I just moved into a new home. The previous owner had 4 jacks, one which I know was working since they hadn't canceled their phone service and the phone had a dial tone and we received calls. When it was canceled, I ordered service from the same company, Verizon, now only 1 jack is working and not the one that had been previously on. Telephone co says it is inside, but the jack that was working last Friday isn't now. Can it be that 3 jacks now don't work?
Help,
Rose

I can't guess the solution without doing some tests but here is a thought. Call the previous owner or your agent if you used one in the sale. Hidden faults are the responsibility of the old owner in nearly all cases. Tell him/them your problem and that you want it repaired.

Did the phone company actually come out? Go out and open up your NID, the box the telephone wire connects to. If there is only 2 wires coming in, or only the red and green pair connected, then the red and green pair from any jack that is connected to the incoming pair should work. If there are several pairs coming in and different pairs connected to them, then you need to identify the working pair and connect all the jacks you want to use to it. You are allowed to work on the wiring on the house side of the NID.

People show up here claiming to know about phone wiring. I would be just as happy to leave questions like this to somebody that knows more than me, but they never seem to be here when somebody has a question. I am usually very happy to leave questions to those that know more than me.

Post back with what you find in the NID

Did the previous owner happen to have multiple numbers at the house?

Previous owner may have had a fax line(the jack that working now)and the other was their voice. Or maybe tennager/someone had separate line.
An easy solution maybe to look at box outside. Does it look like it had more than one line?
If so, Remove one pair, does phone still work, if so, connect the wires that are disconnected to the wires that are still connected. Might be something like a red and yellow
On one post and green and black post(positive voltage)

Or Remove all Jack from wall and make sure all jacks are wired same as good jack
The center 2 pins are line 1, Good jack should have red/green to red green.
It could also be yellow phone wire to jack red wire and black phone wire will go to green jack wire.