Indebted To His Solution
(My husband and I move to a new apartment, and apply for a new landline number. Apparently, they give us what had been an acupuncture clinic’s number, because people keep calling to have appointments made.)
Me: “Hello.”
Caller: “Good morning, may I speak with Mr. [name] please?”
Me: “Uh, I’m sorry; you have the wrong number.”
Caller: “I’m calling from [retail company] to let Mr. [name] know that he has a debt with us, because he hasn’t been paying his [retail company] card bill for several months.”
Me: “I understand, but again, you have the wrong number. That person doesn’t live here.”
Caller: “Yes, but could you please pass the message to Mr. [name] so he can call us back?”
Me: “No, you don’t understand, this line was installed just last month. Mr. [name] does not live here, and neither I, nor my husband know him.”
Caller: “But this is the contact number that he gave us.”
Me: “I guess so, but we’ve got nothing to do with that person, or your company.”
Caller: “Okay, thank you.”
(The caller hangs up, and I think this is a one time thing, but I keep getting the same call every day for three weeks—including weekends. I call the company several times to try and clarify the issue, and I always get answers like ‘the problem has been solved, and we promise this won’t happen again’ but the only change is that we start getting pre-recorded notifications of the debt requests instead of calls from real people. I confirm that the address listed with the number does not match mine, but it doesn’t mean anything to them, and at some point they even accuse us of being accomplices for covering up for this person. One day, after almost a month we receive a call from an operator.)
Me: “Hello.”
Caller: “Good afternoon, may I speak with Mr. [name]?”
Me: “No, he doesn’t live here.”
(At this point my husband is really annoyed with the situation, and he grabs the phone.)
My Husband: “Yes, who is this?”
Caller: “I’m calling from [retail company] because Mr. [name] has a very large debt with us, and we want to have the situation cleared.”
My Husband: “Listen, I don’t know this Mr. [name], and I don’t care about his debt, but if you keep calling us, I’m gonna track him down personally, and together we’re gonna sue you!”
Caller: “Excuse me?”
My Husband: “Yes! For the last month your company has been harassing me and my wife every day and have been giving us unrequested details about this guy’s financial situation, and that is illegal! If you keep calling this number, I’ll find this Mr. [name] for you.”
(They hang up, and they never call again!)