Die, Donald Williams, whoever the hell you are.

[gridlore]

All morning, starting at 0830, I've been getting calls from Circut City for Donald Williams. See, Donny-boy bought a shitload of crap from the Evil Red Empire on credit and hasn't paid a dime yet.

And he gave them this phone number. Along with an address in Carson City, Nevada!

So I've just gotten off the phone with some second tier supervisor, explaining that Donald Williams doesn't live here, we've been here nearly three years, I've never heard of Donald Williams, and haven't set foot in a Circuit City in years. Stop calling me. When the supervisor went "well, this is the number he gave me.." I went off.

Me: "So, you're in Carson City?"

Manager: "Yes."

Me: "Tell me, is 408 a local area code for you?"

Manager: "No, it's 775."

Me: "So what the fuck does it tell you that Mr. Williams gave you a local address and a phone number in San Jose, California? He scammed you, sir. I'm willing to bet that the address he gave you is a vacant lot or closed business. Do not call me anymore. If you need to contact me in the future, use the mail. (gives address.) I do not know Donald Williams, but if I ever meet him, I will rip out his lungs. "

One draw back to cordless phones, you can't slam the receiver down.

Comments

I feel your pain.

[biomekanic.livejournal.com]

Many years ago, when I lived in Denver and didn't have caller ID yet.

rings at 5PM
"Hello?"
Man's voice, gruff: "Hello, is Michael Bloss there?"
"Speaking, who's this?"
"How do you feel about being a no account, dead beat? Do you like stealing other peoples money, not paying your bills?" Loudly mind you.
"Who the fuck is this and what the fuck are you talking about?"
"I'm Jim with Reynold's collections, and you owe Public Service [the local power company] $500 for your bill from when you lived on Fox street."
"I just paid my bill, and I've never lived on Fox street you jackass!"
In a much smaller voice "Are you a dentist?"
"No, I'm not a dentist, you dumb fuck, have you called and harrassed him too? Are you just looking up Michael Blosses in the phone book and cold calling us!?!"
"Umm...yes."
"If I wasn't a Quaker I'd hunt you down and put my foot so far up your ass you'd taste boot. If I catch wind of you doing this again, I might just ask God for an exemption in your case, got me."
"Yes, sir" *sounds extremely contrite*
"You damn well better." I had the satisfaction of slamming the reciever down.
I'm not sure how many Michael Blosses there were in Denver at that time. At least 5 of us had library cards (and I had a friend who's dentist was... Michael Bloss). It's not a common name, and freaked me out when I found out I was one of many.
We got a lot of phone calls and emails last year about this (http://www.ahalenia.com/memorial/mbloss.html).

[jilesa.livejournal.com]

With cell phones and nation-wide unlimited calling plans, I wouldn't necessarily assume that a non-local area code paired with a local address = a scam. There was a period of time when I first moved here when I had a cell phone with an Arizona area code, no landline phone, and a Baltimore address. I could easily have kept the cell phone number, because I had nationwide calling, so it didn't matter where 'home' was.

[johno.livejournal.com]

Similar thing happened started happening to me on my cell phone, while we were in Toronto. No matter how many times I told the reps I was not the person they were looking for, updated my phone message to say "This is JohnO's phone, NOT XYZ's phone." they keep calling.

Turns out I was incurring INTERNATIONAL rates for these calls.

When we got home I reviewed the message and by digging on the net I found out which collection agency they were, where the call center was located, etc, etc, etc. Hell, I'd even tracked down XYZ.

Of course they called again, I politely asked to speak with a supervisor. Got the supervisor, asked if all the previous calls were on record and the responses I gave. Yes they were. Then I layed into her, in my cool calm icy cold professional voice, asking how many times I had to tell them I wasn't XYZ. That they knew they were calling me on vacation, in another country. That I knew where they were, where XYZ was. And no I wasn't going to tell them, because he was EASY to find. And that if they EVER called me again, I was going to come to ADDRESS and personally deliver a bill for all the international rate calls I had racked up and follow-up expenses.

I never received another phone call from them again.

The real kicker was I was at the DMV dealing with a issue, which before the call came in, the clerk had wanted me to deal with the issue by going here-there-and-everywhere standing in line at each place.

After the call I turned back to her, and politely said, but not in the scary pro voice, "Sorry about that, but they've been bugging a lot. Now where were we?"

She responded by saying "Wait, here, I'll take care of everything." Including getting my picture taken again, I was out of there in 10 minutes.