Review by Lenagainster 
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 4.8 years, 1404 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Silver Spring,Montgomery,MD
 $2 per month (12 month contract)
 about 5 days
 "Cheap, good voice quality, unlimited calls to U.S & Canada"
 "Computer must be on (Power $$), co. startup problems, outages"
 "Inadequate as primary line, cheap secondary line"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
(ratings match consensus)
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Update 9/10/08 Cancelled the MJ service yesterday. Since it is unacceptable for incoming calls (caller gets 30 seconds of nothing before VM picks up) and a full minute to boot up to make an outgoing call (don't use it often enough to want the software running all the time), I found that I just don't use MJ any more. Didn't want the cordless phone I was using for MJ sitting on the desk, taking up space and sucking up more power. Had to bump my cellphone minutes up for other reasons and I have minutes to spare. Will use the cell rather than MJ for those rare occasions when the house phone is busy or is out of service. Had to chat with 'LivePerson' to get the account terminated; no way to do it through 'My Account'. MJ was an interesting experiment but the problems with the service make it impractical for me at any price.
Update 8/1/08 Tried calling my MJ number when I had computer shut down. Get an excruciating long wait of nothing but dead air before the voicemail picked up. Most callers would have hung up before VM activated, thinking they mis-dialed or the phone was not working. Totally unacceptable. Proves again to me that I cannot use MJ for incoming calls. For use as an outgoing line when the home phone is tied up, it takes a full minute to get MJ up and running, and for a quick call, that time makes MJ less than desireable. I'd rather burn a few minutes off my cell phone than sit at the computer waiting for MJ to boot up. I'll keep MJ around for the year that I've already paid for, but it's not worth it to me to pay the $20 for the next year of "service". An interesting experiment with MJ, but not worth the frustration.
Update 4/12/08. I kept the device past the 30 day trial period and paid the full $47. Now I'm stuck with it for better or worse. And it has gotten worse, so I downgraded my ratings. Voicemail has been anything but reliable, and currently it is not working. Worse yet, if MagicJack is not running on the computer, the caller to your number gets NOTHING, but if they wait long enough will eventually get a busy. (If MJ is set up on the computer, the call will go through). This means that this POS is definitely not to be depended upon as a primary phone. It still serves my purpose to be used as a secondary outgoing line, and for making LD calls. Just don't give your MJ number to anyone, or they will be laughing at you for being so foolish for signing up with this phone service.
Original review:
I'll admit I succumbed to the hype, and the price. Without the normal caution and research I usually take before purchasing anything online, I submitted my order for one MagicJack just about two weeks ago.
I had no intention from the start to use this service as my primary phone line. That's because I have VoicePulse, one of the most reliable and full featured VoIPs on the market. I'd never give them up. But MJ looked like a great deal for an initial outlay of $47 ($20 for the device, $20 for a YEAR of service, $7 shipping), with the subsequent cost of $20 per year for unlimited calling throughout the U.S. and Canada. It was worth it to me at that price to have a second line for the few times the primary line is busy, or we wanted to keep it open for an expected call, or on the rare occasion when our primary service is having problems. While my VoicePulse "local" plan give me 200 minutes of long distance free, which I never exceed, I could always use MJ for long distance, and if the occasion ever arose that I had to call Canada.
My MJ arrived within five days and I plugged it in and started using it. My first mistake was not thoroughly checking the MagicJack website for the available numbers and checking the exchanges against a reliable source to determine the name of the town associated with the exchange. The information on the MagicJack website was WRONG regarding the exchange and the town. I picked a number based on the MJ information and it turned out to be a long distance call for my neighbors. I contacted tech support via their text messaging help line and was told that I was allowed to change the number ONCE. I picked another exchange, based on the MJ information, and that turned out to be wrong as well. But the second town was a local call for most of my neighbors. If it was an extremely important issue, I guess I could return the MagicJack under my 30 day "free" trial, pay shipping and return shipping, and then order another MagicJack. But at this point, I don't even intend to give out my MJ number and I plan to use the service for outgoing calls only. One of the first things I learned after setting up my MagicJack is that this service is not ready for prime time. It was noisy at first, but somehow it cleared up and calls have gotten better. Sometimes voicemail worked, sometimes it didn't. On the fifth day I had the service, MagicJack was down for most of the day, and getting through to tech support was impossible. The next day, an apology appeared on the MagicJack window, stating that they were aware that a "few" customers had problems.
Sometimes voicemail works, sometimes it doesn't. The voicemail indicator on the MJ window has not worked from day one. No stutter tone. I will get an email notifying me of voicemail. But again, if I only intend to use the service for outgoing calls, voicemail is not an issue for me.
My biggest frustration with MagicJack is that it wants to control my computer and prevents me from using my computer the way I want to. It puts a startup program in the startup folder that seems to interfere with other startup programs and makes the boot up process excruciatingly long. It won't let me put my computer in the "sleep" mode (standby) and I either have to shut down or turn the monitor off and live with the computer running full time. After fretting over this issue for a while, I found that I could disable the MJ startup program and use the desktop icon to start MagicJack when I wanted. I realized that I could use Ctrl/Alt/Delete to bring up the Task Manager and hit "End Task" to turn off MagicJack. Then I could put my computer in the sleep mode.
