Can MagicJack Replace Your Landline? - Comments Page 3

Thanks, Bob, for all your insights and advice. I switched to ooma four years ago. ooma is a VOIP device that has NO monthly fee. Pay for the equipment up front and no more phone bill, ever. ooma offers premium services for $100 yearly. The main premium feature I use is the Blacklist (number blocking) and it is worth ever penny. I wish they made light bulbs.

I have had MJ for 6 years now and my current subscription ends 2/15/2015. Every issue I have had has been cured with a reboot or simply unplugging it and then plug it back in. It has gone through windows 98 - XP - Vista and now Win7. It upgrades itself per system requirements. I have even sent Faxes. 911 service takes a little while to set, about 2 days or less. If your device has a USB port MJ can and will make calls from anywhere in the world from the MJ number. All voice messages are sent to your E-mail address. I love the fact that I can and DO give the MJ number to whoever I DONT want to have my cell number.

I had Magic jack when it first came out. When I renewed it the second year, they gave me a new number. When I finally got someone in customer service I was told I would have to pay $10 to get my number changed back to the number I had previously, which was the number I had previously ported over to Magic jack. $10 was not the issue, the principle was. Customer service was terrible--they kept telling me they were looking into it and would get back with me. I disputed the charge on my credit card and have had nothing to do with majic jack since. I'm glad to see so many people have had good service, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I have been using MJ in Canada, Egypt and China for 7+ years and love it. True, if there is a power outage (like multiple times daily in Cairo) you have no phone. Also, though I have never had to use it, my 1st generation unit doesn't have 911 service, but I understand it is now an option. Besides, I, as most, also have a cell (and with the MJ app...wonderful). Sometimes there is breaking up, but that is rare and mostly due to where the other end's cell is getting poor reception. I'm now on my 2nd 5 year plan @ $20/year and I use my Canadian phone #, so all my calls from China are as if I am at home. It is not perfect (like what is?) but compared to what Ma Bell was gouging for less features, it is amazing! My family and friends who use the service also swear by it, and it was my sister who introduced me to it years ago.

I have had a Magic Jack for years. I would say that it's a decent product if you have perfect hearing, but if not, I would look at different options. There is no way to raise the volume to an acceptable level. This has nothing to do with the speed of my connection, because I have tried other VoIP services and they all work fine. Customer service will tell you how to increase the volume level on the Magic Jack with the computer interface, but there are no such options on the Magic Jack Plus, which is the version that works off the router and not the computer.

You still need separate lines for faxing and voice. Splitting lines will not work, especially if you want to use voicemail. I have Ooma which I consider a better quality device.

Going on the 3rd year of mj+ and 10 months of free cell phone thru the mj app.
It made my wifi only Nexus7 tablet a cell phone and has my home phone number so I get calls anywhere that there is wifi.
I've been reading the comments but you do have 911 service on mj - all you have to do is register it online with mj (some areas want a fee - I paid $0.00.)
You CAN get conference calls but you have to go the mj website and get a conference number so everyone can call that special number thats on the conference.

I live on a small Social Security check and was having trouble keeping up with my landline phone and internet/phone bills. So 3 1/3 years ago, in October 2011, I decided to buy the original magicJack for $39.99 at the CVS pharmacy (you have to have your computer on to use it). I opted to keep my landline at the cheapest possible rate, and got a new magicJack phone number. My magicJack is free for all outgoing calls, but charges for incoming calls.

My final solution:

1. I use magicJack for as many outgoing calls as possible.
2. I got a free cell phone for poor people (yes, I did!) that has 250 free minutes per month for both incoming and outgoing calls.
3. I set my magicJack to forward ALL incoming calls to my freebie poor people's cell phone, and if people call in while I'm at home I call them right back. If they call while I'm driving and it's not urgent, I say I'll call them back when I get home. This keeps my free cell phone minute usage very low.
4. I got rid of the expensive internet phone that was bundled with my high speed cable internet service.

