Grah.

[camwyn]

Verizon saga

Verizon claims they turned on my service on Friday 4 February at 10 AM. I get no dial tone at the apartment. I have used an old phone with a cord to test this, so battery charging is not an issue. I plugged in a partly charged new phone yesterday and got nothing. I checked for dial tone on two separate jacks using the cord phone and got nothing. I dialed my old number from my cell phone and got the message saying that the number had been changed to $NEW_NUMBER, which is what I requested. I then dialed $NEW_NUMBER and got ringing, but no answer. About six or ten rings in I got sent to Verizon residential voice mail, which is another service I requested.

I tried dialing this number from work, and got rings as well. I did not stick around for the voice mail.

Last night (7 February 2005, around 7 PM) I plugged in the new telephone and let it charge for several hours. Then I picked up my cellular phone and dialed $NEW_NUMBER. The cell phone got ringing, but the telephone plugged into the wall did not ring no matter how long I waited.

I called Verizon this morning at 800-427-8977. I was told that this was probably a problem with the jacks and that it would cost $99 a visit, but Verizon didn't care if someone else fooled with the wiring, so if I had a handy relative or a building superintendent then it would be all right to let them do the check up. I called building management around 10 AM at $MANAGEMENT_NUMBER. The girl there said that as far as she knew, they didn't do anything whatsoever with the phone wires. That was the phone company's responsibility.

I called my father's cell phone but got his voice mail. (Dad is a former employee of The Telephone Company, from the old days when there was a The Telephone Company.) I left a message.

It is now 10:56 AM. I am going to call 800-427-8977 again.

Got an automated spiel about the possibility of a box called a Network Interface Device in the closet, which can apparently be used for testing. Will try that when I get home. Tech has been scheduled to come out tomorrow between 8 AM and 12 noon anyway even though it will cost $99. bugger.

Comments

[sdelmonte]

I don't know if this will help much, but here is what I found on AT&T's website about phone repairs:

http://www.usa.att.com/localhelp/guide/repair_ts_guide.pdf

[zagthaar.livejournal.com]

I hate Verizon. Hate, hate, hate Verizon. If it weren't for the fact that cell reception in my house is crummy (I'm in the bottom of a valley), I wouldn't have a land line with them at all.

I had the EXACT SAME PROBLEM, coupled with the fact that they sent the repair guy to the wrong address. Twice. Luckily, he was really awesome and fixed the problem (someone had apparently yanked my lines out of the junction box in the basement) for no charge, because of all the hassle. Helps that he was the guy who did all the phone wiring at my workplace; I suspect he was afraid I'd sic the Ops crew on him :)

[camwyn]

I'm mostly getting them for phone service because I can get DSL with them for way less anguish and pain than getting cable Internet through the local cable provider.

I'm going through the apartment tonight with my old corded phone and a Phillips head screwdriver. I WILL HAVE PHONE SERVICE DAMN THEIR EYES.

[branna.livejournal.com]

I am not pleased with Verizon either, but I don't want to change my cell number, which is now a non-local area code, and there is some advantage to having an emergency land-line. And they are the only provider for my apartment.

But this whole story sounds, um, kind of familiar.

OTOH, for about $1.50 more a month, you can get line service included and they can't/won't bill you for sending the tech out.
Given their track record of line issues, I think this is probably
worth it.

[mephron]

"We're TPC! The Phone Company!"

God, that's a warped movie.

[camwyn]

... movie?

[mephron]

The President's Analyst. With James Coburn as Dr. Sidney Schaefer, the eponymous analyst, and Pat Harrington Jr. as Arlington Hewes, President of TPC (The Phone Company).

It's the kind of movie that makes you worry about the way the world works in the background, while still being very, very funny. I'm oddly surprised you don't know it - it's the kind of movie I'd expected you to half-worship...

[camwyn]

Never even heard of it. My dad was mail room, then internal security, then management at Bell Telephone, which was The Phone Company prior to Judge Greene (thanks ever so, you bastard). Hence my phrasing. That, and the episode of WKRP where they hooked up a pirate phone, and when the police came to the station for something else one of the guys started screaming "AAAAH! IT'S THE PHONE COPS!"

