10:00 AM Tues. morning I answered a call from a furniture store. Call display said name unavailable. They said they had something at the store for us. I said just a minute you can talk to my wife. I wondered if she might have asked about something in the store.
Well, it turned out that they had a table waiting for us to pick up!!! We hadn't been to the store for years. They were insistent that we bought a table 3 days ago. No we didn't. They asked if maybe we had forgotten! My wife told them that she remembered that she definitely had not been in the store.They had all our information and that we had used a debit card. Now this story was really starting to stink. They were pushy and insisted we pick up the table. We were confused. We thought maybe someone was pranking us like sending a pizza order to the house.These people were aggressive. They told us to check our account and see if anything had been taken out of it. One person said the table had been paid for and the other one said the table had not been paid for. Neither one of them backed down and said there might be a mistake. The call ended with my wife saying she would contact the police. They did not hesitate.
Now we knew some things were wrong. We don't have a debit card? That really raised our level of suspicion and anxiety.
My wife did call the police and talked to a very helpful officer. She suggested contacting the manager before going further. We had been reluctant to call the manager for if he had been in on the scam.
We did contact the manager and he said he would check it and get back to us. Several hours later he called back . He had solved the problem. A telephone number is used to call up all your information like address, names and more. The table was paid for. So what the manager found was that the phone number the sales man entered had one incorrect digit which of course, made it our phone number. The manager was much better than his staff. He explained the problem and apologized and we were much relieved. Then he had to trace down the people who had bought and paid for the table.
If the first clowns had taken a deep breath and thought for one second that they might be wrong they may have prevented the situation from escalating. They really made us suspicious. We didn't know if it was a scam.
After two days it was a relief to have things solved.
How creepy is that? Glad it was sorted out!
ReplyDeleteFor a while it was just that...creepy.
DeleteWell, when you have bought a table with a debit card and you don't even have one, that should have raised some red flags at the store. Thankfully you can a competent manager to help you out. I feel for the poor people who paid for a table they never received! :-)
ReplyDeleteYes, red flags were waving for the first two. The right people did get their table.
DeleteSo you could have picked it up no questions asked? Sounds like poor management to me:)
ReplyDeleteI probably could have picked up the table!
DeleteWell I'm glad it got unravelled. I too would have thought it was a scam. Good thing the manager figured things out.
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing should have been so simple.
DeleteThat really does highlight the problem of using phone numbers without checking all the other details. I had a similar thing happen in New Zealand but they checked my name and realised that I now had a number they had registered to someone else.
ReplyDeleteYou're right they need more than a telephone number to validate things.
DeleteIt is bizar indeed that they didn't even checked the number was right. I bad you never ever will buy something in that store.
ReplyDeleteWell, I've never bought anything from that store. i will be cautious in all stores now.
DeleteSounds like you could have had yourself a nice, new table for free! You missed your opportunity there Red...and all because of a single digit.
ReplyDeleteYes, I could have had a table but by the time I figured that out the whole thing was solved. They cancelled the sale.
DeleteI can see how they got the wrong phone number, but certainly they could have noticed the difference in names when they called you!
ReplyDeleteI don't think they had any other names. The customers should have seen the wrong name on their statement.
DeleteGood grief - their poor customer service skills caused so much anxiety over a simple mistake! I hope the manager gives his staff a little training.
ReplyDeleteThey were poor but the customer should have caught that the wrong name was on the statement.
DeleteWhat a weird situation! You'd think the salesman would have confirmed your name and/or address when he called to say your order was ready, especially when you said you hadn't ordered anything. Presumably even though the number was entered incorrectly, he STILL had the real owner's name and address. Right? Strange!
ReplyDeleteNo he didn't have the customer's information at all. The customer should have noticed that his name was not on the bill.
Deletethey might have looked at the name one would think.I had a bank call and tell me I was late on my car payment. I laughed since my car had been paid with cash and was 3 years old.I had to go down to clear it up, they kept badgering me.
ReplyDeleteThe customer should have caught this one if he'd bother to look at his statement.
DeleteOn the other hand... Free table?
ReplyDeleteBy the time everything was sorted out and I knew what was going on it was too late to get my hands on the table. they cancelled the sale.
DeleteWhat a headache!
ReplyDeleteYou've got that one right.
DeleteThat is indeed strange. On the other hand it pays us elders to be very suspicious. I believe that manager needs to have ca word with his employees on how to treat the public.
ReplyDeleteYes, the salesmen need a talking too. The customer should have caught the mistake too.
DeleteMy first thought was 'scam' but it turns out that other people are waiting for a table they paid for! I'm glad it got sorted out.
ReplyDeleteThe customer should have noticed the wrong name on his statement.
DeleteStrange how these things happen. We've dodged several scams over the years. My favorite was the caller who told me my from Georgia my seven year old grandson was in jail for drunken driving and needed bail. He lived with his parents in Arizona...
ReplyDeleteThat's funny now but at the time it was pretty creepy.
Deletewell, after all that, hope the real owners get their table! :)
ReplyDeleteThe real owners did get their table and I think the next time they'll check their bill to see that their name is on it.
DeleteScary with so many scams. That was still okay you called the Police.
ReplyDeleteGlad it all got solved on your part..
Hi Red, I haven't had a call exactly like that one, but I did get one a while back from a guy who claimed to be with the Internal Revenue Service and wanted back taxes. I had already heard about such scams on TV so I was ready. They said on TV just to hang up. That's what I did and that was the end of it. Those calls are annoying!
ReplyDelete