Getting A Wrong Number--Do You Just Hang Up Or Say You Have A Wrong Number?
By sunshinelady
@sunshinelady (7609)
United States
April 28, 2007 11:43am CST
I have on occassion dialed a wrong number and when the person picks up and I realize I have dialed wrong I tell them that and than hang up. That doesn't happen to me when I pick up and to me it is probably getting a wrong number but they hang the phone up right away. At least to me a person should at least say sorry I have dialed a wrong number. Sorry for taking your time. This is what I say and sometimes I will tell them the number I have called and ask them if that is the number on their phone. I don't ask them what their phone number is to check it because if it was me I wouldn't give mine out. Once again my moms rules are coming through here because that is what she taught us to do is not just to hang up but tell them it is a wrong number and apologize. The way she explained it to us kids was that we had taken their time so that we needed to apologize even though we don't know the person. Another thing that has stuck with me over the years and I still do.
14 people like this
45 responses
@sunshine4 (8703)
• United States
28 Apr 07
I always say, "oh sorry, I must have dialed the wrong number." This way the person doesn't think that someone is just hanging up on him. Also with caller id, it might be someone I know and dialed by accident. I think that it is common curtisy to say sorry and not just hang up.
2 people like this
@abednego7 (1060)
• Philippines
28 Apr 07
Honestly sometimes whenever that happens to me and the person on the other end said I was dialed a wrong number, I will confirm first what was the number I actually dialed if he/shed say indeed a different number than what I supposed to dial then I would apologized and say sorry.
But most of the time I had not enough moment to say it because on the other side the line was already cut off. Sometimes people was too busy or just don't want to hear my saying of sorry or they just want to ignore it as if nothing happened.
2 people like this
@gberlin (3836)
•
28 Apr 07
When my kids would use that line about everyone else is doing it I would explain why I didn't want them to do it. I also tried to tell my kids 'yes' more than 'no'. If I could not come up with a good reason why they could not do something then I would say 'yes' they could.
1 person likes this
@sunshinelady (7609)
• United States
28 Apr 07
That is my way of thinking. I am not responsible for what others do. I am responsible for what I do. Another of my moms teaching. I would ask if I could do something with my friends and if she said no I would ask her why not everyone else is doing it. The only thing she would look at me and say is--if everyone else jumped off a bridge would you do it also. My mom and her responses and she knew it drove us kids crazy at times and at other times we would just laugh.
1 person likes this
@gabs8513 (48686)
• United Kingdom
28 Apr 07
Yes I do apologize as it is very annoying when you pick up the Phone and it just gets put down
Also these Days it is worrying when you get a call and the Phone just gets put down
I used to get Phone calls where they would ring and put the Phone down and then ring back again and it is very annoying
They did this every hour and for a week
So I never put the Phone down when I have dialled the wrong number I normally say Sorry I must have got the wrong Number I do apologize
@sunshinelady (7609)
• United States
28 Apr 07
Yes, it is annoying to me also when someone hangs the phone up on me. That factor and the fact that mom instilled in us that was not a very nice thing to do. So I always apologize and say I had gotten the wrong number.
@bananamanuk (835)
•
28 Apr 07
It is very rare that we get a wrong number, because most of the calls we now get that aren't meant to be received are cold callers trying to sell products or asking us to change our telephone service or something. They make my blood boil and I hang up on them straight away, it is a total invasion of privacy coming into people's home's like that. However, if we do get a genuine wrong number then I politely say, 'i'm sorry I think you've got the wrong number', it is a genuine mistake so it would be rude to just hang up on them.
1 person likes this
@sunshinelady (7609)
• United States
28 Apr 07
I don't have caller ID. So I don't know who is on the other end until I answer it.
@crackhead (1826)
• India
28 Apr 07
It happened to me once when i called one of my friends number after a long gap of almost an year. By the time my friend had changed her number and some one was alloted the number. Actually that never happens assigning the same number to a different person.
When i dialed the number which was on my mobile for a long time some other person attended the call. The persons voice was elderly and i thought it could be my friends dad, i asked him for my friend and he said which number would like to contact and which person. I was so puzzled and then read the number out and told my friends name. He said there is no one on that name, I had to apologize to him for calling and disturbing him during busy hours.
