I ran into a strange telephone problem. My 87 year old mother lives alone in one of those adult retirement communities. When anyone calls her on her Verizon land line, her phones ring once, then stop. The caller hears one ring, then nothing. Sometimes if you wait about 20 minutes the call goes through, but yesterday when I was visiting her the problem persisted all day. She placed a service call with Verizon last Thursday but the earliest appointment they could give her is for Wednesday. And of course they will be there "between 8AM and 9PM".
I thought that maybe one of her phones or answering machine was messed up so I went around the house and unplugged them all one by one. The problem persisted. Her DSL service is over that same line so I made sure all the phones have DSL filters and tried unplugging her DSL modem. No joy.
So far it's only an annoyance. She is able to place outgoing call and has a cell phone for emergencies so the family can contact her if necessary. But a few times she has had neighbors pound on her door when they couldn't reach her. Her sister in Virginia called the local police in a panic last week when she couldn't get through.
Any ideas? (visiting the local Verizon office with my Louisville Slugger had not been ruled out)
