Major Problem with Phone Line and Support.

[yourevilmonkey]

Well my problem started about a month and week ago. The problem is that my phone line is messed up. My line drops out unexpectedly and I cant receive calls or send calls. If it does work then the phone only rings for half a second 3 times. If you dont pick it up mostly on the first ring you cant answer the call. And if it doesnt the caller who calls me gets a verizon voice message thing that is setup for the previous owner of the phone number. We called verizon a month ago and setup a appointment for the 18th. Well they called the 17th and said they were sorry they missed us for the appointment on the 17th. We told them it was on the 18th and they said that they guess they forgot to call to tell us the date was changed to the 17th. So they said they will have someone out the next day, on the 18th. We waited at home and they still didnt show up. We called and they set a appointment on the 28th. We waited and they never came again. Now its the 30th and its getting rediculous. We refuse to pay for a service that will never be fixed and we cant use but for 1/3 of the time, if lucky. Is there any fix to this other than getting another appointment?

[VZ_Brian]

It sounds to me like your phone line has a short somewhere.  If it was a "hard short", your phone wouldn't work at all.  But yours rings, and then shorts out.  Could be a wiring issue, or it could be a phone issue.  I would unplug all equipment (phones, faxes, computers, etc).  Then take one good phone to a jack and plug it in.  See if the problem still exists.  If it is still a problem, try a different phone at that same jack.  If it's cleared, the problem is with the first phone, if it's still there, unplug the phone and try a different jack.  If the problem cleared, the trbl is at the first jack.  If it's still there, then you either have a short somewhere inside your home wiring, OR the phone number MIGHT BE FORWARDING to another number (which would explain the strange message that callers receive).  Find out how to remove call forwarding in your area (usually by hitting *73 on your phone).  Please post results.