Incoming Calls Not Working, Spotty Service

[Pinsetter]

I've been having a issue with my Verizon landline (copper) service for several weeks now. Basically, outgoing calls work fine, but incoming calls are very spotty. Sometimes calls come through as normal, but most of the time the caller will hear one ring then silence, or no rings at all. In any of these circumstances, I can pick up the phone while it is "ringing" and the call connects. When there is a problem, calls do not go to voicemail.

I did the *73 business to deactive call fowarding, but that did not do anything.

I have tried every combination of having devices (DSL modem, cordless phone, corded phone) plugged in or not, but nothing seems to fix the situation. I cannot replicate the situation given a certain set of circumstances, i.e. the porblem exists no matter what combination of devices I have plugged in. It is completely random; a call from my cell phone will connect fine, but if I try 30 seconds later, it doesn't work. Even if no devices are plugged in, I still have the same issue!

I called Verizon, who ran numerous tests, and said everything was fine on their end. Naturally, they offered to send someone to my place for some insane fee; since I rent I obviously would not let them come to fix my lines -- that's my landlord's job. I can have them look at it, but I don't think it will really make a difference.

Oh, and I'm not the only one having this problem:

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Home-Phone-Landline-or-Digital/Home-Phone-is-not-working/td-p/163581

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Home-Phone-Landline-or-Digital/flaky-incoming-calls-no-rings-sometimes/...

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Home-Phone-Landline-or-Digital/Short-chirp-for-in-bound-call-ring/td-p/...

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/Home-Phone-Landline-or-Digital/Phone-can-call-out-but-cannot-receive-ge...

At this point, I'm sick of dealing wtih this issue. I felt like I got the brush-off from Verizon, who does not seems to care of their copper infrastructure any longer, but is only interested in FiOS customers. I am seriously considering just dropping my landline service entirely, and getting Internet-only from either Verizon (if that's possible, they say I can get FiOS in my apartment, although I don't see how that's possible) or Comcast. I really like having a landline and would not mind paying for decent service, but this rapidly becoming not worth it.