Shaken Not Stirred

Monday, March 20, 2006

Boiling Points

I got the strangest phone call on my cell today! Here's how it went down:

Me- "Hello"
Strange Person-- "Hi, may I speak to Mark?"
Me--"You've got the wrong number"
Strange Person--"Are you sure?"
Me--"Pretty sure. This is my cell phone."
Strange Person--"This is ***-***-****"
Me--"Yeah, but there is no Mark here"
Strange Person--"Huh, are you sure this isn't Mark's number"
Me--"Am I on MTV's Boiling Points cause I don't want the money. I want to study"
Strange Person--"I was pretty sure this was Mark's number"
Me--CLICK!

I can't believe I carried the conversation that far. What an idiot!!! What did he mean, am I sure? Hell yeah I'm sure, it's my friggin phone. It's been my number since 2003. Either someone faked numbered him or this number belonged to Mark at one time. But you'd think if they were friends, Mark would have notified him of a number change.

Can you believe the idiot things people will say? Can you believe I carried the coversation beyond "you've got the wrong number buddy"? After that, no explanation need be given. When I've dialed the wrong number and was told so, I apologized and hung up.

This will teach me not to answer strange looking numbers again, or to put my phone on silent while I study.

posted by JM at 11:08 PM

34 Comments:

  • What's on MTV's Boiling Point?

    I don't really watch TV :-/

    By Blogger missy, at 12:09 AM  

  • I usually just ignore numbers which I am not familiar with, if they leave a message I get back to them

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:10 AM  

  • once, someone called me on the mobile and we had a similar conversation and then it was revealed he was doing it on purpose just to talk to someone.
    And when i tried to say "okay bye now" he said "maybe this mistake i made was lucky for us!!!"
    Have you considered this possibility?

    By Blogger x, at 3:32 AM  

  • I get wrong numbers on my cell all the time. Once I answered and a woman asked where I was. I did. She went off like a firecracker. I let her rant for a few before I told her she had a wrong number. I feel sorry for her husband. She was a piece of work.

    By Blogger :P fuzzbox, at 5:42 AM  

  • The problem with those people is that they usually call again to make sure the had the "right number"... and you have to repeat the conversation...

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 7:08 AM  

  • At least your number isn't 222-2222. I met a woman who had a number like that and she got calls from little kids playing with their parents' phones all the time.

    By Blogger JJ, at 7:37 AM  

  • There was a time when I would get many phone calls everyday asking for a some travel agency. I found out that the travel agency had put our number on their advert! When I told the agency to remove their advert they didn't seem to bother. It all stopped when I started giving out weird answers and the travel agency started losing customers because of me ;-)

    By Blogger Wriju, at 8:09 AM  

  • I get that all the time. Sometimes I pretend to be the person they're after. It's funnier when they're expecting a woman.

    By Blogger Christopher D. Bate, at 8:50 AM  

  • Aren't those so annoying?? I had one just last week from a mortgage company insisting I was someone else. I was tempted to say,"You're right. Just kidding, you got me" and going from there. But if you're knee deep in scapulas and patellas, it's a different story...

    By Blogger Aud*2020, at 9:46 AM  

  • I love it when they argue about who you're supposed to be. You should've said, "OK, this is Mark. But I've become reclusive since I'm a gay exotic dancer at the Rock Hard Cafe."

    By Blogger Jay Noel, at 9:59 AM  

  • U shoulda been like yeah! it's me baby how are you? (after the fifth time you told her YOU weren't him) and then carry on a conversation with her...:)

    By Blogger Cari, at 10:39 AM  

  • Dear Angel jr.,
    I am writing to inform you I have decided to screen all my calls through your cell number. Please forward the interesting calls to my real phone number.
    Thanks,
    Mark
    (867-5309)

    By Blogger Chipper, at 12:02 PM  

  • I have had people insist that I was someone else f---ing with them be pretending they had the wrong number. Amazing.

