Fast Busy Signal

[Micelle1]

For the past couple of days, every time we try to call out from our landline, I get a fast busy signal.  When people try to call us, their calls now frequently go directly to voicemail even though our phone is still ringing and we are trying to answer. (Once we pick up there is just silence.  We finally figured out that no one is there because they are being sent straight to voicemail.) Anyone else having this issue or have any ideas on how to fix this issue without spending hours on hold and/or troubleshooting with customer service?

[dexman · Accepted solution]

This may take a little troubleshooting to figure out where the problem lies.

Which Verizon ONT is present? Is it the current Alcatel-Lucent (Nokia) 211 or one of the older models? If not sure, a picture of the ONT can be posted for us to check. If it is located inside of an enclosure, open the cover and maybe include some of the internal wiring in the picture. 🙂

(Quick note, submitted pictures are queued for moderator approval. Once approved, the pictures will appear).

When a telephone goes off-hook, does an LED on the ONT illuminate and do you hear dial tone?

If you were to directly plug a single line telephone into the telephone jack on the ONT and call your telephone number from a mobile phone, does the test phone ring?

If the telephone does ring, but things go south when in-house wiring is connected up again, then that would indicate a wiring issue.

If the telephone still does not ring, try power-cycling the ONT and once it is fully restored, try placing more test calls.

If things are working properly, that's it. If things are still not working, contacting Verizon Customer Service would be the next step.

[dexman]

One quick edit....please be sure to use a known good telephone to make the test calls. If a defective telephone is used, it will cause invalid test results.

[fastKitty]

This has been happening to us consistantly over the last 4 months.   When we call, the call doesn't go through, when people call us, the phone sometimes rings but nobody is there but usually goes to voicemail.    Sometimes we have dial tone, call a number, the number doesn't ring (such as if we are calling a cell phone) until we hang up, then it rings and they get nothing.

We had VZ to the house and they did diagnostics on the box and told me "there's a weird error code on the box that I don't know what it means".  He replaced the box and the problem has continued.  While this is going on, our internet and TV works.

The VZ tech told us to have someone come out while it's happening.  Only that seems to be impossible for VZ to do because as soon as you call to report the issue, they do a line test and that clears the issue.  The tech told us our physical wiring is as clean as it comes.  No issues whatsover on the home inside wiring.   Similiar going online (since internet works) and running the troubleshooter will eventually  run a line test and that will give "we detected issues" and then simply do a reset and that will clear it. 

Appears no way for VZ to fix it cause there's no way for VZ to actually get a tech out without actually doing a test that clears the problem.  And the tech told me he needs to see it happening to know what's really going on (unless he lied to me which knowing VZ is a distinct possibility).

[kh-taylarie]

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