I got the Magic Jack phone doo-dad today, and it works like a charm!
It’s about the size of a Tic-Tac box with a cable attached. One end of the cable has a phone jack connection, the other end has a USB connection. Plug in the phone, plug into the Magic Jack and wait for the software to install.
I had a glitch on that last part. The software wouldn’t auto-install because I had that feature turned off as a security measure.
They had a link on their website for Magic Fix which I ran a couple times before the installer finally launched.
The only drawback is the limited number of area codes to choose from as your “home” number. I picked Boca Raton, Florida because I’d like to live there.
Since we intend to us it only for outgoing long distance calls, it’s a non-issue.
I attached a cheapo phone and the quality of the call was excellent. No echo, no delay, no static. It was a better quality call than using our cordless landline. Far better than any Skype call.
Don’t call me, I’ll call you - free.
Leave your phone number in my comments, an area that is kind of like a toilet stall.
UPDATE: During the install, the set up for Magic Jack changes your default external sound. If you want your speakers to work, go into the control panel change the default for sound to your speakers.
My friend got his and ran into the same installation difficulties as I did. This is not plug and play - or even plug, run install, and play. It requires running upgrades and their “fixer” program and trial and error.
UPDATE 2: I went to their website and looked at the reviews and I don’t think these folks are scammers because of the glowing review from (among others) PC Mag.
UPDATE 3: Scariest story yet:
In short, it not only has one agree to ads with its paid-for system, but claims that the ads are necessary for it to work. It will also snoop on your calls to target ads more accurately, and has you sign away your legal right to take it to court if it defrauds or otherwise harms you. Delightful.
It gets sexier. When you access Magic Jack’s instant web help page, a bizarre series of “compatibility tests” take place first, reporting lies like “Your Magic Jack is functioning properly” even if you don’t have one installed.
UPDATE 4: Nice write up in Twice.com, the official newsletter of the Consumer Electronics Show. They might have spent more time on the customer service angle, however. Thanks Bob.
UPDATE 5: Anybody using Magic Jack with Vista and wireless? How is that working for you? Easy-Peasy?
UPDATE 6: http://www.magicjack.com/techchat/ is where I found a live chat for tech support. Since I don’t have an issue with Magic Jack, I don’t know how good they are with their support. But it debunks the statement by many that there is no tech support. They may not be good, but they are available!
@xicilian: Go on the website and get the phone number for live chat. That is your best bet. Always a risk doing business online, for sure. Magic Jack has been reviewed by major media - including computer mags. I don’t think they are a high risk.
GE cordless, Panasonic cordless and generic corded.
I have worked with their technical support “chat” but all you get is the same basic responses of 1) run the magic fix, 2) try a different usb port 3) try a different phone
I don’t want to be teathered to my computer via headset.
They never discuss the possibility that you may have a defective magic jack that just doesn’t work with phones.
I have also tried mj on two different computers.
This product is very questionable to me.
Anyone have info on the subject of “security” with this phone system?
I retured their product and they stopped the charges against our bank account.
Well, today, over a month later, they again charged our bank account?
I went to chat, and after about a hour of nonsense, they claimed I had ordered the item AGAIN…… Absolutely not true. I was very unhappy the first time and would NEVER have bought another one….
After getting a long run-around from them, I kept the chat and will wait until Monday (today is Feb 28) to see what happens.
They refused to give me their address.
They refused to give me their phone number.
The only way they could have a record of yet a SECOND order is:
(1) Computer error.
(2) Employee error.
(3) Some type of SCAM…….
I don’t know which YET…..
I would like to hear from any others having a similar problem with them:
gregandsheila@triad.rr.com
Sorry to hear about your problems with the company. I am a Canadian dealer for Magic Jack in Timmins Ontario and can asure you that so far, everyone here who has tried their free phone calls device have not experienced a problem with the unit or the company. Maybe there was a compatibility issue between your computer and the unit??
roger de brabant
I signed up for Vonage a few days ago. Robert
i have a verizon broadband usb as my internet broadband. I’ve order a MJ. will this work w/ my verzion usb/ card or do i have to have a landline or cable w/ broadbrand? thanks for u’r help.
