Telephone service was cut off for several hours Saturday in the area of Topsy Lane, near the border of Carson City and Douglas County.
An equipment failure within Verizon phone company's central office left 250 phone lines without service, including the shopping center there.
Wal-Mart store manager Larry Limpkin said the superstore lost phone service around 6 a.m., making it impossible for cashiers to run credit or debit cards.
Store greeters informed customers that only cash and checks were acceptable, and signs were posted at each of the check-out registers.
"We tried to make do as best as we could," Limpkin said. "But it's pretty difficult when you can't use credit cards or debit cards."
Telephone access was restored to most customers around 1:30 p.m., according to Verizon spokesman Jon Davies.
The only services that were not restored by that hour were about 10 high-speed Internet access lines.
He said those services were going to be restored by 5 p.m. Saturday.
Contact Teri Vance at tvance@nevadaappeal.com or at 881-1272.
