Am I just paranoid, or did my neighbor 'borrow' my phone line?

18 years ago

We have two neighbors who have cut through our phone line over the course of the past year. The last and most recent time was when a neighbor two houses over hired a company to install an irrigation system. The guys cut through multiple phone lines as well as septic lines.

This last neighbor has never been happy with the quality of their phone line, says it's noisy. He made enough noise up the Verizon ladder to have a tech out here this past Sunday to lay him a new line. Later that day, our phone ceased to work. Our phone indicates the line is "in use." All we get is noise; if I try to redial a number in caller id memory, I get a few busy signals, then nothing. Phone company says it won't be convenient to do anything for us until Saturday.

Is it possible we were sacrificed to make the noisy guy happy? Mind you, the folks to the right of us (owners of local pharmacy), the dentists to the left, the folks with the new line (so he can work out of his house), as well as the folks next to them (made a BIG stink last time they cut his line, as he also works from home) all have working lines. Coincidence or am I paranoid?

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Comments (8)

bus_driver
18 years ago
Call Verizon service and get them to restore your phone service. Telling us about the problem will not get it restored. I think your neighbor is guilty only of causing the phone lines to be cut. And does your internet service use the phone line?
joed
18 years ago
The phone repair person caused the problem. His book probably said that the line was unused so he disconencted it. Happens all the time to my sister. House next to her has same street number according to phone company(not true). Everytime someone moves in or out they mess her line up trying to connect them up.
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davidandkasie
18 years ago
all you can do is call Verizon. Saturday is not that bad for residential service, in my area Bellsouth says 10-14 days for a residential outage, even if they caused it. they usually do not take that long, but that is what they will tell you.

BTW, the noise on the line may have been a bad card in the RT. the tech swapped the neighbors with one that was marked as unused, but it was yours. jsut explain to the telco that your line was fine until they fixed your neighbors, and now you have his problem.
sukis
Original Author
17 years ago
Oops, they did it again. Verizon has finally conceded that enough damage has been done after this last event that a new line is warranted. Maybe three years is the charm!
lsst
17 years ago
Sukis,
I have been going through the same thing for four years now.
I have terrible static and at one point lost my dial tone.
I have actually dialed out and at the same time can hear other people dialing out and having conversations.
I was told ATT " piggy backs" lines and at one point it was repaired. Today, I picked up the phone and made a call and the noise is back.
aidan_m
17 years ago
It seems that you already have high speed internet, why not get VOIP? I have had "vonage" and "magic jack" which both work fine. To heck with the phone company and their pathetic service. I haven't used a land line in years.
dilly_dally
17 years ago
A land line can be a life line in an emergency. If satallites go out during a storm or are blocked, and that happens a lot here, a land line can be an asset. Ditto for when the cell phone company screws up and you need to make an important call.

Just get the cheapest, basic service with no extras. I hate paying for crappy landline service too but feel more secure with another option for communicating in an emergency. If you are thinking of getting an alarm system for your home they may need a phone line to hook up to too.
chairthrower
17 years ago
In my old house, I used to call in (Verizon) whenever my modem speeds dropped (this was a while ago) and could hear audible static on the line. The repair person would come out and swap my pair and I'd be fine. I'm certain they used that pair for someone else. After a while a tech told me the trunk feeding our neighborhood was being attacked by squirrels and they eventually had to run a new one.