Absolute worst possible web mistake!

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Mark Rogers

Mark Rogers

CGF, Certified Grumble Framer
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Posts
138
Location
Dallas, TX
I realize this is a bold claim. If you feel you can top it, please do. I would be happy to let someone else be the owner of this claim. I already had my business phone number on the contact page and decided to add it to the bottom of all the web pages. I have web templates so with a quick change to the template, every page on my website is instantly updated. My number is listed as 1-877-5FRAMES(372637). A few weeks later, I get a call from a potential customer. He said I might want to update the number portion since it was not correct, and it was not a good number. He said when he first called it, he thought it was some sort of edgy marketing ploy but soon realized that it was way too edgy. Now you are probably thinking, so your phone number was wrong. That is not a big deal. Well it was worse than that. In fact, if it was the phone number of my #1 competitor, I would have been much happier. If you transpose the last two digits of my business phone number a female voice answers with "I am taking off my..." and it goes down hill from there.

Mark
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800, 888, 877, 866, 855 are the toll freebies.

When we set up our web page, I mistakenly listed the phone number to one of my other businesses on the web site. It stayed that way for over a month before we noticed! :(

Mike
 
Okay, guys, I think we all owe it to Mark to called that toll-free transposed number in order to objectively gage the seriousness of the problem.
 
Is that why your phone has been busy all day, Ron??
 
Where’s my phone????

I have to find out what she is taking off?

Is she a conservator and removing some tape? Hinges? What was that number again?

I’ll be back in a few minutes.
 
I had 1,000 glossy business cards printed with the number 270-684-0302. You can see my real number \/\/\/\/

BTW that number is Rite-Aid. I field 5 calls a day from people with Dyslexia looking for thier meds.
 
We have had our share of wrong numbers from people who either dial wrong, or get the wrong number from the phone company. A local 7-11,s phone number was one didget different from ours... and for about a year I fielded calls from people who wanted to know if the Slurpie machine was fixed.

The phone company would give our number instead of the Family Crisis Center. (Our store name is Family Crafts.) We would get calls from homes where you could hear yelling in the background.
 
Our phone number contains the sequence 911 twice. Once when I was helping my uncle move and set up in a new office, we were testing his phone line using a phone which was really cheapo, and on its last legs too, since that's all we had at the moment. Well, not all the buttons were responding to our dialing fingers as we called my shop to test the line. Do you know how hard it is to convince the 911 operator that there is really NO emergency, and that your bad phone dialed 911 by mistake?
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Rick
 
A Seafood Restaurant opened in my hometown last year. Huge sign out front looking for workers, Huge sign proudly displaying their name...... and MY home phone number!

Their number is 676-7900 mine is 676-7990.

When I called them they thought I was crazy, Took them two months to figure out that their sign was wrong! You wonuldn't believe the number of phone calls we got during those two months.

Had a phone number once, for a business I was running that ended with 7448 (crap)! Used that number for my fax and changed my other number to the main number!
 
There was someone renting a nice house in San Diego that had our 800 number on his sign. Of course, we had no way of getting hold of him to tell him that his sign was incorrect. Guess he finally rented it, because the calls stopped eventually.
 
Had a phone at home with the number so close to the cable television repair line that we fielded several calls each night at all hours. I was patiently nice until I finally lost it and told one caller who wouldn't listen to me that he had the wrong number that we'd be out to fix his cable right away.

D.M.
 
A couple of years ago, one of our PA state parks printed our phone number on their brochures for renting of cabins. Even though we answered the phone very clearly with "McLaughlin Photography" the party on the other end would start with "I need to rent a cabin for . . ." Even when we told them they had the wrong number - they would still want the reservation. It got so frustrating, I almost started telling people that yes, their reservation was confirmed - but, I couldn't be that mean
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I had that problem when I worked at a hosptal switchboard. Our number was similar to Pizza Hut's, and my answering the phone "Medical Center" didn't stop people from trying to order pizza.

Sometimes I would take their order.

This thread for some reason is making me think of all the other weird things I have done for a living besides picture framing.
 
I remember when 9-1-1 first came into being. The equipment and routing was always in place before the basic ignorance of the American Public came to light:

The service was first touted as 'Dial 9-11 for emergencies'

People, by the droves, called and complained that they couldn't find the number '11' on their phone. Hence the change from "In case of emergency, dial 9-11" to "In case of energency, dial 9-1-1"

And THAT'S no urban legend!
 
You're kidding!


I once had someone ask me where the "ANY" key was. ie: Press any key to continue...
 
At our previous home 242 and 241 were the most popular exchanges. When we moved in we were assigned 241-WXYZ. 242-WXYZ was a number for part of a local Medical Group. We had the number changed after a few weeks. The volume was overwhelming.

Here at the new store we just found out that we are listed in a yellow pages, other than the one we've paid to be listed in, under construction framing.
 
When I first got my 1-877 number, a lady called and thought I was another frame store, in a different state. Apparently, that store closed and I got their number. The lady surprised at what a coincidence it was that the number just happened to go to another frame store. I said, "not really, it is 1-877-5FRAMES after all".

Mark
 
Either the fones are going crazy or folks are getting dumber because my shop number gets more wrong numbers than it does right ones. The Buffalo Zoo is one digit off, the Irish Classical Theatre, The Sphere Nightclub and dozens of others are "somewhat" close to mine. This morning there was a message on my answering machine for Roger, telling him that his appointment with Dr. Stevenson was confirmed for next Monday at 2:30.

Luckily they left their phone number so I called to tell them that they would have to try Roger again - at his actual number! I hope someone would do the same for me!

Then this afternoon a lady phoned and thought I was the Electric Company and she asked why I had called her, as my number was listed in her caller ID. I asked her if she had had any framing done recently. We were both very confused by the end of the call.

Charles - is it possible that the fones ARE going crazy???
 
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