Note:
a. If the power goes out I'll be without my mJ phone service. I'll use my free cell phone.
b. If my computer goes down, I'll be without my mJ phone service. I'll use my free cell phone.
c. I keep the landline for medical calls in and out, and for faxing when and if I have trouble faxing over the mJ connection (e.g., power or computer problems).
d. I generally fax using the mJ connection with no problem.
e. One big beef with the new mJ dial-up window: I used to be able to instantly see the duration of a call. After the mJ company recently "updated" the user window, I now have to log in and navigate to the Call Logs, where the call and its duration can take a whole day to appear in the log. Sometimes I need to quickly reconstruct the sequence and timing of daily events, so the loss of instant viewing of call durations is very annoying for me.

Why does my MagicJack make a buzzing noise every time i use it ?

The problem with it is that they dont say you are going to be charged a 911 fee and dont tell you how much,it could end up to be more than the magic jack monthly fee.

MJ is certainly is NOT perfect, especially their customer service. With three phone lines and paying Frontier $157.00 per month, the math makes it a no-brainer. A savings of $1,779.00 per year. The only feature I gave up, was call-waiting.

One thing to note is that if your MJ device failed then your pre-paid service fee is gone too. They only let you transfer the service fee if you have more than 12 months activated. I have 9 months of service left in my failed MJ device and was SOL even though I have an unused MJ device to transfer but couldn't.

I have used the standard MJ for many years now, on my 2nd 5 year term. I have not paid for a landline for about 7 years so I saved TONS of money on Long Distance calls. My wife and I travel all over Central America for 1 month at a time and it's great to have free calls back to our home while we're away.

People that complain about MJ probably did not give it a fair chance. Why would anyone wanna pay Ooma $100 a year? Beats me. I just bought a used Magicjack Plus on e-bay and then found out it CAN NOT get re-registered. So after 2 long chats with MJ support I got into a good chat with higher level support and my problems got resolved.

Because I had been a long time valued customer of MJ I was offered a Brand New MagicJackGo for $5 shipping. It includes 12 months free and I can keep my MJ number from my silver MJ and also transfer the 2 years remaining to the new GO.

I call that GOOD MJ service...you just have to be patient and persistant when working with them.

We went with Ooma Telo almost 2 years ago and have never looked back. Sure you have to purchase the hardware but after that you have a phone service with many great features that others lack. Recently saw a commercial about Ooma that indicated it is now the #1 VOIP phone service in the US. I'm not surprised.

I have magicjack app on my Samsung phone ,it was working fine but lately i don't see magicjack icon on my status bar it appears for a few seconds and then disappears which is why I can't receive calls .can anyone help plzzzz

I have a problem with my MagicJack (MJ). SOME of my customers cannot get through from their land-line. It will ring a couple of times, get a multi-tone signal, and then a voice message "the MJ number is not available, all circuits are busy, please try again later." Those same customers always get through from their personal cell phones. I have powered everything down, reset everything, nothing helps. I have not contacted MJ customer service, as I am saving that frustration for my "last resort"
Please advise if there is anything you can think of, that I might try.
Many thanks

My Magic Jack works even when the power goes out. I have a UPS for my computer. I simply add the MJ to the UPS and have power when the power goes out.

Replaced my Landline with MagicJack more than 3 years ago. Quality was generally good. Moderate number of dropped calls. Now almost every caller is greeted with a "all circuits are busy" message. I can not receive incoming calls. Tech Support is clueless. I would strongly discourage anyone to switch to Magic Jack.

I have had ongoing problems with MJ since I signed on with it around 6 months ago. I see the appeal: the price is right, and the offered service seems too good to be true. It is.

One of those services is that your landline number calls roll over to your cell line. Great concept. But almost invariably, any conversation on my cell phone devolves to the other party saying to me "hello--you're breaking up--are you still there?" I end up switching to my regular cell service. And call quality on my landline home phone is pretty bad, with a lot of static.

I called a number that I thought was a MJ customer service number. They ran a diagnosis remotely on my computer, then offered to fix the problem for $149. I declined.

MJ is not even responsive on Twitter. After I posted a comment about the quality of MJ service, and inquired whether anyone else had similar problems, I thought that someone from MJ would contact me and offer to take care of the problem. No one did.

I got my first MagicJack in 2008, and I purchased two more in 2009. I purchased two more MagicJack Plus last year, and replaced one of my original MagicJacks with a MagicJack plus about two months ago. I have a total of 5 operational, and with MagicJack Plus one computer can run two telephone lines. I am so pleased with this service that I have pre-purchased service until August 2021.