My house doesn't have a phone line

~staple-salad Dec 9, 2012

I'm back from hiatus, maybe...

OK, so we had Comcast cable but it's expensive and we kept having billing problems and the only customer service people my boyfriend could get ahold of were unhelpful most of the time.

So we got Dish! And the television is fantastic. It's cheaper, we have more channels, we get HD and a DVR that both work in more than one room... it's just way too good of a deal, I honestly have to wonder why people get cable over Dish. We even had some windy and rainy storms and the reception was perfect the whole time.

Now, in order to save money we decided to go with Dish internet too. Which was supposed to be installed around Halloween. We still have Comcast.

Why? Because our house doesn't have a phone line.

Now that might make sense if the house had been vacant for a long time, or if maybe the house were a new construction since everyone has cellphones now. But no. The house we rent is 107 years old. It has been occupied for most of that. It even USED to have phone lines, but someone cut them.

The big problem with this: We get free installation via Centurylink. Centurylink needs to run new phone line to the house. That will cost $1000 (paid by Dish). Centurylink and Dish won't talk to each other. After weeks of frustration and a lot of work on Centurylink's installers part, we still don't have Dish internet, we have locates on the street in front, and I did notice some (gas? phone?) marks that are pretty new outside our place. But ultimately Dish canceled our order with Centurylink, then billed us for internet.

Moral of the story: Tenants and landlords, DON'T CUT THE FUCKING PHONE LINE!

BONUS: Our landlady is very protective of her "hardwood" floor. It looks nice but there's seriously like 1/4 inch of varnish on this thing. I think I'd have to drill a hole and pour water in it before we could even think of damaging it, and it's pretty "ruined" as far as floor goes, probably thanks to the very visible layer of varnish. But we're supposed to treat it like glass.

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Devious Comments

=puppy-dangerous Dec 20, 2012 Professional General Artist

Yow.

But our house doesn't have one anymore, either, it's about as old as yours. Neither does my moms, which is slightly older.

In her house, the line was run badly anyway, got stuck in a tree during a storm and broke. In our house, when we had to completely rewire it we just never put the phone line back in, since it hadn't been used in probably 10 years.

~TheNecco Dec 10, 2012 Student General Artist

my apartment doesn't have a tv line, has a phone line/inet though. I don't use the phone at all though. i havent watched tv in 2 years pretty much xD

*Pokey-Bunny Dec 9, 2012 Hobbyist Writer

Ah, that sucks. I guess you've gotten it straight though?

~staple-salad Dec 9, 2012

Nope. Still getting Comcast internet. I think we got it figured out where at least we won't have to pay for Dish internet that we never got...

But seriously, what house doesn't have a phone?