*** HEADLINE NEWS ***

I will be vague while writing this post to protect the privacy of the company I work for. Many of you already knowing whom that is, and I'll leave it at that.

I got a call at work recently from the head of another church in Salt Lake City. He was calling NOT to order product but with a complaint and some steep demands. Apparently the phone number for the call center is very similar to that of a chapel for the individual I was speaking with. The only difference an area code 801 being confused with the toll free 800 at the beginning.

Some of you also may know that the company I work for is international and there are people calling from all over the world at times through out the day and night to order or with questions. The priest had been dealing with the number mix-up for over 6 years and called previous to speaking with me, asking that my employer do something about it. He had lost sleep with middle of the night calls from other countries as well as those during the day interrupting his practice. With the international growth of my employer the disturbances had become more frequent as time went on.

He informed me that his local had been using the same number since 1920 and would NOT be changing their phone number. I can see where he is coming from and especially the annoyance of the entire situation... but honestly? I asked him what he was suggesting. He demanded that we change the number for an international company to give him peace. I regretfully don't ever see that happening. Nor is there anything that I can do about it.

To emphasis his demands and thinning patience, he even threatened to go to the press with news of _____ corporation's unwillingness to work with him and therefore causing a priest to be woken at night, etc with unwanted calls. He mentioned that it had gotten so bad that he had been contacted 4 times in the last hour from people trying to contact us.

I honestly hope there is a compromised made, but from where I stand it looks like he will have to change his number if he wants rest from the mistaken callers. I transferred the call over to our corporate receptionist and wished him the best of luck.

If you end up seeing something in the paper or on the news related to this please let me know. I would be interested to see how interesting a spin one could put on something menial as this. Also remember that "I was there first."