Magic Jack Phone Service - Comments Page 2

I have had the Magic Jack since last June. You need a fast computer and a very fast internet connection. If you have those two things then MJ is great. It is the only phone I have. I got the five year package and paid $106 US dollars for the total package. The 5 year price has gone down to $60 dollars. Remember...after you buy it, the only real cost is the your ISP bill each month.

I have never have had to use their customer service so I cannot comment on that. They are upgrading their service all the time. When I first got MJ you had to unplug the unit while booting the computer. Now you can leave it plugged in.

Used MJ for about a year now and really like it.Use it every week to call the UK and sound quality is very good, much better than Vonage.have taken it to Uk and it worked well in reverse over a wifi connection.The glass got smashed in the travel but it still works.For the price it's unbeatable.How they are making money i don't know.
Be sensible with it.Best connection is with a wired LAN connection to a Broadband Cable/DSL connection.Use other computer and especially Internet resources sparingly as this will affect the quality.It does seem to do the cut you off after a 30 to 60 minute interval, sometimes not a bad thing!Forget Fax it doesn't work unless you have a one page and hours to wait. I don't use the voice mail, I roll it over to my cell phone. Yes I can't get my area code etc but again look at the price. If you are a Vista use you will need to download the upgrades. If it doesn't do it automatically go to the website and find the automated assistant. Yes it doesn't let your compute go to sleep at night.So shut it down if that is what you want.I pretty much use mine 16 hours a day so it doesn't matter.
This gadget is wonderful,it's cheap portable call quality is good, what more do you want? If you don't like all the rest go back to the phone company and pay all their charges.

OK, I`m glad to see a place for comments. Yes there are many people who use this and like it fine. On the other hand there are many people, like me, who say it is definitely a scam. I used this for about a week and had nothing but problems. I tried well before the month`s trial end to return it but ran into an endless cycle of email and website tag to try to get a return ticket (with no luck). Then after the 30 day trial expired my Visa was charged. I checked the net and found many people had run into the same problem. I filed a claim with my Visa which has not been contested by Magic Jack.

GET THE MAGIC JACK!!!! I travel every six months to Europe and I use it to call the US and I DON'T PAY A THING! All you need is a broadband connection. Then when I get home to California, I use it to for local calls and to call family and friends in NYC. I not only save from not having a phone bill but I also save my minutes from my cell phone. I GUARANTEE YOU WON'T REGRET IT!

I love magicjack. It is practically free. It is better than my landline phone that I get through the cable company, and --it is practically free! the price is right! I pay so much and get so little for my other phone services, att cell service is truly terrible in many places, my home phone is unreliable, at least the magic jack works!

I also would like to know what sort of internet connection is required: dial up, DSL, broadband, satellite, etc. Presumably the faster the better, but what is the minimum required for **adequate** service?

EDITOR'S NOTE: I'd say DSL is the minimum. Dialup would be very poor.

Just FYI, my Cymphonix Speed-O-Meter says that my Magic Jack uses 80 kbs of bandwidth. So it would seem that it would work even on slow DSL. (My actual connection is a 3 Mbs cable.)

I have used magicjack for over a year now and I am very pleased with it. I have dsl, but a 750 connection, so I have had a few problems at times.

The echo problem exist at times and at times the person on the other phone can not hear clearly, or the voice is delayed and confuses both people.

This can usually be solved with a restart of the computer,which I might add is about five years old.

I think with a newer computer, these problems might disappear.

I love that I don't pay any long distance charges, and have talked for over an hour without a disconnect. For about 20 dollars a year, you can't beat it. The most difficult problem I have encountered was renewing my contract for another year. A bizzare process that doesn't make sense.

They make it appear that you have to sign up for a five year term, and that is not true. Website needs to be revamped and they need to get rid of the ads.

All in all, a very good deal for most people. For Europeans it means free calls to the U.S. Not a bad buy. Send to relatives in Europe and they can call y ou for nothing. Enough said. Try it.

I have used MJ for over a year and love it. I wish it would allow a true 3 way call. Apparently it only does if I receive both incoming calls. It does not seem to work if I want to initiate both calls. Anyone have a different experience with 3 way calling?

Doesn't Magic Jack require a computer with an existing internet connection? Is it only for those who want to make long distant calls and still has to pay the phone company for the connection from the pole to the computer? What is the "nitty gritty" of Magic Jack?

EDITOR'S NOTE: Yes, you need an Internet connection. But that doesn't have to be from the phone company.

I just renewed my MajicJack for year two at the $19.95 price, and have been very happy with it. I would say 75% of the time call quality is acceptable. All calls made on it from outside the US back to the US are FREE. I know of NO other way to do that! I've even received calls from the US while in the Caribbean, and for the caller it's a local call.

They've been running that "only 20,000 left" ad for a few months now.

