2 Messages
Landline repeatedly making 911 phantom calls even though phone doesn’t work—armed police showing up at my house
My longstanding home phone (the landline) has not worked for over a week (loud noise on line, etc.) The non-working landline has been making 911 calls. In a one week period, armed police have showed up 3 times, once at 4:00am (which was last night when we even had the phone disconnected). After the 1st police visit, we reported the issue to AT&T. Nothing was done. Now, since the 4:00 am police visit last night, we need something done immediately. This is beyond a nuisance; it’s a public safety issue. But today is a Saturday, and we can not even talk to a person at AT&T. How do we speak to actual person to convey the urgency? Is there an emergency # for AT&T?
Accepted Solution
spoom2
Expert
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19.7K Messages
4 months ago
Yes canceling service would remove it at the central office, so it wouldn't dial anything, even if the battery were still on it. And yes, it's most likely and outside plant issue. So, they either have to fix it or disconnect it. If you no longer use your traditional landline than I'd probably just disconnect it. When you call the customer service number say cancel service to get to the correct group.
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spoom2
Expert
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19.7K Messages
4 months ago
To report this you'll need to call 800-288-2020, no idea if they are staffed on weekends or not. Have you reported this before? You say it's been static and noise for over a week. Landlines can dial via dial pulse on swinging shorts and ring grounds, the ring is the battery side of the line. When the line is causing the phone company switch to think someone is dialing, but can't make out the digits repeatedly (called mutilated digits) the default used to be and must be it still is in your area to call 911 as it could be a person in distress. All this explanation isn't going to resolve your problem, the only way to resolve it is to report it and have it repaired, or if you no longer need it have the service cancelled.
(edited)
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SimonCarl1
2 Messages
4 months ago
We did report the problem earlier this week (after 1st police visit). We were told would be resolved that evening, but obviously was not. The 3rd police visit occurred after we had actually disconnected the landline phone from the wall. So that indicates to me an issue occurring outside of the house, correct? Would canceling the service definitely resolve the issue?
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techproblem
1 Message
4 months ago
This happened to us 3 times in past month. Exact same scenario. Police came 3 times in middle of the night each time. Incredibly scary. We finally canceled landline which hadn’t worked in forever but ATT would not come to fix because they blamed it on us. Hoping disconnection works.
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