How can I remove someone else's name - with my number attached - from the phone book?

Question

We have had the same number through digital phone service for over a year now, but our number is still listed in the phone book under another name. On a regular basis, we receive phone calls for this person - telemarketing, personal calls, business calls, debt collection, etc. - since we work nights, it is very inconvenient for us. We have called our phone provider and one of the local phone books (couldn't find contact information for the other). Each of them sent us back to the other. Nobody can help.

We have tried requesting that our number be listed under one of our names, hoping that the phone books will not list the same number twice. Does anyone know if this will work? If not, what should I do? Should I attempt to contact the previous owners of the number? Might they be able to do something about it? Should we contact the local phone provider, even though we have our phone through someone else?

Answer 1

I think you need to call (and probably it will cost extra it did for me because we have a common number like one you would randomly make up ) and make it private and some places have a feature where they have to go threw a recording first and you can reject them from calling.