For $40.00 for the first year and $20.00 a year thereafter, it may be worth a sacrafice in quality.
I’m not cancelling my land line just yet. I’m going to keep testing for another month or so.
I run a cordless base with three handsets using Vonage and have had zero problems. I am now using a two in one adapter to add my fax to the single Vonage line. I fired the Telephone company but will still kep my cell phone. At a minimum I expect my cell phone minutes to go down which will pay for my Vonage line. I just need stuff to consistently work when I need it. For me it’s about the “total cost” including my time and the person’s time that is trying to talk to me. For some the MJ seems to be working..for now.
My Canadian friend:
You are correct that if you have a problem MJ within the first 30 days that you can return it. The point was that in my case and I know of at least two others that the MJ for some mysterious reason fails after the 30 days which means you have lost your investment.
…edited by Going Like Sixty… (I don’t want to be a clearinghouse for phone options, just for feedback on Magic Jack.)
Thanks, Robert
Now I understand your situation better. Even if the MJ failed after a month, the company should refund you or give you another unit. Sounds like the dealer isn’t doing his job because there is a guarantee.
I think its unfair how the company has treated you and I would be happy yo fix things up for you at my own cost, even though your dealer should have backed you up. If you give me your mailing address I will mail you a brand new unit guaranteed to work for free and postage paid.
You can contact me at my companies e mail address chimfm@vianet.ca if you like.
When I first got Vonage …edited by GoingLikeSixty
Hopefully MJ will stand behind their products in all cases from now on.
roger
Greg
gregandsheila@triad.rr.com
There is only one piece to Magic Jack. Plug phone in one end and plug the Magic Jack into USB.
@Greg: They are very stealth for sure. Which is too bad, makes them look shady.
@Trina: I have a lower paranoia threat: 1. Identity theft? They already have my credit card number and address, etc. 2. Go to their website and read their recommendations that are from some very savvy tech magazines. I trust the magazines. 3. If low cost isn’t a factor, they why are you interested? That is MJ’s only advantage over regular phone or VOIP.
As previously mentioned I am a Canadian dealer for MJ and am sorry to hear that several US customers are having a hard time to get any customer service from them. I noticed the Canadian MJ web site http://www.themagicjack.ca actually has more information on it and even an 800 phone number for sales and the FAQ section is working.
I will contact the US MJ people to relay your concerns and find the answers for you so you will get some customer service. So far I found out that the techs are upgrading the US MJ site and thats why the FAQ’ s in not working right now. I am working with the company to get an 800 phone number for all their US customers, who deserve better service. More on this later. My e mail address chimfm@vianet.ca
I can assure you that Magic Jack is a legit US company and definetly not a scam. Its just that we are all so used to paying much higher prices for long distance, that when a great deal comes along we sometimes think its too good to be true. Example, here in Canada before deregulation by the CRTC, the equivalent or your FCC, we used to really get screwed by the big Bell Canada monopoly such as paying 46 cents a minute between Timmins and Toronto, only 300 miles away. Now with the many cell phone companies, satelite phones, calling cards and about 100 voip companies, we can now make that same for for 2 cents a minute or even free with MJ. When my family members called Holland, they payed about $4 a minute, if you can believe it. Now its 2 cents a minute. I don’t know how we ever got by in those days. I guess we just talked fast and not very often. Thank God for competition, it keeps the prices down for us the consumers.
I wouldn’t worry about identity theft, cause if they did that, it would be out right fraud and they would be shut down. I do agree that its always much safer to pay by money order or certified check, or pay pal but so far they don’t seem to offer that.
When I resell here, I just take cash, or certified checks or money orders. Hope that my explanation helps somewhat.
roger
themagicjack.ca we are an authorized dealer of Magic Jack and support everyone of our customers, if you have an issue you have probably talked with Victor (Me) and I have either fixed your problem or exchanged your Magic Jack or refunded your money plain and simple. No stories, no excuses.
