wrong number ...

How do I make it stop?!? :) I just discovered 5 old voice mail messages from a bank in the area, looking for someone other than me. On each message, it's the same thing.. "this is @#$ from @#$$ first bank, calling for @#$ @#$, can you have her call me at 000-0000". Over and over and over again.

So do I ignore them, or call the bank, and say , "hey, you're looking for someone that won't answer at this number?" You'd think after the second call or so, if no one called back, perhaps the number was wrong? :)

How funny, yet frustrating...

I would call them or you will get more calls :)

I am cynical. I suspect if you call the bank, you will get someone who is helpless to do anything about it, and not knowledgeable enough to refer you to the responsible individual or perhaps the computer. I just hang up or delete. It would be nice if we could just block the annoying phone calls like we can do with unsolicited emails.

BIRD

I'd call, because the bank obviously needs to reach the person, and may penalize him/her for not returning their calls. It could be a matter of great importance or just some great deal on mortgage rates; I'd rather err on the side of helping, though.

We were recieving calls like this and contacted the person at the bank that was initiating the calls. They then verified with the local phone company that the number they were dialing had indeed been reassigned. They have not called again.

I'm curious, too...Try googling your phone number and see if that person's name comes up from an old listing.

You can tell she's mine. :) See, I wouldn't call either. I figure if they're not calling me I'm not going to waste my time telling them they have a wrong number. Maybe after 5 more calls I would but not just yet.


Edited to add:

Hey Jenn, your Daddy would call them though. So go figure...

This message was edited Oct 9, 2003 3:59 PM

My phone number came up with no matches. So someone is either avoiding this bank, or it's not a real call.

What really does bug me is 5 calls! Not just two or three, and at no time did anyone say it was urgent, or seriously important. The caller gets more annoyed in her tone of voice with each call. My messages on my cell phone also don't say "this person called at this time on this day".. It just said "You have 5 new messages", then plays them one by one by one.

Like Birdsall, I haven't called yet because I'm afraid my time will be wasted even more sitting on hold to inform someone that they're looking for a person that isn't on my end of the phone.

Keep those opinions coming. If I do anything, it won't be until next week - I'm hoping that in the few days I've ignored cell messages, this bank has given up hope of contacting that person on my phone line.

:)

I'd call, and if you start to get the runaround, just hang up. If the person left a name and phone number, perhaps it is might reach that person, or someone in the same department. All it takes is one digit incorrectly entered in a customer database for this kind of thing to happen.

I guess I'm biased because I worked on the other side of the phones for a large mail order company; part of my job was contacting customers whose orders had problems or missing information. After so many tries, it was our policy to quit attempting to contact the customer and just cancel the order. Often the customer would call back incensed that we'd not called instead of just cancelling an order.

I know that at our call center, anyone who answered the phone was capable and trained to check a phone number in the system and write it up if there was a problem. We really appreciated it when people DID call and tell us we were trying to reach someone at a wrong number, and so did the customers when we were finally able to reach them!

As I said, I'm a little biased. You never know when it's a typo causing calls to come your way.

This message was edited Oct 9, 2003 4:23 PM

Bird, Our phone company has call block, where for $1.00 a month, you can block any unwanted phone numbers. :)

How does it work. Can you automatically block a number of an unsolicited call without acturally knowing the number?

BIRD

Some localities offer something called Privacy Manager, too. The caller, if not on a list of approved numbers, must record a short message, which the customer screens. Whenever we had to call one of our employees, we had to go through the screener since the office's phone had a blocked number that didn't show up on his caller ID.

I would call the bank. If I get a run-around I would write the bank president, explaining the situation and asking for an apology. Go to the top, be polite, and you will get your serenity back.

I would call the bank, explain that the person they are wanting is not at this number and suggest that they double check their information. You could call it doing your good deed for the day. It might just be a clerical error and your input might save somebody a lot of trouble. Appreciated or not, do it anyhow. How much time did you spend typing the message you posted here? Ok, it is irritating but spend a little more time and effort and you might help somebody.

We occasionally get Collection calls for a man with the same first initial as my housemate who is just listed by her first initial and last name in the phone book. If the calls persist, we usually call them back and explain. That takes care of it until that same guy gets in arrears again with another creditor.

Not exactly on subject..but funny. I just got a wrong number on my cell phone from the chamber of commerce...and the caller was looking for GINGER!! She had misdialed,but how funny that she was looking for another Ginger and got me.

Is it a local bank or one of the bank cards (Citibank, etc.)? If it's a local bank, I'd call them and explain the situation. We ran into a medical collection agency here trying to get in touch with someone who lived at our address. One call back convinced them they needed to update their records.

