It appears that a misprint on the box of a Linksys router pointed the way to a phone sex hotline.

Excerpt from Gizmodo:

I hit Circuit City with my mom on Black Friday to pick up the greatest and cheapest router ever, the Linksys WRH54G, costing a slim Andrew Jackson after the mail-in rebate. As far as I could tell, there was only a single flaw with the thing: the toll-free technical support number in the manual wasn’t that at all, but a promotional line for a “stimulating conversation” service. Hear it for yourself in the call video above, and check out the manual after the jump.

I don’t know about you, but part of me couldn’t help wondering which self-respecting geek would call a technical support hotline. Well, you won’t be able to get me to admit to that anyway. You didn’t hear it from me, but could it be that our dear friend is already erm familiar with the number?

In my attempt to establish the truth, I came across this comment in response to Gizmodo’s original posting. I suppose it does shed some light on what could have happened:

Circuit City’s repair number is 888-333-2333; however, on numerous occasions when I worked there, I gave out 800-333-2333 which is, of course, a gay sex line. I always gave out the number on accident, of course, I guess I was just more accident prone with a$$hole customers.

Could it be the case of an irritated graphics designer here who engineered a “print malfunction”?