Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,
Several months ago I gave up the telephone number I'd had since 2009. I hoped I'd have more privacy with a different number, and I was fed up with certain phone calls.
One type of annoying call came from DirecTV. Their robocalls rang me every single day, sometimes as often as seven times. DirecTV wanted me to call because I qualified for 50% off on my account. I canceled DirecTV at the beginning of the year. I have no account. No matter how many numbers I blocked, DirecTV always got through, so I seldom answered my phone. Farewell, DirecTV.
The other calls began a few days after I got the phone number. They were for a woman named Lisa. I won't reveal her last name or where she lives, although she had no problem giving out my number as her own. Apparently, my number had been hers (I think) before it was mine, but she never stopped using it. At first, the calls were from angry bill collectors who didn't believe my protestations that I am not Lisa and never have been Lisa. Later, I received calls from companies that wanted to deliver furniture and other items she'd ordered, and people who wanted to confirm appointments with her, and on and on and on. I don't know if anyone was able to figure out how to get in touch with her.
Why did she give out a phone number that wasn't hers when she bought furniture? It mystifies me.
I even received text messages from her husband, who begged her to stop messing with his mother's phone. I texted back to tell him it wasn't her number. He was quite surprised.
Then the housing shortage began. In addition to calls and text messages from people who wanted to buy my house, I got calls and texts from people who wanted to buy her house. I have no idea if she actually lives there or just gives out the address as her own.
Whatever.
I get a few calls at the new number for someone else who had it. But it's not as bad as getting calls for Lisa.
Buh-bye, Lisa.
Infinities of love,
Janie Junebug
Lisa and her husband can't find each other:
Lisa makes appointments:
Ha! How annoying. The same thing happened to me before. Except it wasn't a "Lisa", it was a "Victor" and apparently ol Vic did not believe in paying his bills every month. It got so bad at one point that I just stopped answering my phone altogether. Lisa and Vicshould hook up.
ReplyDeleteLisa and Vic are a match made in heaven.
DeleteI don't get, luckily, to many junk calls, robo calls or spam risk like many I know. Unless the number is in my phone, which will show who is calling, I don't pick up. If it's an important call they will leave a message. Nothing more annoying as these companies have multiple numbers to call out on.
ReplyDeleteOr just pick it up and blow a real loud whistle into it!!!!!!!!!! Im evil.
I don't answer my phone very often, but sometimes I'm eager to receive a call back from a company so I want to answer but since I don't have the number in my phone, I run the risk of answering a call about my car warranty running out, which is not happening.
DeleteIf I had that Lisa problem, I’d change my number, too. I wonder if Lisa just innocently had her own number wrong. I once sent out a moving announcement with the incorrect photo number. Oh, wait, I spelled my name wrong, too. L-I-S-A. Sorry!!!
ReplyDeleteI sometimes wondered if Lisa was such an ignoramus that she couldn't keep her own number straight. I've also wondered if her name really is Lisa.
DeleteThat is plain weird. I wonder what game Lisa is playing.
ReplyDeletePart of it must be avoiding bills, but her husband texted me. That was the weirdest part.
DeleteThat really is frustrating and annoying. I actually had no idea that they assigned people's old numbers to different clients. We get our fair share of telemarketers and robo calls, and we just hang up. Better if we didn't get them though.
ReplyDeleteI pretty much gave up on answering the phone during the Lisa days and I've kept the habit.
DeleteHow annoying! I'd change my number again too. Love that meme "I borrowed money and they expect me to pay it back" -- what a shock, LOL! But it is to some people!
ReplyDeletePeople are strange and amazing creatures.
DeleteI am the person who will not answer calls from numbers I do not know, and I will not respond to texts from people I don't know.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like Lisa's trying to run away and hide from husbands and bill collectors and such.
xoxo
I have what is supposed to be her address. I've always wondered about checking it out. Maybe it's an empty lot.
DeleteYou could check it out virtually using Google maps.
DeleteI looked: It's an empty lot.
DeleteAha!
DeleteI can imagine how annoying that must have been, Janie. Here's hoping your new number will give you peace and quiet. Lisa sounds like some kind of a scam artist!
ReplyDeleteThe new number is much better. The calls I got for the previous owner have died away.
DeleteI hear you. We no longer use our listed number for anything other than as an answering machine, ringer muted. The ever flowing sales calls have flooded it.
ReplyDeleteYour Lisa is our "renew your car warranty before it expires." Our old car has no warranty, thank you. These robo-calls leave an average of four messages a day.
Robo calls are so annoying. I've gotten the car warranty calls and of course, I used to get the DirecTV calls.
DeleteI might consider getting another new number--good grief! :(
ReplyDeleteThe first couple of times I got calls for Lisa the people were really nasty.
DeleteYep Lisa is going to have to find another number to use! Or we can feel pity for whoever gets assigned your old phone number.
ReplyDeleteI suspect Lisa will continue to use it.
DeleteI'm sure Lisa doesn't intend to pay for that furniture -- that's why she gave them her old number!
ReplyDeleteSeriously, what a pain. I don't blame you for changing it. I hope this one works out better.
But if the furniture delivery people couldn't contact her, then they couldn't deliver the furniture so she didn't have to pay for it. Maybe it was her way of canceling the order.
DeleteSuch phone calls piss us all off, my mum didn't get that calls were robocalls and not a person
ReplyDeleteI suspect a lot of the calls confuse older people and some have been scammed into paying money they don't owe.
DeleteI only answer calls that are on my contact list. If any of the other calls I get are important, I figure they can leave a message. I used to live in one area code and now live in another. All calls from the earlier area code are spam calls, so I ignore them, then block them, which does no good because new ones just keep rining. I have a pretty melody on my phone so it's not that annoying. I can only imagine how awful it would be if it were to actually ring. Like they used to -- in the olden days of my youth. I'm sorry you have to deal with these types of calls.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Inger, but I don't have to deal with the calls much since I changed my number. A phone that rings, that I had to get up to answer, would drive me nuts.
DeleteI've had cell phones since the nineties and had little trouble. Missing all the fun!
ReplyDeleteIt's not much fun but we can pretend it is.
DeleteThis situation would be so frustrating; no wonder you changed your number. I hope the new one is okay on a long-term basis.
ReplyDeleteI don't like robocalls but they don't scare me. My mother, on the other hand, gets really upset now that she is having trouble processing information. I keep trying to get her to just ignore the calls if she doesn't know the number on the ID screen. It's difficult for those with memory loss to remember what to do, though.
Robocalls seem to frighten quite a few older folks. The first time I heard the one that said agents from the IRS are coming to arrest you, that surprised me. I haven't gotten one of those calls in a long time. I don't know if the scam didn't pay enough or if the scammers were prosecuted and stopped.
DeleteI think we all know the frustration of such phone calls
ReplyDelete