Magic Jack Phone Service - Comments Page 3

I LOVE it ... I'm on a fixed income (retired early); have a low-end DSL connection; and had practically no use for a land line. In fact, I was using my cell phone for all long distance calls before this. I had Basic "local" phone service, Basic DSL, and a cell phone with 650 anytime monthly minutes for an average monthly bill of $90 - $95. Now I have a dry loop DSL connection, a prepaid cell phone, and MagicJack for an average monthly bill of $35 - $40 ... a savings of about $660 a year. I don't care if I DO have occasional dropped call or bad connection (which is RARE I might add). I'll just "tough it out" at that rate. I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

I am NOT computer illiterate, but I found MJ the worst piece of software/hardware I ever had the misfortune of trying to install on a computer; even worse that stuff in the DOS days of 1986.
After inumerable contacts with their idiotic Tech Support team, and never being able to install it,I finally managed an RMS to send this piece of garbage back-AT MY EXPENSE, not at their's as advertised.
Thank U very much Verizon, I'm able to talk LD as a human being should.

I've been using magic jack for about 3 months. I'm pretty happy with it. Of course, your high speed internet has to be working properly ( a problem around here since the ice storm). I have it connected to an old computer, so I do need to reboot every morning after getting antivirus updates and running antivirus overnight, but on a good computer with plenty of memory it shouldn't be a problem. One suggestion is to set your computer so it won't go into sleep mode. If it's hibernating when you get a call, the caller gets your voicemail before your computer comes up and the phone rings. Also, magic jack has a standard 4 rings before it sends the caller to your voicemail and it can't be changed to a different number of rings. So if you want your home answering machine to pick up, you'll have to set it for 3 rings.

We have used Magic Jack for a month. It is like the little girl - when it works, it works very well. Many times, however, after dialing, the phone flips back to a dial tone. Very frustrating.

The MJ device is amazing! I've had one for at least two years and just recently renewed for another year. I loaned my to my son who was stationed in S. Korea for a year with the army.
A lot of his army friends that had been in S. Korea for an extended period had been using Vonage for their telephone service. It seems that the local phone company in S. Korea was losing a lot of money to Vonage so they got it blocked so that no new accounts could be set up. My son was able to use the MJ device to call his wife back in the states as a free call for the last six months of his tour of duty there. They were spending major bucks on calling cards before they switched to MJ. I'm sold on MJ! I've recently cancelled my landline telephones and I now use MJ plugged into a 3.2Ghz P4 computer with 3Gb of RAM and a 10Mb cable connection. It works most of the time flawlessly! I still have my cell phone which is what I use most of the time, but I use MJ for business conference calls and have had very few problems... especially considering that it costs me less for a year of MJ that I paid for lousy landline service per month. I've had people tell me that they like MJ, but they prefer to keep their landline so that they have a "listing" in the local phone directory so people can find them. IMO having a listed phone number is just asking for unsolicited sales calls that I have no interest in receiving. The concept of a "NO CALL LIST" is a good idea, but telemarketers always find some way around the NO CALL rules. Anyone that I want to talk to will get my cell phone number. I treat my MJ telephone like an "unlisted" number and I don't give it out unless it is to someone that can leave me a voice mail message. And you can pick up your voice mail messages through your email account which is a plus when you travel. I for one can not figure out how MJ's business model works, but then as long as it keeps working it is well worth having... IMO. Your mileage may vary, but I'm happy with mine!

I have to offer my 2 cents worth. I have used MagicJack for over a year now and have recently renewed for 5 years at the unbelievable cost of around $59.95; I must admit that I did have problems at first, especially with Vista (on my Laptop). Also the problem with having to restart my XP Computer every day was recently fixed with a major software update. I have had MagicJack running on my XP Laptop for 2 full weeks without a restart, and it's still working just fine. I'm not going to restart the Laptop until MagicJack stops responding or until I head north again from Florida. I can’t say enough for this wonderful service. The only way it would be better is if you could use it independent of your computer; but, People, look at the price, it’s a tremendous value.

look......one day, while no one was home the police and fire department broke down my front door down and destroyed a window because they said there was a 911 call from my house and when no one responded they had to break in.....they said they were sorry and did not pay for the damage, i was shocked to find out that apparently this happens several times a month in our area.......i doubt, for some reason, that will ever happen with my magicjack........bear in mind the phone company has been in business for almost a hundred years and this kind of thing is happening now.........i like my magicjack even though it is not perfect, as well, magicjack has not even hinted that they are thinking about breaking down my front door......hurray!

This product does everything it promises to do. I have used it for a year and have saved a bundle of money on long distance calls.

Quality is about the same as Verizon land line.

Would reccommend it to anyone..........

