Wrong fax number redials 200 times
Cellphone hell is having your phone ring with hundreds of faxes intended for somebody else, says a frustrated Kelowna man.
Frank Pouliot, 54, said Wednesday that his business cell has been called 200 times since Christmas with unwanted faxes.
“I’m the poor schmuck whose machine is being attacked by robofaxes. I can’t get it to stop,” said Pouliot, who resurfaces bathtubs for a living.
“Every 10 minutes I would get a screech in my ear. It was incredibly disruptive to my business.”
Pouliot said his number somehow got on a list of numbers called by robo-fax machines.
The high-pitched screeches started at Christmas, let up for a while, and resumed in March and April.
“There is no way I can be sure this will ever stop,” he said.
Pouliot said he traced the numbers to Kelowna doctors’ offices.
“Nobody will tell me who put out the list and who owns the list,” he said. The doctors’ offices gave him short shrift, he said.
“There was a nobody cares attitude. It’s not our problem, it’s your problem,” he said.
A receptionist at one doctor’s office told The Province that she thought the problem had gone away.
“It was a wrong number in a book. It’s not like we were trying to harass anybody,” she said.
But Telus said Pouliot was not imagining things.
Telus spokesman Shawn Hall told The Province it appears Pouliot’s number was placed on a list of fax numbers provided to doctors’ offices and used to send information back and forth. He said the number is one numeral off a doctor’s number.
“Somebody made an entry error,” Hall said. “I can understand why he was so frustrated.”
Hall said the problems increased when fax machines redialled after failing to make contact.
“It appears several dozen doctors are involved,” said Hall.
“We’ll phone the doctors’ offices and hope they make the changes. The entry needs to be corrected.”
Pouliot said it’s nice to know that something is finally being done on his behalf, but he is still irked it got to this point.
“When somebody has been harassed, they should be able to turn the phone off,” he said.