Prior Owner Of My Phone Number Was A Deadbeat!

[LoraJ]

I have people looking for Carlos, the mechanic guy. I start telling them that this is not his number anymore, and they just keep going on. bleh One of this days I will call that mechanic and tell him to please change his number on his card. I'm tired of hearing people insisting that this is the number.

That happens with teh Cablevision calls I get. They swear up and down that they have dialed the number and insist on me helping them. Sure, I'll have a repairman over on friday between the hours of 8am and 8pm, make sure someone is home, have a nice day.

 

[Poohnatic]

Peg, I can relate.

We moved to Florida in July. The home phone number gets a lot of calls for the deadbeats...voice mail says "you've reached the ----- family. We cannot take your call. If you're trying to reach someone other than Ed or Suzanne ------, you have the wrong number. Don't leave a message, because they won't get it". It seems to have trimmed the home phone down, but the fax machine gets a lot of calls!

Both cell phones get quite a few calls. My husband's cell phone number belonged to someone as recently as four days before he got it. He got creative "no, I'm sorry, Terry's in jail" "Terry got deployed to Antarctica" "Terry is now on display at the Lowry Park Zoo". He tried another friend's tactic--Michael Katz is dead, but the person calling didn't believe it.

My first phone number in Maryland was one number off from the phone company's local office, a different exchange from the local Ford dealer and a builder had our number TEN YEARS earlier. For the six years I had that number, I got this one guy who kept leaving messages, even though it clearly stated who we were. Finally, got the guy live on the phone and said "Do you think Jim has been ignoring all your calls for the past five years?"

Hang in there. Florida really seems to be the telemarketer state.

Suzanne

 

[Pin Wizard]

Sorry for that hassle! A month or two ago I switched phone companies and got a new number. The one I had was one of those that just didn't roll off the tongue easily. LOL! Now with this number there is some lady who always sounds half asleep or out of it that calls for the previous "owner." I've also received a couple calls from a lady in SWEDEN!! If you changed your number, wouldn't you give it to someone you know in SWEDEN? LOL! Had a nice conversation with the woman when I was home and answered. LOLOLOL!

Then there's my current provider's listings! When I call my home number from my cell phones, caller ID picks them up with the previous owners' names! Ha! When I mentioned it to my home phone's company, they said...aha! They need to update!

Oh! Today I had my first call from a telemarketer on my CELL phone! Grrrrr! And it was from a company in Broward County in FL! 954 area code.

 

[Amberle3]

Peg, when collectors etc call be nice and polite to them, tell them that you've already explained several times that the number does not belong to Mr. Deadbeat, and then request their information for your files. Make note of time and date of call, and see if you can get the company name and their name. That'll usually make them nervous just at that. Then you can tell them that you're preparing a bill to send them for taking up your time and harassment, and that you'll be charging $100 for each call you receive starting with this one. If the calls continue after 30 days you'll start charging $200 for each call.

One place I worked at had a phone number that was 1 number off from the automated information line (time & temp, horoscope etc). Usually people were pretty apologetic when they realized they had the wrong number, but one morning a very drunk guy kept insisting that I should tell him the time and temperature. It was winter (which is very cold in Winnipeg) and I told him it was something like 4:28pm and +32C outside.

 

[Samirella]

but the fax machine gets a lot of calls!

This reminded me that we often get calls at 3am...FROM a fax machine. I guess our number used to be a fax.

 

[sha_lyn]

We too get fax calls to our home number in the early AM. All are from CA. We've had this number for 7 yrs, so I think our number must just be very close to someones fax.

I had a friend who kept getting calls for some deadbeat. The funniest was from blockbuster who said they were just making sure someone was home so they could send the cops over to get all the movies. My friend kept trying to explain that this guy was not there and had never lived in her home. They kept arguing wiht her and told her to explain it to the police when they arrived. She had already learned that the guy had mvoed to FL so who ever lived in his old place got a visit from the cops that night. Block buster stopped calling after that.

 

[eeyore45]

My parents phone was similiar to the bank, when I went to college that's when my parents decided to change the number (lol before then I had answered the phone mostly!!) WELL, they forgot to tell me they changed the number - imagine my horror trying to call home to find out the number had been changed!! LOL I love to tease my parents about the message they sent to m e that year!!

 

[Rowena]

My cell phone is one digit off from a local school's. Mine's an 8, I think there's is a 6. Most irritating for me, my cell's a pay as you go, I try to only answer calls with a local area code as I got it for kids schools, but these confused people who eat up my minutes and $ are driving me insane. The worst are the ones who just hang up! 1 second or 60 costs me the same. At least say, "I think I have the wrong number. Sorry to have bothered you". Inconsiderate, mis-dialing *grumble grumble-edit yourself here*.

