My father told a story from back in the 1940s: for some reason people
> kept calling his phone (obTelecomHistory: WAlnut, a manual exchange in
> uptown New Orleans) when they wanted to contact their local grocery to
> have food delivered. (Yes, some groceries did that 'way back
> when ... PeaPod is nothing new.) Apparently someone at the grocery was
> giving out the wrong number and complaints to the grocery didn't help.
> He finally fixed the problem by responding to the calls complaining
> about slow deliveries: he profusely apologized, and told the caller
> that as a good-will gesture the next order would include some fancy
> lagniappe at no cost to the customer. Presumably the blasts directed
> at the store about its failure to include the promised lagniappe
> finally got management's attention.
When I moved to NC in 87, we were given a number that had belong to a lawyer. :)
About once a month we got a call and politely told them we didn't know what his number was and that was it. But there was that one call about a year after we got the number.
"I've been arrested, can you bail me out?" It was on the answering machine. So I couldn't even tell the poor guy how bad off he really was.
The other day, I got a call the caller id showed as a hispanic name that I didn't recognize. On a whim I answered. (I work at home and try and ignore most personal calls during the day to the home number.) I said hello, the other end said in what seemed to me to be a plaintive female voice, "Maria?". I tried in my non-existent Spanish to tell her wrong number but she kept repeating that name in a questioning voice. I gave up and hung up. She called every half hour a few more times. I called a friend who speaks Spanish and got the phrase for "wrong number" and tried that. No luck. So I ignored the calls. About
6 that day. The next day we got 2 more then they ended. I was going to ask my friend to call the caller id and try and explain if it didn't stop.
Is there any other way to deal with this?