Magic Jack

[concept]

Anyone using this product?

It is a phone service that uses your internet to make local and long distance calls in the US and Canada. You plug the device into a USB port then hook up your phone.

 

[noose4]

I highly doubt its a good product to me, smells like a rip off.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

I used skype before. Too many grifters use the system, but it works real real well.

A lot better for international long distance than regular telephone

 

[dreamcatcherco]

We have Magic Jack Original (not the new Plus) on a free 30 day trial at our house. I did an online test & looked at what my ISP says & it looked like our uverse internet service was plenty fast enough for good sound quality. In the past I had a voice over with no significant issues except some echo on the line. So I choose the MJ original w/ the cheaper yearly expense and cheaper cost of equipment. Also, we do leave a computer on all the time anyway & we will want to use our current phone number. As I understand it there is an additional one-time charge for the change and an additional cost to annual service bill to keep old number. So we'll end up paying the cost for a plus with an original Magic Jack. I see no reason to not buy it at the end of the trial period at this point in time. BUT I would only do it with a cell phone in the house as a back-up in the event that the Magic Jack is out. I'm also paying for cell phone service now. Our current land line is not perfect. Sometimes I hear some echo. And when you hang up the phone there sometimes is another ring & no one is on the line. I scheduled multiple appointments to get that stopped & finally did--but now that is back. I will say that I've put some significant time into setting the MJ up and dealing w/ all technical issues I was experiencing. I saw bad reviews of customer service and that has not been my experience so far--but I hung with the people on the chat lines until issues were resolved--and they hung with me. It took some time, but then again, it ties up half a day or more if I have to be present when the phone repair person comes to fix my land line & I usually go though 5 or so different techs before the problem is fully resolved if there is a troublesome issue. I can do a computer chat w/ a Magic Jack customer service person on my time, not the phone company's. They have a step by step process they are apparently told to follow (and they definitely do) to continue if what they have already told you hasn't worked yet. I had some echo on the line & the knowledge base says to turn the volume down--which I did--and now I don't have that. At first I didn't hear my phone ring when I was calling out--got that fixed. Then I had no ring with an incoming call--got that fixed. Oh, and at one point when I tried to listen to voice mail I was hearing the sound track for the Majic Jack internet site on my line! Now I just need to figure out whether the Magic Jack voice mail should pick up first or the fax auto-answer should pick up first. I turned off my answering machine because the Magic Jack voice mail is working fine--NOW. At first when they sent me a .wav file in an e-mail saying I had received a voice mail I couldn't listen to it from the e-mail. I downloaded quite a number of codecs trying to get what my computer said I was missing. One was scammy & my home page was changed. I suspect the 3 infected files I found that same day came from there too. But just last night I learned that Switch Sound File Converter--which is free--allows me to hear the voice mail on my computer speakers when I open the e-mail saying I got it. I've only listened to one so far that way, but I bet the next one will work too. I will be saving about $47 a month I think.

 

[Mr. H.]

You can just use Google to make phone calls.

 

[Ringel05]

Anyone using this product?

It is a phone service that uses your internet to make local and long distance calls in the US and Canada. You plug the device into a USB port then hook up your phone.

I read some very mixed reviews, looks to be about a half and half split on neg, pos. It would probably be cheaper to use Google, Ekiga or Skype.