Does magicJack Really Work or is it a Rip Off?
Whether or not this is a scam is a hotly debated topic on the Internet and something that we simply have to address. For starters there is a clear answer to this question and it is simply NO! There is no magic Jack scam! If it were some type of shady operation it would have surely been shutdown by now or the company would have been forced to change the way they go about their business. The only real concerns are the company’s customers service, and their uninstall and installation processes which can both be confusing until you educated yourself a little bit.
magicJack currently has millions of active users and that is quite simply because the company offers a legitimate product/service at a wonderful price. As is the case with any product, when you have millions of users you are bound to have a few that are unhappy with it for one reason or another.
You see the key here is that the unhappy customers always make the most noise regarding issues while happy users aren’t out writing anything because they are busy being satisfied with their service and see no need to declare the product great because in their mind it works great for everybody.
Why would they have a reason to go check out real user reviews about a product that isn’t giving them any trouble? It’s a simple numbers game and this issue has led a good bit of individuals to believe that it isn’t a good product, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.
We have tested the original device and the Plus dongle and they work very well for us. We have also had hundreds of comments and reviews from users who are very happy with the service.
So to sum it up again, no it isn’t a scam and if you are interested in getting the device it would certainly be a good choice. Besides, with it’s 30 day free trial you can always send it back if you decide it’s not for you.
Update: To this point the only true and legitimate complaint that we can find with their product is their customer service. It’s not that there is any sort of scam but magicJack simply doesn’t provide the best customer service. It appears they are trying their best to balance a low cost approach with providing quality help and it simply doesn’t mix well.
Sure they could employ a full fledged call center with hundreds of agents here in the United State but in doing so they would most likely be forced to raise prices by $20-$30 per year. With the knowledge that 95% of users are happy and don’t need any assistance the company has chosen to stick with the low cost approach and in turn pass these savings on to its millions of satisfied users.
Millions of magicjack unit’s have been sold, that’s a fact. As far as I know, it’s like the best selling VoIP Device in America.
And it does work.
I realize that there are people that have issues with the MJ, and that it doesn’t work for everyone. But understand, they have millions of these little usb babies in homes across the U.S.A. and around the world. Just like any tangible product, some of them are going to be defective.
But not all of them. What irritates me is when people post blatant lies, like the magicjack NEVER works. Of course it works for most of the people that buy it. But the people that got a defective unit often scream the loudest.
Understand, everything produced has problems with defects, from time to time. Not every BMW that comes off the assembly line is perfect, nor is every Sony television. Some of them are defective.
That doesn’t mean they all suck.
Other times, there are user problems. Especially when it comes to hooking up with a personal computer. People are dumb, period. They often don’t know how to operate the computer in front of them.
The MJ does work, if you get a good one, and if you have a computer that can work well with it. I do, and I’m very happy with it. I am using mine internationally without any issues and enjoying their great afford international rates.
If you are having a bad experience, we want to know about it. But please write about your specific experience in your magicJack review, not blanket statements like, “It sucks!”
Update: I’ve been cruising the forums and the search engines and man, some of you people are brutal!!!
Calling the new phone service everything from a fraud to a scam. Some seriously harsh words. I admit I’ve only had my device for a short time, but so far I’ve been extremely pleased with it. However, for the sake of argument, I thought I’d post a few comments I’ve found around the web and try to answer some of the more common questions.
Once again, I do NOT work for the company, nor does this site have ANY affiliation with anyone that sells it. I’m a real user and I’m just trying to build up this site as a real resource for other real users and for people considering purchasing the product.
So here are a few of the things I found this morning.
1. Fraud and Scam
Magic jack is a scam i would not recommend this product i would not put anyone through this *** *** junk and having that little girl lie for them on site shame on you magic ***. They need a law suit on them and especially no phone number for customer support they must not like it either for them to have the service and not have phone for c/s whats up with that and there chat clients are not good also they must of just started to school on customer service and still in kindergarten, magic jack you need to be put out of business and a big law suit.
