wrong number

We've all gotten and dialed the "wrong number." But what is usually a rare occurrence, is the norm at our house - receiving them that is. There is a doctors office in town that has the last 4 digits of our phone number and the first three digits are the same except the last digit. Ours is 533. The doctors office is 535.

We receive, on average, 5 "wrong numbers" a week. After assessing that I do not know the phone number and/or person calling from the caller ID, I sometimes answer and other times I just let the answering machine get it. I figure that the person calling will soon figure it out they called the wrong number once they hear my voice on the answering machine. If I do answer, I make sure that the person calling is corrected on their mistake and I hope and pray they will not repeat their careless error. After I correct the person calling, I immediately get, "You must get this a lot." Yeah. A LOT!

I've thought about calling the doctors office to please ask them to make sure their clients dial the right number, but it's really not their fault is it. I can see how people do dial the wrong number, but the frequency in which receive them makes me think that people are downright off in space half the time.

All the wrong numbers are really not too much a nuisance, except for the one day we had 7. It's more of a mild annoyance. I am thankful for caller ID so I can "screen" the wrong numbers. If I was answering all the wrong numbers, that would be a MAJOR annoyance!