My nephew took a MagicJack to the Philippines for four months; we were able to call him or he could call here, no problems at all. I'm surprised they don't market it for that purpose - just that one trip has paid for it many times over. We knew he'd be in a location with an excellent internet connection, and that may not always be the case - but if it is, I'd say go for it!

I tried MagicJack primarily for business phone calls. Then I found out that the device refused to install under Vista, and, when I tried it on my XP notebook, I found that I could not make calls using many hotel high-speed internet connections. It also would not work with a fax machine, even though most other V.O.I.P. services work with fax. I returned it during the trial period, and my credit card was not billed.

I have had my MagicJack for at least 8 months and haven't had any problems. I brought one to my relatives in Costa Rica and they have a US number and it works just fine for them also. I am saving lot's of money on my long distance. I am getting ready to send one to a relative in Israel.

I too had problems with Magicjack and found their advice a tad, lets say, wrong. They tell you not to plug it into a hub but I found that is exactly what is needed.

I was very frustrated with dropped calls and poor quality and found two things:

1) The USB ports on my PCs and laptops did not provide enough power
2) You must have a router or firewall that has quality of service (QOS) settings for VoIP.

After getting a powered USB 2.0 hub, plugging in the Magicjack there, and then setting up VoIP to have priority through my router, no more issues.

By the way, I use IPCop on an older PC for a router and it has QOS settings. Many "home" routers don't from what I can tell. It might be worthwhile for Magicjack users to upgrade their router to one with the QOS settings for VoIP.

I tried MagicJack several months ago and returned it during the 30 day trial. Any calls, outgoing or incoming, were fine for approximately 3 seconds. Then the audio would go "dead" for about one second and the audio would come back on for about 3 seconds... just like flipping a light switch on and off. Customer Service was of no help... they said "Look, if you're not happy send it back and we won't charge your credit card. There is nothing wrong with the unit." I'm sold on the idea of MagicJack and would love to have the service, but they refused to replace the faulty product!

I have been using magicJack for several months now and really like it; The last three months I have had a number of problems where it wouldn't hook up with my laptop. I'll say that the Live Chat they have works well. The techs have been very helpful and just today I rec'd a replacement magicJack. Apparently the one I purchased has a problem that couldn't be fixed. My service is back up and running and doing a good job. I do recommend it.

I have had MagicJack and to date it has worked without any difficulty. My only problem is that presently they do not have my state on their area codes. That means I have to use another states area code and this creates toll call from those in my state.

I have used a MagicJack since last November. I am totally blind and needed sighted help to get it set up. After that, I can just plug it in, wait for it to sync up and make calls. Most of the time, the calls are clear and the voice quality is good.

Your review did not point out what I consider to be the most significant benefit, although it was mentioned in some of the comments. MagicJack allows free phone calls to anywhere in the US or Canada (there is a small charge for making calls to foreign countries). What is not emphasized is that the free calls to the US can come from anywhere else in the world. For anyone planning foreign travel, this is a huge benefit. I just received my MagicJack a couple of weeks ago and it works fine for domestic calls but I bought it for my upcoming trip to Asia for two and a half months. It will pay for itself with one or two calls home. For receiving calls, I don't even have to give out a new number to my many contacts. I can simply forward my home phone to my MagicJack number. Any calls to my home phone will be stored in the MagicJack voicemail which I can retrieve the next time I turn it on. (MagicJack also sends an email to me each time that there are new messages in the voicemail, another handy feature). Another feature that you didn't mention is that MagicJack works even better with a headset that plugs into a USB port or into the computer's audio jacks. For traveling, it is much easier to take along a lightweight, foldable headset rather than a telephone. (I got a great one from Plantronics). I have had a couple of dropped calls, but it's very easy to redial.

I have used MJ for a year and just renewed for 5 years. Great service. Great for traveling you do not have to pay the hotel rates for using their phone when used with a notebook. Also it has saved me around $500 a year with canceling qwest.
CONS: If internet provider is down or having problems, a cell phone which everyone has anyway, is handy for 911 calls. I do have medical issues. Highly recommend. Friends, relatives overseas, get them a MJ and all MJ to MJ phone calls are free.

If you take all the comments and consolidate them, that has been my experience with Magic Jack. I have had it for over 9 months and the first month was hell. I couldn't use it, CS was no help and I ran the fixes too many times to count.

I rationalized that it would get better over time and I waited it out. I didn't even try it for two months. Now, from two months ago, I have no problems other than disconnect after 45 minutes and a occasional minor knocking noise on the line. Other than that, it is has become my primary line for business.

I have had MJ for a year and a half. Works great, never had a drop and it works fine with my fax machine. Only minor thing is that you hear a slight click in background if an email comes in while on the phone. But is hardly an annoyance. It's really Magic!!!