Service for landline

Do you have an old cell phone that you do not use anymore?
Even if a cell phone is not activated or does not have service, it can
still be used to make 911 calls according to a FCC requirement. Even
though your MIL does not want a cell phone, having an unactivated one
could prove to be very beneficial for her. She wont be able to make or
receive any other calls on it, so for normal telephone use, she can
still use a landline. She can still do her normal telephone calls the
old fashioned way, however she can have a high tech new way to save
her life.

. . . and it's not their fault they can't accommodate her needs.

They can't consider the POSSIBILITY that something MIGHT happen while
she's waiting for service an emergency.

The beauty of the un-monopolizing of telephone service means that you
have OPTIONS now. Look into other locally available carriers.

& unfortunately, those options include cellular phones. Your MIL may
be opposed to such an idea, but the fact is that any wireless carrier
could have her live in under an hour with a new phone and service and
resolve the 5 day wait.

I understand your dilemma. What about a medic alert bracelet. We got
one for my 85 year old mother (she chooses to live alone) and although
she has a cell phone I wasn't convinced she could use it in an
emergency. It's a small price to pay for MY piece of mind. Hope you
get compensated for lost service.

Is it fixed yet?

She doesn't want one? Tell grumpy ol' MIL to SUCK.IT.UP. Geez. She
didn't grow up with a phone in her home, so maybe she shouldn't have
one at all if she's gonna be such a pill.

Dear lord, just buy her a prepaid cell phone for these emergencies.

Why is your 80 yr old MIL living alone? You know she has a "heat
condition" and she's living alone?

Since she refuses you should stay with her, with your cell, until her
phone service is restored.



Good Day

She needs to get a cell phone.

If her condition is so bad that you both think she deserves special
attention, then she needs to stop the "I don't want one" attitude.
That makes no sense. For her to say that means she must not be that
concerned about her condition. Especially if this outage has happened
before!

If she IS worried about her heart condition, and if it really is the
issue here, she needs to suck it up and get a cell. If you think
Verizon will be held responsible if something happens, you need to
think again and check their term of service again.

You never know when the phone might go out for other reasons. None of
that stuff is ever 100%. It happens and the terms make mention of
that. Beleive me, they make sure to cover their behinds when it comes
to outages.

The responsibility for emergencies is on your mother in law.

If she is in such a a fragile state, you shouldn't even have to think
twice about setting her up with something for emergencies. Thats a no
brainer. Especially in this day and age.

i would recommend getting her a prepaid cell phone for emergencies.


even if the account runs out she can still use it for 911 calls

I wonder if there is anyway you could supply proof of medical need to
Verizon. Do companies allow that sort of thing? Maybe that would help
Verizon understand the need for the phone.

I do also think that you MIL should explore the option of at back up
phone or other device since Verizon has not been cooperative in this
matter.

I've been through something like this and I suggest that you find out
which agency in your state regulates telephone companies. In my state,
it's the state utilities commission.

I got the runaround several years ago until I told my telephone
company's service department that I was going to contact the
commission. Suddenly a repair person was going to come to my home
within four hours instead of the 10 to 14 days I had been told. I'd
already waited several days.

Once the repairman arrived, he told me that the problem was probably
the inside wiring of my house and there would be an extra charge to
"verify" the lines. I then told him I paid for the "special service"
the phone company offered to "insure" my internal phone lines and
showed him a copy of my monthly statement which included that fee. (At
that time it cost less than $5 a year.)

After inspecting the internal lines -- which were just fine -- the
repairman "found" a damaged line outside and told me they would be out
to retrench and repair the line in 2 to 4 weeks. I once again
mentioned the state utilities commission and he called his supervisor
and got "special" permission to have the line repaired sooner.

Six hours later the outside line was fixed and I had a working
telephone.

I needed a working phone because my elderly mother had her own home
and relied on me in the event of trouble. She didn't want a cell phone
and I didn't think she should have to get one because my phone company
couldn't get their act together.

My phone company also gave me two months of free service plus paid for
the cost of me using my cell phone to make calls. I am a disabled
person and I specifically got my cell phone to use in the event of an
emergency, not for making calls while my landline needed repair.

You don't have to get angry or yell at the service department people
or worry about your MIL. It's much easier to let the phone company
know you understand the contract that was signed when they installed
the landline and you expect them to live up to their part of the
contract.

I hope all goes well for you and your MIL.

In the last few years, we've had two major storms hit my area:

1) Last spring, a series of tornadoes touched down, four of them
within 1/2 mile of my home. My electricity flickered but stayed on, my
landline never went out and cell phone service was out for six days.
Some people in the area lost power for a couple of days but their
landlines didn't fail.

2) A couple of years before the spring tornadoes, we had a major ice
storm hit. My power was off for six hours, my landline worked
continuously and cell phone service was out for seven days. Power was
off in some areas for as long as two weeks but no one reported a
landline failure.

Cell phone service has greatly improved in recent years, but it still
has a ways to go before it approaches the reliability of landlines.

is that nothing is 100%. So having a fallback in a situation like the
LW has is important. Are there times nothing will be enough, of
course. But doing all they can helps. In this case, the landline has
been having problems, so a cell backup kinda seems like a no-brainer
to me.

just because your cell failed during a storm doesn't mean that's how
it happens all of the time. Otherwise my cell would have failed
during my hurricane.

but it didn't.


how power goes out during a big storm is unpredictable. it all
depends on what grid you're on.


i personally lost power for a little over a week, while a coworker was
fine.


the other factor is this... during a big storm, it's not actually safe
to use a landilne. not if you're getting lightning at least. yes you
can take a shock from a corded phone. i've seen it happen.


and if you have a heart condition as does the woman this thread is
about... a shock from a phone will most likely go from your ear or
hand to your foot. ... which um, means there's a good chance it'll
cross your heart.

Have you tried talking to someone at Verizon directly? If not, I'd
get on the phone, I think you have a much better chance of getting a
timely response. Explain to them what you wrote here.