Has anyone tried the magicJack? It's the jack that plugs into the computer with a USB connection, and costs only $20 a year for use. I'm saving up for one, but don't like surprises with new equipment. Thanks.
Polly
Yeah! It's rip city stay away. No good, you may get up to triple charges, too. (01/29/2009)
By Ray M.
As far as I've heard in the majority of cases it's not worth the trouble and could end up costing you much more in time, money and frustration. Save the $20.00 a year initial fee for something else. (01/30/2009)
By Deeli
I bought one and completed maybe a dozen calls with it. The performance was just so-so. After that it quit working. My advice? Don't buy it! (01/30/2009)
By bob
I have a neighbor who sets up cellular phone systems in other countries. He's the one who turned us on to magicJack. As he is a phone techie, he installed ours, which may be why some people have issues (improper installation or computer equipment). My husband has used it from China, Mexico, and South America, as well as locally. It works great. We only had one password issue that was quickly handled by their rep.
We love ours so much we are considering buying another to use as our main phone. (We currently pay $50.00 a month using an internet phone system. Why not pay $20.00 for the year for the magicJack.) (02/04/2009)
I bought it and sent it to Europe. I love it. I talk to people there for free, and also they can call in Europe which is very cheap. Just to put 5 dollars on it. A lot of people have it in my country. I think it's perfect. (02/05/2009)
By Lidra
My mom bought this for my son for Christmas. He is deployed to Iraq and what a blessing the magicJack has been. He is half way around the world in Iraq and I get to talk to him anytime I want. We all love it! (02/05/2009)
By Noon
We heard about this from my mom and we speak to her twice a week. It is awesome. My parents are computer illiterate and they manage it just fine. We live in NH, and do not use one for home only because there is no NH area code. We did buy one for our 14 year old! What a money saver! He loves it and it works great! (02/07/2009)
By DATJ
I discontinued a $41/month Frontier phone at my home. The whole family had cells anyway. Magic Jack works well for us and we have wired the whole house off of the one jack. I think some people may have problems related to their areas of residence. I suspect some discouraging reports come from competitors of the product who don't want you to buy it. Try it and see if it works for you. (02/09/2009)
By Ed
I used it two times then it just stopped working. I sent a message to them four times and they have not gotten back with me. They leave you no way to contact them. Paid two years in advance and got screwed. Bob (02/11/2009)
By Bob
I dumped my land line and have a cell and the magicJack. It's great when it works. You can not get charged triple the charges as some one suggested. You pay your yearly and the calls are free. The quality of service seems to have a lot (and I mean everything) to do with the quality of your ISP. My current provider is TW and they suck, so my calls get dropped. I have to unplug and reconnect, etc., but where else can you talk across country in the middle of the work day for nothing? I'm hanging on and hoping tech improvements make this a smoother system. If you remember the days of dial-up then you know there is hope (02/12/2009)
By me
Got it about month ago. Works great if you install using directions. Cut my phone cost $40 month. (02/13/2009)
By Billy
The call quality is not great. It sounds like a really bad cell phone connection. My major problem has been trying to make local calls. Magic Jack's fix is to put a * after the first number in my area code; but then when I type the rest of the number, the phone acts like its trying to dial, but then disconnects the call. When I look at the phone log, it shows the phone number minus the last number - therefore it can not connect.
MagicJack's answer is to click on the phone number and then add the last number and click send. Not too handy when you just want to pick up your phone and make a local call. They're "working on it" seems to be the standard line. I think they can have a good product, but it's a long way from being good. (02/16/2009)
By not satisfied user
It's "not good". All kinds of issues with it--very inconsistent. No "Live Help" despite what they say. Sent it back and had no problem with getting the refund. It may be good sometime in the future but it needs work. (02/18/2009)
By Roger
http://uninstallmagicjack.com/ (02/20/2009)
By Guest
This thing really really rocks overseas. Mine was paid for in less than a month. I tried with SKYPE and unfortunately that was not what I was looking for, Vonage has a USB device with headset but I have to pay for a plan. Hopefully soon this guy from magicJack can improve the size and come out with a small Bluetooth phone that can connect to the Magic Jack within miles. Sorry to hear about the guys having problems with this device. (02/22/2009)
By Eduardo
I have had nothing but problems since the day I received it. The best part is when I changed my number, because my area code finally became available, I could not receive calls from land line phones with the same area code (269). When I bought it they told me the area code would be available in 30 days, it was almost a year. (02/26/2009)
By Window Man
I have had magicJack for about 3 months and I'm happy with it. Call clarity is awesome. As with all programs there is bound to be occasional issues. Once in a while a small problem may arise. I've had no problem correcting with magicJacks' live help or using the FAQ on their site.
I've probably talked about 60 hours using Magic Jack and all calls have been loud and clear. I think that some people who experience problems may not completely understand how to get help or how to make adjustments to the speaker and volume settings in the menu. In addition, they may have other programs on their computer that are causing them to receive undesirable results. I love it, use it and swear by it. I would not give up my home phone but I sure love to make free long distant calls. (03/01/2009)
By Kevin N.CA
CheeMiss Toronto, Ontario, Canada..
