georgep@vice.ico.tek.com (George Pell) (08/27/90)
"Sorry, Wrong Number"
Margie Boule' {The Sunday Oregonian} Portland, Oregon August 26, 1990
Irnalee Stohrs has had the same phone number since 1959.
In fact, Mrs. Stohrs has had the number for so long, she remembers
when the first two numbers weren't numbers at all, but the letters
"C-H" (short for "CHerry"). These days, Mrs Stohrs' phone number
starts with "2-4", but Mrs. Stohrs still finds herself saying
"CHerry" once and a while. Old habits, you know.
About a decade ago, Irnalee Stohrs realized that her telephone number
was just one digit off the number for the Multnoma County juvenile
court system. Three or four times a year, someone would call to
discuss a son's truancy problem, or to ask Irnalee to connect the
parent with a daughter's parole officer.
As Irnalee puts it, "I was always very happy to tell them they had the
wrong number, and then I'd give them the correct one. I didn't mind."
Of course, that was before the state court system printed up a huge
batch of official summonses, and put Irnalee Stohrs' telephone number
- that's right, her very own, 32-year-old phone number- on the bottom,
right under the words "For More Information."
Once Irnalee realized the state's mistake, she minded quite a lot.
Believe you me.
"It started about three months ago," says Irnalee. "The phone started
ringing off the hook." Irnalee was fielding calls for the entire
county justice system: the Donald E. Long Juvenile Home, the juvenile
court itself, and all the coun- selors. Sometimes Irnalee would tell
the callers they had the wrong number, and they would insist it was
the number printed on the official summons they held in their hands.
So Irnalee called the correct number for the county juvenile system,
and explained the mistake to the operator.
"The lady wouldn't put me throught to anyone else," says Irnalee.
"She said 'We'll look into it.'"
A week passed, and still the bells rang in Irnalee's living room.
Irnalee answered the phone each time it rang, because she never knew
whether it would be someone from her church, or someone explaining
that a son was relly a good boy at heart and hadn't meant to shoot
anybody.
The trouble was, even though the operator at the county had said she'd
"look into" Irnalee's problem, the calls just weren't letting up.
Irnalee kept calling. The county kept promising. The calls kept
coming. I think you can see the pattern.
By the time Irnalee called me in frustration last week, she'd made a
total of five polite calls, and one less polite one.
"Last week I said to them 'I think I've been nice long enough,'" says
Irnalee, in her sweet little-old-lady voice. She was finally
connected to a man named Rob Grantham, whose official title is Court
Operations Supervisor.
Rob told Irnalee that "only" 4,000 summonses had been printed with her
phone number on them, and that the court had no intention of
collecting the remaining blank summonses and printing new ones with a
corrected number. Rob said that in his department, he was having
people cross out Irnalee's number and write in the correct one. But
Rob also said that he couldn't vouch for what other departments were
doing.
Rob told me he was profusely apologetic when he spoke to Irnalee. "I
told her I had done everything I possibly could to correct the
problem." (Except, of course, recalling the summonses with the
screwed-up phone number on them. "Nothing like this has ever happened
before," Rob explains. "We have no policy established for something
like this.")
But why are summonses still going out with Irnalee's number on them?
"The criminal justice system is so huge," says Rob "you're dealing
with so many people. These things just get lost."
Irnalee remembers Rob's apology, but she's still a little upset at his
response.
"He suggested I change my phone number," says Irnalee. That's right:
A state bureaucrat has suggested Irnalee Stohrs actually change the
phone number she has had since 1959, because of a state printing
error.
I'm sure you understand Irnalee's chagrin.
The trouble is, the juvenile court system doesn't seem to understand
her chagrin. What's the big deal about a few hundred wrong numbers?
they seem to be saying to Irnalee.
So let's help the county understand what a nuisance it is, always
getting someone else's calls. Let's all pick up our phones on Monday
morning, and call the correct number for the county juvenile justice
system. It's (503) 248-3460. Only when they answer, let's ask for
Irnalee Stohrs.
And then let's see how fast the justice system prints up a new batch
of sumonses. With the right phone number on them.
