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 Review by CableGei 
UPDATED: 85 days ago
member for 5.4 years, 1567 visits, last login: a few hours ago
 Brookville,Montgomery,OH
 $2 per month
 "Fast Shipping! Arrived within a few days! Cheap Service!"
 "Can't disable voice mail. Very Basic Caller ID. Persistent Software."
 "For the amount of money it saves us, I'm very happy with it!"
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Updated: 08/30/09
We went ahead and did a 5 year renewal of MagicJack. It was so cheap, why not? We have reliability issues that I blame mostly on our internet connection. Every once and a while we have to restart the MagicJack software - no big deal. We're still very happy with it! This isn't a service to get if you are going to be upset if you pick up your phone and have no dial tone someday -- sometimes you have to do some basic troubleshooting (Did the computer shut down? Is the DSL not working again? yada yada).
Original Review:
We replaced our Verizon POTS line with MagicJack. We selected a local number for our area. Installation was simple. I disconnected Verizon at our NID and wired the MagicJack to the inside wiring of our house. We use all of our existing outlets and phones seemlessly. Every once and a while I have to restart the MagicJack software which is a small price to pay to save as much as we do.
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 Review by Gork
UPDATED: 85 days ago
member for 8.1 years, 1325 visits, last login: 3 days ago
Bountiful,Davis,UT
$4 per month (12 month contract)
 about 7 days
"GREAT value"
"Reliability & call quality improving, but has a ways to go"
"If you don't mind dealing with some bumps, this is a great value"
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I couldn't really rate tech support - I've never contacted them. The biggest problem I have is that the computer has to be on to use this service. And not only that, the software has been very buggy for me and has interfered with other applications I run on the computer. I have ordered a cheap sub $100 computer to just run magicJack to combat this problem. I'm somewhat computer savvy and the "cost to problems ratio" has been more than worth it to me, especially since I have seen constant improvement. And honestly, the problems are nowhere as much of an issue as those I had with Vonage when I joined up with them when they had only been around for about six months.
Problems with the quality of the service/connections I've had: 1) Software updates itself then doesn't work until I manually restart it; 2) rogue DTMF tones (seems to have been fixed with a recent update); 3) A few times a week someone will call but the call doesn't come through; 4) Calls drop 2-3 times per month; 5) Though not often, the sound quality when connected goes to pot; 6) It almost seems like the service is half duplex instead of full. While this is not the case, I can rarely truly hear what the other party says if I'm talking and vice versa. It works well enough to know they said SOMETHING though.
I use MJ for my only phone line and for $20/yr ($50 for the first year) it's more than worth the price. Would I pay $20 or even $10 per MONTH? No way. But for the price, I'm happy.
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 Review by r81984
Posted: 97 days ago
member for 8 years, 2021 visits, last login: a few hours ago
St John'S,NL
$1 per month (12 month contract)
"Clear calls, works great in Canada to have a US number"
"Must have it connected to a USB port on a computer"
"For $20 a year, nothing beats it."
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I use magicjack when I travel to Canada for work. $20 a year to stay in touch with family and friends in the US.
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Review by po1retired
Posted: 101 days ago
member for 9 years, 467 visits, last login: 17 days ago
Avondale,Maricopa,AZ
$1 per month (12 month contract)
about 1 days
"Cheap Cheap Cheap"
"Night time calls will make you think your inside hell trying to call out"
"If you have a cell and you want another line just to trim excess minutes off your monthly total then MJ is the answer."
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Best $20.00 I ever spent inside the US!
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 Review by UFO BOGIE 1
UPDATED: 101 days ago
member for 1.5 years, 15 visits, last login: 69 days ago
Wichita,Sedgwick,KS
Contract price not specified.
"Good, Cheap Voip Phone Service"
"Computer needs to be on"
"Very Good, Well worth the money"
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I've been using Magic Jack now for about five months now, Works really well on my computer, has saved me a lot of money on long distance charges. Haven't used Tech support yet. So I don't know about that. I tell all my friends to get one.. here in a month or two will put another year on it. Ya-all get ya one of them Magic Jacks..!!!!!
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 Review by micki_hills
Posted: 105 days ago
member for 6.1 years, 126 visits, last login: 105 days ago
Vashon,King,WA
Contract price not specified.
"CHEAP! And I mean CHEAP! Simple. Works."
"no auto forward, if you want it 24/7 you need to leave a PC on 24/7"
"Works for me and it is CHEAP!"
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I purchased magicjack and have been pleased with it. I gave up my landline many years ago and have been a customer of Vonage, Sunrocket, ViaTalk, and now MagicJack. I've had MJ for 9 mos and just re-upped for 5 more years ($60). I plugged it in and it simply works on a Vista 64 PC connected via Comcast HSI.
magicjack does not have all the bells and whistles as some of the other voip services, but for what I use it for it's fine. My cell is my primary line, but often my house does not have good cell reception so MJ fits in quite nicely as an inexpensive alternative. The longest call I've made using MJ was about an hour and it was flawless. No echo, no delay.
