Pulling My Hair Out - Saint Louis,MO

Since we moved to Dover every collection agency known to man, as well as a drug delivery business, has been looking for Ralph and Tina Heverin.

THAT'S RALPH AND TINA HEVERIN. IF YOU KNOW THEM TELL THEM TO CALL THEIR CREDITORS AND THAT THEIR MEDICAL SUPPLIES ARE ON SALE AT DISCOUNTED PRICES. ALSO, THEY HAVE WON A FREE CRUISE IF THEY JUST WATCH A FEW VIDEOS.

Sorry, had to get that out there just in case anyone knows them, because I have yet to get these folks to stop calling me and we've been doing it for 2 years now.

I would change my phone number. It's a major hassle to do it the other way, and likely it wont stop. As for the mail, I ship the letters back with a big black marker that says, "RETURN TO SENDER> NOT CORRECT NAME AND ADDRESS". Sometimes that works.

For years I got phone calls at 7 in the morning asking for a truckload of sand, bricks, and other construction materials. At first I explained they had
the wrong number. After about 25 years of this I finally gave in and would
give them a delivery time!! I know I am bad. You see back in 1975 the
first three numbers of their company were listed incorrectly. They were
listed as mine. The four numbers after that were the same. Now I have been here for 37 years and on accasion will still get the phone call. Who
keeps a phone book that long!!! I think people just put my number in their
memory. Oh well. Also when we got our number for years I had people
calling the Phillips family. Doesn't anyone notify people when they move?
Oh well.

There was a time in the past that I was getting calls for a women with my same first and maiden name. She apparantly lived a more exciting life than I did since it was always men and usually late at night... They wouldn't believe I wasn't the one they were calling for. Then I started getting purely obscene phone calls. Yuck... It only stopped when we moved, we changed our number, and I was only listed in the "book" under my married name.

I have a friend who has been getting calls from people interested in buying his helicopter (?). He finally googled and found an ad for a helicopter with his phone number listed.

I had something like that happen. I was getting calls all hours of the night. Except people wouldn't say anything just hang up on me. After quite a while someone asked to make a collect phone call. I'm like what? After I got off the phone I looked at my phone number and realized is was
CALL- ATT. In stead of calling 1 800 they were using the area code.

I'm not sure if At&T is still around but that was their number to call collect. I called my phone company and demanded that they change my number for free since its a number that shouldn't be used. They politely changed it.

Call your phone carrier and have they change your number or they will never stop calling you.

On another frustrating note my husband got a new phone from his work and the number of the phone is apparently a number that someone who didn't pay their bills so he gets collection calls all the time and they won't take his number off the calling list. And they don't' believe he's not the person who owes money.

Added - Boy, J., that blows. Tells you that these people weren't on the up-and-up!

Original:
The first year I lived here I got so many calls in Spanish because the phone number I was assigned used to belong to a Spanish family. I know enough Spanish to be able to tell them that they have the wrong number, but it was constant for around 9 months. I don't get any phone calls now. I still get some mail for the prior occupants, but your mail might be different in that it's for a business. I think that if I were getting credit card apps with YOUR address, I'd shred them (is that illegal?) so that no one else gets them and uses your address to get credit. That way you can control your address info better. I don't like the idea of a credit card app floating around in the mail. These places never take off names, it seems.

Dawn

send all the mail back return to sender, not at this address. All of it. When you get a phone call, don't joke with them, tell them they have the wrong # and hang up. Don't give them any stories. And call that 800# for do not call list, and sign up. You can probably google the #. In all the 20+ years that we had our old phone #, we always got calls for Pizza Hut. It got to be ridiculous. I started asking people, which one are you trying to call. It was always the same location so we figured the lines were getting crossed or something. Anyway short of that, I don't know what else to say.

I occasionally make a tanning appointment for an annoying lady that mistakenly calls my house every 2 months or so. At first I would tell her it was the wrong number but then she kept making the same mistake - but not every day or week so I know she can dial the salon correctly. She's the only one that does this (i know her by caller id now!) so I either book her appt or tell her we are full for the week. I would love to be at the salon when she shows up!

We just changed our phone number - but whatever number you get used to belong to someone else... Ours belonged to a Branson Ticket Outlet - so it was all over the internet and everything..!!!

oooh J.!!

This sooo sucks!!! Wait! Wait!! YOU ARE Reliable Workforce!!! I know it!!! You are the most reliable worker in your office!! Wait? They aren't calling the office? Darn - thanks for the offer!! :) (are you laughing? Please tell me you are laughing?!?!)

We were (after 15 years of living here) getting mail from the people who owned the home prior to us (they were rentals). I finally got fed up because I had been doing the "return to sender" stuff - it didn't work obviously - so I
took all the mail to the post office - dumped it on them and say "does my house look like a business? Is THIS my name? No?! Okay - then STOP delivering it to MY address." These are the names that should receive mail at this address...fix it now.

As to the phone? I would tell my carrier to get their head out of their rear end and if they can't - then they need to change my number - AT NO COST TO ME.

I would love to come out and help you take it to the post office!!! that would be fun!!

Looks like so many people have this problem! I can't tell you how to fix it, but I can empathize. We're constantly getting calls to help people set up their home entertainment systems--the company's number is listed in all the different yellow pages with our home number. Like you, we are in a home that we built, so are the first owners. My husband wants to open a business and start giving quotes! "How hard can it be?" Ha!

We found out quickly after getting our current number that it used to belong to a nurse at our local hospital. We'd get her "on call" phone calls. I had to call and tell them this was no longer her number and they needed to get her new number from her as she obviously did not give it to them or they forgot to change it in their system. Thankfully it didn't last long. Another time I had to look up the number for the place people were looking for and actually gave it to the wrong callers. Our number was close to another business and there as a typo.
I don't know why people are lazy about fixing things like this.
As for the credit cards..I would get your credit report from https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp It's free to get one a year from the 3 credit reporting bureaus as put into law by the government. I would look to see if anything shows up that shouldn't be there just in case. I would send the ones you get back, unopened with "Not at this address" written in big letters to see if it helps. There might be something you can fill out at the post office as well that says this is not my mail. I'm not totally sure about that though.

When I was employed, another business incorrectly listed our business phone as theirs - they were a community college in Arkansas, we were a real estate school in Washington State. The callers would say they were students and ask about classes and get upset when we had no idea what they talking about. I finally got someone to tell me that they'd gotten our phone number from flyers posted around town.

That said - it's possible that your phone number is one digit off from Reliable Workforce or the ethnic food market. Look them up for your own peace of mind, and either provide the correct # to the callers, or simply say "You've mis-dialed. This is a private residence."

I know someone who was working with BOA to avoid foreclosure. At one point, she started getting mail for "the new owners." (She got a loan fix, and she can stay). Look into it.