said by TorontoSM: Naively believing that they knew what they were talking about, I hired a contractor to replace my house's junction box and check all the wiring. After paying his fees, lo and behold, there was still no dial tone.
I run a firm that does inside wire repairs. When we get a trouble ticket like this the first thing we do is check for dial tone before we touch anything inside. If the contractor charged you for work that was not needed and failed to ascertain the trouble before he started he is an idiot and you should not have paid him. 
