Caller Id Helps Woman Avoid Annoying Calls

Barbara Barton isn’t the name she uses these days - Barton is her maiden name.

The 64-year-old Valley resident doesn’t want her current last name announced from the rooftops because of the nature of her gripe: She gets anywhere from 40 to 50 hang-up or wrong number calls each week.

Her home telephone number is just a few digits off from Valley Hospital’s. It’s also similar to the telephone numbers of Appleway Volkswagen and a few extensions at Kaiser Aluminum’s Trentwood plant. Add an occasional misplaced caller wanting to speak with a checker at Albertson’s, and it’s the recipe for a telecommunications nightmare. What made matters even worse was the fact Barton is hearing-impaired, making a “Huh? Who is this?” call even more annoying.

“It drove me nuts,” Barton said. “People are just careless about how they dial.”

Enter technology: Barton decided to subscribe to US West’s caller ID service. If a caller’s name and number that she doesn’t recognize shows up on the display, she can just pick up the receiver and slam it down again. And, that’s typically just what she does.

While the device helps Barton tell who is on the line, it can’t put a stop to the unending flood of misdirected calls. The phone still rings incessantly.

The problem started more than 25 years ago when Valley Hospital opened. Since then, the number of wrong numbers has increased.

She could change her number, but Barton said it’s a matter of principle. She and her husband have had their number since 1954.

The couple keeps fighting the good fight, but a heated receiver slam isn’t always the best punishment for repeat offenders. Once, Barton received 20 hang-up calls from the same party. Using caller ID, she called the person back each time. The person on the other end kept hanging back up on her.

She contacted the phone company, and it turned out the caller was a disabled man who was trying to reach Valley Hospital. Ever since that incident, recurring calls worry her, since it might be a hospital emergency.

Barton tells of another time she received a string of hang-ups originating from the same caller. Barton used her ID gadget to ring the number right back. The confrontation didn’t get her very far, though. She said the conversation went something like this:

“Who is this? Why are you calling me?” Barton asked.

“What? You are calling me! Who are you?” said Mystery Guy through a thick accent.

“I’m the person you just called,” Barton tried to explain.

“What?” asked Mystery Guy.

“You just called here - ” Barton started. Too late. Mystery Guy hung up. Barton performed that ritual three times, but had no luck.

“I called the phone company again and said ‘Now what do I do about this one?”’ Barton said through an exasperated sigh.

Since Barton gets all these misdirected calls, do businesses get calls for her?

The receptionist at Valley Hospital said she doesn’t remember anyone ever asking for Barton. The guy at the other end of a similar number at Kaiser was pretty annoyed at the question; but said no, he hadn’t got any such calls either.

But at Appleway Volkswagen, investigative reporting may have paid off. Receptionist Bonny Nowaski mulled the question over.

No, no one asking for that name, she said. “But we do get a lot of hang-up calls …”

, DataTimes