I do apologize if i dial a wrong number, i feel that is minimum courtesy cause we are disturbing some one. We never know how important work they might be doing.
1 person likes this
@sunshinelady (7609)
• United States
28 Apr 07
That is the thing that mom and dad brought out to us is we don't know what the person is doing who we called. It could be something important but even if it is not we should apologize for taking their time and never hang up without doing that.
1 person likes this
@pendragon (3350)
• United States
28 Apr 07
I always tell someone they have it wrong, we have a number that's similar to one at a nearby college and I'm always afraid it's a parrent looking for their student-child that's just moved here or something. Even if I see a wrong number on my ID box and they've left a message that's wrong, I'll call them back and say they didnt reach the correct number earlier.
1 person likes this
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
28 Apr 07
I definitely apologize and explain I have the wrong number. There is nothing wrong about having some manners and it's not the other person's fault that I dialed wrong or that the connection was wrong.
I also don't ask their phone number, when someone asks me I ask them who they want to talk to instead.
THat's how my mom taught me too, and that's how I taught my kids.
I bothers me to see that more and more people have no manners on the phone.
I taught my kids to always say their name and who they are before asking for their friends over the telephone and I"M glad they do, but most of their friends just answer to my "Hello" with: "Is katt there? " or " Can I speak to Andre".
@ElicBxn (63235)
• United States
29 Apr 07
What I hate more than someone calling & hanging up with a wrong number, is when they demand to know who I am. I say in a cold, calm voice. "Who are you looking for." I've had a few that got really hostile & I respond that they are the ones that called me, I'm not going to tell them who I am. Sometimes they'll give a number & its even mine, I will respond that they have that number, but I've had it "x" years & nobody by that name has ever lived here in that time.
Better than when I had a number close to a banks #, was working evenings & sleeping days & had a woman accuse me of lying to her when I told her she had a wrong number! I got that phone number changed!
1 person likes this
@Whisp1976 (488)
• United States
29 Apr 07
I say sorry and tell them I dialed the wrong number before politely saying good bye. Just hanging up is wrong. You don't know if, for example, you are telephoning a person who believes their partner has been unfaithful.
1 person likes this
@gourdiac (11)
• United States
29 Apr 07
I normally say im sorry I have the wrong number because I expect the same if someone mistakenly calls my number. Some people can be so rude. If they call me and wont say anything, I will say thank you for calling , I hope you have a nice day .. buh bye ! Guess this is a nice way for me to vent the frustration.
1 person likes this
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
30 Apr 07
I will say I am sorry I have dialed the wrong number. I find if you don't people will call you back because they have caller ID and then you have to explain you dialed the wrong number anyhow. I find the latter to be too embarrassing so I just tell them in the beginning that I dialed the wrong number.
If someone calls me and hangs up, I check out the number to see if I recognize it but I do not call back. I don't waste my time.
@magica (3707)
• Bulgaria
28 Apr 07
It depends of the manier of the person who calls. If he politely asks me about the abonat of this wrong number-i will reply also politely. But many people call and when they hear unknown voice- has somehow uneadequate reactions.They dont apologize, just say something not so polite or close the phone noisily:-(
Or are so confused that dont know what to say and just waiste my time.
1 person likes this
@whiteheather39 (24403)
• United States
28 Apr 07
I always excuse myslef. Usually other people who call and are wrong number also aplogogise. If they don't say anything within a couple of seconds then I hang up as it could be someone cchecking to see if I was home or a breather.
1 person likes this
@crazynurse (7482)
• United States
29 Apr 07
My mother and your mother must have been friends sunshinelady! I too, was taught to say that "I must have dialed a wrong number, I'm sorry to have bothered you." We are forever getting the hangup calls too and it is so annoying; not the fact that someone made me run to the phone, rather they were so incondsiderate as to not speak! Isn't it funny how good manners seemed to have washed away with the 'sands of time!'
@AmbiePam (85441)
• United States
28 Apr 07
I never hang up if I dialed a number in error. I just hate to be rude. And with caller ID, now days they can call back and ask who it was that called them. I just apologize for bothering them because I have dialed the wrong number. Most people are unfailingly polite if we are.
1 person likes this
@Zelmarq (12585)
• Cebu City, Philippines
1 May 07
I just say oh Im sory and I immediately put the phone down. feel humliated when I accidentally dial a wrong number.
