MetaChat - Huh

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28 November 2006

Huh →[More:] Someone left me a voicemail that was just a woman singing "Hair", from the musical "Hair", until the voicemail cut her off. I don't who it was, or even know anyone in/from the 718 area code where the call came from, so I'm going to call back tonight and play "Hockey Hair" by Pansy Division into the phone.

So what weird wrong numbers have you gotten?

post by: cmonkey at: 00:38 | 39 comments

Some automated service (collections agency? Weird scam? Other?) calls my number about once a quarter and tells me that the call is regarding important personal business for Smangkjsdf Krsdfsdf, and asks me to call back at an 800 number if I am in fact Smgndfjkjsf Krssoiufdf, and provide a reference number when I do.

I have never called.

posted by cortex 28 November | 00:50

I've gotten calls from at least 3 different peoples employers wondering where they are and telling them they need to be at work as soon as possible. I've never called them back.

posted by court siem 28 November | 01:09

Holy shit. I got the same voicemail tonight!!

posted by mudpuppie 28 November | 01:14

THE PLOT HAS NOW THICKENED

posted by cmonkey 28 November | 01:39

This thread is now about real wrong numbers.

posted by cmonkey 28 November | 01:40

I just spit up on my keyboard.

posted by mudpuppie 28 November | 01:44

I used to get lots of calls from old ladies wanting a local chiropodist because my number's very similar. I've had to change my message to say "This is not the Foot Clinic. Their number is ..." because the old ladies were leaving long, rambling messages about their bunions and such, which I would then have to pass on to the clinic.

posted by essexjan 28 November | 01:59

718 area code is jonmc.

I don't mean he lives in 718; I mean he IS 718. All calls originating in 718 come from jonmc.

Didn't know you were into "Hair," jon.

posted by ikkyu2 28 November | 02:36

I get mistaken calls from my dad and boyfriend sometimes - my first name begins with A so if their phone is left unlocked and the wrong combo of buttons gets pressed, they call me. I usually hear my dad wandering around the campus where he works, and my b/f's phone sometimes calls me during rehearsals, so I get blasts of orchestral music, filtered through the mobile network and his pocket.

posted by altolinguistic 28 November | 05:02

I got a series of wrong number text messages once, from a boyfriend pleading with his recently ex-girlfriend to meet him, setting a time and place to meet, and then a series of alternately defeated and angry ones when she (obviously) failed to show up.

The weird thing was that I called him twice and left messages telling him he had the wrong number, and wishing him luck with the girl, but he kept sending me the messages. I ended up siding with the girl, because the guy was obviously a total nitwit if he a) didn't know his own girlfriend's 'phone number and b) continued to use the wrong one after being told twice.

Come to think of it, text messages would be an ideal medium for a modern version of the epistolary novel. Anyone up for subverting Twitter with a Lonelygirl15 type set of characters?

posted by jack_mo 28 November | 06:10

How very strange!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 28 November | 07:36

I get a lot of calls at my office for Harold (or someone; it's always the same guy). It doesn't come through the main line; it's straight to my direct number. And the guy who is calling always then asks who owns my business. That's when I hang up.

For awhile we were getting collection calls (for someone who did not work at our office). Man, they were annoying! I finally yelled at them and said THIS IS A BUSINESS JACK SMITH DOES NOT WORK HERE STOP CALLING.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 28 November | 07:49

I still occasionally get calls for the guy who worked in my office before me. Most of them are women he tried to pick up at bars by offering them jobs. I don't really call them back.

Once, I got a message saying he had won a cruise. Again, I was too lazy to call and see if I could claim it! :)

posted by muddgirl 28 November | 08:35

My mom used to get calls on holidays from a woman looking for "Clayton." The woman would call repeatedly all day, then the calls would end around 9 pm.

posted by initapplette 28 November | 09:20

When I moved to Maine, I got a telephone number that proved to be the old fax number for Central Maine Power Company. So I started getting all these fax calls, and every now and then I'd turn on the fax modem and receive them. There were junk faxes, but most of them were power company business. So I'd call the recipient at CMP and tell them they need to tell other people their new fax number, and they'd go, oh yeah, thanks, sure, and nothing would change. So finally I sent a letter to CMP that said, "Oh GEE, I sure hope I'm not getting any PROPRIETARY INFORMATION in these faxes!" That did the trick -- somebody there had the appropriate cow, and after that I only got the odd junk fax every now and then.

posted by JanetLand 28 November | 09:22

I don't who it was, or even know anyone in/from the 718 area code where the call came from,

I'm in 718. So's pinky, jason's_planet, the Wino and Hugh Janus.