----------------
[Moderator's Note: Bravo, and thanks for an interesting article. I
assume TELECOM Digest readers around the world are invited to join
the call-a-thon in progress; that'll add about thirty thousand calls! :)
T'would be a pity if the courthouse operator -- the one who got
ignorant with Irnalee on her first call -- got trashed out and had to
go home with a headache a couple days in a row.
I had to practice the very same guerrilla warfare twenty years ago. My
telephone number appeared in error on a list of janitors assigned to
various apartment buildings here belonging to one real estate company.
They flatly ignored my requests to correct their list. I finally
started taking tenant complaint calls, and giving smart aleck answers
back; i.e. tenant says 'no heat in my apartment', my answer would be
to consult my imaginary roster of tenants and reply, "The rent you pay
does not entitle you to have heat in the winter." Tenant says 'my
toilet is out of order', my answer would be to use the one at the gas
station on the corner instead. Finally the realtor got the hint and
corrected the list they gave tenants. PAT]Clive Dawson <AI.CLIVE@mcc.com> (08/29/90)
George, Great article! I hope you'll keep TELECOM Digest posted of any developments on this. I wouldn't be surprised to see a bunch of different news stories talking about how the Juvenile Court phone system was paralyzed, how the county decided to sue the newspaper and columnist for "irresponsible behavior" etc... Clive P.S. I tried calling the court several times just a few minutes ago, and got nothing but a busy signal... [Moderator's Message: I got a busy signal several times also, but my Demon Dialer came to the rescue and kept pounding away. I never did actually reach anyone. A couple calls did get through: on one, it rang *37 times* and was finally picked up with the response "please hold", and dead silence; no one ever returned to the line as of when I abandoned the call about a minute later. On the other answered call, it rang about a dozen times, a voice answered "Operator", said "Hello?" and disconnected. I'd say the board must have driven 'em crazy the past couple days! :) PAT]
Jeff Wasilko <jjwcmp@ultb.isc.rit.edu> (08/30/90)
I tried to call the Juvenile Court, and the first couple of times I got a circuits-busy. When I finally got through, I was placed in a queue. When the operator finally answered and I asked for Irnalee Stohrs, she said 'wrong number' and immediatly hung up. I have a feeling that they have been getting flooded!! I think I'll try a few person-to-person calls tomorrow. (: Serves 'em right. | RIT VAX/VMS Systems: | Jeff Wasilko | RIT Ultrix Systems: | |BITNET: jjwcmp@ritvax +----------------------+ INET:jjwcmp@ultb.isc.rit.edu| |INTERNET: jjwcmp@ritvax.rit.edu |____UUCP:jjwcmp@ultb.UUCP____| |'claimer: I speak only for myself. Opinions expressed are NOT those of RIT.|
ka3ttu@uunet.uu.net> (08/30/90)
I called and after waiting in queue for about two minutes I asked the Operator for our little old friend and the Operator said Quote "Please stop calling here." It appears that they are getting plenty of calls!! Hope this helps our distant friend!! James Van Houten
Mitch Wagner <wagner@utoday.com> (08/30/90)
In article <11424@accuvax.nwu.edu> TELECOM Moderator notes:
# I had to practice the very same guerrilla warfare twenty years ago. My
# telephone number appeared in error on a list of janitors assigned to
# various apartment buildings here belonging to one real estate company.
# They flatly ignored my requests to correct their list. I finally
# started taking tenant complaint calls, and giving smart aleck answers
# back; i.e. tenant says 'no heat in my apartment', my answer would be
# to consult my imaginary roster of tenants and reply, "The rent you pay
# does not entitle you to have heat in the winter." Tenant says 'my
# toilet is out of order', my answer would be to use the one at the gas
# station on the corner instead. Finally the realtor got the hint and
# corrected the list they gave tenants. PAT]
Fabulous! I'll have to remember that one.
I was getting dunning calls for some poor guy named Jose Silvera for a
while there. When I moved to a new place, they continued -- much to my
surprise, until I figured out that someone there had heard the "calls
are being taken by... " message and taken down the new number. The
chain was broken when I had my number changed to an unlisted one for
entirely unrelated reasons.
For a while there, I was also getting a series of phone messages for
-- apparently -- a nice, conservative Long Island couple in their
'60s or '70s. One of these messages was absolutely hilarious. I didn't
have the presence of mind to save it, but I can still break friends up
laughing with my imitation.
