quote:

Originally posted by Rinehart:
Had a phone number close to a pizza place business number in Wilmington NC for a while. Would get these rambling/mumbling order calls from drunks in the evening just before closing time for the pizza place. I found that after trying to talk to the pizza place (weren't very nice) it was far better to say "the pizza will be on it's way and it's free"...

"Sorry, we don't have a driver available, but if you come over right away to pick it up, it will be on the house. No charge, because we don't have a delivery driver available."

Nothing like a bunch of pissed-off drunks, to get the message across.

 
My landline # in DC, in the early 1970's, was a simple transposition to the 24 hour pharmacy in Georgetown.
 
Frankly, I don't see the need for toll free numbers in this day and age of ubiquitous cell phones, with free dialing to any exchange.
 

In high school I worked at a buddy's pawn shop as a jewelry buyer after school. His number was one number off of the movie theater's recorded show information line.

He would get 20 or more mis-dials each day. Eventually I started posting the schedule from the newspaper next to the phone and telling those that called that an empty Coke can would get them 50% off their admission.

I did it for a year, and I don't believe anybody ever made the connection.

Started a business in 1997. Phone company gave us the same phone number as an OB/GYN office that had closed a few years before. We had lots of fun with some of the calls we got.

At a coast guard station we kept getting calls for a local pizza place, so we just started taking orders and telling them itd be 30 min....

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Originally posted by sjp:
At a coast guard station we kept getting calls for a local pizza place, so we just started taking orders and telling them itd be 30 min....

So, thirty minutes pass and no pizza. Now the customer waits a while, waits, waits, then finally calls the pizza place, dialing correctly this time, really pissed off, and screams about the order that was placed an hour and a half ago. Pizza joint has no record of any order from this customer. Hilarity ensues.

The two closest Papa Johns to us end in 4500 and 7300.

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posted September 29, 2017 02:46 PM Hide Post
The two closest Papa Johns to us end in 4500 and 7300.

The depth of knowledge here is amazing. I guess I do not order much pizza anymore.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve 22X:

quote:

Originally posted by 610:
Why can't these people just push right button.

The lack of that basic skill set may be one of the reasons why they remain unemployed.

I blame it on the computer keypad. Why is it different from a phone keypad. Its sole purpose is to screw with your brain.

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Originally posted by gpbst3:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve 22X:

quote:

Originally posted by 610:
Why can't these people just push right button.

The lack of that basic skill set may be one of the reasons why they remain unemployed.

I blame it on the computer keypad. Why is it different from a phone keypad. Its sole purpose is to screw with your brain.

Don't blame it on the computer keypad. The computer keypad (numeric) is the same layout that had been used for a long time on calculators, way before there were numeric phone keypads.

I was working at Bell Labs way back, when the rotary dial was standard on telephones. When Touch-Tone™ dialing was introduced, it was feared that the bookkeeper types, who were really really fast on the ten digit calculator keypads, might be able to dial faster than the Touch-Tone™ receivers would be able to register the dialed digits. A decision was made to use a different layout on the phone keypad, in order to slow these people down.

Calculator keypads have 123 on the bottom row and 789 on the top row. Telephone keypads reversed this.

So, don't blame the computers, which use the same layout as calculators, blame the telephone design engineers. The computer layout was there first.

When I moved to Tucson I got a new cellphone and a new phone number which must have belonged to a "Shirley", because some guy kept calling my new number looking for her.

After about the fourth or fifth call from him and me still telling him she's not at this number, I told him: "Hang on a minute, I'll look in the bedroom and see if she's still there".

I got back on the phone and he had already hung up.

He never called my number again but I've often wondered what happened to Shirley.

Smart phones...I'd hate to admit how many times I've tried to dial a number on my calculator Ap.

Our phone number is one digit off from a local Pharmacy's.
We frequently get calls from people about prescriptions.

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
Our phone number is one digit off from a local Pharmacy's.
We frequently get calls from people about prescriptions.

"Spell your last name for me please? Nope, we have no record of anything for you. Stop by to get it straightened out. If it turns out to be our error, you can pick up your prescription at no charge, and we'll have a fifty dollar gift card for you."

quote:

Originally posted by GWbiker:
When I moved to Tucson I got a new cellphone and a new phone number which must have belonged to a "Shirley", because some guy kept calling my new number looking for her.

After about the fourth or fifth call from him and me still telling him she's not at this number, I told him: "Hang on a minute, I'll look in the bedroom and see if she's still there".

I got back on the phone and he had already hung up.

He never called my number again but I've often wondered what happened to Shirley.

Back when cell phones were like $60 for 400 minutes a month. I kept getting a call from some nervous high school kid asking for this girl.....after the 4th phone call of me telling him he had the wrong number every 3 days or so, I did the same thing......ohhhhh she's busy in the bedroom with Tom......do you want me to check if they're finished???? ummm ummm no...click......never heard from the poor nervous kid again. LOLOLOL

After I got my pharmacist license I was working for a independent pharmacy that had a night call number, being low man I got to do the night duty. This was before the time of 24 hour pharmacy’s so I got a lot of calls from drunks wanting Polaroid film so they could take pictures of their drunk naked women. I would tell them that I would be their in about 15 minutes and to park right in front of the pharmacy. Then I would call the police dept. and tell them that a drunk was sitting in front of the pharmacy . Got a lot of drunks off the road that way.

My home town changed are codes a while back. I sometimes forget when calling my bank, dentist, etc. The people who I call by mistake seem good natured about it.

quote:

My home town changed are codes a while back. I sometimes forget when calling my bank, dentist, etc. The people who I call by mistake seem good natured about it.

Yeah I remember those days. Kind of miss the small town life. If not a telemarketer not an issue. My office gets calls about having teeth pulled all the time, because the oral surgeon and I have similar last names. I sometimes offer to do the job with my pliers. He gets my calls as well so no big deal.

My old business number was one digit off from a movie theater. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

1971 I worked at a car dealership. We had a direct line to the parts department that at one time was a carryout chicken and ribs place.

When we got calls for carryout orders we would tell them that they were closed and they called a car dealership instead.

One Monday night I got stuck with working until closing. The manager would let some of us leave early if we got to him first. I was a bit late so I was there until nine that night.

About eight or so "the call" came in. He would not listen or let me get in a word as he is rattling off his order. I tried a couple of times to inform him of his mistake. So I gave up, took his order and his address and told him one hour for delivery.

He's still probably waiting for that delivery.....