"Gregory M. Paris" <gmp@rayssd.ssd.ray.com> (06/16/90)
An unusual piece of mail arrived at our home yesterday: an AT&T Card.
Not so odd, except that we didn't ask for one (my wife, Esther,
already has an AT&T Card for this number) and that the card has on it
the name of a person we'd never heard of before.
The envelope was addressed to me and inside was a little note saying,
"While in the process of fulfilling your order we experienced a slight
delay!" It goes on to say that an "update and correction to the
mailing address" was needed. Lo and behold, when I look at the card
with my name and address on it, I see that it has been corrected by
use of a stick-on mailing label. Underneath that is the name and
address of the person listed on the card!
I, being afflicted with a mild case of phonaphobia (and laziness),
waited for Esther to get home and take care of the matter. She called
the given 800 number and pressed a bunch of touch tones, apparently
navigating a menu system, and finally spoke with a human (or
convincing simulacrum). After several minutes, she was assured that
we are safe from having our account billed by the person listed on the
card and then rang off.
We speculated on how this mixup came to pass; the voice on the phone
had put forth no plausible explanations (or explanations of any kind,
for that matter). My spouse insisted that it had to be some kind of
typo. I couldn't imagine how, since my name and address are nothing
like those of other person -- one huge typo, if you ask me.
Perhaps Esther's instincts are better than mine. She looked up the
other person in the Providence white pages (yes, after eleven months,
NYNEX finally graced us with a copy). Can you guess? The other
person's phone number is different from ours by a single digit.
Greg Paris <gmp@quahog.ssd.ray.com>
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