05-12-2008, 11:39 PM
I used to work at a restaurant that was a couple of digits off from a local cab company. We would get calls all the time for cabs; eventually the office clerk got tired of it and started telling people that a cab would be there soon. If it was raining, she would tell them they had to wait outside. This was pre-Dogbert, but I still think she was the model for Dogbert in that regard.
Similar situation with an engineering firm I worked at that had a number similar to a local day spa. The receptionist got so tired of it that she started taking appointments.
In both cases, the situation was the same: the phone would be answered with the proper company name (say, "Hello, this is ABC"), the person would say, Is this XYZ?, and there'd almost always be an argument from the caller.
And I can do one better. That same engineering firm had the same suite number as a lawyer across the street (3502 versus 3501 as the street address). People -- who were involved in a class action suit kind of thing -- would come into the office and start demanding to see someone, even after we would explain that they wanted to be across the street.
The world makes a lot more sense when you realize most people are stupid.
Similar situation with an engineering firm I worked at that had a number similar to a local day spa. The receptionist got so tired of it that she started taking appointments.
In both cases, the situation was the same: the phone would be answered with the proper company name (say, "Hello, this is ABC"), the person would say, Is this XYZ?, and there'd almost always be an argument from the caller.
And I can do one better. That same engineering firm had the same suite number as a lawyer across the street (3502 versus 3501 as the street address). People -- who were involved in a class action suit kind of thing -- would come into the office and start demanding to see someone, even after we would explain that they wanted to be across the street.
The world makes a lot more sense when you realize most people are stupid.