OK, you are the current reigning champion in the run on sentence challenge. Please, for the love of Pete, consider decaf…..There is no magicJack scam and they could easily provide phone customer service but if so it wouldn’t be $19.95 per year. I bet it would cost quite a bit more. Their specialty is in it’s low price and their customer service is designed to allow them to offer the it at a ridiculously low price.
2. Truly Unlimited
Did you actually believe that could get unlimited calling to the US and Canada for $19.95 per YEAR? Really? I like to think I’m up to date on just about all the digital phone services available these days, especially considering that I routinely blog about how much I believe in IamVoip and their service. So when I heard about this “incredible” magic Jack everyone was talking about, I took some time to see what people had to say about it in the blogosphere.
From a blogger blog promoting some other VOIP service. Of course they are going to trash anything that’s not THEIR product. What’s funny, if you read the comments below the blog post, most of the people commenting are actually defending magic Jack and telling the writer how great it is….
3. Customer Service
Where to begin, I ordered the unit over a month ago and it has not worked as advertised from day one. After looking for phone numbers to contact magicJack customer service and not finding any, I had to resort to Live Chat Customer Service, after an hour of going round and round they tell me that I need different phone and a Powered USB Hub. I told the Live Chat person that prior to purchasing the unit I watched the infomercial, which states ‘will work with any phone’. They wouldn’t respond to that… I told Live Chat that I had tried the unit with several different phone, both wired and wireless. I also told them that I had tried it with several different computers.
I’m going to hold off on my customer service comments because I have not dealt with them directly. I’ve had no problems that require I contact them to date, so I’ll leave you to your own opinions here. Truth here is also that most issues that need customer service help are related to something that the rep. can’t even help you with, such as a slow internet connections or crappy computer.
4. Call Quality
The call quality is not great. It sounds like a really bad cell phone connection. My major problem has been trying to make local calls. MagicJack’s fix is to put a * after the first number in my area code; but then when I type the rest of the number, the phone acts like its trying to dial, but then disconnects the call.
I’ve only used my Magic Jack for a short time, but I’ve got to say that from my end there’s been zero indication that the call quality is poor. In fact, it’s been extremely good. Much better than Skype’s quality based on the feedback I’ve received. Perhaps these issues are again cause by something on the users end. Everybody knows it takes a decent computer and a good internet connection to use any VoIP provider.
5. Free Trial isn’t Free
I ordered this from a TV ad on 5/15/08 which stated that you had 30 days to use it before being charged. I was charged immediately in the amount of $47.90.
When you go through the process their ordering system specifically states that only a credit card may be used. It goes on to tell you that if you try to fool the system by using a Visa or Mastercard Debit card, you will be charged immediately. What I’m sure is happening here is that some people are convinced that they are the exception and that a Visa or Mastercard symbol is the same from credit to debit. I’m going to guess that the MagicJack team has this figured out or they wouldn’t warn you when ordering. If you used a debit card and were billed immediately, you were warned. I have no sympathy for your claims that the free trial wasn’t free…
6. Over Billed
I found this one funny. There are tons of sites out there stating that there are reports of over billing, yet I could not find one real direct example. This may be a valid complaint, but everything I read this morning was second handed hearsay. If you have had an over billing issue, please post your comment in the comment box at the end of this post. Please be specific, noting dates, amounts, etc., if possible.
So let’s review
It seems that the main problems people are having with Magic Jack center around customer service, or the lack thereof. Understand, the whole point of this thing is to get your phone service ridiculously cheap, which is probably going to mean some concessions here and there.
Did you really think you were going to get the same customer service that AT&T provides? Probably not for less than 20 bucks a year. (or less than 5.5 cents a day…)
If you are wanting to have a live person at your fingertips every time you have an issue, you are going to pay for it!!! But if you are wanting a no frills phone line alternative, and consider the savings, I still believe that Magic Jack could be your solution.
