My telephone died on me/waiting for Best Buy to open

hopehacker

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Last night in the middle of the night my sister called me. We were talking away, when suddenly you could hear over the line the loud noise you hear like when you knock your phone off the hook, you know that fast staccato beep, beep, beep, beep, beep sound, but we could still talk. It got really loud and then started fading away, and then there were loud clicks and scratchy sounds. At first I was afraid that Pres Bush had me under surveillance, because I've said some less than stellar things about him in the My Opinion Forum. Anyway with the clicks, and scratches it was getting harder and harder for me to hear her, so I asked her if we could resume the conversation at another time. When we hung up, my line was dead. However, I'm on DSL, so it can't be my phone line, it must be the phone. When Best Buy opens I'm going to have to go see about getting another phone. I hope the Holiday crowds aren't too big this morning. I think they open at 10am.
 

trouts mom

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Oh That stinks...that happened to me last month when I was expecting an important call...I ran to Best Buy as fast as I could
Turns out the call never came...(it was supposed to be a guy calling me...greeeeeeeat)
 

halfpint

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Originally Posted by Trouts mom

Oh That stinks...that happened to me last month when I was expecting an important call...I ran to Best Buy as fast as I could
Turns out the call never came...(it was supposed to be a guy calling me...greeeeeeeat)
Oh my goodness wait around or run around if it's a guy calling, that's when they never do
Just what they want to hear " I've been WAITING for you to call
 

halfpint

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Oh Hope I bet it's going to be Super crowded I hope not for your sake, I wouldn't be caught dead going anywhere on the weekend during this time.
 

clairebear

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Good luck with the crowds. They seem to grow every weekend as Christmas nears. I should know, I live right next to our mall. Holiday traffic sucks.
 

katachtig

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I hope your venture to Best Buy worked out. Though from what you described, those noises would come from the switch side, not the phone. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed
that it is easily remedied.
 

gailc

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I agree that it might not be the phone. My sister's phone conversations with me and mom were always terrible. I investigated on the internet and he contacted her phone company and it was the line coming to her house. She had lived with that terrible quality for 2 years!! I hope the new phone is better.
 
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hopehacker

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Well, I went out a bought a new phone and a new plug in cord, and I still have no phone. The line is dead. I don't understand why I have DSL service, but I do. So, tonight I'll call the telephone company at work. I have no way to call them from home. I don't have a cell phone.
 

halfpint

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Did it rain there last night Hope? Sometimes if the wireing is old and it gets wet it will go out, If you have inside wire contract or the Apt building does with the phone company it wont cost you anything. It's probably something minor
 
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hopehacker

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Yes it did rain. But what I don't understand is why my DSL is working and not my telephone. They are on the same telephone line. Thats why I thought my telephone went out, but obviously that's not it. But it was odd, hearing those sounds and then when we hung up from each other, my phone line was dead. I thought they all came from her end, and she said "no". I know something fried, but it does seem odd that I still have my DSL, but no phone.
 

halfpint

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Maybe it has something to do with the splitter the lines go into, they may be different for the DSL and the Voice part of the connections, but that's just a guess
 
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hopehacker

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Well...I went to work last night and called repair, they told me to unplug the phone from the outlet for at least 10 minutes, then plug it back in. I did that, still no dial tone. So, I went online and put in my information. It came up that they're experiencing an outage in my area, and estimated time of restoral is THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14th AT 12 NOON. Can you believe that? That's almost a week without a phone. My only communication to the outside world right now, is my computer.

By the way, halfpint, you were right about different lines for DSL and voice service. I hope my DSL stays on. Now I wish I had a Cell phone, but I can't afford to go buy one.
 

halfpint

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Oh how can they make you wait that long, that's bull. But you know alot of times they say it will take that long and it doesn't really. Who is your phone service with Hope?
 
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hopehacker

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At&T is my provider. I think Thursday is a LONG time to be without a phone. Geez, if I needed to, I couldn't call the Police or anything. These days, it's almost impossible to find a pay phone, because everyone has cell phones. I don't even know where a pay phone would be.
 

halfpint

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That's what we have, you know they have very good deals when you combine your services, We have high speed wirless, the home phone 2 cell phones and my bill is only about $140.00 a month and I can call anywhere talk as long as I want anytime of the day on the home phone. You should look into the cell program you get a discount for every service you have with them. On the cell phones the minutes you don't use are rolled over and I think we pay like $29.99 minus $6.00 discount for the cell phones each, you get 300 anytime minutes and 5000 night and weekends, they may have better deals now also. I think you would get the discount because you have 2 services with them now. Just food for thought
 

hell603

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or... you get a pay as you go cell phone - a few people at work have those and love them.

PS: I would call back and raise some &*(&(*& - sometimes the squeeky wheel does get the oil!!
 

sillyjilly

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You may also want to think about getting a VOIP (voice over IP) service of some sort for times like this. You can make and recieve calls with a high speed internet connection. Me and my DH only use that as our main phone and have cells for out and about. We use Vonage, but there are some free ones as well!!! Do a search for Free VOIP phone in google and see what you come up with for your area! Good luck Hope!!
 

ldg

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Thursday December 14th? That's crazy! That's unconscionable! Wow - so your whole area is out? That's just amazing! I've never heard of anything like this!

I agree with SillyJilly - see what VOIP options you've got!
 
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hopehacker

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The phone is back on. I don't know if the entire problem is fixed, but my phone is working now. This is the first time something like this has happened to me, and I've had my telephone service for 14 years. I think it started last week, when my internet service was acting up. Hopefully, they have everything fixed now.
 
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