atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information PHONE STOPS WORKING, WHEN IT RAINS.

My friend is in Olive Bridge, NY. He lives a very simple life. doesn't even have caller id, no bells and whistles, at all.

Reminds me of something, that happened just the other day. This is kind of "off subject" but somewhat, interesting. I sold a 1957 WE 500 set, (black) all original except the trans and receiver in the hand set, still had the 3 conductor line cord on it. Works great. The guy that bought it, said, "you might not believe this, but this phone is going to be used, as the only phone in the house." He told me, that, the phone in the house of an elderly man, he cares for, stopped working, and it looked just like the one I had for sale. He bought a repro 500 set, but there was no place in the house to plug it in. The 500 set was hard wired. Plus, the elderly man, told him, he didn't want some piece of junk, "made in china" for a phone. He had been using his WE 500 set since 1965, and wanted another WE 500, or nothing!!! Its so nice to see an old work horse like the 500, get the respect, it deserves! Very good to know, that the 1957 500, wont be just sitting on a shelf, collecting dust!!!

I used to have a picture on the wall in my office that was of a Chinese Junk (boat) and the caption was "You can either purchase a quality made item from a U.S. manufacturer, or wait for your junk to come in, your choice."

Rcaman

Hmmm. Ulster County near Kingston. Time Warner is the cable company. Has he spoken to them? I understand about living a "simple life" but I don't consider banging my head into a wall part of it. If he's reluctant to change because he's always had Verizon, well, Verizon ain't what it used to be.

-Hal

One of my buildings would lose a couple of POTS lines every time there was a heavy rain. The drop was underground. Since we are with a CLEC using UNE loops by the time the repair ticket was processed through the CLEC, handed off to Verizon and a tech dispatched the problem had gone away. After about 11 years of fighting this there was a week of heavy rain forecast so opened a ticket with the CLEC and asked them to process it to Verizon immediately which they did. A Verizon tech showed up and what do you know the loop was replaced within 3 days.

Even with the CLEC reporting the issue as a chronic Verizon still was able to avoid replacing it because it always was working when they showed up.

Persistance pays.

"Back in the day" after two trouble reports, like that, Bell Telephone would change the drop. It was good for the subscriber, it was good for the employees and it was good for business.

Today, even when they know it's a bad cable, they will expend more time and energy to avoid replacing the cable that it would cost to just replace it.

Rcaman

Yup this happens all the time up here for the CLEC that I do contract work for.


And this. Boggles my mind when the LEC up here does that.

This may be an option if available..

https://www.verizonwireless.com/home-office-solutions/wireless-home-phone/
The device connects the same as a Comcast modem. The drop would need to be disconnected at the NID or unplugged at the test jack.
If the trouble is on the inside, this isn't going to fix the problem, but then you could troubleshoot if it is, with the outside disconnected.