Telephone Help

Telephone helpTroubles with your phone service can be caused by several different problems. The problem could be in our lines or switch, OR it could be a problem with some of your wiring or one of your phones. When you call the office with a problem, we will do our best to find and clear the trouble. If it is in our switch or buried cable, there will be no charges to repair (unless of course, you dig in the ground without a locate and hit the cable). If the trouble is with your inside wiring or one of your jacks or phones, you will be charged for the work we do. To save yourself time and costly repair charges, we encourage you to attempt to isolate problems before calling for repairs.

To Locate the Problem

The following guidelines may be of assistance:

  1. Check each instrument to be sure that a receiver is not off the hook.
  2. Be sure that all cords are securely in their outlets and that there are no loose connections or exposed or frayed wires.
  3. If you have a cordless phone, unplug both the line cord and the electric cord from their outlets. Then check other phones in the house that are not cordless.
  4. To determine whether you may have an isolated internal wiring problem, take a working telephone to each outlet and test for dial tone.
  5. If you still have not determined the problem, and your home is so equipped, take a known working telephone outside to your NID (where the telephone wire enters your building). Remove the existing plug-in from the connector block and insert the plug on the cord of your modular telephone into the outlet. If you hear a dial tone from your telephone, you may assume that the problem is with your inside wiring. If there is no dial tone, it is probably an external problem in the CTC telephone line.

Voicemail

Voice Mail Service is provided to telephone customers with touchtone service by central office based equipment and software. VMS provides subscribers the ability to:

  • Present a personalized recorded greeting to callers
  • Record messages

You will know you have messages when you hear the interrupted/stutter dial tone (sounds a little like a busy signal). You must set up your mailbox from your home phone. This would be where you record your message as well as enter a remote access password (four numbers). Your remote password will allow you to check message without being at your home phone. To Access Your Voicemail

  1. Dial 424-MAIL (6245). Then, Either:
  • Press * if using Auto Login and accessing from your home phone no entry is required, OR Enter your telephone number, if calling from a remote phone.
  • Press # if calling from the phone your voice mail is subscribed to, OR
  • If requested, Enter your password, followed by the # key. Your password will be default of four zeros (0000) until you change it.
  • Main Menu: Press 1 to retrieve messages. Press 7 for current date and time, orPress 9 for mailbox setup. The first new message will play immediately.

Note: If you are checking messages from another phone that has Voice Mail, call 424-MAIL (6245) and when voice mail answers, hit the * key twice. OR: call your home phone and when voice mail answers, hit the * key once. Options In Mailbox Setup Menu:

  • Press 9 to enter Mailbox Setup Menu
  • Press 1: Greeting Options (you can disregard this step if you choose to use the default greeting)
  • Press 2: Change Password
  • Press 3: Disable/Enable Auto Login
  • Press *: Return to Main Menu

Options in Message Retrieval Menu:

  • Press 1: New Message
  • Press 2: Saved Message
  • Press *: Return to Main Menu

To Listen to Messages

  • Press 1- Play or re-play Message
  • Press 2- Save Message and Go to Next
  • Press 3- Delete Message and Go to Next

To Un-delete Messages Don’t hang up! Follow the voice prompts to listen to the messages. Once you have played the message you deleted,

  • Press 4- Save Message as New
  • Press 5- Reply to a Message
  • Press 6- Forward Message
  • Press 7- Skip Back Three Seconds
  • Press 8- Pause or Continue Message
  • Press 9- Skip Forward Three Seconds
  • Press *- Return to the Main Menu

To Change your Password

  1. Press 2- Change Your Password
  2. Enter New Password, followed by the # key. The password is any series of up to 16 digits you choose. You will be unable to access your mailbox without this password, so be sure to choose one you will remember.
  3. To verify, Enter your password followed by the # key.