'Dr. Newintown called and begged him to stop': Family man's landline inundated with misdials from a local business, so he books 100s of fake appointments to force the company to change numbers

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Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor
Aug 7, 2025 6:00 PM EDT

A local doctor tried to use a family man's landline as an unpaid reception desk. Despite realizing that their phone numbers were only one digit apart, he didn't care much that the father-of-three was receiving calls for his business and refused to budge. As it turns out, he should have heeded the warnings of the dad, who was now inadvertently fielding a ton of their company's incoming calls and creating the most chaotic, fake schedule possible. 

Say goodbye to your early-out Fridays, because you'll be having 10 customer walk-ins just before you're about to clock out. 

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  • You want me to answer your office phone for you while I am working from home? M Several years ago, a friend ("Mark") started a home-based computer software business. He and his wife
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  • lived in their home for about 10 years and had a well-established home phone number. This was around the time that cell phones were just beginning to be popular, so 95% of people still used mainly landlines. Mark worked 2pm-10pm,
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  • the same shift as his wife, so his customers could be free to discuss their computer needs uninterrupted after their own businesses closed for the day. Most computer maintenance still had to be done in person instead of remotely, so
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  • customers could drop off devices after work and pick them up from Mark's back porch on their way to work the next day. All went swimmingly for a few months until a new doctor opened up a practice in town, complete with
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  • a telephone number differing from Mark's by one digit. Mark's number had a '3' where the medical office had an '8' in the last 4 number combination. Misdialing was frequent. At first there were occasional calls to which Mark would patiently redirect the caller.
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  • As time wore on and the practice got more and more referrals from local hospitals to give Dr. Newintown an established client base, the calls began to come at all hours, 24 hours a day: weekends nights holidays you name it. The
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  • office still got calls after hours to an answering service for patients to find out who was on call, and for the hospital staff to reach doctors after hours. Mark had to unplug the phone just to have a conversation over lunch with his wife, and in order to sleep. Also not ideal when you have 3 daughters of dating age out after dark.
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  • Working reception at a company can be trying work. While you manage the entire company's schedule, you hold all of the cards when it comes to business. If you want a gigantic influx of customers all at the same time, by all means, do it! That's exactly what this dad did when his local medical clinic told him to kick rocks. Turns out, you shouldn't make enemies with the person who's become your accidental unpaid receptionist. You never know what kind of shenanigans they have up their sleeve. 

  • Mark called the doctor's office and asked them to please change their phone number so he and his family could get some peace and quiet, and so he could build his own business to support them. Since he had his phone longer, he felt the
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  • doctor should be gracious and change his number to a different one to stop the confusion. He was told in about so many words by the doctor that it was too bad, but nothing was going to be done, as advertising, stationery, business
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  • cards and signage were expensive to redo, not to mention convey the new information to all his patients, medical registries, the medical board and societies, and hospitals. "Just do the best you can, I'm sure the calls will stop soon. Good luck to you!" "Okey Dokey!! I'll do my best to take care of things!" Mark cheerfully replied.
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  • After that, Mark began to field all the calls that came in personally. "You've had the sniffles all morning after working in the yard around pollen? You'd better come right in!" "You start coughing every time you smoke a ciga tte? Come on in!!"
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  • "Hmm...I'm not the doctor, but a temperature of 98.9 sounds a little high to me. We'll see you right after lunch today." "You're new in town and have kids who need physicals and shots for school next week? It just so happens we have an opening in an hour. No, no, don't worry we
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  • can take all 5 of them at once, today." Whatever the problem was, he started making appointments for each and every person calling. All were delighted to have such personal attention and prompt appointments. "Sure, we take ALL
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  • insurance plans. Come right in!" He also made routine checkup type appointments for 4:30 pm one Friday afternoon for 6 different people.
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  • Bright and early the next Monday morning, Dr. Newintown called and begged him to stop. Mark said:"I will if you will." The doctor had a new phone number before the end of the week.
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  • TechnOght ⚫ I had the same problem with a pizza place when I was a teenager. I accepted all coupons, gave out freebies for any complaints, and promised the pizzas would be ready in 10 minutes. It took them weeks to send out new flyers. People hated that place.
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