'[My family] is not a Chinese takeaway': Dad gets revenge on a local Chinese restaurant after they refuse to take his family's phone number off of their menus

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Apr 15, 2024 5:00 PM EDT

Remember the good ol' days before caller ID and before everyone had a cell phone? We all had landlines with a 20ft cord that left a trail to whomever was hogging the family phone. If your older sister wasn't clogging up the line with gossipy phone calls, your landline phone was likely sitting on its little holster, waiting to harbor wayward answering machine messages from your neighborhood friends. Oh, what a peaceful time.

However, for the guy in our next story, peace was not an option when his landline was ringing off the hook. When a local Chinese restaurant mistakenly listed his family phone number as their takeaway line, chaos ensued and the orders came flying in. Unluckily for the Chinese restaurant, this dutiful dad wasn't going to go down without a fight. To restore his family phone's inner peace, he fought fire with fire, dousing the Chinese restaurant's already shaky reputation in a duck sauce dripping with petty revenge.

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  • 01
    Posted by u/officialslacker Not a Chinese Takeaway Growing up, our house number was one digit from the local Chinese Takeaway & on a batch on menus sent out, our number was put on instead.
    via officialslacker
  • 02
    Friday, Saturday & Sunday we'd get calls trying to place orders. Didn't matter how many times we'd tell people they were calling a private number and not a takeaway, we still got calls.
    via officialslacker
  • 03
    The Chinese refused to do anything about it and my parents didn't see that they should change their number so my dad would take orders (putting on different voices), tell them it'd be 40 minutes for delivery & if they called
    via officialslacker
  • 04
    back, he'd apologise and tell them he'd throw in some free spring rolls or whatever & the driver was just leaving. If they called back again, he'd tell them they'd called the wrong number and gave the actual restaurants number for them to call and complain to.
    via officialslacker
  • 05
    Went on for a few weeks, but the menus were redone & sent out & the takeaway ended up changing number in a bid to stop my dad taking orders
    via officialslacker
  • 06
    mysticalfruit 5 hr. ago This sounds similar to a story I heard about a woman who'd lived in some town for 20 years with the same number and some big hotel chain opened a new hotel and their phone number was a single digit off.
    via officialslacker
  • 07
    When she started getting calls, she called the hotel and explained and asked they change their number, apparently they were to her, so well.. she started taking reservations, a lot of them..
    via officialslacker
  • 08
    Oh.. Wedding on Sat? Sure.. Train expo on Sat? Sure.. Biker Rally.. oh on Sat? Absolutely! Basketball team needs rooms.. On on Saturday, plenty of room! She'd then drive by and just watch the chaos unfold. Six months later.. they changed their number.
    via officialslacker
  • 09
    . Grouchy-Ad4338 · 6 hr. ago Great one. Your dad got a good revenge. Having said that the restaurant must be run by morons. I mean why won't they correct the menu when it would mean bunch of people with incorrect number won't be ordering from them. If I was in their place then I would correct it right away.
    via Grouchy-Ad4338
  • 10
    officialslacker OP 6 hr. ago From what I remember, it closed and re-opened a few times over the years - wasn't particularly well ran. Also rumours that the ducks from the river running through the town also ended up at the takeaway..... Not sure how true that one was though
    via officialslacker
  • 11
    Peterthinking ⚫ 4 hr. ago I was one number off a local Pizza joint. I would take orders and tell them the delivery driver's car broke down but if they come pick up it's free.
    via Peterthinking
  • 12
    Esau2020 4 hr. ago "And we'll throw in a coupon for 50% off your next order to make up for the inconvenience." + 20 Reply Share Gex1234567890 - 3 hr. ago Brilliant.
    via Esau2020
  • 13
    Construction No8324 3 hr. ago 'Sorry we can't take any orders right now. We've been closed by the health department and don't know when we'll reopen." ↑ 50 Reply Share OneRedSent · 3 hr. ago Best one yet!
    via Construction No8324
  • 14
    Harry_Mopper . 4 hr. ago Similar thing happened to us with debt collection people. Freaked my dad out and eventually I said "do you know where we live?" "Of course we know (then gives address not ours)"
    via Harry_Mopper
  • 15
    "Good come round in 20 and I'll fight you for it. Bring anyone you want but has to be 20 minutes as yer maw" I'm busy Don't know if they ever showed up but the caller was not happy after that
    via Harry_Mopper
  • 16
    Union_of_Onion . 4 hr. ago Just tell everyone that calls that this is not the Chinese take-away. They are connected to a private residence on a white, slimlined telephone with last-number redial facility.
    via Union_of_Onion
  • 17
    MattTheTable 4 hr. ago I worked at a pizza chain in college that made a similar mistake when sending out flyers. Some old lady kept getting calls for our store. Management ended up paying for her to get a new number and having the old one routed to our store.
    via MattTheTable
  • 18
    Jataylor1 4 hr. ago My work number was one number off from McDonalds and people would call and I would answer with business name. I offered a guy an overnight job for a place not open overnight because he didn't listen.
    via Jataylor1
  • 19
    99999999977prime 5 hr. ago I heard that the first time where the wrong number was for a golf course and they gave out tee times. 14 Reply Share Kyra Heiker 5 hr. ago You don't mess with the sacred tee time, lol.
    via 99999999977prime
  • 20
    He'd tell them it'd be 40 minutes for delivery and if they called back, he'd apologize and tell them he'd throw in some free spring rolls or whatever and the driver was just leaving. If they called back again, he'd tell them they'd called the wrong number and give the actual restaurant's number for them to call and complain to.
    via canva

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family phone takeaway chinese restaurant landline revenge phone petty revenge chinese food restaurant revenge stories nostalgic dad family food Reddit payback funny caller ID
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