nho95042's profile

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4 Messages

Friday, May 3rd, 2013 5:35 AM

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Landline stuck in "engaged" mode. Disconnect jacks do not restall service

The last use of the landline phone was 27 hours ago.  I tried to make a call tonight and found the land line stuck at "engaged" mode.  I could not dial out at all, from all of the phones in various locations of my home.

One cordless phone displayed "Line In Use" message.  Disconnecting all phone jacks do not resolve the issue.

 

Went on ATT website to look for trouble shooting help.  The website detected my line has problem but wanted me to test the "outside box", else it wanted me to accept a $99 service call.  I declined.

 

I live in a Condo.  I dont know where is the "outside box" but I assume the condo's phone system is located indoor in a big utility room where also houses the FPL meters.

 

Since I dont have a cell phone, I cannot call ATT service now because it is too late at night I cannot go to my neighbor to borrow one. 

 

I will call ATT tomorrow but before I do this, I want to ask here, is there other ways to find out whether this is my inside wire or ATT's connection?  The phone wire has never been touched and the phone worked fine on last call which happened to be a long distance to the other side of the globe.  We did get disconnected a few times but that was not unusual.  But the phone was hung up properly.

 

We had some heavy rain for about 10 min this afternoon.  We have had much heavier rain in the past (live in South Florida) and never have such issue before.

 

Are there any suggestions to further test inside to make sure this is not my issue?  I dont want to get stuck with a $99 service call bill.

 

Thanks for suggestions.

Official Solution

Former Moderator

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773 Messages

11 years ago


@nho95042 wrote:

The last use of the landline phone was 27 hours ago.  I tried to make a call tonight and found the land line stuck at "engaged" mode.  I could not dial out at all, from all of the phones in various locations of my home.

One cordless phone displayed "Line In Use" message.  Disconnecting all phone jacks do not resolve the issue.

 

Went on ATT website to look for trouble shooting help.  The website detected my line has problem but wanted me to test the "outside box", else it wanted me to accept a $99 service call.  I declined.

 

I live in a Condo.  I dont know where is the "outside box" but I assume the condo's phone system is located indoor in a big utility room where also houses the FPL meters.

 

Since I dont have a cell phone, I cannot call ATT service now because it is too late at night I cannot go to my neighbor to borrow one. 

 

I will call ATT tomorrow but before I do this, I want to ask here, is there other ways to find out whether this is my inside wire or ATT's connection?  The phone wire has never been touched and the phone worked fine on last call which happened to be a long distance to the other side of the globe.  We did get disconnected a few times but that was not unusual.  But the phone was hung up properly.

 

We had some heavy rain for about 10 min this afternoon.  We have had much heavier rain in the past (live in South Florida) and never have such issue before.

 

Are there any suggestions to further test inside to make sure this is not my issue?  I dont want to get stuck with a $99 service call bill.

 

Thanks for suggestions.



nho95042,

 

One thing to try is make sure you have all lines unplugged at the jack, also the power to all cordless devices unplugged as well. Unplug them all and leave them all unplugged for 15 minutes. Unplugging one and re-plugging in before all others are unplugged will not work. Also any printers and any device associated with a phone line must be disconnected as well. If you call your line does it ring busy? Keep us posted and hopefully the issue will resolve itself.

 

 

 

James

Tutor

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4 Messages

11 years ago

Your suggestion did not work but the problem resolved itself the next morning.

 

HOWEVER, I found it did the SAME again this afternoon when I tried to make a call.  Last time when that happened, we had thunder storm for a couple hours in the morning and I discovered the phone stuck late in evening when trying to make a call.  It is hang up again and I could even hear some people talking vaguely.  The line is garbled again.

 

This time we did not even have thunderstorm, but just some heavy rain in 30 min this morning.  No rain at all the whole afternoon - yet the phone got the same problem!

I asked the Condo maintenance man to take me to the room where all utilities meters etc are located - they are inside a big room in the garage - completely sheltered.  There is NO phone jack or anything remotely similar to that - it is a big panel with all tiny wires in several coluimns and all the units are tightly packed together.  No phone jack whatsoever.  He said whenever phone companies need to do something, they come to open the big green box next to the guard house - Condo does not have any access to that box!

So this is ATT issue, right?

 

This truly sucks.  We are in South Florida and rain is common place in Summer.

Tutor

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4 Messages

11 years ago

Yes, the line rang up busy.  This morning it worked at around 9am.  Then we had some heavy rain but NO thunder at all, for about 20 to 30 min in late morning, followed by drizzling till early afternoon.  No rain for over 5 hours now.  I do not know when the phone went bad but it remains stuck and when I pick it up, it either tell me Please hand up, or give me lots of statics, or just a hissing sound. 

The first time posted here was 5/02, and in 2 weeks time it did that again.  Something is seriously wrong with ATT's connection.

Tutor

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4 Messages

11 years ago

Sadly, I unplugged ALL connections for 30 min and then plugged them back - nothing change. It remains stuck as In Use, with statics. 

 

Trying to request a repair on ATT website but could not get one set up.  This is very frustrating.  I thought ATT landline would be more reliable than Comcast's Voice over IP thru its Cable modem.  I am very wrong.  My neighbor's Comcast phone service has not gone down once.

Former Moderator

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773 Messages

11 years ago

nho95042,

 

Were you able to get a technician out to your location? If you are having trouble getting a technician on site through phone or online channels please send a private message to our ATTU-versecare team. Please include your name, email address, phone number and the best way to be contacted, please allow up to 48 hours for a representative to contact you after sending your private message.

 

Private Message

 

James

Tutor

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29 Messages

10 years ago

What was the final resolution for this? I'm having the same issue.  I pulled up the gateway status and the landline showed a "connecting" status.  I reset the gateway and now it the line shows as idle, but I still can't call out.  The phones report that the line is in use.  When all the cordless devices are unplugged, my one, non-wireless phone still has the fast busy.  When I try calling the line from my cell phone, it rings on my cell phone, but doesn't ring in my home, and after a few rings it goes to voice mail.  If I try to answer the call, I still get the fast busy.

 

 

Former Community Manager

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10.4K Messages

10 years ago

Hello @coleman19 Welcome back!

 

I'm sorry you're having some issues with your phone. Our team will be happy to help you with that! Please send us a private message by clicking here, please include your full name, phone number, account number and the best time you can be reached.

 

Thank you,

Dmitriy

Expert

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10.1K Messages

10 years ago

If there is a fast busy & you can not call out, then there is something to be released on the call. Just be aware that the message waiting indicator is a stutter dial tone that may be mistaken for a fast busy. There usually is a welcoming message.

But, it should not interfere with calls. Try *86 to see if you can get to the message system.

Tutor

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29 Messages

10 years ago

As it turns out, a corded phone that we never use in my garage was knocked partially off the receiver.  We rarely use that phone so I forgot that it was even there.  Once I popped it back on the receiver, all returned to normal.

 

 

Expert

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10.1K Messages

10 years ago

Good to hear. Thanks for posting.
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