Magic Jack is pretty good, I have a few issues with it though. let me first start by saying for the price it's awesome, $20 a year, ya can't beat. But, my complaints about it are:
1) You can't fax (more than 1 page) not sure about incoming...
2) Telephone services where you need to press numbers to access different things don't always recognize the buttons you press.
3) You can't dial your 'land line' modem (yeah, most of you probably don't know what these things are) over it, it 'misses' most of the digits.
4) If you have multiple user accounts on your computer.. FORGET IT. If 2 are logged on at once, Magic Jack wants to start the program on both accounts, and then won't dial out on either. Funny things really happen if you're already ON the phone when the second user logs on.
5) THE DAMN DIAL PAD POPS UP EVERYTIME A CALL COMES IN OR GOES OUT!!!! when you got teenage kids, this can be VERY annoying.....

BUT, BASICALLY, it does what it should... and at $20 a year, sometimes ya gotta be a little forgiving?

Ohh, and BTW, who the HECK would try to use (and WHY?!) a magic jack over dialup? if you HAVE dialup.... you have a PHONE.. USE IT! (yeah yeah yeah, "I wanna talk while I'm on the internet!" get over it. get broadband :) )

Magicjack is a total farce. I have had so many wasted HOURS on line to "assist" my problems- maybe more than 20. Every time I got to a point where it was making some sense or they understood my problem I was upgraded to a higher level of authority. I would then have to go the whole procedure again and this is by email typing, I was asked over and over to do the same "corrections" when I already knew the results- is that not the definition of insanity.
If I had to contact them the next day there was no record of my previous discussions. I once copied the entire session and then sent it to them the next time we "spoke" hoping this would speed things up.Not a chance - we again started from the beginning. I tried every one of their corrections and when nothing worked I asked for a replacement. Well, then the BS really started.After several more hours and requests to "talk" to someone "live" were again denied I almost gave up.The nexy day I tried again and I was a "stranger" to thier system. Do you see why I gave up and that is what they want.
If anyone thihks this not a scam tell me why a long distance provider has not got a working telephone nummber.
PS I do not know where in the net those contacts are but I would guess it is not N.A.

I have used Magic Jack for over one year. Can't say enough good things about this product. No set up ... just plug it in. Has 911 tracking and if you take it to another location ..in my case Florida for a month all you have to do is use the drop down menu and change your location .

What I do in Florida is connect it directly to a wall jack from the magic jack to the wall jack.

Then all the wall jacks in every room are connected all you need to do is plug in a phone any where there is a phone jack. Every room in the Condo is live ..Just plug in your phone and you are set to go. I use road runner in Fl for Isp 14.95 a month (cable) So for $14.95/month I have high speed internet and a excellent phone system in every room. Can call anywhere USA and Canada for $20 bucks a year.

I got my first MJ a year ago and it worked fine for 3 months; then it stopped working. It took me a couple of tries on the "live chat" line to reach a supervisor and I got a new MJ in the mail in 2 days. The new one started up my one year subscription again and I have had no problems since. I wired an extension so my wife can also use the phone in the den.
Overseas calls are usually 2 cents a minute but if the other person has MJ, it's free anywhere in the world.

Had the MJ for 18 months and use it when I travel out of town (1 week per month.) Works very well and pretty reliably anywhere you can get a broadband connection, even at 11 mbps wifi. Have used it at public libraries, motels across the US, when I went to Hawaii, in offices, hospitals, etc.

When I leave town I forward my home number to the MJ number - MJ comes with voicemail included if you miss calls. For $40 the first year (includes the device) and $20/yr after that, it is VERY cheap calling and the inventor is to be congratulated.

My home phone service is VoIP and the MJ can be used at home as a second phone line if you want.

Caveat: the computer into which the MJ is plugged must be ON to make/receive calls. But it can be any computer anywhere so long as there is broadband internet access.

Pretty slick idea...

I have MagicJack and love it! I used to hava second phone in my house that I used for business. It cost me roughly $21 extra per month over my regular phone line. I am so happy with MJ, I was able to drop the second line. I've more than re-cooped the cost of MJ, including the fact that I bought several years worth up front.

I was introduced to it via my brother-in-law who sent one to his mom. We live in the same town so I was the one who got to set it up. I had never heard of it and thought it was a scam. After setting it up, however, and testing out the call quality, I was hooked! I went home and signed up that night.

My wife uses it to call friends and family around the country. The call quality is excellent and I usually forget I'm calling through my computer. The only people I've heard having problems are those that have a slow or bad internet connection.

FYI: I have Comcast HSI, 6 Mbps

Bob, You gave a good account of MagicJack. So far so good for us. We did have 3 dropped call, but it is free to phone again. In Canada, we use a USA number. No problem. Get MagicJack and call us free :)

If all goes well on a long term we will likely put a recommendation on our web site drshenton.ca so anyone interested can look for that.

Magic Jack does work but like other users, I have had ongoing quality problems and dealing with the customer service section is an interesting and time consuming exercise. Dropping calls is common and I have found that I have to often dial a number 2 or 3 times to get through. My renewal is coming up and I have serious doubts that I will renew.