Yesterday, someone posted my small businesses 800 number on some sort of apartment search web site, presumably accidentally. I started getting 10-15 calls an hour on the line that normally gets one or two calls a month. Naturally I’m PAYING for each wrong number.
I’ve tried to ask the people who call, usually with screaming children in the background, to tell me where they got the phone number so I can go there and ask them to fix it. The almost universal answer is “the computer.” Can’t get anything else out of them and most want ME to then provide the correct number.
The number is routed through Twilio so I added some text before the call gets routed that says “COMPANY Emergency support line. If you are calling about an apartment you have the wrong number. Please hang up and report the error to the web site you got the phone number from. Otherwise please hold.”
Sadly, this cut back on only 60% of the calls. 30% STILL WAIT AND CONNECT and 10% leave a voicemail. What is wrong with these people. Naturally I have started answering “Tiger’s Luxury Condos, how can I help you.”
I had a problem like this, once. A web hosting company published our 800 number on their web site as their technical support number, apparently as the result of a typo. The problem went on for months after they fixed it, apparently because their customers had the number written down, or maybe had received it via some other channel (like email) which wasn’t as easy to update. Eventually I took to carefully explaining the situation to every person that called, and begging them to pursue updating the contact information within their own company. The problem finally tapered off, after many months.
This happened several years ago, and I had thought it to be part of history, until I received another such call a couple months ago. It must be the trailing end of a cantor set. I expect a few more calls to come in about July of 2011.
I’d ask for a deposit!