"Here's your sign!" Idiots and wrong numbers

You could give them the number to a waste treatment plant or an "adult" store or the rejection hotline

Or in the U.S., give them a busy-test number (i.e. a number used for engineering purposes which will always return a busy signal).    718-293-9970 is one such (New York).

Trust you to know that one, Paul. 

When I was in New Jersey I kept getting calls for an Embassy.  I guess my number was not that different than theirs in NYC.  I was never home when they called (business hours) so felt bad that these people probably thought their Embassy didn't care.

We get this ridiculous recorded message that keeps calling our home phone, sounds like this: (foghorn blowing as if ship is approaching) "Hello!!  This is your captain speaking...."
Not sure what he says after that because we always hang up. It has become kind of a joke around the house, though, as it is kind of funny because it's so cheesy. It's probably some sort of time-share company or something.

We get this ridiculous recorded message that keeps calling our home phone, sounds like this: (foghorn blowing as if ship is approaching) "Hello!!  This is your captain speaking...."
Not sure what he says after that because we always hang up. It has become kind of a joke around the house, though, as it is kind of funny because it's so cheesy. It's probably some sort of time-share company or something.

 

I love it.  I would be so tempted whenever I was calling my husband's cell phone, to make the foghorn noise and say that.  It's the kind of thing that would drive him nuts. 

I love it.  I would be so tempted whenever I was calling my husband's cell phone, to make the foghorn noise and say that.  It's the kind of thing that would drive him nuts. 

Yeah, we do it to each other all the time - or we say it at the exact same time every time the phone rings - which makes it even funnier when it is actually that recorded message. 

Why not just agree with them? Yes, ok, you get the house for 1.49. Woo hoo! You win. Now you need to call (make up number or pick random number out of phone book) to finalize the details. If you dial this number again, you will loose your chance at ownership of this home.�  � 

I like this plan. � 

When I was in the Air Force, I was an ICBM launch officer. � The phone number for one of the launch control centers was similar to the number for the base auto hobby shop, and occasionally we'd get phone calls from people wanting to schedule time to work on their cars.

Me: Echo Launch Control, Captain Amoscato, how can I help you?
Them: Yeah, I want to come in there and do an oil change.
Me: You've got the wrong number. � This isn't the auto hobby shop; it's Echo Launch Control Center.
Them: What's that?
Me: I launch nuclear missiles from here.
Them: Oh, Jesus! � I'm sorry!
Me: That's ok. � Good luck with the oil change.

 

Hahahahahahahahahahaha! <insert roflmao emoticon here!>  Did they think you were going to nuke them if they didn't hang up quick?!

My phone number is one digit different from a large fresh produce delivery company in Inverness.  I constantly come home to angry messages from hotels and restaurants wondering why no one will answer and why they haven't got their broccolli. 

My phone number is one digit different from a large fresh produce delivery company in Inverness.  I constantly come home to angry messages from hotels and restaurants wondering why no one will answer and why they haven't got their broccolli. 

"You want your borccolli? Come and get it!"

My old phone number was 1 digit off that of an employee leasing firm's.  I got calls about insurance coverage, limo reservations, etc.  The callers insisted that the company was giving out my home telephone number.  Years ago, the had a foul up with their W2s and people were angry about not having them for tax filing.  Some of the messages were so bad that I couldn't check my answering machine unless my then 3-year-old was either asleep or in the bathroom.  One of the nicest things about my last move is that I left that phone number behind.  I pity whoever may have it. 

When I was a child in West Texas, my family had a number that was one digit off of a restaurant's.  People could call in orders and pick them up.  After getting so many who didn't want to know that they'd dial a wrong number, my mom started taking the orders and promising them all in 15 minutes!  I don't know how the restaurant staff handled it, but I think the call volume at our house decreased after about a month.

DH's old work phone number was 1-2 digit different to the HO# in Sheffield.  People used to call and ask about the status of their visas and passport applications etc....   

Oddly enough, my parents would often get people phoning for Planned Parenthood calling our house! It wasn't even that similar a number- the first three digits were the same, but our house ended in 4434 and PP was 4348.

My cell phone number back home was one digit off from the office number for some guy who worked for the Colorado Bureau of Investigations.  I never got any calls for him, but how I found out we had similar numbers was because my best friend had mistakenly drunk-dialed that number and left rambling messages on this poor guys voice mail.  In his drunkenness he thought it was really my number but I was taking the piss or something.  My friend finally got my number right and was ticked off that I hadn't returned any of his calls

the first three digits were the same, but our house ended in 4434 and PP was 4348.

Did the exchange prefix (first three digits) happen to end with a 4, e.g. 234-4434 ?  Combinations like that can sometimes cause some people to erroneously add an extra digit or omit one.  If someone misread the number and inserted one too many digit 4s, then they'd get you, with the last 8 digit they dialed being ignored as surplus.

It's well-known in the telecoms industry that certain number patterns are easier to remember than others (no surprises that a big corporation will often ask for a number such as 260-1111 or 260-5000 rather than something like 260-1938 or 260-0482), and that certain numbers are subject to more frequent misdialing due to digit insertion, omission, or transposition. 

I had an example of the latter where I lived once:  My number was 441761, while the number of the local Chinese takeout was 441671.   It wasn't so frequent as to become annoying, but every so often I'd get a call asking for chicken chow mein with fried rice or asking "What time are you open until?"

Bell/AT&T actually commissioned a study way back in the beginning of the 20th century to test how a selection of users would take to using dials, by having them dial lots of  numbers of varying lengths, of different compositions, and with the digits grouped in different ways, and recording how accurately different numbers where dialed on average.