Reviews for Magicjack - Consumers speak out and take action

Ratings

Posted: 04/06/2009

I love Magic Jack

Reviewed by: N9999 (xxx.xxx.188.227)

I bought my Magic Jack Device from  Best Buy about 4 months ago.  I plugged it into my computer that day and have been saving tons of money ever since.  The setup was super-simple.  I just plugged it into the USB, it initialized its setup and then it was ready to go.  The whole setup process took about 90 seconds.  I don't know about Magic Jack's customer service because I have never needed to call them.  The sound quality  is great;  the only time the sound quality suffers is when I'm using a lot of bandwith on the internet.  The solution is simple, don't download files and talk at the same time.  I have the lowest DSL speed Qwest  offers and by-and-large it's plenty.  Magic Jack has been completely reliable for me.  Both outbound and inbound calls get through.  Caller I.D. and Voice Mail work.I was extremely sceptical about Magic Jack before I bought it.  But the potential $avings compelled me to give it a try.  I'm sure glad I did!       I love Magic Jack!!!

Ratings

Posted: 03/24/2009

Reviewed by: pva (xxx.xxx.78.22)

I think that most negative reviews are created by the competitors. This product is so low-cost that it doesn't even deserve such language. These reviewers sound like they bought a Mercedes and got ripped off.This is an excellent product that costs almost nothing comparing to similar products. I use it for several months and very happy with it. It may not be for everyone though.It was very easy to setup, and when I use it the quality is excellent, usually I cannot tell the difference between MJ and the landline phone. It has some great features like call forwarding, very convenient voicemail etc. The international long distance prices are excellent (I call Russia quite often). Some people who have relatives or friends in the other countries will appreciate the fact that they can send the MJ to a different country and talk to their friends or relatives for free.I've contacted support only once via chat, got immediate response and professional help.MJ has it's limitations, but they are mostly industry-specific limitation. The main requirement is that you must have a reliable high-speed Internet. If your Internet connection or your computer are bad - then MJ is bad too. Also, I would not recommend to use MJ if you download lots of big files (music, for instance) - these downloads take up a lot of bandwidth and may affect sound quality.And, of course, don't drop your land line for MJ if you don't have a cell phone - what would you do if your computer or Internet modem are dead and you need to call a techsupport?I have a cell phone and MagicJack, dropped my land line and have more phone than I need.

Ratings

Posted: 03/23/2009

Reviewed by: pva (xxx.xxx.78.22)

I think tha most negative reviews are created by the competitors. This product is so low-cost that it doesn't even deserve such language. These reviewers sound like they bought a Mercedes and got ripped off.This is an excellent product that costs almost nothing comparing to similar products. I use it for several months and very happy with it. It may not be for everyone though.It was very easy to setup, and when I use it the quality is excellent, usually I cannot tell the difference between MJ and the landline phone. It has some great features like call forwarding, very convenient voicemail etc. The international long distance prices are excellent (I call Russia quite often). Some people who have relatives or friends in the other countries will appreciate the fact that they can send the MJ to a different country and talk to their friends or relatives for free.I'd contacted support only once via chat, got immediate response and professional help.MJ has it's limitations, but they are mostly industry-specific limitation. The main requirement is that you must have a reliable high-speed Internet. If your Internet connection or your computer are bad - then MJ is bad too. Also, I would not recommend to use MJ if you download lots of big files (music, for instance) - these downloads take up a lot of bandwidth and may affect sound quality.And, of course, don't drop your land line for MJ if you don't have a cell phone - what would you do if your computer or Internet modem are dead and you need to call a techsupport?I have a cell phone and MagicJack, dropped my land line and have more phone than I need.

Ratings

Posted: 03/03/2009

My magic jack works great

Reviewed by: bobalexcat (xxx.xxx.203.252)

I have only used my magic jack for 1 month but I have used it a lot to see if it was worth it for me. It dropped 2 calls but they were both to the same person and I have to wonder if it might have been his phone. The only other problems I have had are when the internet is busy. We are with a small provider and can tell peak times and the phone doesn't work as well then but it does work better then my cell phone.(we live in a rural area)  I was charged for shipping right away but it was 31 days before they made me pay the yearly fee. I'm very happy with it and feel I got more then my moneys worth.

Ratings

Posted: 03/03/2009

Mike Review of MagicJack

Reviewed by: areamike (xxx.xxx.242.109)

