Interesting problem, and before I call the phone company, I’m letting it out here.
For many months, have had a co-worker of mine call me. We would be playing an online game, and he said he would be calling, getting the ring tone, but it would never ring on my end. This happened all the time. I wrote it off as an isolated incident, since it just seemed to be him. However today, another co-worker told me that he was calling me all day, with the phone ringing. Again, the phone never rang on my end.
I don’t have call-waiting or any special stuff, so this is indeed mysterious.
Interesting, but it’s not one phone. We have 3 phones in the house (on different jacks) on the same number, and none of them ring. Even switched two of them to different jacks (not related to this), and the problem is still the same.
Power to telephones are supplied through the phone wire, which is shared by all the telephones on the same line. I think it’s possible that one defective phone will prevent all the phones on the same line from ringing. Just like one toaster with a short circuit can trip the breaker for the entire house. Try plugging in one phone at a time and checking if it rings. Here in Japan, they tell us that plugging in more than 2 telephones can result in none of them ringing, because our phone lines cannot provide enough power.
Or just call the phone company and ask. But don’t leave a message telling them to call you back…
On all phones sold in the US, there is a value printed on the bottom of the phone called the REN or Ringer Equivalence Number. This is a measure of how much current is required to activate the ringerin the phone as compared to an arbitrary reference ringer (one of the standard ringer units Bell used in phones it manufactured at one time, IIRC).
If the total additive REN of all phones on the circuit exceeds 5(4?), relability is not guaranteed. The farther you are from the central office switch, the less current your lines receive. Try disconnecting a phone or two and see if your problem disappears. It is also possible that if the CO switch is overloaded, current may be reduced, so the problem may seem random from your end.
YMMV. I live three blocks from my CO and my REN total is 6 and I have no problems.
So even though it’s just one person (now two) that can’t call me (plenty of other people can), it may be the phone? Wish the telemarketers couldn’t get through…
Was thinking, maybe this is related, fairly often, when I answer the phone, I get dead air, then after about 5 seconds, the line dies, and I get the dial tone. This is fairly common, maybe 25% of the time.
One point I forgot to add. Many cheap phones with electonic ringers (those without real metal bells in them) have a surprisingly high REN. My cordless phone (which has its own external power source) has a REN of 0.6 while the cheap Unisonic POS in my kitchen is 1.6.
You know, when my phone service was installed in my new home I had a similar problem. Except it wasn’t an off-and-on sort of thing, but my phone wouldn’t ring at ALL. I tried several different phones. I tried several differen jacks in the house. If someone told me they were calling, I could pick up the phone and they’d be there, but the phone just would NOT ring.
The phone company had to come out and fixed it for me. It wasn’t my phone(s) at all.
