Friday’s Oddlot: Southwestern Bell’s printing blunder

No one would have thought printing up phone books could create such as mess. But Southwestern Bell learned differently when it dropped off new phone books in the Lay Ray Hubbard and Rockwall areas outside Dallas. Rather than a misspelling of a name or word, the phone books’ blunder was the inclusion of unlisted numbers. 4000 non-published numbers were printed.

In the process of providing the list of phone numbers to Gordon publishing, customers with non-published numbers were mistakenly included in the printed copies, according to an SBC spokesman. While 65,000 to 70,000 copies were printed, only about 40,000 were distributed by the time the errors were discovered.

The directory covers Mesquite, Rockwall, Rowlett, Sachse, Wylie, Sunnyvale, southeast Garland, Royse City, Heath, Lavon, Poetry, Union Valley, McLendon-Chisholm, Fate and Forney. All of the involved areas are outside of Dallas.

Residents in those areas are being asked to leave the fouled up phone books at their doorstep so they can be retrieved and destroyed. The pickups are expected to be complete by Saturday.

But local officials such as police officers who pay for the non-published numbers to protect their safety are likely concerned not all will be recovered.

“We sent a letter to the affected customers to offer a free change of phone number and a free non-published listing,” said the spokesman. “We are taking the appropriate steps,” the spokesman said.