventually started taking bookings.

We get a lot of calls at my current workplace for Greyhound bus service and I have suggested doing exactly this!!

When my sister and I were like 13 and 11, respectively, we kept getting wrong number calls of someone asking for "Nina". At one point we received like 3 such calls in one afternoon from the same number. At the time we were really into "your momma" jokes and we brainstormed which would be the best to reply with. Eventually my sister fielded another wrong call that went something like this.

Sister: Hello?
Caller: Hello, is Nina there?
S: She is but she's busy making gorilla cookies with her face. Can I take a message?
C: Ummmm, no thanks.
*click*

We never got anymore calls for Nina after that. :(

I just got a wrong number call at work:

me: "<company name>, Mike speaking."
him: "uh yeah, I was calling about a small engine I talked to someone about the other day"
me: "(cutting him off) I think you may have the wrong number"
him: "Oh, is this xxx- two eighteen-oh?"
me: "Yeah, this is xxx two one eight zero...."
him: "Oh, maybe I didn't dial one and the area code, I guess this is out of state..."

a couple of years ago for a while pretty much every weekend at work someone would leave what I assume are faxes on my voice mail, kinda annoying

ive had my cell no for over 2 years now but still get calls for someone named Harriet. Southerners being southerners, after i tell them that Harriet must have changed numbers, I more often than not get a lengthy glowing review of Harriet's personality before they hang up.

hahaha aw

For over a year I kept getting voice mail messages from a woman who thought she was calling one of her friends, but she always called while I was in class so I couldn't pick up to tell her otherwise. Finally one day I intercepted a live call and explained how it was a wrong number, etc, and she apologized and hung up.

A week later she called again and left her friend another message. I didn't get the message until like 3:30 in the morning, but I decided that enough was enough and wrote her a terse little text message saying she had been calling the wrong number for over a year, and the person she was trying to reach hadn't been getting any of her messages, and to please figure things out on her end. I sent it feeling very proactive and satisfied.

Half a minute later I got a text back from my phone company telling me I had just tried to text a landline phone, and they had helpfully at no additional cost put my message through a text-to-voice program, called the woman up, and had the computer's robot voice read my message to her. At 3:30 in the morning.

I felt awful but she never called again.

wow, that seems weird that the phone company would do that. I've texted landline phones before....never had that happen.

when I was growing up for a month we kept getting messages for a lady named Denise. the woman of course would labor on and on about random shit she'd done during the week but never, ya know, leave a number so we could help her realize her mistake.

then she started leaving agitated messages because Denise hadn't called her back. Gee, wonder why....

Haha, I had some fun when I discovered the text-to-landline function. THIS IS MY ROBOT VOICE. I'M A ROBOT. FIX ME. FIX ME. DIE.

Oh wow, I just realized that first bit is a bastardized SNL quote. I thought I made that up!