said by DKS:for 99% of the people in the world, this is a) not a serious issue or b) they don't notice it. If their phone line fails, they will deal with it then.
Agreed. Except there's a bit more to this case than I let on. It's not a horror story like yours, but not as trivial as I've made it sound so far, either. I'm dealing with another (potentially related) issue, too. I'll try to explain soon. Thanks for the link to the thread about the insane situation you had to deal with.
During my past dealings with Bell over the phone, and with Bell techs in person, (e.g. when my line went down on several occasions) I could never get straight answers about what was causing the problems I was having. Bell employees refused to answer any questions at all (and made excuses). Thanks to the people on this forum I actually feel I'm learning something, as opposed to being treated like a moron.
Thanks for your input, Everyone; it's appreciated.