That's why those phone contraptions will never catch on.......I had a similar experience when trying to change my internet provider many years ago. The old company hadn't taken some kind of code off the line but because both companies were resellers for another company the company that owned the actual physical equipment couldn't tell any of the 3 parties what the problem was to protect the privacy of the other 2. I know that is gibberish but it's impossible to explain without gibberish.