telephone numbers

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steveno

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I dropped my land line years ago but I was curious so I called it just see if it still disconnected or reused. it was still disconnected. I was just wondering after so many years if the number would ever be reused or forever disconnected? just curious
 
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I once had a recently reissued landline number.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk
 
bigwheelzip said:
I once had a recently reissued landline number.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Me, too. I was issued the number very shortly after it had been disconnected from the prior owner. The prior owner was a building contractor who had skipped town owing a LOT of people money. I had to convince a bunch of irate callers that I wasn't him.
 
When I had a landline, I would get call's from MANY creditors looking to get their money, from other people.
Eventually I put the phone on mute and let the answer machine take a message.
So, yes, phone numbers do get reissued.
 
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I lived in a small town in the early 90s and would get calls about dinner reservations. The restaurant had been closed for about 2 years. Not fun when you work night shift and they would call around noon.
 
Using whatever search engine. type in your full telephone (area code)number and see what you find out about yourself!:eek:


999-123-4567
 
My business line is the old number of a local attorney who died about three years ago. I got it a year after he died, and I wanted that number or another similarly styled number to match our office number in a different town. I still get calls for the lawyer, and I refer decent calls to my attorney friends. I've also gotten a little business myself from those "wrong" numbers . . .
 
swsig said:
Me, too. I was issued the number very shortly after it had been disconnected from the prior owner. The prior owner was a building contractor who had skipped town owing a LOT of people money. I had to convince a bunch of irate callers that I wasn't him.
Click to expand...


I had a similar problem with my current landline, but it was only one very persistent collection agency. Curiously enough, once I took the call and explained the situation they never called back.
 
Jeff423 said:
I had a similar problem with my current landline, but it was only one very persistent collection agency. Curiously enough, once I took the call and explained the situation they never called back.
Click to expand...

Years back we had that problem, one collector would not listen that we were not the party he wanted or even knew that party.

I had his call back number and gave it to my attorney friend/gun club shooter. At that point the collector never called back.:)
 
My late mother in the UK about 20 years ago noticed the telephone repair man removing her line and reconnecting it across the road. She tried her phone and found it dead (just in case she had been incorrect). Tackling the repairman she was told that it was being transferred to a new subscriber. To cut a long story short, all 4'11" and 85 lbs of her hightailed it to the local telephone company and "persuaded" (using the tactic that she was not moving until it was changed back), the company to reconnect her line (she had had the same number since 1944). Needless to say she returned home to find a very irate 6 foot plus man from across the street demanding that the line be reconnected, she told him to talk to the phone company!!. He was not a happy camper!! So it occurs in other places as well. Dave_n
 
I had the same land line # for 40+ years so when I dropped my landline I had the number ported to my cellphone.
 
They tend to let them sit disconnected for a period of time, usually 90 days but in high use areas it can be faster. Yours may have been reused several times over that period and it's just coincidence that it was disconnected when you checked.
 
Some guy owing Harley-Davidson for a cycle died and I got his number.

I found his Online obit. and finally got collectors to accept his death.

No idea who got the bike. I'd never heard of him.
 
My office private line was the same number, different area code, as the VA Hospital in central Texas. I was regularly getting calls checking on patients, and even when told they dialed the wrong area code, they'd still call back. I told one persistent, rude caller that that person had just died - never called back.
 
Leon, whoever you are and wherever you have roamed, you must be leading an interesting life trying to stay ahead of all those folks who call my wife about you. Your name is part of our family lore now.:D
 
My previous landlines have all been reassigned. I note how many wrong numbers I get with my flip phone. One Sunday afternoon I kept getting text messages, looked like a bunch of kids with Indian names trying to connect with each other.
 
Not exactly the same thing but, some good friends of mine used to have a number that was one number off from the hospitals emergency number (this is pre 911). They typically got a couple of calls a month for an ambulance. The final straw came when a little kid called and was crying because something had happened to one of his parents. My friends were pretty shook up about it and were finally able to get the phone company (there used to be only one) to change their number.
 
Something like happened to a friend, in his case number was a very easily remembered one, he said the phone company asked him if they could reassign it to the first aid squad.
 
Our landline is one off from a Veterinary Hospital and we get their calls sometimes. We politely tell them they miss dialed and tell them what our number is and the number you want is xxx-xxxx. Sometimes they flub it more than once.
Wife has had the landline number since the dark ages.
 
I too dropped my land line years ago. I felt dumb for having not done it long before.

Anywho, my cable TV has a new feature that alerts me to incoming phone calls. To my number that I haven't had in years. I assume it's still unassigned and it's just robo calls to all numbers. I thought it Twilight Zone first time it happened. Who'd call my TV?
 
I got a new cell phone with a new number last November. I now know the name, former address, social and business contacts of the woman who previously had it. I still get about 2 or 3 texts and 1 or 2 phone calls per week from them. Apparently she relocated and didn't tell a soul she was moving, not even her party friends or her hairdresser. I've been invited to the Outer Banks, skiing at Wintergreen and notified about a hair appointment every month since November. Even though I took a chance and informed the callers and texters that she no longer had this number, more new ones keep on coming. I guess the phone company doesn't wait to reassign a number.
 
Yes they do reuse them after a few years. I moved last year and it was to a different area code so the phone company assigned a new number. At first I wasn't even going to bother with a land line but I live in a rural area and get a lot of dropped calls on my cell phone.

Anyway, not everyone reports this, but some people I have called tell me that the caller ID that comes up on their phone is a woman's name and not mine. They didn't pick up the first time I called them as they didn't recognize the name so I left a message. Other people tell me that my name shows up on their caller ID function. Weird.
 
I inherited a company cell phone from my predecessor. (he had been fired for theft!)

About 9PM one night after I'd been there a few weeks, I got a call from a "Gravel voiced broad" telling Gary, that he had been a "Very Very Bad Boy", and she wanted to do something about it. I told her that he quit his job, after he found out he had aids!

Ivan
 
Since this thread is about phone #'s I have a question.
Years ago I had an 800# Ported into my cell phone & I was charged per call. The bill for 800 # stopped after about 2 years. I finally tracked down the company who was carrying it.
I was told that the original company had changed hands . Then the company that bought the 2nd company changed hands.
I was told that it would cost them (3rd Co.) more $$ to locate it than it was worth so I have a free 888 phone # for life or as long as that phone # which it is ported from is active .
In other words a company could get thousands of Toll free calls @ no charge.
What would the value be if I sold it. It's an 888 #
 
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The phone companies definitely recycle phone numbers. I moved here 14+ years ago and I started getting phone calls for a person I never heard of. He didn't ever live here because I'm the first owner of this house. I was working then so I received a lot of messages that had a tone that sounded like whoever they thought they were calling must have owed them money. I never returned the calls. They stopped for awhile but then started up again. I still refused to return the calls and finally they must have figured out that I wasn't who they were looking for.
 
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