7.15.2005

hypo-ethical question

So let's say, hypothetically, that your phone number is one digit off from a seafood supply company.

And let's say you often get phone calls from restaurants looking to replenish their seafood supply. At all hours of the day and night.

And let's just say that you have a full fledged order for 10 pounds of rock shrimp and some sushi grade tuna and some salmon left on your voicemail - which clearly says that you are a regular human being named Susan and that you're not home right now, no mention of you being a seafood company.

Do you laugh and then just erase the message?

Or do you go the extra mile, call the restaurant back, let them know their mistake so that they can call the real number and order their seafood.

Hmm..... after almost 10 years of this, guess which I did today? There are going to be some hungry dissapointed folks at that restaurant tomorrow. Hopefully they have some other food on hand.

Does that make me a bad person? (of course they didn't leave their phone number. I would have had to find a phone book and look it up.)

One bonus of someday moving to New Jersey for novitiate? New phone number. No more seafood orders at 5 in the morning :)

3 comments:

lorem ipsum said...

When I was nine we got our phone number changed because my mother was being harrassed by a woman who was accusing another woman in her office of having an affair with her husband (but they had the same name, and somehow this woman got our unlisted phone number, because she was calling all day and night). Anyway, we ended up getting the number of a certain Clem Williams Films. They'd moved, but the old number (our new number) was still on their stationery, catalogues, etc.

Clem Williams was one of the makers of those educational films that are so laughable today. But in 1980 they were still popular, and we'd get calls all over the world - of course, in all corresponding time zones. So we got an answering machine and my dad recorded, 'This is NOT Clem Williams films!' Then he recited the correct number.

Well, that was a mistake. People would call back over and over again because they didn't catch the number. This was especially the case for people in different countries who were (a) evidently taken aback by this new technology and (b) unable to make out our local accent and probably (c) baffled that they dialed the 'right' number but still got someone on the other end telling them they were wrong.

So in the end the recording was, 'This is NOT Clem Williams Films. This is a RESIDENCE NOT A BUSINESS. We do NOT have the number. If you are trying to reach [our family], please leave a message.'

I think my parents did the right thing by offering the correct number, but then people take advantage of that. If I were to be in that situation, I'd record a message saying that this is NOT ABC Fish Company (the name should get their attention), a RESIDENCE NOT A BUSINESS, and no, I don't have the number.

Turn off the ringer and get caller ID so you can see if someone familiar is calling when you do have it on. And as for the order for all the shrimp, tuna and salmon, let the person who placed the order deal with it. But you might want to call the seafood people and let them know that you're getting calls from clients, so if one of the clients takes it up with them perhaps some conscientious person at the company can tell them to be more careful when dialing.

It's just a little while longer...

ps Clem Williams is still around, but eventually I guess they got new stationery and the calls tapered off to maybe one a month until my parents moved away in 1999.

Mark Mossa, SJ said...

Since, as we know, companies tend to be very proactive when it comes to the bottom line. Perhaps you should notify the seafood company about the situation and have then do something about it. They certainly would want to avoid lost business and unhappy customers!

And, no, you didn't do anything wrong by not correcting their mistake! If they choose to ignore the fact that the answering machine greeting does not say "Joe's Fish Market," I say their loss.

Susan Rose Francois, CSJP said...

Thanks for the input.

For the record, I do usually correct them if I happen to asnwer the phone. It's "224" not "234" I say....

sigh!