When you are buying your magic jack check out where you are buying from, ask questions to the seller about support and exchange and refund policies. If you have any questions or concerns give us a call or an email.
info@themagicjack or 1.877.901.jack(5225)
Victor
If you purchased the magic jack in Canada, could you use it to call any land line in Canada.
I just received my MJ on Fri. after ordering it on Wed. When I received it, it didn’t auto-boot as promised, but took me to MagicFix. I found and clicked on “MJ won’t start” and it downloaded some software. The MJ immediately worked. I was paying ATT $44/month, or $528/yr. I have cell phones but like a regular phone for at-home sound quality. So far everything is just fine. We’ll see . . . I have 25 more days to the trial. I went into this with my eyes wide opened.
I have had my Magic Jack for almost two months and it works flawlessly.
THEIR WEBSITE FOR FLORIDA IS http://WWW.800HELPFLA.COM ON THE LEFT COLUMN IS A LINK TO “FILE Complaint”.
HTH
I DO KNOW THAT BEFORE I EVER BUY ANYTHING ONLINE AGAIN, I WILL VERIFY THAT THEY HAVE A PHONE NUMBER, AND AN EMAIL ADDRESS TO CONTACT THEM WITH.
GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE!!
CAROLE
CAROLE
I tried it later and worked OK.
That’s about all I can do to help.
If you feeling like messing around, you should try a different port, and run all the upgrades and the MJ Fix and do a little trial and error.
Good luck.
Roger De Brabrant?
He seems interested.
Hi there,
Is there a particular port on the router that we need to configure? Or the sware itself will take care of everything.Please advise.
Thanks
Banie
Hopefully Roger monitors this blog.
Thanks for the reply.
Already found which port needs to configure.Its on magic jacks faq’s section (magicJack uses ports UDP 5061, TCP 80 and TCP 443)So basically you can configure your router just in case theres something wrong w/ incoming and outgoing (if the magic fix doesn’t solve the issue..maybe this is the next step).Not all router are configured for this port..Well aside from tcp 80 w/ is the internet..
@Banie: good deal. hope this is useful to other people.
I checked with an online agent from magicjack.com and they said they don’t have a Canadian dealer. I can only warn you not to purchase it thru themagicjack.ca
Funny tho I just sent you another one, so tell ME WHAT YOU WILL DO WITH 2 MAGIC JACKS.
HAVE A NICE DAY AND IF ANY ONE HAS AN ISSUE CALL ME DIRECT.
VICTOR ROSETTANI
themagicjack.ca
Victor Rosettani
Funny your address
1030 Upper James #204
Hamilton, Ontario
L9C6X6
comes up as Vinmod contruction
which one are you today???
Regards,
Victor Rosettani
themagicjack.ca
We are just trying to service our customers to the best of our ability.
Have a great weekend,
Victor Rosettani
themagicjack.ca
When I first talked to him this morning he told me he sent my unit out on March the 7th, 7 days before he received my order.
The man is good!!!
I also received this this afternoon
“Your Magic Jack has been packaged and sent.
It will take 3-10 BUSINESS DAYS TO ARRIVE!!!!!!!!!BUSINESS DAYS NOT
3-10 DAYS IT IS BUSINESS DAYS.
Thank you for your purchase of Magic Jack, enjoy them both.
Sincerely,
Victor Rosettani”
I find it strange that it would take 3-10 business days since I’m only 2 hours north of his reported business.
I did ping his website, seems it’s located or hosted Long Beach, California. that seems odd for a Canadian site.
I would appreciate hearing from anyone dealing with themagicjack.ca
I get the sense that Victor was sincere about sending out a unit this afternoon though, too bad it took all that to get to this point, but we shall see
Thanks for allowing me to air my grievances
Michael Reid
As far as the canadian dealer who works with magic jack. Be careful. In the past few months I have discovered that most viruses and scams are coming from texas, canada and arizona. The scammers feed off half truths and set up a lie to decieve. If you wish to find where this canadian dealer lives. INstall Firefox, remove internet explorer, disable all explorer related access . This might sound techy but works. Now after you install firefox, go to the site and put the add on shazou. its a tracer. It will give you detail information on his server, no matter where he lives. For example the server is currently at Cerritos, CA , IH Networks.