 

[lvs_eeyore]

Our number is one off from a doctors number. I cannot tell you how many calls we get for this doctor. Funny thing is I work for a doctor and we refer to the doctor I get calls for all the time!! Even though we have changed the message on our machine to a personal message they still leave a message about an appointment or a job opening. I can always tell when this doctor is hiring because I get all the calls on it LOL.

 

[delilah]

When I was in graduate school, the Ohio State University Hospital changed the exchange for the campus phones to the same as that for the surrounding area. By coincidence, that made our home phone number the same as the main number for radiology at University Hospital We had that number for about two years before this happened. One day, I just started to get calls all hours of the day and night from people who wanted radiology. Needless to say, they were not pleased that they reached our house instead. The phone company changed our number immediately, since, the radiology department wasn't going to change theirs.

Now, the office phone for my son's school is one number off from the newborn nursery, same last 4 numbers, different exchange. This made it really easy for me to remember his school number, since, I get paged to the newborn nursery all the time for new babies. Of course, once I called newborn nursery when it was the school paging me to pick up my sick son, so, now I just look more carefully at the number before I dial.

 

[safetymom]

I have the same problem. I have told I don't know how many collectors that the person doesn't live here. Do I have their number???? No.

Also someone from Geico keeps calling and leaving these long messages even after hearing who lives here if I know the person they want to call them and reference this number and policy number and the calls will stop. It was a long process and even then it probably wouldn't stop because I have told them they have the wrong number.

Also apparently AOL was used by the previous owner of the number. After I moved in I got a phone bill for 3 months of charges for AOL. So I had to fight with AOL and Verizon to get the charges off my bill. I had to keep roving who I was and that I didn't know the person who signed up for AOL. I kept getting are you sure you didn't sign up for AOL??? I would never have AOL so I knew it wasn't me. I had to pay Verizon the charges till it was fixed. AOL had to send me a refund check for the charges.

 

[Towncrier]

I feel your pain. I have recently started getting numerous phone calls on my cellphone for an apparent deadbeat. The funny thing is that I've had this number for over 3 years and the phone calls just started a couple of months ago. The last time I was called, I was at Epcot waiting for the Candlelight Processional to start. I told the individual who called me that the next time I received a phone call from her collection agency, I would prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law (whatever that might be) and that they had better not EVER call me again in regards to this deadbeat individual. Funny thing. I haven't gotten any more phonecalls from them.

From the number of replies to this thread, I guess this must be a very common problem.

 

[PneumaticTransit]

Same thing happened to me when I moved into my new Central Florida home. I have been getting collection agency calls for the same man for the past 2 years. Recently, the police station called looking for him. I realize that people lie and say "he doesn't live here anymore", but it's been 2 YEARS! Why can't they just call the phone company or SOMEONE to verify that "his" phone number has been given to someone else. It's not like I live in the same house/apartment he lived in, it's a brand new house.

Where ever Louis Trinidad is - PAY YOUR BILLS!

 

[Maleficent13]

Funny story: one night, one of my friends and I were out dancing. I got a call on my cell from a number I didn't recognize. I answered it, and it was some guy looking for his ex-wife, Holly. I told him he had the wrong number and hung up. He called back several times, insisting I was Holly. Now, if you were married to the person, don't you think you'd recognize her voice??? Anyway, he called me literally every 10 minutes from 10pm to 8am the next morning. I didn't want it to go to VM because I didn't want him to get my real name, so I couldn't turn it off. I had to keep answering it and hanging up. By 6am I was crying, begging him to stop calling me (I had already called my cell phone provider, who insisted there was nothing they could do about it). He stopped at 6am for about two hours. At 8am, he tried one last time. I answered with "Now what?". He hung up and I never heard from him again.

I can see why his wife left him, though, and if I ever meet her, I will congratulate her on her good sense.

 

[chrissyk]

My cell phone is one digit off from a local school's. Mine's an 8, I think there's is a 6. Most irritating for me, my cell's a pay as you go, I try to only answer calls with a local area code as I got it for kids schools, but these confused people who eat up my minutes and $ are driving me insane. The worst are the ones who just hang up! 1 second or 60 costs me the same. At least say, "I think I have the wrong number. Sorry to have bothered you". Inconsiderate, mis-dialing *grumble grumble-edit yourself here*.

