New cell phone etiquette w/wrong numbers, wrong caller

I got my phone last week and the person who must have had the number
before must have been a "popular" person because already I've used
almost 10% of my minutes answering wrong person calls and voicemail.
So what's the deal here? Should I ask for a new phone number before I
start using this phone number as mine? Faq?

You're kidding, right? This is a situation where you really need to
receive "our" permission!

tegtronis@yahoo.com wrote:
> I got my phone last week and the person who must have had
> the number before must have been a "popular" person
> because already I've used almost 10% of my minutes
> answering wrong person calls and voicemail. So what's the
> deal here? Should I ask for a new phone number before I
> start using this phone number as mine? Faq?

Doesn't happen too often because they put old numbers in
"limbo" for a period of time before recycling them. Call them,
ask them to credit you for the wrong number calls and ... yes,
get a new number...

-Quick

I don't believe that. They wait quite a long time before giving out the
number.

"Evan Platt" <evan@theobvious.espphotography.com> wrote in message
news:tudlc15qe5gmsmsd9a0a8gesq24mvjv9s1@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 4 Jul 2005 20:41:09 -0700, "Quick"
> <quick7135-news@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>Doesn't happen too often because they put old numbers in
>>"limbo" for a period of time before recycling them.
>
> That's what they say, but I called someone I knew one day, then called
> them again 3 days later, and it was a different person who told me
> they just got the phone yesterday. I called my friend at home and they
> confirmed they switched numbers. And their number was given out 2 days
> later.
> --
> To reply, remove TheObvious from my e-mail address.

If I'm not mistaken, it's an FCC mandate that phone nos
be put into a 90 day wait before re-issue. I know for a fact
that it used to be that way. I doubt it's changed since then.

If in fact these numbers are being re-issued, it may be
in violation of the FCC's rules. I'd check.


"Quick" <quick7135-news@NOSPAMyahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1120535246.807274@sj-nntpcache-3...
> tegtronis@yahoo.com wrote:
>> I got my phone last week and the person who must have had
>> the number before must have been a "popular" person
>> because already I've used almost 10% of my minutes
>> answering wrong person calls and voicemail. So what's the
>> deal here? Should I ask for a new phone number before I
>> start using this phone number as mine? Faq?
>
> Doesn't happen too often because they put old numbers in
> "limbo" for a period of time before recycling them. Call them,
> ask them to credit you for the wrong number calls and ... yes,
> get a new number...
>
> -Quick
>
>

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 20:05:10 GMT, "Ben Skversky"
<bskversky1@verizon.net> wrote:

>I don't believe that. They wait quite a long time before giving out the
>number.

While unbelievable, I wouldn't dismiss it out of hand. About 3 years
or so back, I got a "final bill" on my VZW account. I didn't really
think much about it, I thought they had changed my billing period for
some reason. I called into customer service about it, and when I gave
them my number and name, the info didn't match what was in their
computer. So I went to the store to get it fixed. What I found out
amazed me.

It turns out, someone (on a corporate account) had come into our local
store, signed up for VZW service, had requested a specific number
(which happened to be *MY* number, which is very "rememberable"), and
they attempted to assign my number to their account. For whatever
reason, which was never adequately explained to me, their billing
system didn't catch the error and allowed it to go through, which is
why I got the odd bill. Their authorization system, however, did
catch the problem, and refused to authorize my number on their phone.
Mine never lost its number and never stopped working. One would think
they would have caught a problem like that before the phone left the
store.

So the number doesn't even have to be out of service for their system
to allow it to be given out to someone else. I can only hope they've
changed things since.

tegtronis@yahoo.com wrote in
news:1120508164.980796.276080@g14g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com:

> Should I ask for a new phone number before I
> start using this phone number as mine? Faq?
>
>

Absolutely! The drug dealer before you had the number had lots of
"friends" you don't want to deal with...

--
Larry

You know you've had a rough night when you wake up and you're outlined in
chalk.

Yeah, I'd say since 1/ you're having problems with this number, and 2/ they
won't charge you to change the number, and 3/ you haven't widely established
the problem number as yours, then it seems you have absolutely nothing to
lose by changing.

Dean
_________________________________________
<tegtronis@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1120508164.980796.276080@g14g2000cwa.googlegr oups.com...
>I got my phone last week and the person who must have had the number
> before must have been a "popular" person because already I've used
> almost 10% of my minutes answering wrong person calls and voicemail.
> So what's the deal here? Should I ask for a new phone number before I
> start using this phone number as mine? Faq?
>