I would really like MJ to add an auto call forwarding that would send your calls to another number if your PC is off or the magic jack is not plugged in. As it is now, you have to manually set up forwarding otherwise the calls just go to voicemail.
It really is a good service and is so cheap I can see why some people are suspicious that it's a scam. All I know is so far I've paid about 1/4th of what my previous voip services were (that number gets better as months go on) and am having good calling experiences using MJ and a regular cordless phone. And if I do decide to cancel service in the future, I don't need to mess around with returning any equipment to them.
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 Review by webtechy
Posted: 119 days ago
member for 7.7 years, 2102 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Santa Clara,Santa Clara,CA
$3 per month
"cheap, easy to use and convienient, good international travel idea"
"need PC running 24/7, little tech support, updates have not been useful"
"if you are not very techy person than its easy to start-up w/ MJ and very low investmest so its hard to complain about $40"
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The best things about having a magicjack so far in the last year or two that I've been using it has been:
1. when I was able to hack the sipinfo, which was subsquently taken away in an update they made to the USB device.
2. when my brother made use of the device with his laptop while in japan
3. being able to use it as a softphone on a PC for a while was useful
4. I have had good results with some PC's I used it with as a FAX line where many other voip solutions I used had failed
I am planning to rely on my magicjack less now and may have to rethink renewing when my contract comes up since G5+GV+ATA gets me almost the same thing except for the faxing capability for an even cheaper price and I don't have to leave one of my computers running 24/7 in order to have the MJ receive calls. Hopefully, they will update MJ with newer features before my contract renewal comes up to give me more reason to keep my MJ since paying $60 for 5 years would be worth it just to have the MJ as a cheap backup voip solution.
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Review by totalradio
UPDATED: 120 days ago
member for 2.1 years, 698 visits, last login: a few hours ago
El Dorado,Union,AR
Contract price not specified.
"Ease of setup"
"Wasn't able to get a local number"
"So far, no problems...yet !"
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UPDATE 05/15/2009 - Still good quality after 6 weeks. Same quality as when I took it out of the box and installed it. Call quality is great, absolutely no problems. If you're tech challenged, it might not be for you since it does require a HEALTHY computer. If you download heavily, MJ is not for you.
For most "nerds" like myself, its just fine. As for phone number selection, not very many good choices, but I can tolerate it... for the time being.
Web site sucks, not much functionality, but again, I can live with it.
04/01/2009
Decided to give it a try after watching all of the damn commercials. Easy to setup, but wasn't able to get a local number in my area (received a number from a town 80 miles away), but I can live with it. First person I called was someone in Chicago and they were amazed at the call quality.
Worth the cost of finding out if its right for you !
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 Review by ctceo
UPDATED: 122 days ago
member for 8.5 years, 2410 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Mishawaka,St Joseph,IN
$5 per month (12 month contract)
"Price, Features & Simple install"
"Doesn't work well with <1.5mbps access, and/or other downloads going simultaniously, 3-Way calling is awkward, Annoying popups!"
"Currently 1.5 of 5.0, worth having if your broke or need a second line."
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Hearing me talk about the MJ a lot recently, and my friend having told us he got one prompted my GF to buy a MJ yesterday. After having set it up, which took all of say 15 minutes to get right. It seems ok, for what it was worth ~$35.00 + tax.
Right off I had a bit of a problem getting the intended PC to even see it. I plugged it in, it flashed a blue LED inside the MJ then nothing happened. I let it sit there for about 4 or 5 minutes, still nothing. I unplugged it, restarted the system, and plugged it back into the same USB port and viola it recognized, took about 3 minutes to do it's installation of a USB CD & HD device and to complete it's auto-update/install process, after filling out a brief application (about another 7 minutes) I was up and running with a local number.
Pros:
Price, Features & a simple install (excusing the initial glitch of course)
Cons:
Doesn't work well with sub-1.5 mb DSL packages or when you are using up bandwidth elsewhere. 3-Way calling feature is set up differently then the standard analog phone, as a result it's a bit cumbersome to use. Doesn't play nice with fax machines either. It's Popup ad window is a bit intrusive, and can be downright annoying when playing games, but is easily remedied by using fast user switching, and giving it it's own account.
Overall an UNSATISFIED rating of 1.5 of 5 for this one, but lemme use it for a month or three then get back with you, since I only just installed it yesterday.
UPDATE:
I just updated my review to reflect my first week's experience, also see this thread:
»MJ Problems
Also, I'd like to mention that we weighed having faster internet or phone because our income dictated this to us, and we err'ed in favor of faster internet, I'd rather watch good streams than talk on the phone anyway.
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 Review by mrkevin
Posted: 132 days ago
member for 2.3 years, 224 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Aurora,Hancock,ME
Contract price not specified.
"Cost"
"sometimes can be touchy"
"You get what you pay for"
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For the money you can't beat it.
I have a local number and can bring it anywhere I have a high speed connection.
The quality can be sketchy at times and I did go a week where I couldn't make any calls but over all its not bad.
I don't use it as much as I should but I think I have got my monies worth.
Makes a great gift.
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