[mephron]

I recommend it. It's a bit dated and some of the jokes fall a little flat, but it's still a brilliant pastiche of the era's spy movies, along with poking fun at conspiracies, the Cold War, and psychoanalysis in general.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Plus, James Coburn. Who rocks my world. :->

[sdelmonte]

It's absurd how well I remember that and other episodes of WKRP - the best show not likely to ever be on DVD.

Johnny Fever was scared of the phone cops because he had just smashed a phone. Which cut him and Venus Flytrap off from the world. As they were holed up at the station transmitter. To avoid a mad bomber. Who had actually planted the bomb at the transmitter.

When the authorities came to get Johnny and Venus out, Johnny was convinced that it was the phone cops, and went running into the night, with a concerned Venus behind him. Naturally, this saved their lives.

Like I said, I remember this way too well.

[brashley46.livejournal.com]

Reminds me, OTOH, of Lily Tomlin doing ... was it Earnestine? ... the telephone operator on Laugh-In. "Of course we can do that, we're The Telephone Company!"

But that shows my age and Lily's, both.

::fades into background::

[akawil]

The Network Interface is the box where the phone lines come into your apartment. Everything before that is Verizon's, everything past that is yours. If there's a problem on your side of the Network Interface, that's when Verizon charges you lots of money.

If you can find the network interface, it should have a standard RJ-11 modular phone jack on it (behind a little swingy thing). If you don't have dial tone there, you know the problem is Verizon's fault (as it usually is).

[camwyn]

My father said he found what he thinks is that box in my linen closet. I'll check it out when I get home.

[sdelmonte]

But where are the linens? Has Verizon stolen them? :)

[camwyn]

Nah, I'd have to have linens for them to be stolen. I've got a set of flannel sheets on the bed and a set of regular sheets I pinched from my parents' house this weekend, but that's about it. All that's really in the closet right now is my hair dryer and some dirty laundry.

[camwyn]

.... waaaaaait a minute. 'Behind a little swingy thing'? As in, a sort of astrolabe-ish shaped thing that slides through an arc around a central point and has a dip cut into one side that's just wide enough for the standard-size grey phone cable? Because there's one of those in my actual wall, no box or anything. Of course, if that's just a jack I won't worry about it, but.

[akawil]

Yeah, that should be the thing. Is that what all your other phone plugs connect to?

I'm not sure if that's actually the "Inside Network Interface" according to strict telco-speak, but that's always the point I've tested when I've had troubles.

[camwyn]

No. That's mounted on the wall; there's no box, and I'm not sure whether any other cables come out of it. There is a box in the closet and a box that I think is just the security system in a different closet. My father saw the swingy thing and thought it was just a childproofed phone jack. It really doesn't look much like any kind of access point, but it's mounted on the apartment wall that has the Outside World on the other side (rather than another apartment) so I dunno.

[akawil]

Well, check that jack to see if you've got dial tone there, at the same time you're checking jacks in the closet looking for RJ-11 plugs.

[camwyn]

That's the one I tried first, actually- it's the only one immediately visible on the lower level of the apartment.

*thinks for a minute*

I believe the wire for the jack in the loft runs down the wall to that opening, actually.

[countgeiger.livejournal.com]

Give me a call on the cell - 415 407 2728 - and I'll try to help ya debug this. Or IM me. :)

[camwyn]

I'll call you tonight. I'm at the office just now. Won't have any kind of IM access until Verizon gets my damn DSL up. Which requires a working damn dial tone.

[(Anonymous)]

A fan of your fics, that works for a phone company(not verizon though) so I thought I would put my two cents in.


Here is what a network interface box looks like:
http://www.hometech.com/techwire/cc-ca7600a.jpg

There are a lot of variations, but they are generally on the same theme.
(some shade of grey plastic with a scew/lock and doors on hinges)

OTOH, those are generally on houses. I do not really know what the situation would be in an apartment complex.

I'd suspect you would have something larger in a central area. You might not even have access to it, but your super should know where it is.

[camwyn]

*prints out picture*

I may have seen something like that in passing when I was looking in the closet yesterday. I'll see if that's what my father and uncle found. Thank you!