(518)-867-5309
Home of Jenny from the 518
So here's something we're figuring Tommy Tutone never bargained for when they sang about Jenny's now infamous phone number.
Here in the 518, Jenny's real name is Larry Zimbler, and if you call him, eventually he's going to call you back.
Zimbler owns Liberteks, a company he says solves technology problems for small businesses -- but also helps solve all kinds of small business problems using technology.
This is a guy for whom problem = opportunity.
A few years ago a friend of a friend had a problem. Cingular assigned him a new phone number in the 518 area code. Yep, sing it with us "867-530 niiiiiinnnnne." Now, while folks in other area codes have paid big money for Jenny's number, and it looks like the toll free version seems to be kind of a gold mine, this particular person was not amused. He got lots of annoyance calls from people looking for the mythical Jenny.
Zimbler took the number off his hands, set up an account with Vonage and has all of the ensuing voice mail for Jenny sent to him as email.
Right now, when you call the Tommy Tutone song plays in the background and the voice of a woman who sounds eerily like we'd expect Jenny to sound, essentially does an ad for Liberteks and invites you to leave a message (The voice, incidentally, is local talk radio host Kjelene) But Zimbler has bigger plans for the number.
"We're looking for a way to create value from this. The reality is that each day we are guaranteed at least 20 calls on this number. We know that most of the calls are coming from young people. How can connect with those callers and create value from that."
He's found an iPhone app that will allow all of the calls to be put into a folder. As soon as this summer he'd like to hire college students to return Jenny's calls from their iPhones.
But wouldn't that freak people out?
"Absolutely that would freak people out. That's part of what we still have to figure out -- how to make it not creepy and weird but fun and useful."
At first, he says, they'll probably just be calling back with surveys to help determine what they can offer the callers.
OK, so now that you know, if you're still thinking about calling -- and you know you want to -- be aware that Jenny's got your number, too.
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Comments
Funny story. In a Sunday episode of the Peanuts comic strip, Charlie Brown is playing croquet with Lucy and Lucy knocks Charlie Brown's wooden ball about a mile away. He finds a pay phone and calls the gang to let him know when it's his turn to play the next croquet round - and he gives the pay phone number - which happened to be the same number as Charles Schulz' friend Lee Mendelson. So Mendelson started receiving dozens of calls from all over the country, from people wanting to talk to Charlie Brown! His daughter answered the phone at one point, and when asked to speak with Charlie Brown, simply said, "This is Lucy, can I help you?" Phone hung up. Funny stuff.
... said Chuck Miller on Jun 30, 2009 at 1:55 PM | link
Thanks for posting that number.... I had asked my friend Ricky to keep it for me, but he lost it. I kept reminding him, Ricky, don't lose that number, you don't want to call nobody else", but he didn't listen.
... said Barold on Jun 30, 2009 at 2:37 PM | link
Now I know why there was a woman on Western photographing Liberteks earlier today. I feared it was a terrorist eying the (till now) mysterious store for its technology.
... said Kristi on Jun 30, 2009 at 7:52 PM | link
If Barold's comment doesn't win "Comment of the Week" I'll never visit this site again.
... said Bobbo on Jul 1, 2009 at 6:47 PM | link