The other day a lady called and asked for a person who doesn’t work here and the conversation went something like this:

<me> I’m sorry, there’s no one here by that name.
<her> Well, is this _____ (some name I can’t remember)?
<me> No, you have the wrong number.
<her> Well, this is the number they gave me!
<me> What number did you dial?
<her> blah blah blah (a number that doesn’t belong to us)
<me> This is not that number.
<her> But it’s the number they gave me!
<me> I believe you dialed the wrong number.
<her> Well, how do I get the right number, then?
<me> Um…you dial it again, but correctly?

I just don’t get what’s so difficult about that concept. On a similar note, I had a wrong number the other day where the guy was trying to call a place I actually used to work. I told him he had the wrong number, and he said “Is this not where I need to call to get an RFP from (company name)? It says here I need to contact Ryan Cathy. I said no, this is not (company name), you have the wrong number. He said “Ok, then who do I call?” seemingly oblivious to the fact that it he had not reached the number he thought he had dialed. Recognizing the company name and the person’s name even though he transposed the name, I said “You need to contact Cathy Ryan, and gave him the number.”

I’m sure I left him wondering why, if he called the wrong number, I knew so much about things.

Oh well…it’s better than the people who just start yelling because they misdialed the customer service department of some rental place we get calls for all the time. Apparently they treat their customers like shit because everyone who calls here for them is extremely angry. Sometimes it make me want to say “Sorry, but I don’t give a shit.” then hang up and let the people for whom the call was intended deal with their customer’s newly fed rage.