You’ve got the wrong number

It might be a good idea to throw away that new CenturyLink telephone book that came in the mail.

Marilyn Acheson discovered that it has a serious problem.

Her copy arrived Tuesday, and the rural Portland resident started looking at it last night.

She found her number, 726-8446.

Then she found it again. And again, and again, and again. 

“I counted them all,” she said this morning. “It’s 256 times.”

The mistake spreads onto the fourth page of the directory, with no discernible pattern, listing the 8446 number for dozens of other phone customers.

So far, the error hasn’t been a problem.

“I don’t expect to be overwhelmed with calls,” she said.

But she hasn’t been able to find anyone with CenturyLink or Dex, the phone book’s publisher, who has answers or a solution.

“It’s bad communication,” she said.

Dex blames CenturyLink. CenturyLink blames Dex.

“I’m going to call back to Dex,” she said.

In the meantime, Mrs. Acheson’s advice is simply to pitch the new directory and use last year’s. As far as she knows, that one is correct.