I am doing a lot of homework before I buy the magicJack. Here is what I found out, just today while Google searching. On this site: http://www.arnab.ca/site/2008/07/21/magic-jack-toronto-canada/ (Apparently you have to click on the last portion of this address, as this site seems to print it out twice.)
I found a blog where the person, Arnab is also from Toronto and he pointed out that he cannot call Rogers cell phones or any Toronto cell phone. He bought the M.J. from http://www.themagicjack.ca/. Just under Arnab's post, the owner of "The Magic Jack.ca" Victor, responded with "Hi there Arnab, the issue with the Toronto cell phone calling from your magicjack should be rectified very soon. If you have any questions or issues about magicjack please do not hesitate to call me direct."
Well, I called Victor approximately, half an hour ago and no, the situation has not been rectified. And it does not look like it will be, as Rogers has a block on the system. Sometimes the calls will go through, other times they will not. Victor will not get into any technical issues. He just refers you back to the USA branch, where you spend a long time on real chat time as the chat person is jumping between several calls and gets totally confused with the answers.
I know, because I just went through that with them today. So, I let the chat person know that they are mixed up and not focused on the question when they reply. "Oh", was their response, then the right answer came through. Poor things, I feel sorry for them having to juggle so many people at the same time. They really do try to help. Anyway, not to worry, if you check out Arnab's post, there is a back door code to dial when trying to reach someone on a Toronto cell phone. Just go to his site for the answer.
Also, for those of you who prefer to buy from a store and not online, I found only one located in Scarboro, Ont. near Birchmount. Quite a distance from me, but, I will go there on Sunday, Noon - 5pm. They are called 7 Star Electronics, 3575 Sheppard Ave. East. 416-630-3339. Apparently, they sell M.J. for $39.99 with a 30 day money back guarantee.
For the record, I own an iMac, Version 10.5.6, 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. I am with Rogers, Lite High Speed, which does qualify for the M.J. use. So, you do not have to spend the big bucks with the super High Speed internet. (I hope!) I will let you know how things work out.
I also have spoken to "Apple Care" and they are not familiar with the M.J., so I gave them all the info on it for them to check it out. Hopefully they will become familiar with it soon. I also called Future Shop, Best Buy and The Source, enlightening them, that the same stores in USA carry this product, why not them? It's only a matter of time before everyone in Canada gets on the band wagon. Since most of us are at work in the day time, and most of us have cell phones, it does not make sense to continue to pay "big bucks" for a land line.
During our last 2 hydro black outs, I still could not call out on my Bell land line phones, as my phones are cordless. With hydro down, they won't work. Thank God I had my cell fully charged. So why pay the "big bucks" for a land line in this case scenario? Yes, I know, I can hook up a regular phone instead of my portable ones, but that would mean I have to be glued to that spot when talking. The once in a blue moon that we have a black out, does not justify the cost for a land line, does it?
If enough of us leave Rogers or Bell land lines, maybe they'll smarten up and start charging a lot less to get us back. Wouldn't that be nice? As far as I am concerned they are being penny saved, pound foolish! Very, very greedy!
(03/09/2009)
By Irene
FYI, this info comes directly from the Magic Jack.com FAQ site:
*Please remember that some calls are not considered local calls, even though they are in the same area code. Please refer to your local carrier for more information on local and long distance calls.
Hmmm, those of us living in Canada "beware", all your local incoming callers will be charged long distance fees, as the magicJack phone number will be a USA area code number. According to the magicJack inventor, Canadian area codes are not on his priority list! This is something that none of the re-sellers tell you. This truly sucks! (03/10/2009) By Irene I ordered 4 (2 for a friend) which came with the first year of service with extended 5 year plans. I have only been credited for a total of 5 years instead of 6 years. I have chatted to customer service numerous times, but have gotten nowhere. I asked to speak to a supervisor, and he said, "Sad to say but I am the supervisor."
When I mentioned that I would contact Better Business if I couldn't get satisfaction, he told me to go ahead and ended our chat! I just called the billing phone number, and after waiting 16 minutes and being the next in line, the call was disconnected. I called back on my cell phone only to be told that the promotion was not in effect when I placed my order. I had confirmation that I was paying for 6 years. Here is one of the orders. And the splash screen is so annoying! I have used task manager to close the program just so I could use my computer instead of waiting for it to load. MagicJack works fine if I don't use my computer while on the phone, otherwise it messes up the reception, skipping wildly even if I stop using the computer. (04/08/2009) By M. Ryan I am using it and it works great. I love magicJack and wouldn't change it for any other phone service. I will admit MJ screen is annoying because you can't minimize it, but once your on the internet or using other programs, it goes into the background.
I love the fact that I can either use my home phone or switch to my microphone/headset. The price is absolutely great, I have my cousin using it and he is saving almost 2000 dollars a year. I had Vonage which was OK, but I was paying 28 bucks a month for it and couldn't do half the stuff I can with magicJack.
One other feature I like about magicJack that I couldn't get with Vonage is that when I receive a voicemail message, it gets forwarded to my email as well. So I can check it online if I'm not home. Now if I can find a company that does this with Cable TV, I'll save a ton of money. You know cable is very expensive. (05/08/2009) By NMF
Has Anyone Used "Magic Jack"?
Has Anyone Used "Magic Jack"?
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