Persistent Wrong Number calls

**DyLinn** · 07-29-2012, 08:21 AM

For the past month we have been receiving calls to our landline (number that we have had for many years) from several different people (caller ID shows several different numbers) all looking for the same person. When asked what number was dialed, so that we can try to help them punch the right numbers, they give a number that is wildly different from ours ... no way it is just a misdial. I Googled and found that number (not ours) was a Cricket phone. We called our landline provider, but they said it wasn't their issue, and when we got more wrong number calls, we asked them to call their provider (Cricket was confirmed.) I even called Cricket, tried to explain I was not their customer, but was getting calls for one of their customers, and they said to remove the battery to reboot the phone. Apparently the Cricket customer did this, but it hasn't worked. (We are getting to know this family very well. :/ ) My question is, is there anything WE can we do about it?? We have been receiving the calls for this one phone number for about a month now. At first they were friendly enough, saying sorry wrong number, etc., but now they are starting to be rude and angry. They call at all hours of the day and night. I have tried multiple web searches to see if anyone has any answers, but no luck. Thank you in advance for any suggestions or information!!

**TWC42** · 07-29-2012, 08:55 AM

You are not going to like my suggestion, but we were in your situation in a slightly different way. We had the same landline number for 44 years, and we were inundated with telemarketing calls. There was no way to block those calls by our landline provider (Verizon). So we ditched our landline. We carried our number over to a VoIP service that provided call filtering. It was cheaper than our landline, since we already had high speed Internet service. When we got a telemarketer, we blocked the number. After a year or so, we had more numbers blocked than we had contacts, so we switched to a "White List" where only calls on the list came through and all others went to voicemail. Eventually, we dropped the VoIP service and went strictly with our cellphones. It was a painless transition. We just notified all our friends that as of a certain date, we were dropping our home number and please call us on our cells. We kept the home number for a month to catch stragglers, but there were none. Nowadays, who dials a number anyway? They just make the change in their phone directories and that's it. We rarely get a telemarketer on our cell, and if we do, it's easy to block their number. We would never go back to a landline, an outdated service that has no user controls. YMMV

**whitey10tc** · 07-29-2012, 08:26 PM

What happens if you call the number in question from your landline? Does it goto their voicemail, rings on your callwaiting, goes to your voicemail.
If that's a case it could be a callforwarding issue. Other issues could be at the local switch, or an internal problem at cricket.

**DyLinn** · 07-30-2012, 07:18 AM

We were able to reach the intended person. The first time it happened the daughter was looking for the mother and we contacted the mother and gave her the message. So, not a call forwarding issue. I was hoping someone here had some inside information on how to contact a person at Cricket that can actually help. It was hard to make the person I talked to understand that I was not a Cricket customer and therefore did not have the phone and could not remove the battery. I asked them to get in contact with their customer somehow, but I doubt that ever happened. (I have since read that taking the battery out is probably not the answer anyway.) If Cricket can't/won't help, is there an organization (FCC?) that could be contacted to persuade Cricket to get their problems sorted out??

Thanks!!

**whitey10tc** · 07-31-2012, 03:56 PM

Unfortunately the FCC won't be much help unless the cricket customer complains. My suggestion either you or the cricket customer pay a visit to a cricket corp store and speak with the manager who will submit a trouble ticket on the problem. It could be a local switch problem.

**DyLinn** · 07-31-2012, 04:08 PM

That's kinda what we thought, but hoped maybe there was something we hadn't thought of. Thank you.

**RedStickHam** · 08-10-2012, 03:01 PM

A friend of mine had a similar problem once while there was some road construction going on in his area. He lost his phone service one day due to a construction crew cutting his line and when it was reconnected, he started getting wrong numbers for someone he never heard of. He called his own number from another phone and it rang in someone else's house. Apparently, the phone company didn't repair the line properly so everyones lines were crossed!

Fortunately, he was able to get it fixed, but it was annoying to him for a while.