Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Wrong Number

Now that I'm back in the groove of things, I noticed there were some things that needed quick attention. One of those being library books. I had taken the children to the library during the holidays and the books were due- today. I knew Katie wasn't finished with hers (she gets a bunch of thick chapter books), so I decided to call the library and renew the books over the phone. Did you know you can do that? Anyway, when I got out the phonebook and looked in the yellow pages under libraries, it gave the main downtown number only. I guess they want you to call them and ask for the other number, I thought as I dialed.
"Hello?" said a female voice.
"Uh, is this the library?" I asked.
"No. Wrong number."
"Sorry."
I hung up and looked at the number again. It looked like the one I just dialed, but maybe I pressed a wrong number or something. I dialed again.
"Hello," said the same voice.
"Ooh. I guess the phonebook made an error. I'm so sorry," I began.
"No. This has been going on for a long time. I have tried to get them to correct the error, but it never gets changed."
"So you must get a lot of calls for the library. Do you know the number?" I thought I'd ask.
"No. I used to have a library card, but I don't know where it's at."
"Well, maybe you should write a letter to the phone company this time, with your signature on it, stating that the main library number is listed wrong and it's your number." I couldn't think of anything else to say.
"Yeah. I might try that."
"Bye," I said as I hung up. I proceeded to look for the number in another phonebook, and after checking three different ones, I found they all had that number! The other number they listed was out of order. I finally had to call information to get the number to the neighborhood library. I wrote it on our cards with a big marker so we won't ever have to do that again. Then I had to come and blog about another quirky library story. Some things never change.

3 comments:

Holli said...

Strange that we didn't run into you at the library (RC Miller?) because I was there with Gabi today, too. Just so you know, you can get the number online and, better yet, you can renew your books online. Just log-in with the borrower id number on the back of the card!

LKHarris-Kolp said...

Now my age is really showing, right? I never even thought to check on-line. Thanks for the tip!

Jeni said...

what a funny coincidence that you are a writer & your # is published as a library! hehe