Hit by flood of wrong numbers

Eddie and Kath McDermott. Photo / Doug Sherring

Hosed off Eddie and Kath McDermott are being swamped by hundreds of people who want their water problems fixed.

But the Warkworth couple can't do anything about the callers' problems - they're orchardists.

A few weeks ago Watercare changed its number to 442 2222 when the new Auckland Council was formed. The McDermott's orchard phone number is 422 2222. They've had it for nine years.

And now all they want is for Watercare to change its number so the calls will dry up.

When they complained to Watercare, the company told them it wasn't its problem and advised the McDermotts to change their number.

But after inquiries by the Herald on Sunday, the company has changed tack and agreed to find a solution. It sent two staff members to McDermott's property to look at installing a splitter system where callers will have the option of going through to Watercare or the couple's orchard.

But Eddie McDermott just wants them to change their number. "They want to put a splitter system on our home phone line which I'm not in favour of," he said. "Every call going through our phone has to go through that dumb thing.

"They said, let us put a proposal to you. If it still persists then we'll have to call for something else.

"As far as I'm concerned they can look for it straight away.

"They're doing it to get the cheap fix for them. It's like the big brother saying to the little brother 'this is what you have to do'."

The McDermotts are receiving between 50 and 100 calls a day, and three quarters are Watercare inquiries.

"We supply a lot of cafes and they can't get through.

"I finally got sick and tired of it so I rang Watercare. They said 'that's not our problem, the people are ringing your number'."

He was told Watercare had spent thousands of dollars on advertising the number change.

Watercare spokeswoman Rachel Hughes said the company was committed to working with the McDermotts to find a solution. "We have a large volume of calls and, in spite of adverts giving the correct number, a small proportion of customers have misdialled," she said.

"Quite understandably, Mr and Mrs McDermott don't want to change their telephone number so we're currently working with the McDermotts and Telecom to get a technological solution that minimises the disruption."