Hidden Additional Fees, Poor Customer Service

I've had Magic Jack service for about 3 years. The first two years were pretty decent and the device worked well. For my first year I had the regular Magic Jack which required plugging it in to your computer. Of course when there was a power outage due to bad weather, I was without phone service. The quality of the calls was decent, but not the best at times.

This year, we've begun to have a lot of issues with our device. The short cut on my desktop no longer launched the program and I couldn't get the service to work. I spent hours over several days trying to "chat" with customer service representatives that kept suggesting that it may be the extension cord attached to the magic jack that was connected to my computer that has caused it to fail. After trying everything, I thought that maybe it was time to 'upgrade' and purchased the Magic Jack Plus which does not rely on being plugged into your CPU or laptop but can be utilized with your Router. WARNING: Even though they SAY you don't need a computer with it...you do! You can't use the device until it's been registered on their site and that REQUIRES that it gets PLUGGED INTO A COMPUTER!!!

The Magic Jack Plus isn't all that it's cracked up to be. All of the phone numbers that I had saved to my contacts list with my previous magic jack could no longer be seen. For example if Grandma's number was 867-5309, before I would have a customized list of all numbers received as well as numbers dialed and I could customize the numbers with a name, with Magic Jack "plus" you can't do that.

Most recently I've begun to get messages when I pick up my receiver saying that my Magic Jack number has expired. I JUST renewed my service at 177.85 for 5 years to find out that NOW i need to pay a yearly additional fee to have my phone number the customer service rep "Bernie" says that 'vanity numbers' (which I don't have) are $10 per year and custom numbers, also known as regular numbers are $3 a year plus tax of course. These additional fees should have been charged at the time that I renewed or upgraded my service. not two weeks later. I wonder what additional fee's they'll think of next. I don't mind paying for service I just want businesses to be upfront on ALL of the costs and not to nickel and dime me after the fact. It's annoying and it's not the way business should be done.

Many people have gone away from having a home phone service. But it you're like me and like for friends and family to have your cell and everyone else to have the home phone, then Magic Jack is not a bad deal, when it's working, and as long as you understand all of their fees ahead of time and don't have any expectation of excellent customer service.