Saturday morning early I get a phone call that wakes me. I'm not sure if I'm on call or not, so I answer, and the woman at the other end says something like "wei" , I say "hello?" she repeats the same "wei?" with a little more questioning. "Can I help you?" I offer, but after a short delay she repeats the "wei??" and the conversation kinda loses me. It's the wrong number and I'm not going to get anywhere trying to sort it out so I hang up. She calls again and the same conversation repeats with a few additional Chinese words thrown in. 
I think she must have got it by the time I hang up this time. Shortly after though, I'm called again and a near identical conversation starts, but I have less patience and end it earlier. After 15 min or so I get another call. It looks like the same number, but I answer. The conversation starts the same - but then English is offered. Something about a sales job. But not a lot of detail. The next call is definitely a different number and more detail - it seems my phone number has been mistakenly given in an ad for a sales job in an Australian Chinese newspaper.
I think she must have got it by the time I hang up this time. Shortly after though, I'm called again and a near identical conversation starts, but I have less patience and end it earlier. After 15 min or so I get another call. It looks like the same number, but I answer. The conversation starts the same - but then English is offered. Something about a sales job. But not a lot of detail. The next call is definitely a different number and more detail - it seems my phone number has been mistakenly given in an ad for a sales job in an Australian Chinese newspaper. I feel a little sorry for the women calling, they are all women, but it's early Saturday morning and on this Saturday morning I'm going to work - and with my phone on silent vibrating endlessly away in my pocket I'm distracted, so I give it to my secretary who is quite entertained by the idea of this, and insists that she will answer the calls and explain to the callers that it's a mistake. She's cute, and I'm glad she has the patience for it all. After 20 calls I figure a way to divert the calls I don't want and the rest of the day is filled with women applying for a job they're not going to get, calling a phone that will never answer.
Somewhere in Chinatown a store owner is wondering if they should be offering more money, or perhaps better working conditions as they sit silently by their phone, checking to see if it is working properly from time to time. Checking the reception, checking the time, looking back at the phone that will never ring...
2 comments:
hehehehehehe. thats funny! i got in trouble when i was working at the Northern Leader cuz i tryped in phone numbers wrong a couple times...it might not make you many friends but its a good way to get out of the grunt work hehe. :)
I just checked and there have been an additional 51 calls from when I diverted the phone...
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