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Review by David See Profile

  • Location: Granite City, Madison, IL, USA
  • Cost Contract price not specified.
  • Install: about 7 days
Cheap phone service
wifi app constantly drops,
getting rid of it entirely.
Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:

original review:

Well I did it, I plunged into the VoIP with a magic jack. I figured it's nice to have a 2nd phone line for say my basement instead of the wife calling my cell phone. Was really easy to set up. All I had to do was plug it in and before I knew it I got to pick my phone number. One thing that wasn't explained well, I felt like I had to catch this one. It was the outbound thing in the setup. If you are not careful and don't put a check in the box you won't have inbound dialing capability. It didn't seem like that was explained quite so well. Like they could have put a "If you want people to be able to call your magicjack click this box" or something like that.

Order process went great, went to magicjack.com and ordered, it was pretty straight forward. It arrived in a first class envelope, only had the magicjack unit and a USB extention that wasn't required to use. On the computer it adds 2 drives one a read only drive and another 16MB USB drive with a note that says to put no files there.

I tried it on a wireless network around the area and the phone call quality was good during my lunch hour. Seems like it could come in handy when I go out to a wireless hotspot for lunch and am able to make free phone calls. Monthly cost for the first year will be about $4 a month, after that each additional year (according to the paperwork) will be $20/yr or a little less than $2/month.

Call quality is very good, my parents couldn't even tell I was using it. I was as clear as if I picked up my phone line and talked them! I probably won't use it for a primary line because I don't have much need for it, plus when I fax magicjack doesn't do quite as well as old reliable. Anyone that lived in the St. Louis, MO area within the last 5 years got an idea what a extended power outage was, so that will be the biggest reason why I probably won't put it on as main. It makes a nice 2nd line anywhere I need one.

8/10/12:

Stopped buying the service as of late, have the free magicjack iphone app which is nice for either 3G or Wi-Fi calling. I have it renewed for free all the way to the end of 2013. I will save the dongle for now as it comes in handy. May buy the google voice jack software for $15 and use it that way.

05/15/13- I haven't renewed the service and don't even have the app on my phone anymore. the Free Wi-Fi calling cuts out quite a bit.

member for 21.8 years, 7631 visits, last login: a few hours ago
updated 10.8 years ago


Honest John
@mchsi.com

Honest John

Anon

Faxing with MagicJack

Do you need a separate set-up (and phone #) or can you use the same one for voice & fax?

cb14
join:2013-02-04
Miami Beach, FL

cb14

Member

Wow.

Surprised about your ratings. Tech support 50% ? The only thing they were ever been able to solve was resetting the voice mail (several times, after repeatedly malfunctioning) even people positive about MJ consider their tech support near worthless.
Reliability 100 % ? Makes me speechless. even more the value for the money 100%.
But at the end, you made the right decision to drop the " service". Thumbs up for that.

David
Premium Member
join:2002-05-30
Granite City, IL

David

Premium Member

Re: Wow.

Well I considered 50% on tech support based on if the issue was resolved. For the 4 issues I raised 2 were solved by them 2 were not solved by them. So I figured it at 50% being fair

reliability at 100%- Untill I dropped the service for the free service on my iphone all the times I used it, it was consistent and working. my office magicjack phone downstairs did ring when called. Call quality was clear. My mother got one for calling my sister in NY and it always worked for her.

The free wi-fi one I finally will leave alone for now just to keep the number. I paid for a 512 area code number I would like to keep. I may transfer it to my google voice account just to keep the number and be done with magicjack all together.

CommonSense
@shawcable.net

CommonSense

Anon

MagicJack scam if you live in Canada

I ordered a 'free 30 day trial' magicjack after reading that it would provide me a local phone number and I could port my existing cell # to it. When it arrived and I tried to activate I discovered that no, there is no local area code/prefix unless you live in specific Canadian cities. AND magicjack doesn't have the ability to port Canadian numbers. Nowhere on their website is this disclosed. I immediately returned the device so that I would not be charged outside of the 30 day window (it had already taken 2 weeks to arrive). Two months later magicjack says the returned device has not arrived. The Canada Post tracking number only tracks to the U.S. border. As the device has not been returned to me I am quite sure it did arrive at magicjack. Magicjack does not have phone support, only internet chat with reps who don't have authority to resolve a problem, only say 'apologies for the inconvenience'. The entire process has been incredibly frustrating and expensive ($65 for the device charge after 30 days). Do yourself a favour - avoid magicjack.