It was pointed out in many discussions regarding MagicJack the added cost for this service due to the requirement to keep the computer running. If one were to use a desktop computer and leave it on 24/7 in order to use MagicJack as a primary line, it would cost anywhere from $10 to $25 per month in electricity, to say nothing of the wear and tear on the compter itself. (These amounts can be verified if one assumes about 14 cents per KWH (that's what it is in my area) and a desktop burning 100 to 250 watts with an LCD about 40 watts or CRT about 90 watts). These costs confirmed the decision for me that I would only turn my MagicJack on when I wanted to make an outgoing call.
I still have a couple of weeks left to decide if MagicJack is a keeper. As long as the voice quality remains as good as it is now, I feel that the $47 initial outlay for having a second line with unlimited calling for a whole year is worthwhile ($4/mo), and if MagicJack survives another year without substantial rate increases, $2/mo for that second line will be gravy. But I'd never give up VoicePulse.
Followup comments:  
mitt
@rogers.com | hmmmmmmmm read your blog, seems like an ad for your current service, does this thing work or not....tim  | |
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Captain Dave
@comcast.net
| Re: hmmmmmmmm Impulseively ordered MagicJack, went online after placcing order and found NUMEROUS complaints, went back to MJ web and could not find a way to cancel order. Then when I got an email asking me to confirm the MJ order, instead, I asked to cancel. To my amazement, my MJ order was cancelled with an email confirming this action. Whew! Dodged that bullet. Morale of this story - cancel when you get the confirmatin email from MJ because that will be the ONLY time you might get your $$$ back. MJ is probably as close to a scam as one can get without actjually losing all one's clothjing. | |
| | | mistah kurtz
join:2008-02-29
| magicjack Had mine for a few months and except for some brief blips in conversation the voice quality is better than my Verizon cell and clearer. I tried disabling on startup and it keeps coming back each time it starts, so forget the msconfig thing. I found a small, cheap powered USB 2.0 hub from ThinkGeek that, as suggested, makes it work better overall.
Get echo sometimes briefly, if it persists, I just call them back, conversations with family last forever with good reception on both ends.. I use a cordless Panasonic 5,8 ghz fone although I doubt that makes any difference. I have had good luck with the Voicemail, so I don't understand people having problems with the device(?) What can I say. | |
| 
mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28 | Power and $$$ One of my "24/7" PCs might cost me as much as $2/mo, if that--barely more than a light bulb actually. Of course, it isn't my primary desktop (not anymore, that is--it was back in 2002). | |
| | Lenagainster
join:2005-01-07
Silver Spring, MD
 ·VoicePulse
 ·DIRECTV
·magicjack.com
| Re: Power and $$$ Working backwards; at $2 per month and lets say the cost in your area is ten cents per KWH rather than the 14 cents per KWH in the DC area. $2 buys you 20 KWH of electricity. Given that there are (30 X 24) 720 hours in a month, your computer burns 20/720 = .0277778 KW or 28 watts of electricity.
A very efficient computer indeed. Do you have a monitor with that? | |
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mod_wastrel
join:2008-03-28 | Re: Power and $$$ Yeah--an LCD, but it's usually off (obviously); old Celeron with a small, low-wattage PSU; cooling fans typically don't run--not hot enough.
OK, maybe it'll hit $2.50/mo. ;D | |
| | | | Feculent
join:2002-08-09
Rockville, MD | Blh, blah, blah The review that doesn't end.... | |
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scotty34
@suddenlink.net
| Using MagicJack I keep my system on 24/7. The cost is probably $30.00 per month. I come from the old school that says don't turn your equipment off because most failures occur on power up. Oh, I also have a UPS.
Upon installing my MagicJack I made a couple of calls and had no problem. I did notice that on a reboot I had trouble getting my system to come up. After unplugging the MagicJack I had no difficulty.
Here are the idiosyncrasies that I have observed.
1. Does not work with Roxio running. If I have to reboot the first thing I do after the reboot is terminate Roxio. If I have to use Roxio I terminate MagicJack.
2. I had difficulty getting the system to boot up initially after installing MagicJack. I now unplug the device until I have everything up. I then terminate Roxio and plug in MagicJack.
3. With MagicJack running I cannot use a flashdrive. I must terminate MagicJack first.
4. If I start MagicJack first I don't seem to have any errors, but if I bring up a webpage first, at some point MagicJack begins to give me an error.
Even with the idiosyncrasies that I have mentioned I still think it is a bargain. I only use it for outbound calls to family and friends. The voice quality is good and the telephone that my computer is calling through is a cellphone located about 500 miles from me. But that's o.k.
Because I have spare computer parts, I will build a small machine with one disk drive just to handle the MagicJack. That way I won't have to reboot or terminate some program that I might want to keep resident. | |
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decalgal
@comcast.net
|  Voicemail, sound quality issues
As an outgoing only line, for office use when my computer is on anyhow, it is perfect. I have kept my regular local phone service, as well as a low cost long distance service, just in case. Using on XP with cable internet service. | |
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