Typo on lawyer's card leads to year-long call nightmare for wrong number recipient, they get sweet revenge.
"Lawyer refused to correct his business cards."
ethidiumbrimide
So this was quite a few years ago, early 2000s. At this point, I had my cell number for about 4 years. Then, one night, I got multiple call from someone who only spoke Chinese, I kept telling them they had a wrong number, which I'm pretty sure they didn't understand.
These calls persisted every few weeks at all times of day and night, but most frequently between midnight and 3am. Eventually, after about 6 months, I received a call from a legal assistant to a lawyer named Colin W.
She explained to me that there was a typo on his business cards. Instead of a 3 in his phone number, it has a 2, which was my number. She asked if I received calls just to give the person the correct number.
I responded that one 99% off the calls I receive are from people that only speak Chinese, and two can they just get new cards or write the proper number on it. She responded that they ordered a lot of cards and didn't want to order new ones. But they'll make an effort to put the correction on the card.
About 4-5 months went by with no late night calls, so I figured the problem was solved. But I was wrong because they stared up again, this time more frequent, like every two to three days, multiple calls a day at all hours.
So I called Collin W. He apologize and said that he ran a very small immigration law firm and that his legal assistant had quit and it was her that made the phone number correction on the card and he was far too busy to remember to make the correction everytime he handed out his cards.
He asked if I could just give the person calling the correct number. I told him that was almost impossible because 99% of his clients didn't speak English, which he replied with try your best and hung up.
This really frustrated me, but what could I do. For the next few months, I tried my best to correct people. But very few understood me and would repeatedly call me after I hung up on them.
Then, one day, I was at the mall with friends. A lady at one of those kiosks asked if I'd like to enter a contest to win a trip to Florida or Mexico. My friend was like, "Don't it's a time share scam and as soon as they get your number they constantly call you with "you won a free trip, that you have to pay fees for".
That's when I had a great thought of how to get my petty revenge. I entered Colin W. Into the contest, in fact, there were multiple contests at the mall I entered him into, from trips to free gym memberships, too gift cards!
Side note, i've been receiving calls for this guy for almost a year. Besides his name and number, I looked up his law firm address and email online. Because he wouldn't take my call of me complaining, I had emailed him to get new cards and even wrote a snail mail letter to get him to fix his cards.
I had a lot of downtime at work, so I started to enter him into contests online, usually 5 to 15 in a day. I did this 5 days a week when I was at work, and anytime I was out shopping, for about 8 months.
I would have continued longer, but at about the 8 months mark, I stopped getting calls for Colin W. Around a week after that, I looked him up online, and he had changed his cellphone number!
Edit: I forgot that summer. My boss hired his nephew for high-school credits. He thought what I was doing was hilarious, so he spent a lot of his time there contributing to my petty revenge.
Here were the top rated comments from readers in response to the OP's post:
JustSomeGuy_56
The phone company split off the area where I live into a new area code. A few months later they assigned my number in the old area code to a trash hauler. All their trucks and dumpsters had their number, without the area code, painted on the side. I started getting calls from people wanting to rent a dumpster.
I called the company and suggested they paint the area code on their trucks. They basically blew me off. So when people called to rent a dumpster I’d tell them we were sold out and gave them the number of another hauler.
KombuchaBot
WTF, business cards aren't even expensive. And what's the point of giving out cards with the wrong number on them?
foxx-hunter
Should have learned Chinese to tell those people this number belongs to a scammer who will run with your money.
AbruptMango
Wait a year, then do it to his new number. He did it to your number for a year before you started doing it in return, so you still have a year of doing it before you're even.
Nomellettedufromage
I might have agreed to give out the number for him as long as paid me the same hourly rate he charged for all the time I was on the phone with his clients.
CoderJoe1
I expected you to make multiple appointments for him at conflicting times, but your method worked out just as well.
RumBunBun
I would have told Collin W. that no, instead of giving callers HIS phone number, I’d be giving them one of his competitor’s phone numbers. That would probably help him remember to make the correction when handing out cards.
FIContractor
You should look up another immigration law firm in town and start directing people to call them instead. It’s not their fault they have the wrong number, they just need immigration help. Maybe if Colin loses some business he won’t be as busy and will have time to correct the number on his business cards.