Getting an occasional wrong number call is nothing too surprising or bothersome. A slip of a finger, a mistyped digit—it happens to all of us from time to time.
But what if those wrong number calls persisted for days or even weeks? What if different people kept calling you looking for help that you are not able to provide? And what if there was a person that could easily make this go away, but they cannot be bothered by it?
This is what happened to a reddit user @Billiam201 a few years back. He shared this on the reddit community r/ProRevenge. For weeks, he endured the constant calls multiple times a day that were supposed to be reaching an adult learning center. When the employee of the center refused to help him sort it out, he took matters into his own hands.
Bored Panda talked to the OP more than a decade later to discuss how he feels about it now. We also consulted social psychologist Dr. Kinga Mnich on how she interprets this situation.
Wrong number calls can be mildly annoying, however, daily wrong number calls can really rile one up
Image credits: gstockstudio (not the actual photo)
But what do you do if there’s no polite way to stop it? This man decided to stand up for himself without a hint of hesitation
Image credits: seventyfourimages (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Billiam201
This is not only the most satisfying but probably also the most efficient way of handling the situation
It’s not a pretty situation, of course. Commentators pointed out that they felt bad for all the people that came into the learning center thinking they can get their GEDs so quickly and cheaply. For people that transportation and money can be an issue, this could have really ruined their day.
Many, though, agreed that this is probably the best, or, better yet, the most efficient way to handle this situation. What else could one really do when a person they are dealing with doesn’t want to cooperate? Sure, one thing is to forgive and forget when someone did you wrong in the past. It’s much harder to just brush it off when you are constantly reminded of someone’s jerk behavior by getting non-stop calls.
We reached out to the OP to see how he feels about the situation now. He noted that it happened more than 10 years ago, in his previous job, and he doesn’t regret his actions. “While I was giving out incorrect information, so was the learning center,” said the redditor when asked if he had any ethical considerations before executing his plan. “Worse, they knew it was wrong and were refusing to correct it. I had tried to address it properly, and they decided to continue to make it my problem.”
The situation had an easy solution. If the learning center was willing to admit its fault and take action, they would have made everyone’s lives instantly easier. And the OP thinks the majority would have taken that route. “Most people are willing to fix problems when they learn of them,” he said. However, situations such as this one requires a person “to make things hard for the people in charge to get things fixed.”
This wasn’t the first time this type of situation happened to the OP, and it taught him an important lesson
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual photo)
We also asked the OP about the previous similar wrong number situation they had endured years earlier that they posted about on r/IDontWorkHereLady. This time, the callers were trying to reach him at his home. Just like with the learning center situation, though, the people calling him were misdirected by a business owner that was giving out misleading information. People called OP’s home assuming they were calling an art store.
The OP took a similar approach to resolving the situation. At first, he was courteous about it, informing the store’s owner about the matter. However, the owner that the OP called “Fred” refused to help, saying it was not his problem. So, the OP decided to make it his problem. He started answering the calls and giving people made-up information about their orders. He often made it seem faster and cheaper than it actually was to get people extra frustrated once they got to the store. He also told them to take it up with “Fred” if they had any issues.
A few weeks and a few heated conversations with “Fred” later, the owner finally amended the information he was giving out and peace was restored. “This and other incidents have led me to one inescapable conclusion,” the OP finalized. “If you need something fixed, sometimes the only way to get what you need is to make life hard for someone's boss.”
A social psychologist argues that this “is not a good example of revenge,” but agrees on the course of action
Image credits: NordWood Themes (not the actual photo)
Wondering if there were any better ways to handle this situation from a professional point of view, Bored Panda consulted Dr. Kinga Mnich, a social psychologist, executive coach, educator, and speaker. She suggested that the OP wasn’t necessarily wrong in his actions. In fact, this might have been the only effective solution to the unfortunate situation. “This is a story on what to do when you've exhausted everything else.”
Dr. Mnich also emphasized that she wouldn’t call it a revenge situation. “Revenge is when someone is inflicting harm or consciously harming them because they were wrongly harmed. In this scenario, I would say the person at hand exhausted their options to get the phone number changed and became creative. Unfortunately, a few people were caught up in the middle,” she concluded.
So, in a way, one could say that this entertaining story is an example of how to stand up for yourself. The immense positive reaction it got online just further proves this point.
Many redditors applauded the OP’s actions, saying it was well-deserved
Some also shared similar situations that has happened to them