This was happening with my cell phone too, so after a few months I had the number changed. It really irritated me, because I have a very limited # of minutes per month and I was losing a minute every time I got a wrong number. I kept getting calls for the same business, so I can only guess that a business recently got a number that was close to that cell phone number. It was such a pain to contact everyone who needed my cell phone # to tell them that I had to change it.

 

[Pooh93]

We had this happen on our primary phone line right after we were married. Then dh got a 2nd phone line for his business and May Company kept leaving ugly messages on our voicemail. Luckily, I knew the man in charge over delinquent accounts and called him directly to get it stopped. Then, when I took my cell phone number from Sprint, Lenscrafter kept calling "Sheila" over her delinquent bills. I am not a "Sheila." Somebody else not so nice must have been after "Sheila"also, because someone left a voicemail on how they were going to "cut me" and all kinds of obscenities. Every now and then I see a wierd # come up and I don't answer it.

 

[Shugardrawers]

Ilovedale3, I think I will change my answering machine to say that this number no longer belongs to "THE BATTLES!".

I had the same problem and tried that tactic. I started getting messages saying "If this IS the Lincoln residence" or "Stop playing these games with us Mrs. Lincoln" or they just ignored it and left a message anyway. I tried calling back but they kept on calling. One guy, convinced I was lying to him just kept asking when I intended to pay! They will eventually taper off and stop but you may want to consider screening your calls for now to save you the stress.

 

[Mary Ellen]

In collage our dorm phone numbers were linked to your room number. Impossible to change. Our number was VERY similar to the Gay Students Union. One week our number was actually misprinted in the student newspaper instead of the GSU. We had more than the usual number of confusing calls that week….

In our last city there were two prefixes. our phone number had one prefix, the Police Academy had the other – for the same last four digits. The Police Academy was apparently where the news media called to get information. One night about an hour after we went to bed, some jerk of a TV reporter called to find out if the child molester had been arrested yet and he HAD to know NOW as he had a deadline for the late news.

I tried to explain that he had a wrong number, this was a residence – not the Police Academy. He got even more puffed up with his own importance (at least in his own mind) and repeated who he was and that he HAD to know NOW!!! This repeated a few times. He was NOT listening to what I was actually saying. I was tempted to make up something, just so he’d have the wrong information, but I finally hung up on him. He was probably on the phone so long with a wrong number that the late news was over before he could call the correct number and get what he wanted in the first place.

In 1996 (different city) we got a second line. The number probably wasn't used before as our prefix is only in this subdivision and it was a brand new subdivision. About a 6 mo. later we started getting a number of calls on that line for someone else. They were from Dr.’s offices confirming appts, schools…. I would let them know that they hadn’t reached the people they had intended. One time someone confirmed the number they were calling. It WAS our number that someone was giving out - as their own.

Finally, one morning our (then) second line rang. It was an irate woman. It seemed that she had just received an obscene call and that number showed on her Caller ID. I confirmed that she had called the correct number and that it was a man who had called. I was home alone. She kept demanding to know if I was SURE no one in my home made the call. Now, I wasn’t about to tell some stranger that I was there alone. After I finally got her off the phone, I called the phone company and told them about the whole thing – someone else using our number and that it was showing up on Caller ID. I don’t know what happened, but we never got more ‘odd’ calls.

 

[tkd lisa]

A few years back, I was on a girl scout trip with our former leader. While we were gone, her DH was looking for a pay phone to call his credit card company. None to be found, so I offered him my cell phone (I have unlimited weekend minutes). Fast forward a year or so, and I start getting phone calls asking "May I speak to Mr. xxx?" The first couple of times, I just assumed it was a wrong number, then I finally connected the dots, and realized that I actually knew a Mr. xxx. In the meantime, the family had moved away, and I had an email address, but not a phone number. The next call I got, I explained this, and told them I didn't know how to contact Mr. xxx and please stop calling this number because he would never be there to answer it! I did send an email to the family mentioning the problem, hoping that they'd resolve the issue.

3 or 4 calls later, I lost it. Same thing people have said here. I said in a very cold voice "This is MY personal cell phone. I've told you that I'm not Mr. xxx, I'm not related to Mr. xxx, and I don't have a forwarding number for him. If you call this number again, I will bill your company for my cell phone minutes." Never got another call.

 

[sha_lyn]

The callers aruging with the person they called reminds me of a call we received.
It was for carpet cleaning. I nicely told the guy we didn't have any carpet in the house. He aparently thought I was lying and kept going on and on about their servied. i todl him again that we didn't have carpet. I should have hung up but I finally told him to get his head out his "you know what" and listen to what I was saying. I finally said I do not have carpet, and if for some chance I ever did I would never consider using his business.