The joys of forwarding calls
A few years ago when I lived in Tampa, FL I got a land line with the phone number (813) 888-1234. Occasionally, someone living in the 813 area code would call an 888 toll free number and forget to dial a 1 before it, so they would accidentally call our house.
Not a big deal, but with an 888 prefix I figured that a few phone calls would be for a toll free phone number.
Well, one day after 8 pm there was a phone call. I didn’t recognize the number so I let the answering machine pick up. A man on the other end of the phone wanted to reserve a car. I had no clue what he was talking about, figured it was for a toll free number. I let it go. At night, we turn off our ringer on the house phone and leave our cell phones near us so if anyone calls us on that phone it must be important.
The next morning there were several more calls on the answering machine from various people asking to reserve cars! This went on over the next several weeks. One time we picked up the phone and asked who they were looking for. The people were looking for Hertz car rental, but the number they were calling was 813-309-9999 nothing even close to our phone number and NOT a toll free number. It was confusing.
I called the number we got from one of the people and I got a busy signal. So I figured that they were forwarding the calls to us by mistake instead of an 800 number. We went to the phone book and looked up to see if there was a toll free number listed there. There was and it was 1-888-123-4567. The first seven digits WERE OUR PHONE NUMBER!
We called the toll free number and told them that the local office is forwarding the calls to us and not to them and that they were losing business. We gave them the local number and they said that they would call someone at home and see if they can get them back in the office to change the number to them.
That didn’t work.
So, over the next few days we would get calls after 8pm asking for car rentals. So, we did what any person would do – we took reservations!
During that time, I called the phone company and told them to stop the forwarding because it’s harassing. They said that they could call the office and try to stop them, but they couldn’t do it themselves. I told them I could cancel my phone myself if nothing is done. That scared them a little bit.
That didn’t work.
So, my last chance was to call the local Hertz office myself. At 8am I started calling the number over and over until I got through. A woman picked up and I asked her what her name was and what number they forward their phone to. I told them that they’ve been forwarding it to our house and that they are losing business. I told here that if I received one more phone call for a car reservation I was going to be at their office waiting for them to open the door and will handle the problem in person!
That worked!
Sometimes a little threatening gets things done quicker than being nice to people.
