Howdy from the nightowl. I've been working on my client's bi-weekly newsletter and am finally to the point where I posted my draft for my workgroup to proof it. I'm feeling a little better, and am very happy I can work in my jammies with dogs piled on top of me.
Jill, I thought of you yesterday when we had to deal with utilities. Had a strange thing happen...
My mom used her cellphone to phone me on my cellphone. She wanted to tell me she'd been trying to call our house, but the phone just kept ringing, not even our machine picked up. Thinking she might have just misdialed, I asked her to call our home phone with her land line while I was on the cellphone with her. She did, and heard it ringing on her end...But on my end, nothing. I picked up the phone while she heard it ringing, and all I got was a dialtone.
I was able to dial out just fine. I called Alltel to report the problem and went back to what I'd been doing. Shortly after that, our home phone rang. When I answered, the caller said he was Mr. McN--- calling for Ben. I told him he had the wrong number and as an afterthought inquired what number he'd dialed. He told me the number, and it wasn't ours. Wasn't even close other than the first 3 digits.
Oddly enough, this Mr. McN-- was someone Howie and I knew from our old church, so I told him what was going on with our phone number not ringing in. Even stranger, while he and I were talking, it sounded like the party he was trying to reach picked up his phone and was on the line with the two of us. I got off the line so they could carry on their conversation!
I called Alltel back, even managing to get the same rep, Michael, on the phone a second time. We both found it intriguing and amusing, and a real mystery.
I decided to do a little experiment. Using my cellphone, I dialed the number Mr. McN-- had dialed when he reached me. Yep, my phone rang! I hung up right away because I suspected it might have been ringing at the number's normal location, too. I then used our home phone to call my mother-in-law, who has caller ID. Sure enough, the wrong name and number showed up, displaying the number Mr. McN-- had tried calling.
Not really wanting to call Alltel again, I zapped them an e-mail from their website. I told them the latest and added a funny note saying "I'm tired of playing phone tag. I miss being me. Can I have my number and identity back soon, please?"
This morning, starting at 8:00am (GRR!) we started getting more wrong numbers, incorrectly routed to us. Finally, around Noon, a tech called our home line and said they'd traced the problem back to some mixed-up wiring at the office. A little while later, the Alltel employee who received my e-mail called on my cellphone and asked if we were still having problems. He'd gotten a kick out of my e-mail.
What a wild ride that was. I wonder where
our calls ended up. I'm just glad it was some local guy's phone number that got switched to our residence and not 911. LOL!
