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Woman shares ‘cruel’ response she received from business after texting her late sister’s number

‘This broke my heart for you,’ one viewer writes

Chelsea Ritschel
New York
Friday 07 January 2022 16:43 GMT
Comments
Woman shares message she received from new owner of late sister’s phone number
Woman shares message she received from new owner of late sister’s phone number (TikTok /@faithsidman1)

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A woman has shared the “cruel” response she received from a business that now owns her late sister’s phone number after she sent frequent text messages to the number.

Faith Sidman, who goes by the username @faithsidman1 on TikTok, shared a screenshot of the text message exchange in a video posted to the app this week, in which she could be seen sending grieving messages to a contact named “Sissy,” only to be told to “stop texting”.

“I wish I could call you right now,” one message reads, while Sidman sent another message in July to the phone number, in which she wrote: “Thinking about you lots today. I love you.”

The message prompted a response from the new owner of the number, however, who wrote: “You have a wrong number.”

In response to the message, Sidman apologised before explaining that the number had previously belonged to her late sister, who died two years ago. She also assured the new owner that she would not send any more messages.

“I’m sorry, my sister passed away two years ago and I still text her from time to time, I thought the number was out of service, I won’t text anymore,” she wrote.

However, the TikToker’s apology and explanation was met with a “cold” response from the new recipient, who informed Sidman that she had been contacting a “business” before urging her to “please stop texting”.

“This was a business. Please stop texting,” the message reads.

In the caption, Sidman acknowledged that she was grateful at least for the opportunity to see her sister’s name appear on her phone again. “At least I got to see her name pop up on my phone one last time,” she wrote.

The video, which has since been viewed more than 1.2m times, has prompted outraged responses from viewers, with many urging Sidman to share the name of the business.

“Time for them to go out of business,” one person wrote, while another said: “Don’t be shy, tell us the business.”

Someone else added: “I’d personally like to leave them a mean Yelp review for this one.”

Others expressed their sympathy over Sidman’s loss and the new owner’s response, with one viewer acknowledging how hard it must have been to see a text message from her sister’s contact appear on her phone.

“I can only imagine the emotions when you saw ‘she’ texted you back and to open up the message to them being snarky. I’m so sorry,” they wrote.

Another person said: “This broke my heart for you.”

The video also prompted viewers to encourage Sidman to continue texting the number, or ask the new owner to block her, as many TikTok users pointed out that she would be able to continue using the number as an outlet for her grief without upsetting the new owner if her number was blocked.

“I’m so sorry someone is so cold-hearted like this baby, just keep texting the number,” another viewer commented. “Hopefully they block it and you can keep texting to heal.”

Someone else reminded Sidman that she can do “whatever gives [her] comfort”.

There were also those who suggested Sidman send a rude response back, with one person claiming that they would have sent the “coldest, nastiest message back”.

The Independent has contacted Sidman for comment.

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