Yesterday, my landline went out. Somebody tried to call, got a busy signal, sent me an email.
Sure enough, no dial tone.
I went out to the box, plugged a phone in there, no dial tone. Which means the problem is not in the house circuits, but in the line somewhere short of the house.
I got online, logged into the phone company's website, filled out the info. After a moment, they auto-tested the line, and the response was, essentially, Your phone isn't working.
Gotta love it. In theory, they are going to send me an email or call my cell when they can get a tech out to see what's what.
We have toyed with the idea of losing the landlines and going to cells, or hooking it in to the TV cable, but haven't made a decision on that yet. Our current cell phone contracts expire this month, and we might go to smart phones this time. Or not ...
4 comments:
We've had a Vonage phone for two years now. Fairly pleased. 1/4 of the previous cost.
If someone is on the phone (and doesn't use call waiting), it takes a voice message and sends it to your email address.
If the phone is out entirely (like cable is out-rare or power out) the call is rerouted direct to our cell.
Phone tech called my cell about ten-thirty this morning, coming by to have a look. Phone was still dead.
I walked around the house, checked all the extensions -- we have four phones in the house, two wired, two wireless. All still out.
Went back into my office. Picked up the phone. Got a dial tone.
I call the tech, told him to skip it. Got a robo-call from my phone company saying the problem recorded had been resolved.
Weird.
I go through the same bit, every time it rains or the snow melts (at least once a month). Our 1960-vintage lines and connections are noisy at best, and a little moisture is all it takes to make them unusable. And these lines won't be replaced, either; the phone company is happy to provide 1960 service for 2009 prices, so why should they update their equipment? If I could get cell service, I'd do it, but that's not an option around here. Does anyone make a cell phone that will work with smoke signals?
Yeah, we had the moisture problem on our first house after it rains. Make them put a test box on the house if you don't have one 9they should be willing). How else could they prove it's your internal lines? They're responsible up to the outside of the house.
Then if the lines in the house are out, you can actually plug into the box and make a 911 call anyway (so they say).
Steve, we still have problems sometimes after service goes out and things have to "reset". Either it's the answering machine or the modem has to be reset. We just unplug them each for 5 minutes and that usually does the trick. Could be something similar for you.
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