I could probably get more for you. but ill stop there. Take care, Ps be careful of the following satalite on pc sites, full tilt poker sites, and others like these. Most are all scams
ccds
I had a slight delay I think from my lite cable internet service so I upgraded it to a full cable service. But still worked fine with lite (with a slight delay).
I sent a fax after my service was switched to full.
Michael Reid
I do realise this is not a major phone service just a temp one. It is great for teens and businesses to call out to save money, or just for a private line. So even if it stops working down the road, who cares, 20 bucks!
The price of a flash drive and as far as support, remember its the price of a flash drive. We did not pay for support. You can’t call a flash drive company and demand to learn how to drag files over. Its given it shouldn’t be their problem unless you pay for support.
Just so you know I tried this device on a pII 400 computer , 256 older ram and a 10 gb hard drive , with xp fully loaded. Its all about how you set the software up.
Turn your old computer in the closet into a phone machine, that you can run day and night. You can network your entire house on it.
Now will this company go under, I think not because I know that vonage will have to make one to compete against it.
Remember what happened to computer market , when wallmart made a crap computer for 400 dollars. Today all we have is junk china systems with 2 wk warranties and 1 year on hardwares. Shelf life is old and pathetic. Also there is no more support. Most techs are crooks thinking they should have doctors wages. What worst they are dumbed down and don’t know old school thinking.
This company wont go under, because if it proves itself, he could charge 100 a year. Every business would pay it since it costs 200- 300 a month for one line for a business on average.
It’s kinda rude to make a big comment without knowing about the product. I myself used customer service, and they did their best to fix the problem. I couldn’t install on my desktop, but worked perfect on my laptop p4. Call quality is excellent, and there was a delay setting up voice mail, but once it was setup it worked perfect. Can’t while a lot for cheap stuff. You get what you pay for. So, calm down, relax and enjoy the new generation of phone system. I’m loving mine.
1) The quality of the phone call is as clear as a regular telephone call when calling telephone to telephone.
2) The magic jack has problems with “press number” prompts. In voice mail there is a lot of studdering at the beginning so when it say “you have X number of messages” it studders “y-y-you have x number of messages”
3) If trying to call a business with press number prompts. The quality gets very garbled when you have to press numbers. If you don’t have to press numbers, the quality of the call remains perfect.
If you use magic jack for phone to phone conversation its great but be prepared for a quality drop when you have to press numbers for certain departments or prompts. I had to hang up several times and call them back because the quality was so terrible and choppy.
Again: I have no affiliation with MagicJack.
PROS:
1) $20 PER YEAR calling VoIP style
2) Take it anywhere (in the world) to use with a computer that has a USB port and can be connected to a BROADBAND connection hard wire
3) Plug and play - does not install anything on your computer but meerly places a shortcut to the softphone on your desktop
4) Clear sound with super quality
5) Buy a MagicJack for yourself and your family across on the other side of the US or overseas and make free calls to them
6) Call forwarding to a number of your choice is good - I use my cell phone.
7) A drawback to having your computer on at all times to use this device might be someone elses strong point because if you don’t want any calls, let’s say at night, you simply turn off your computer and your phone will not ring.
CONS:
1) WILL NOT install on an administrator profile, it MUST BE a “limited” user profile - I found that out myself
I had the MagicJack for 5 days and couldn’t get to work and i had 14 tech support conversations. After the 14th one, I went to the other computer (which was logged in under our son’s account) I plugged the MagicJack in and POOF it worked!!! So from there I figured out that in order to use the MagicJack you have to have a “LIMITED” user account on a computer. I was trying to install this item on “ADMINISTRATOR” user accounts. To prove that I wasn’t crazy I created a NEW account and called it “MagicJackUser” and made it a “LIMITED” account and before you know it, it WOKED!!!
2) Poor tech support (chat based only) I’m sure it’s chat based to keep costs low. They try to do their best though.
3) Very limited phone number selection - Not nationwide like other services - mine is coupled with my Grandcentral.com numb