I have read these reviews here and I will have to say it sounds to me like most of you are plagued by USER ERROR or have no idea how to work with VoIP and or you don't have a good internet connection. I'll bet most of you have never even heard of QoS pertaining to your ISP? You need a good internet conneciton when using ANY VoIP solution! Not to mention, YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. To be honest, I was skeptical to get this little MagicJack thingy. However, after talking to Tech support via Live Chat on thier website, and grilling them with questions PRIOR to my purchase(I'm smart like that), I figured 30days risk free, what do I have to lose? I ordered it on a Friday and received it the following Tuesday. I opened the package and plugged it into my USB port. I canceled the installer and downloaded the latest software from MJ website for Vista(any idiot who READS would know this part). I ran the software, it installed with no problem. I then went through the steps of setting up my phone number and within 5 minutes or less I was making and receiving calls. I have had Vonage for over 3 years now and I can tell you that the MJ is just as good if not better so far, even after only using it for one day. It has pretty much the same features that my Vonage line has. Call Forwarding, Call Waiting, Caller ID, Voicemail delivered to my Email, easy Voicemail setup and retrieval using a phone etc. For now I plan to keep my Vonage line until I am certain I want to keep the MJ. I also plugged it into one of my wall jacks and it activated all my home phones just like my Vonage did. All in all, I am very pleased with it’s ease of use an setup and overall quality. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone(with half a brain) to at least just give it a try. P.S. The only reason I gave their customer service a lower rating is becasue they do not provide a phone number you can call. However, for only 20 bucks a year, what does ANYONE expect? I'm sure most of us drop 20 bucks a night just on a meal. 

Ratings

Posted: 02/18/2009

MAGIC JACK

Reviewed by: jderigz (xxx.xxx.165.91)

From what i have gathered is that magic jack works for some and doesn't for others...maybe it is in the experimental stages. If you are a risk taker then I would say go ahead and buy the magic jack. The only problem is that if you got a problem with it there is no tech support. You got to figure it out on your own which can be very fustrating.  I have had it for just over six month now and i believe that it is worth the try...the price of gettin it is even less than most phone bills. But please note that this product is for risks takers. I presently use it to make calls from the US to Canada. I bought 2 and sent 1 to Grenada and I do get call sfrom Grenada with no problem. Also I have a friend in Grenada who recently got 1 and she sounds pretty clear when she calls me. I recently lent it to a friend of mine who uses it on her laptop to make calls to Canada. I have technical problems with it sometimes but generally it works. And I still recommend it to my friends.  

Ratings

Posted: 02/14/2009

Magic Jack

Reviewed by: fierykali (xxx.xxx.130.17)

I just received my Magic Jack........truly I was amazed. I am on satellite and have a router. My speed is a bit faster than low end dsl and I have a 3 sec latency up and down. I plugged it in ran the Magic Jack fix program and it works. Since I didn't count on much I used an extremely cheap phone that was laying around instead of making a mess with my existing phone line. I will evaluate this another day or 2 and then bye bye expensive phone bill.  I have a LinkSys router and no problem..... Truly I can't imagine this working on any newer computer running dsl or higher. If it isn't working right for you perhaps you need to try a different phone, phone line, etc. Try a bit of troubleshooting coz you may be on your end not theirs.

Ratings

Posted: 02/08/2009

Reviewed by: SemperFi4evr (xxx.xxx.222.249)

I bought my Magicjack about 4 months ago, I have done awaywith my regtular phone company. I use the local and long distance service regularly and it works great. I like the fact that I don't have to pick up the telephone to answer when I'm online, I just click the send button  and answer thru my computer speaker and microphone.  The service sounds great over the phone handset also and with my wireless phone I get about seven hundred feet from my base with great sound. I have been telling all my freinds about  MagicJack. It's possible that some people may experience problems, but they are probably related  to running the dongle on an old computer with limited processing speed and memory.  I also run serveral virus and malware detecttion software all running realtime and have yet to experience any problems as others have been complaining of. I don't even experience any lag on the programs I run. 

Ratings

Posted: 02/01/2009

Reviewed by: jman555 (xxx.xxx.146.128)

I recently purchased the Majicjack because I had a few counterparts of mine try them with good experiences.  I have to say that the price is incredibly low - 5 years of prepaid service, the hardware, and the shipping fees averaged out to less than two dollars per month for a home phone.  The call quality is almost always excellent.  The fact that you can take it into a datacenter or other service areas where cell phones don't work is nice, too.  The only thing that I've found about the unit that I hope they'll improve through software is to allow better control over voice mail.  I would like to use the VM on my actual phone, but Majicjack picks up on the 4th ring just before my machine does.  Oh well, it is nice having the VM show up in your email box as a .wav file.  All in all, a great buy.

Ratings

Posted: 01/28/2009

Great alternative to VOIP or traidtional phone

Reviewed by: elcodo (xxx.xxx.87.20)

Really like the service, cost, and ease of use. Like some other users it does not work well with some phone menus.  For call fwd from my office to home I call on my cell phone.  For conference bridges it works just fine.I'm saving $90 a month by cancelling my phone and cable TV service ... They really hacked me off about a year ago and I finally found something I was confident in and comfortable with.A former Co-worker tried it first and let me know how satisfied he is.  So far so good, we've had it about a week.  Neither we nor people on the other end notice a difference in sound quality over a tyraditional phone.  We use a Panasonic DECT 6.0 cordeless phone.We currently use it on our MAC.The support web site isn't always up to date.  It says our area code is available in 30 days. My friend clued me in that I could get it now, he was right.It might be because I installed on a MAC, during the install process I was told to respond to an e-mail otherwise service would be shut down in 24 hours. After about an hour I contacted customer support and had an online chat.  The representative registered my unit behind the scenes for me so there was no need for further action on my end.  The experience, resolution, and support was good ... .especially given some of what I read on previous reviews.