dave@rutgers.edu (Dave Levenson) (04/01/89)
Our business here in Warren Township, New Jersey, has a phone number
which is not equal to the number of the Racketball Court a few miles
away. But once or twice a week, someone reaches us while trying to
call the racketball place. We have had Caller*Id in operation for a
week, and we have now discovered that all of the racketball calls we
got this week came from the same number (in nearby Somerville,
according to the prefix). The next time we get a call from that
number, we'll assume the caller doesn't want to talk to us. A
question for the net: what should we do with him?
Answer as if we were the racketball place and give him the
reservation he'll probably request for the court?
Answer as if we were the racketball place and refuse his request?
Tell him, for the umpteenth time, that we are not the racketball court?
Call the racketball place on the other line, and conference him in?
We could then eavesdrop and perhaps obtain the caller's name!
Any other suggestions for fun?
--
Dave Levenson
Westmark, Inc. The Man in the Mooney
Warren, NJ USA
{rutgers | att}!westmark!davewmartin@st-louis-emh2.army.mil (Will Martin -- AMXAL-RI) (04/04/89)
There are several possible explanations for the repeated mistaken calls to your phone from the same calling number always wanting the racketball court. (I suppose I am assuming that the caller is not intending to harass you, and that it is as much of an annoyance to him to get the wrong destination repeatedly as it is to you to get the wrong-number calls. Maybe I'm wrong in trying to look for the reasonable interpretation, though -- in that case, my advice would be to take revenge...:-) Possible causes: 1) Defective phone at the caller's site. Does the intended number differ from yours by some regular error, such as having "3"'s where your number has "2"s? If so, the phone the caller is using may be intermittently broken, so that pressing or dialling "3" generates a "2" instead. Maybe it generates the wrong number if the touch is light, and when he tries again after reaching you, he presses buttons more firmly, or dials more slowly, and gets the right number then. 2) Position of the phone and the caller at their site. Right now, for example, the phone by my desk is sitting on an equipment cabinet at above my seated eye-level. I often hit incorrect buttons because of the angle at which I am viewing the face of the phone. If the phone being called from is on the wall in dim light, say, the caller may just not be seeing it well enough to hit it right. 3) Handicap of the caller -- maybe he has bad vision, or hand spasms, or some other reason that he hits incorrect numbers in a consistent fashion, so that he gets your number repeatedly instead of the desired one. (Admittedly far-fetched if he is athletic enough to be calling for a racketball court.) 4) Mysterious gremlins in the phone-switching circuits. Some similar-sounding things have been in Telecom in the past, so it isn't impossible that the caller is dialling the correct number, yet some percentage of the time, and only on the linkage from his line or CO to the racketball-court's number, your phone gets rung instead. 5) Bad posted information -- maybe this is a public place, like another sports-oriented site, and they have a chart on the wall with your number shown by the name of the racketball court. A simple explanation, but, after all, human stupidity can take infinite forms! :-) Is it always the same individual calling? If so, that sort of rules out 5 but makes 1 thru 4 more likely. Does he seem honestly puzzled as to why he reaches you instead of the court? That would indicate a hardware bug. If he is apologetic or defensive, maybe that indicates personal or known handicap problems. Have you tried calling the number back? You might be able to guess something from how it is answered, if it is a home or business... Just some things that came to mind as I read your posting... Regards, Will Martin
erik@netcom.UUCP (16) (04/04/89)
In article <telecom-v09i0121m02@vector.UUCP>, westmark!dave@rutgers.edu (Dave Levenson) says: > Our business here in Warren Township, New Jersey, has a phone number > which is not equal to the number of the Racketball Court a few miles > away. But once or twice a week, someone reaches us while trying to > call the racketball place. We have had Caller*Id in operation for a > week, and we have now discovered that all of the racketball calls we > got this week came from the same number (in nearby Somerville, > according to the prefix). The next time we get a call from that > number, we'll assume the caller doesn't want to talk to us. A > question for the net: what should we do with him? > Answer as if we were the racketball place and give him the > reservation he'll probably request for the court? > Tell him, for the umpteenth time, that we are not the racketball court? I'd use this fix for all your wrong calls. Tell them that you are closed for business today because the phone company is redoing the phones. Tell them to write down the new phone number since it will be changed tomorrow. Then proceed to very carefully give them the new number. Remind them to change all their speed calling to the new number. I suspect that your caller has the wrong number stored somewhere. Explain that the new number will be very similar to the old number and they should be careful when copying it or programming it into their phone. I suspect this will help lower the wrong numbers. Of course if you are real viscous you could give them the number to the local pizza palace or the phone company's business office. Erik Dufek <erik@netcom.UUCP>
cmoore@brl.mil (VLD/VMB) (04/05/89)
Is that caller dialing the number for the racketball place or is it stored? I had a case several years ago in my office, which uses a Centrex or similar setup, where callers from outside who were trying to reach an extension of the form 6abc got 66ab instead; this came to my attention because I was in an area where many extensions started with a double 6.
vances@egvideo.uucp (Vance Shipley) (04/15/89)
(replying to the item about the mysterious caller looking for the health club who always winds up reaching the same wrong party. pt) A sixth and even more likely possibility; an incorrectly programmed speed call number. -vances