Me and the latter three possess testicles and do not like broadway show tunes, so that narrows the field.

*makes home for the bees in his hair*

posted by jonmc 28 November | 09:32

My cell is 347, so.....

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 28 November | 09:34

joe famous is in 718 as well. And he can hit those high notes.

posted by jonmc 28 November | 09:38

Um. Me too.

posted by mike9322 28 November | 09:44

That is, I got the same voice mail. I know who has all our numbers, cmonkey and mudpuppie.

posted by mike9322 28 November | 09:45

You're in 718, mike? or you can hit those high notes? or you got the same call as cmonkey?

If it's the third, that's weird since both of you are well known for not having hair (at least somewhat).

posted by jonmc 28 November | 09:46

OK, now I'm really confused. I know all the MeChazens in Brooklyn and Queens and I can't feature any of them doing this. Although it is kind of funny.

posted by jonmc 28 November | 09:48

Trisha_Lynn?

posted by gaspode 28 November | 09:52

Sorry, bunnies... I've got a 212 area code, which sciurus (I think) would remember from when I called his cell after he put his phone number on his Flash resume. ^_^

posted by TrishaLynn 28 November | 10:00

(How did you get a cell with a 212 area code? Mad jealous!)

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 28 November | 10:02

I can't feature any of them doing this.

Feature? What kind of fucked syntax is that? Something's fishy about jon's theorizing.

posted by danostuporstar 28 November | 10:03

My buddy used to have a number that was one digit off the service department of a local car dealership. He used to get voicemails from people wanting to drop their car/truck off etc.

If he got really cranky about it, he would go ahead and make an appointment for them when they called. The idea used to really make me chuckle.

posted by richat 28 November | 10:04

TPS: I was very lucky. I had to get a new SIM card two years ago because my old Cali one wasn't consistent with the towers here and besides, I was in the job hunt and it didn't make sense for me to keep my Cali number anymore. So when they asked me what number I wanted, I asked if they had any 212's lying around and lo! it was available.

posted by TrishaLynn 28 November | 10:15

I had a friend who'd call up Domino's and request to have the pizza he just ordered cancelled. Meanie.

We had one wrong number vmail about a month ago from a woman letting us know the choir practice had been changed from 7 to 7:30. A. We don't belong to any formal religious orgs, and B. We only sing in the shower.

posted by chewatadistance 28 November | 10:17

That is, I got the same voice mail. I know who has all our numbers, cmonkey and mudpuppie.

Mudpuppie and I recieved our calls from ThePinkSuperhero. MYSTERY SOLVED!

If he got really cranky about it, he would go ahead and make an appointment for them when they called.

I'm always a little worried when I call some place out of a phonebook that it'll be a wrong number and the poor guy who now has the number will do this.

posted by cmonkey 28 November | 11:58

LIES! Lies! I will deny this until my dying day!

Ok, you caught me. Booo. And I was going to do such a funny shoutout about it at Sunday's NYC meetup. You didn't torture mudpuppie to get it out of her, did you?

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 28 November | 12:00

Ah. Well I didn't know she had my number so my theory was wrong.

But now I have her number!! BWAHAHA!

posted by mike9322 28 November | 12:18

I think it would have been funnier if I hadn't found out.

posted by cmonkey 28 November | 12:49

Well then why did you work so hard to find out, hmm??!?!?

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 28 November | 13:00

I didn't! I didn't even think it was MetaChat related until mudpuppie spilled the beans on IRC last night.

posted by cmonkey 28 November | 13:33

Next time I will be trickier and stealthier, hehehe.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 28 November | 13:39

I felt guilty. Sorry.

Stupid guilt.

posted by mudpuppie 28 November | 15:51

coughcoughdrunkguiltcoughcough

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 28 November | 21:20

I must say, I *heart* TPS.

posted by carmina 28 November | 21:28

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