Some people inherit problems with a phone number, others invite them in and leave the door wide open.

So, what would you do if you took over an old business line and callers kept asking for someone else?

Would you politely explain the mistake?

Or would you insult every caller until it came back to bite you in the worst way?

In today’s story, one business owner recounts a story about a guy who faces this very decision.

Here’s how it all went down.

Phone number revenge.

I started out as a specialty subcontractor as a floor layer.

All my friends liked to make ******* innuendo jokes about it.

So when I got my license, I changed it to “floor service.”

But “floor service” was too close to “florist.”

All my friends would call and ask for the flower shop. “Do you deliver?”

Back then, the phone company would list our phone number in the white pagers anyway we wanted.

But to have our business name in the “Yellow Pages,” we had to pay for a commercial number.

Back then, the prefix on your number would tell people where you were located.

People were clannish. They only wanted to call a local business.

The phone company didn’t care, so for an extra fee, they would sell you a “foreign exchange” number.

He was very specific about choosing phone numbers.

I lived in the city, but I wanted a number for the wealthy East Side suburb because that’s where all the work was.

What I didn’t know at the time was that the prefix placed me right in the downtown business core.

It kind of worked.

People thought I must be successful if I could afford the rent there.

Fast-forward a number of years, and I took a step back.

We started a family. I was needed at home more.

I got enough work from referrals to keep me busy.

Those Yellow Page ads were expensive.

So, I gave the number up. (Three or four, actually. Every city and suburb had its own Yellow Pages.)

The phone company gave the number to someone else.

Well, the guy they gave the number to would get really mad and be rude to anyone who called the number looking for me.

He got a caller ID and called them back to be rude.

Anytime they wanted to have fun, this guy got a call.

Well, all those same friends started calling the number, asking for the flower shop. “Do you deliver?”

We were all relentless.

Any time we were at a party and wanted to liven things up, it was “Hey guys, watch this.”

We’d call the number, ask for flowers, put it on speaker phone, and then wait for him to call back with his unhinged rants.

We all had a good time.

This guy had to give the number up to make it stop.

Ultimately, it was probably pretty costly for him.

This was in the days when all business was conducted on paper, with carbon copies. “Carbonless” copies were high-tech.

This was a commercial number. This guy had a new business.

I’ll bet he had to get all new business letterhead and business cards with the new number.

No one had personal printers then, so they had to be done at a print shop. It wouldn’t have been a small expense.

He was a bigger jerk than my friends. No regrets.

Yikes! That guy needs to lighten up a little.

Let’s see what the readers over at Reddit have to say about this.

Here’s someone who recounts dealing with phone exchanges.

This is why home phones are a thing of the past.

For this reader, he and his friends are awful.

Another example of why home phones didn’t last.

The guy should’ve lightened up.

They probably would’ve stopped if he had more fun with it.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.