    -- david

    By Blogger David Amulet, at 2:48 PM  

  • Wonder how long he would have questioned you. Maybe he could have convinced you that you were Mark.

    I get far more wrong nubers on the cell than the land line. A hate whaen they ask who I am. WTF you called me jerky, if you don't know then it's the wrong number.

    By Blogger Josh, at 6:18 PM  

  • Wrong numbers, what a pain. It is easy to do, though !!

    By Blogger Meow (aka Connie), at 6:42 PM  

  • Did they ask you to give them Mark's number!? :)

    By Blogger Cathy, at 6:42 PM  

  • I just start speaking in a different or made up language.. that usually gets them to leave me alone.

    Or you could do like my grandma- she blows a whistle in their ear. HA!

    By Blogger SK, at 7:42 PM  

  • clearly, that's your secret admirer.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:59 PM  

  • I get sms messages like that as well, where we carry the conversation on and on. It's quite amusing.

    By Blogger epicurist, at 9:02 PM  

  • This is the reason Gist contains a backlog of phone numbers.

    Your Gist has been appropriated.

    By Blogger The Taker of Gist, at 10:20 PM  

  • Hahaha, that was a good line you gave them.
    I hope your working out is going good. I am still going at it!

    By Blogger Lee Ann, at 10:22 PM  

  • i've worked customer service on the phones for most of my working life and yes, people are idiots!

    By Blogger Foxy, at 11:07 PM  

  • what is up with people like that anyways? i have gotten a few calls like that lately, and age doesn't seem to be a factor. when they are obviously a solicitor, i just say that no, not me, and then tell them i died. they don't usually call back. telling them you are not on the do not call list doesn't seem to make any difference,i turned in mci for that and got a letter of apology from them, got a letter from the fcc saying blahblahblah no further action....what happened to the big fines they are supposed to get?
    Thanks for visiting my page angel

    By Blogger punxxi, at 11:07 PM  

  • oops make that on the do not call list, DOH

    By Blogger punxxi, at 11:11 PM  

  • That happens to me all the time. I love how you were ready to nip it in the bud if it was MTV.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 11:46 PM  

  • Back at the old zoo, we used to get tons of these calls. However I can relate to being at the other end. It's not pretty. How the heck was I supposed to know that the # changed? The lady was very irritated--like sorry for wasting 10 secs of your life. Geeeez.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:57 AM  

  • While living in a dorm while away at college, I kept getting wrong numbers calling me at the most inopportune times. (At 4am on the morning of a final.) It eventually turned out to be that my friends were pranking me by giving my number out to random people and asking them to call me.

    I got them all back by handing out their numbers to a telemarketer who I knew. Thank goodness for the invention of caller ID.

    By Blogger Grant, at 8:59 AM  

  • At one point in my youth, our phone number was listed right above a local hospital number. My mother used to get some very strange calls apparently! But I don't recall anyone not wanting to believe that my mother wasn't a hospital employee....

    By Blogger kimananda, at 9:45 AM  

  • You know, at one time I used to get a hell of a lot of those. Me insisitng that this is my phone number and other people carrying on in other languages. No use hanging up either 'cause they'll phone back. Come on..I have a semi-British accent, here's not many people in SA you could mistake my voice for!

    By Blogger Leila, at 4:15 PM  

  • I don't think I want to know what you were studying because it doesn't sound like fun stuff. I get strange text messages sometimes but never phone calls.

    By Blogger Mr. Shife, at 6:39 PM  

  • Reall,y though, I tinhk you would have had a lot more fun had you messed with him.

    By Blogger White Dade, at 8:51 PM  

  • sounds like someone "Elained" your number!

    The link is fixed! go drinkin'

    By Blogger mkecurler, at 5:20 PM  

  • He was a mere illusion of the shadow government. Ignore the man behind the curtain!

    By Blogger Gyrobo, at 8:42 PM  

  • Dude, the next time you get a strange number on your cell, just answer with, "Dominoes Pizza..,"

    By Blogger Walter, at 9:52 AM  

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