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Dumb-Ass Verizon

Farmer Ted May 15 2006 05:18 PM

Mrs. Ted and I moved into a new house a couple weeks back. One of the first orders of business...get a new phone number. Apparently, Dumb-Ass Verizon gave us a new number which happened to be the old number for a now out-of-business Bed and Breakfast on the other side of town. It was funny at first, thinking that we could take reservations and credit card numbers and make a killing. But after 38 wrong numbers including one last night at 1 a.m. and another this morning at 6:10 a.m., we got the number changed. Yup. Dumb-Ass Verizon.

Edgy DC May 15 2006 05:25 PM

Same. Exact. Thing. Just hap'd to Ms. Edgy. 'Cept she got the number of some poor shnook in Virginia. And it was still active (at least he thought it was until they gave it to the Ms.) And it's a cellie number. Didn't even get her a number in the right area code. OK, it's not the Same. Exact. Thing. But, hey, James Earl Jones. Somebody's making you look bad.

cooby May 25 2006 11:27 PM

Hey Farmer, remind me to ask you where you live now. Plus, look at this, the Spikes are playing Williamsport at home now http://www.statecollegespikes.com/

seawolf17 May 26 2006 08:58 AM

When we first moved into our apartment in Hauppauge, they gave us the number of the former Foreclosure Network. Once my wife got pissed at a caller who wouldn't listen to the fact that he had a wrong number and asked to "speak with her manager." So I got on the phone and gave this asshole the business. We got calls ALL THE TIME for one specific guy -- I don't remember the name any more, but we finally tracked him down and threatened legal action. He insisted he wasn't using the number any more, but after we threatened him, it stopped. So obviously the guy was an ass.

Johnny Dickshot May 26 2006 09:52 AM

My old office, back in the mid-90s, had a main phone number 1-digit away from the number they flashed on the screen during casting-call promos for the short-lived TEMPESTT talk-show. That was a morning freak-show hosted by one of the grown-up Cosby kids. Actually the phone number was exactly the same: One digit in the area code was the difference. We frequently received calls certain mornings around the same time that’d go like this: (ring) Me: Hello? Lady: My child wants to wear makeup. (ring) Me: Hello? Lady: My boyfriend is cheating with my best friend. Etc., until we figured it out and played along. That was fun. That same job required me occasionally to type in event listings for a magazine. My home phone had the same last 4 digits as Ticketron, and I absentmindedly typed my prefix once while writing about a Billy Joel concert. I discoivered that too late but at least knew whose fault it was. Ted, you gotta whack Verizon NOW!!!!

sharpie May 26 2006 09:56 AM

Somebody I work with has the same number as the NY Post's 800 number, except his is the 212 version.

Frayed Knot May 26 2006 10:16 AM

Before the # of required phone numbers started to explode due to cells, faxes, pagers, etc., those prefixes used for area codes (middle digit of either 0 or 1) were NOT used for exchanges. It was when those prefixes started to be pressed into use that dialing '1' for long distance was required since that was the signal to the system that the user was dialing an area code rather than just a local number. So at one job I had a '702' exchange. 702, it turns out, was also the area code for Nevada and it turned out that a wholesale Porsche dealership in Nevada somewhere had the number (702) 348-3000. So what happened when a New Yorker tried dialing that number w/o throwing the '1' in there is that the system simply connected him to the local number with those first 7 digits 702-3483 (mine) and ignored the final three 0's. I've never heard so many people disappointed in finding themselves talking to me (well yeah I have but that's a whole 'nother set of stories).