If it's one of the national guys, well...I'd ignore it. We've gotten a few automated calls from Citibank, and they're very vague - they don't specify who they're calling, or what it's about, they just leave a 1-800 number to call back. Since we don't HAVE a Citibank card, I suspect it's one of the first tactics companies are going to try to to get around the Do-Not-Call list - if they can get ME to call THEM, all bets are off.

I have had the same problem over the yrs. with folks giving my add. and ph. no. as their own. Also, I've had the sheriff call and visit my home looking for someone with a similar name as mine.With idenity theft on the rise, it's wise to keep up with your finances and credit report. It can be very embarrassing and frustrating. I really empathize with you and I wish you well!!!

Yep. I finally called the phone company, then the police, when I was getting calls for someone to return their call. And it was someone I've never heard of, nor has ever lived here. When I called the people they accused me of being that person!

After a yr of it, the police intervened and took care of it.

I got a zapper from Radio Shack some time ago, and I think that it has cut down on telemarketers. It is supposed to zap your number off from computer generated phone calls.

I do get a fair number of calls with no one on the other end.

If I am in the mood, I give the telemarketers a song and dance. My favorite is with the septic tank companies. I tell them I have neither a septic tank nor a city sewer. Mystified, they ask what I use; and I tell them I use an outhouse. The kind with Sears catalogs and newsprint. No corn cobs.

BIRD

When I get an unwanted phone call, I put my Jimi Hendrix cd on, turn up the volume, set the phone receiver down close to a speaker and the caller hears ♫ ♫ "Hey Joe, where're ya goin with that gun in your hand?" ♫ ♫

TC...

[]

TC - I do not have those cute little vertical rectangulars on my keyboard. How do you make them? The above is the closest that I can do.

BIRD

You have to call your phone company and see if they have a call blocking program. Then you can add the last number onto your list or put in a specific phone number, etc. They get a message saying that you have blocked their phone number. It usually doesn't work, or at least didn't, on long distance calls.

I would call them, especially if you are getting these messages on your cell phone as you stated above. Everytime you listen to a message from them, it costs you minutes.

:) Kathy

A few years ago we received similar calls claiming to be from a bank that were computer generated. They claimed to be attempting to reach my niece, who was 14 at the time. She did not live here, had never lived here, and was at that time living out of the country.

I called the number back after about 6 months of daily calls, and got a really obnoxious man. I explained the situation to him, told him not to call here again.

The calls continued. After several more calls to the same obnoxious man, I was fed up and called the phone company. They told me that I had to fill out a police complaint. I attempted to do so, but the police refused to do anything other than to have me fill out a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

I then did a little detective work about the company and phone number (out-of-state), and found that the company did not exist, that the phone number belonged to a private individual.

Beware before you give out ANY information over the phone. A call to the Sheriff's Office in his town stopped the calls. Haven't heard from him (or his computer) ever since. I just want to know how he got my niece's name and our phone number in the first place.

If I called someone and left them a message I certainly would appreciate a call back if I dialed the wrong number.

My guess is that if you did take the trouble to call, they would probably not even believe you were not the person they were looking for; wouldn't that add to your frustration!

I wonder, though...Maybe they would be more likely to believe it, for someone who's shirking calls from a collector probably would just delete the messages and not call back.

Nope GW...that's why I ended up calling the po-lice. When I called them folks back in an effort to tell them they had the wrong number, that no one by that name has never lived here, that "I" (!) am not the person they ignored me...eventually harrassed me on the phone (I called them a couple times).

What ended up happening is when I called the phone company they had me hit *57, and it records the last phone call that came in. Then I had to both call them back (the phone company) and also the police. The phone comp called the police, gave them the tracking info, and they took care of it.

Both the phone company and the police said it sounded like it was a collection agency exercising their "rights" to collect. Since the police got involved I haven't heard back from those folks.

Moral: Feel free to look up and call the phone company (listed under 'harrassing phone calls' or something similar), make a report (verbal, over the phone, no paperwork), and let them get the ball rolling. They'll suggest what to do next, and how to go about doing it.

It works.

UPDATE: They have given up, and have stopped leaving messages. So, problem solved. In the future, I will probably do the same thing, unless there's more substance to the messages. I think all I wanted to hear from the messages, even once, would have been something like, "this is regarding your loan, we need to hear back from you to continue", or "this is regarding your recent order, we have a question", or something like that. While I was working through my home mortgage, anytime the secretary at that office left a message, it was very detailed and informative.

It's all done now! :) Thanks for all of the real-life experiences for help.:)

-Jennifer