365 day meme - month 2, day 7

[dimity_blue]

7 What's the most bizarre wrong number text that you've ever received?

I don't think I've received any bizarre wrong number texts. But I will tell you about the wrong number saga from many years ago that monumentally pissed me off.

It started quite innocuously while I was up a stepladder changing a lightbulb. The phone rang so I got down the ladder and answered it.

"Hellooo!" this older woman's voice called excitedly.

I didn't recognise the voice. "Hello?"

"Hellooo!"

I still didn't recognise the voice. "Hello?"

There was a pause, then, "Is that you, Maureen?"

Me: "I'm sorry, you've got the wrong number."

The lady apologised and got off the phone. I grabbed my lightbulb and climbed the ladder. The phone rang. I got down the ladder and answered it.

"Hellooo!"

Me: "It's still me."

The lady asked if my number was 286 xxxx. I said yes, and suggested she try 284 xxxx. She thanked me and got off the phone, and I thought no more about it. Until someone else rang for Auntie Maureen the next night.

Over the next three months, I must have spoken to every single member of Maureen's family, some of them several times over. I found out when her nephew rang that they were giving out my number as Maureen's. Her sister (the first lady) was always polite. Her niece, not so much.

When I dared to sigh before saying for the umpteenth that week, "I think you want 284 xxxx," she snapped, "There's no need to say it like that!"

I nearly jumped down the phone at her. "You're the ones who keep on phoning me!"

She hung up.

I'd had enough. I was still getting several calls a week from them, sometimes more than one a day, and it had gone on for months. I rang BT (the phone company) and asked for a new number.

A few days later, I sat back in blissful silence and pictured Maureen's entire family throwing a collective fit because Maureen's number had been cut off.

Comments

[swordznsorcery]

I wonder what was going on that so many people wanted to talk to Auntie Maureen! I don't believe I've ever rung any of my aunts. That certainly sounds very annoying though.

[dimity_blue]

She was definitely a very, very, very popular woman.

I hope the strident DRUUUH of a disconnected number (which is what you got back then) annoyed them horribly.

[corvidology]

That sounds bloody annoying, particularly once you'd informed the first few. Surely they could have let the rest of the family know.

[dimity_blue]

You'd think! I could understand the older lady constantly ringing me, but the rest of them?

[thisbluespirit]

Wow, that's really bizarre! Did they think if they rang you often enough you'd magically produce Maureen from the place you had her stashed??

*boggles*

[dimity_blue]

They're lucky I was too nice to pretend to be a copper and ask how they knew the deceased. Grrrrr!

[ninja007]

I once got a group text from a high school football team. Somehow my number was wrongly included in the group text. I pleaded with them for an hour to stop. It took the original kid to stop everyone and send a different group text. Some of the boys accused me of "jumping" into their texts. Like that could fucking happen.

When I moved I was forced by the phone company (landline) to get a new number, even though they had advertised you could keep your number if you moved. With my new number I was getting calls from the local jail (collect calls, which I declined) and a man cursing because "Donna Hall" wouldn't accept his calls. I got calls from her doctor's office and from a collection agency. After six years with this number, I still occasionally get calls for her.

You calls sound freaking awful and weird! Very weird family.