800 number connects to phone sex, not glass shop

SPARTA -- The phones at Crown Glass in Sparta don't ring as often as they once did. That's because the small shop's phone number is missing from the new AT&T phone book. The 800 number that is listed belongs to a phone sex line.

"I'm afraid it's probably going to put me out of business," worries glass company owner Marilyn Sidlauskas.

Crown Glass cancelled the 800 number in 2005, but it has remained in the phone book. An AT&T spokesperson said that's because 800 customers also have to contact the phone book people when they cancel their service.

"Really?" said Sidlauskas. "I never knew that. They didn't tell me."

So she didn't cancel the 800 number with the directory service. That could explain why the number won't go away, but it doesn't explain why her local phone number did. AT&T blames it on the local phone company, UTMI, which supplies Crown Glass' actual phone number. AT&T said local carriers have to supply the phone numbers of their customers to AT&T Directory Service.

But UTMI said it does that routinely, sending customer numbers to AT&T in a big database. A spokesman doubted that Crown Glass' number could have somehow fallen out of the database.

Target 8 Investigators checked last year's phone book. The local phone number made it in along with that tenacious 800 number.

The fact is there is nothing Sidlauskas can do to get her real phone number, (616) 887-7004, into the phone book until next year.

She did manage to get her real number listed with Directory Assistance - but she still can't erase the 800 number. "AT&T could not cancel that number with Directory Assistance because that number no longer belongs to them," said Sidlauskas. "They told me I had to contact my local telephone company, which I did. And they never had the 800 number, so they can't cancel it.

"And so then I called PrimeTel, which has the 800 number now, and they can't cancel it because I am not their customer."

The Michigan Public Service Commission regulates phone service. But it is no help, either, because, according to a spokesperson, it does not regulate phone books.

So when people call the 800 number in the phone book next to Crown Glass' name they continue to be directed to a phone sex line offering "wild one-on-one adventure."

"I'm in the glass business," Sidlauskas said, "and I don't want to be in that other business."