missing the $ was just a typo on my end here. The actaul kix file was on a another system.

I don't have any problem using the PutEx to clear the current values that may be present, the errors only occur when I then try to append the new values to the attribute. I know that the following VB code works:
objUser.PutEx(2,"otherTelephone",Array("111-111-1111","222-222-2222","333-333-3333","444-444-4444"))
objUser.SetInfo


but I'm not sure how to translate the Array portion into KiX