By orangemango - 22/04/2014 06:18 - United States - Lahaina
orangemango tells us more.
Hello! OP here! Nice little surprise when I woke up this morning! This happened to me about two months ago and my husband thought the situation was funny enough to post. I keep my phone on because my husband's 90-year-old grandmother lives in the same community as us and he's the first person she calls in case of emergencies. When he's off island on business trips, that responsibility falls on me. Since I'm a really heavy sleeper, I leave the ringer on pretty loud. And yes, I know there's a do not disturb function on my iPhone, but I never used it cause I've never gotten a phone call at such odd hours. I didn't check the number when I answered the first time cause I was already in a mad rush to wake up and find my phone without my glasses and freak out that something might've happened to grandma while my husbands away. I was pretty groggy when I answered and I guess the lady didn't appreciate the fact I kept saying "huh?" and "what?". She thought I was sleeping on the job or playing a prank on her and wanted to talk to my supervisor. I told her it was three in the morning and that she had dialed a Hawaiian residential number. There was a long pause and she just hung up. My phone rang a minute later from the same number, but it was a man this time. I told him the same thing and he gave me a half-assed apology and hung up. This happened for the next two nights (also rang during the day) and I found out from one of the calls that the shoe company had actually misprinted their 1-800 number on their packing slip (it was printed 1-808-XXX-XXXX). So I did start using the do not disturb function on my phone and I even changed my voice mail to tell people that this isn't the number they're trying to reach. However, some of them didn't even bother listening to my message and started leaving me voice mails. They were pretty funny. The shoe company specialized in plus-sized shoes for women, but I don't think they were very good. One lady got two left shoes and another was threatening to sue if she didn't get her refund. I already had to change my number back in December (a Samoan family somehow got my number and kept calling and intimidating me cause I apparently got beaten up by their son/brother/nephew/grandson and "it would be wise if you kept your mouth shut") and I was going to be charged $36 for a new number and I didn't want to deal with updating everyone my new number again. What I did end up doing was every time someone called, I'd start trolling them. Some highlights were Teniqua, angry black lady who was wondering why some woman is calling her baby daddy; Sugar **** Mandy, phone sex hotline; Rainbow Waterfall, hippie doomsday and conspiracy preacher; and my husband's, Dick Johnson, Swinging Salami Inc., every order gets you a free complimentary *****! The calls stopped coming about a week after we started trolling with a few stragglers here and there. Probably from people who dialed an 8 instead of a 0. We assumed either the shoe company finally fixed the mistake, changed their phone number, or went out of business. Happy to say I got my number back!
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"Wrong number" *hang up* Problem solved!
but to repeat everytime is annoying
Also annoying to be woken up at 3 am, especially if OP has to work in the morning.
Change the ring tone (The one caller will hear while your phone rings) to a message: "This is not a shoe store"
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Show it anyway65, 69, & 72 I believe y'all are referring to a ringback tone!
#87 wins the comment battle for this fml.
Why don't you leave your phone on silent?
Is this the shoe store? NO THIS IS PATRICK!!!
Why are you even answering anything at 0300? No way in hell I'd wake up to deal with people asking about a return policy on a stupid shoe
I agree. I'd put my phone on silent, or off, during the night if this was happening to me.
Same here... could modify the voice mail greeting. "you have reached my phone blah blah blah If you're calling a bout shoes go F yourself and remember to put 1 before the 800" lol
I always keep my phone on just in case of emergency calls. If someone is calling me a 3AM? ... That means there's something tragic happening. (Sadly, I've gotten those type of calls) Plus my phone is my alarm clock. Can't shut it off for that purpose.
The iPhone has a sleep mode where all of your calls are automatically silenced, so you can have it on for your alarm, but won't be woken up by calls/texts. And you can add individual people whose calls are allowed to bypass the Silent setting in case they'd be calling you in an emergency. I don't know about Windows or Android-based phones but they must have similar options. Your sleep shouldn't be interrupted every night by your phone, especially for something stupid like poor OP is getting.
I agree #50 I'd like to pretend life stops when I go to sleep but sadly things can go wrong at any time. I have an app though that will silence calls and other notifications, but still till let your alarm go off. You can also set exceptions so your phone will ring if certain people try and call, such as family. I love it.
#56, If you have an android smartphone, it's built right into the phone. Go to system settings, Sound, and then Quiet Time. Enable it, and go through all the options as for what times/what days of the week. I have to use it during finals week, otherwise I'm a total, distracted mess. :/
"Hi, you've reached the XXX **** hotline. Please choose one of the following: 1) Gay, 2) Fetish, 3) Straight, 4) Transsexual, 5) Thunder Beads Galore, 6) ***********, 7) Midgets, 8) Surprise! Butt-Sex! Also, keep in mind you'll be charged $20 a min for having stayed on this call for the current duration.
On newer Androids it's called blocking mode. Can set it so alarms and calls from set contacts come though, nothing else. It's there under some name on most devices people will still own, unless your phone make has customised that option out I suppose. Probably apps that can do it too.
No this is Sparta!
Is no one else thinking his phone may be a landline? I Just assumed it was a landline and maybe that's why he couldn't turn it off or put it on silent. However it could be a cell. And if it is a landline having an answering machine with a message sounds like a good solution however he will still have to listen to it ring, unfortunately.
that sounds frustrating. i know i wouldn't sound professional if someone dared to disturb my precious sleep. not that you needed to do so anyway.
I think that she should tell anybody that calls her that the store is closed.FOREVER.I think that should solve her problems.
Can't You Just Block The Number?
not everyone has caller ID
You can't block your phone from receiving any one who is mistaking your # for a shoe store... "Ring ring* phone detects unwanted shoe store caller... automatic blocking sequence activated." NO... You would have to manually have to block every number that had ever miss dialed and called you by mistake
Change your number? ... Just a thought
You can't change an area code.
But if the area code is the only difference between his number and the shoe place, he could get a new number and hope that there isn't a 1800 number that is similar to the new number
@ #24 Actually you can change your area code on your cell phone. My sister in law lives in Colorado and has a California area code and number now
36- Oh, suuuuure. Hope and happy thoughts are reeeeeally effective against getting wrong numbers at 3 in the morning or any other misfortunes, for that matter. Do they have pixie dust on eBay? Maybe I'll find a unicorn that ***** ice cream while I'm browsing. Seriously, since the problem is the 808 area code, you can ask the phone provider to have it changed.
Why are you answering unknown numbers at three in the morning unless you are in a on-call position?
because it won't stop ringing
turn off ringer, or put it in another room with the ringer off.
Everyone is an on-call position. What if one of your parents/siblings died 3 in the morning or are in dire help?
That's what 911 is for, 104.
I have a phone that you can program to go silent between certain hours. It's a wireless phone with 4 handsets that can all be programmed separately. So the bedroom phone never has to ring again if you want.
I have a land line and in our neighbourhood we tend to call each other when there's an emergency. I understand OP's reluctance to just ignore calls in the middle of the night.
I live in Hawaii too. I get calls from all kind of people from the East coast, like credit card companies or political action committees asking for donations.Just turn your phone off when you go to bed.
I used to get calls all the time from people looking for either the recycling center or a gentleman's club, both places shared almost identical numbers with mine. Sucks
Yeah, we used to have a number one digit off from a nearby pizza place, so we constantly got calls from people trying to order pizza. It gets old really fast.
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Is this the shoe store? NO THIS IS PATRICK!!!
"Wrong number" *hang up* Problem solved!