At the time, I had one of those cute answering machine messages on my
home phone. You also have to imagine the sort-of-whiny voice with the
heavy New York accent of a Long Island woman in her 60's or 70's.
MY ANSERING MACHINE: "Hi. This is Superman. You know, I woke up this
morning and decided all this truth, justice and American way
stuff is just a bunch of crap. I'm going to stop wasting
my time with it. I'm going out now for a couple of beers.
Maybe I'll pick up some whores. I'll be back in a few
hours. Leave a message." <BEEP>
WOMAN: (Long pause.) "Hello?" (Another long pause.) "Oh,
Roz, I don't understand your answering machine *ONE BIT.*"
(Aside) "Shh, Henry, I'm *cawling*, I'm *tawking* to her."
(To phone.) "Anyway this is *Shirley.* We're at the *airport.*"
(Aside.) "Shh, Henry, I'm *cawling,* I'm *tawking* to her."
(To phone.) "Come *get* us, we're at the *airpawt....*"
Another time Shirley called from Florida to tell Roz the directions
that Roz gave her were messed up and her and Henry were completely
lost.
I miss Shirley and Henry and Roz.
Mitch Wagner
VOICE: 516/562-5758 GEnie: UNIX-TODAY
UUCP: wagner@utoday.com ...uunet!utoday!wagnerla063249@zach.fit.edu (Bill Huttig) (08/31/90)
In article <11518@accuvax.nwu.edu> csense!ka3ttu@uunet.uu.net (James Van Houten - KA3TTU) writes: >I called and after waiting in queue for about two minutes I asked the >Operator for our little old friend and the Operator said Quote "Please >stop calling here." It appears that they are getting plenty of >calls!! Hope this helps our distant friend!! But what did the operator do that was bad? It wasn't her fault that the number was mis-printed? Why make the poor operator mad? You should ask for the bozo who wouldn't change the form, and when he answers ask for the 'old friend'. (Just think what it would like to be that operator). Bill [Moderator's Note: Please recall the original report. When Irnalee first reported the problem, it was the operator who *refused* to put her through to anyone -- even her own supervisor! The operator of all people should have known the importance of having numbers correctly published. Irnalee had to call various times before finally the operator put her through to someone who at least would deal with the problem, even if the way they dealt with it was to toss it back at Irnalee to worry about. That is what the operator did that was 'bad'. It was not her fault the listing was wrong, but she made no effort to correct the problem either. PAT]
tad@beaver.cs.washington.edu (Tad Cook) (09/01/90)
SUBJECT: Wrong Number! A couple of years ago, a GTE company in the midwest printed up a handy little wallet card that listed tech support numbers for various telephone equipment manufacturers, and distributed them to their repair folks in the field. Unfortunately, for TIE they listed our company's 800 number! Since I do tech support on telephone products, the calls all got routed to me. It didn't matter that our receptionist answered with our company name ... or that I told them that the MOD-KEY 16 was not manufactured by our firm ... these guys refused to believe that they had not reached TIE! Tad Cook Seattle, WA Packet: KT7H @ N7HFZ.WA.USA.NA Phone: 206/527-4089 MCI Mail: 3288544 Telex: 6503288544 MCI UW USENET:...uw-beaver!sumax!amc-gw!ssc!tad or, tad@ssc.UUCP
kravitz@ucsd.edu (Jody Kravitz) (09/04/90)
jjwcmp@ultb.isc.rit.edu (Jeff Wasilko) writes: >When the operator finally answered and I asked for Irnalee Stohrs, she >said 'wrong number' and immediatly hung up. I have a feeling that they >have been getting flooded!! I think I'll try a few person-to-person >calls tomorrow. (: I'm behind on my reading, so by the time I called this morning there were no busy signals, and the operator answered promptly. When I asked for Irnalee Stohrs, she said 'wrong number' and immediately hung up. I called back, and began with an apology, and then asked if she had received very many calls. Her answer: Yea! about 1000 per day for the first two days. I then asked if there was any way she could help me get hold of Irnalee. Answer: "No, I really doesn't know Irnalee's phone number." I thanked her, and hung up. Tongue in cheek mode on: Does anyone know the POTS numbers for the Mercury News' telemarketers?