Job Discussion Forums

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

Is it just Mexico City? Is it just me? Why do I have people dial me as a wrong number at least 5 times a day?

And why, why, why, do people do this when it happens?

<ring, ring>

Me: Bueno?
Caller: A donde hablo?
Me (in my head): You are asking me what number you called? Doofus.
-and-
Me (on the phone): A quien le busca?
-or-
Me (after this has happened a few times already): <click>

cwc · Joined: 16 Nov 2005 Posts: 372

I thought I was the only one. It happens at least twice a day. I thought that it was my area or something. Normally I go through the full greeting exchange and even ask them how I can serve them before they ask for Luis, Juan, Rodolfo,etc.. I have had the experience during tutoring sessions and my students are incredulous. It appears to them that I am having a conversation with the person. The cultural difference is seen as being overly polite. What irks me is that the party on the line usually just hangs up. That should be a poll. If you dial a wrong number, do you apologize?

snorklequeen · Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 4:23 am Post subject: hang-up wrong numbers

i apologize

i was brought up in the 50s and 60s in the US, and that's what was the norm at that time

here in Houston, Texas, for me it's about 75/25 when someone calls me and they have gotten a wrong number -- 75 they don't apologize, 25 they do

on the bright side, i get 5-10 in a week or two, and then nothing for 3-6 months

cheers,

Q

jillford64 · Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 397 Location: Sin City

Duplicate post, sorry.

ls650 · Joined: 10 May 2003 Posts: 3484 Location: British Columbia

Of course I apologize if I call the wrong number: I'm genuinely sorry I interrupted a complete stranger. To do anything less is rude.

jillford64 · Joined: 15 Feb 2006 Posts: 397 Location: Sin City

Answer to poll: If it is a genuine accident, I always apologize. But sometimes I hang up if I only really want to leave a message but someone actually answers the phone, or maybe I have an unrecognizable phone number written on a yellow sticky, which I dial to find out who it belongs to and it turns out to be someone I don't want to talk to but they will recognize my voice. I have also, rarely, called just to see if someone was home, and they were, so I hung up. Gosh, maybe I shouldn't be admitting these things. I am not a bad person. Really.

Cdaniels · Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 5:38 am Post subject: Answering the telephone

Does Telemex have call return (*69) or caller ID?

This cut down that problem in the US quite a bit. You just immediately call back the caller, and then gloat over their embarrassment as they explain themselves. Twisted Evil

Hasn't happened to me in a while now.

M@tt · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 473 Location: here and there

i was raised in the 80s and 90s and i also apologize. i don't think things have changed that much. if you "just" hang up, you are "just" rude. calling someone you know just to see who answers is totally different. rude maybe, but different.
i do enjoy a could prank phonecall once in awhile, but almost always on people i know. you can do amazing things with skype, like multiple intra-country prank phonecalls. okay, now i'm sounding really pathetic, but it's hilarious.

i had a phone stalker here for two months. it was annoying, i probably got about 70 phone calls during that period from the same person. i was on a line shared by the whole building, and there was no way to use caller ID or *69 or anything. i'm glad i moved and now have the power to screen calls.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

I was raised in Canada, so, we apologize for everything, including stuff that's your fault. I didn't really notice that until going back home after being here.

Most wrong numbers will ask for someone I don't know, check the number with me, then apologize. That's perfectly polite.

I blame Telmex. Maybe it's because they come out with a new telephone book about every two months, or that DF has too many digits to dial. Either way, I'm sorry, eh?

grahamcito · Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Posts: 90 Location: Guadalajara

We English apologise unreservedly, in a tone that makes it clear it's the other person's fault.

Cdaniels · Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 2:05 pm Post subject: Phone prank stories

One of the founders of Apple called the pope one morning, waking him, and he met his future wife with a "prank" call.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/6.09/woz_pr.html
Telephones can be very mysterious! Wink

fraup · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 1:39 am Post subject:

I've gotten a couple of wrong numbers on my cell. When I hear Spanish, I know it's someone I don't know Very Happy

and I just say, "Sorry, wrong number" --in English of course--and hang up. And if it rings again immediately, I don't answer!

Sgt Killjoy · Joined: 26 Jun 2004 Posts: 438

I get them on a regular basis here.

I answer the phone, say Hello, they spout out something in Thai and I know right then that they don't want to talk to me. I usually answer in Thai that I don't understand them and that the phone is owned by a westerner. The person then tries again to ask something in Thai and I say goodbye and hangup, very rarely do I get a sorry in Thai or English.

Within seconds I get a callback from the phone and again answer the phone with a hello, they speak some gobblygook and I replied again that the phone is owned by a westerner and then hang up. The second call is half the time followed by a third call. Same scenario.

The only variation is that when they discover I am a foreigner, sometimes girls will say"What you name?" and try to hold a conversation in broken English so that at 3am they can call their "friend" and bother them. I was a nice guy at first by trying to be friendly, but one too many times, my wife has either answered the call from a young girl who wants to talk to me and knows my name or has received a text message from a girl who says see loves me and puts my name in the message.

MELEE · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:09 pm Post subject:

It must be nice to have phones!

Guy, I think you're right to blame TELMEX!
I recently called the gas company to get a tank delivered, and after like twenty rings a man answers with Bueno. I was like Bueno? what kind of way is that for the gas company to answer their phone? He explained that the gas company had changed phone numbers, he didn't know the new number and this was now his number. I told him he should complain to TELMEX for giving out that number right away. They should have held it for at least six months. A couple of days later, one of my coworkers asked me if I had the gas companies number because he called and got some clueless guy. Laughing

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

I don't know what it is with my phone line. Wrong number dialers ask for a whole host of people. There's only one person they consistently ask for...Mr. Vargas something or other, and it's always debt collectors that call. I think maybe they don't believe me when I say I don't know Mr. Vargas!

So if you re out there Mr. Vargas...you've been a bad bad boy!

Does anyone have trouble receiving long distance calls? I've also heard that people trying to call from abroad have had a lot of trouble connecting. It's so much trouble that I'm looking at using Skype exclusively for such things.