We bought our MagicJack the day they came out and have never had any problems with either the product or the company. I used to hold my breath when we’d get that “Lucky You!” upgrade notice — firmware updates can be tricky — but MJ has it nailed and it’s always worked. Billing has always been professional and reliable, and that phrase pretty well sums up my assessment of MagicJack.
So far so good. I know two other people with it. I just used the online chat support and they were great. I noticed that my voice-mail was announcing the time off by one hour. They could not get it to work 100% but I figure it is just daylight saving time or something silly. Not a huge deal. I love saying bye bye to my huge phone bill.
Question : How do you hook up all the phones in the house or can you only hook up the one on the computer?
You buy a cordless phone system, and locate the base unit where you have the MJ.
@Jon,
I would suggest another method would be to use a phone cord to connect your magicjack to a wall outlet rather than directly to a phone. This should theoretically allow you to plug a phone into any and all other outlets in your home, though I cannot say I have tried this.
is there any interference with calling out or in or the calls clear to hear one another all the time.
Connecting you magic jack to the phone socket in your house will not normally work as the connections are wired to the phone box outside your house and this is where you would have to connect into.
I even have a demarcation box in the house but Bell doesn’t use that and have your house phone wiring loop to the outside box.
Best bet is to get a multi-handset cordless phone.
I currently have the magic jack but will probably look at upgrading to magic jack plus next year..
The main issue I have found is if you are playing games that uses the full screen resolution due to the lag switching back to windows screen this can cause problems with incoming calls and normally gets you killed in your current game 🙂 .
However $91/month vs $20 for the year its an easy choice.
Sure you can plug the phone output directly to the wall but first you’ve got to
remove the connection to the input coming from the phone provider.
After all your wall phone sockets are able to receive any phone.
Plugging your MJ into the telephone wall outlet will work fine if you know how to disconnect the incoming line from the phone company. I have had MJ for 3 years plus and have done this and it works fine with no signal loss.
I have my MJ plugged into a wall outlet and all 4 phones – and my satellite’s caller ID all work great. I use an old laptop in the kitchen so we can pull up recipes and get info from the web but otherwise it doesn’t see any usage so we never have problems with connections. I’ll move to the MJ Plus when my laptop gives up.
All the comments on the magicJack Plus have been very very helpful. What comes to my mind is, since it appears that you don’t have to have the computer on to use MagicJackPlus, this would mean, for me, that I could downgrade from DSL to dial-up. Would appreciate a confirmation of this please. Thanks
The older MagicJack had a screen on the computer that allowed you to click on a phone number in the Contact List. The new MagicJack Plus does not seem to have this advantage. Is there a way to access the Contact List on the MJ+ to call a Contact number?
@ Tanya
No, you need a broadband connection (DSL or Cable Modem) to work with magicJack plus.
Besides, going back to dial-up means you have a land line again. And I’m thinking that you are trying to replace your phone line to save money…?
Again, magicJack plus needs either a PC or a cablemodem or hub to plug into with high speed internet.
I have magic jacjn plus and want to add credit for International calling. Every time I add $10.00 (4 times now) I get a response that my credit will post on a future date and a receipt number. It never gets credited to my account and is never charged to my credit card. What gives?
@Tanya
You won’t be able to downgrade to dialup because it still requires that you have an existing active internet connection to work. MJ+ will just allow you to put the jack near your router or DSL modem without having a computer powered on.
A dial-up connection might not work for your magicJack Plus since it requires high speed internet access to get good call quality
Can you please provide a phone number for MJ+. Not being technical I need to talk to someone. Many thnx.
what if you have broadband through a cable company and they have stop the signal from coming in to the modem for the internet for non payment, will the magic jack still work?
i would like to ask if that MJ can call be used in the Philippines for free?
do i need a splitter to connect my ethernet, i am currently usind my router for my computer. I don’t see two outlets, and when I disconnect one to plus in the magic jack, the internet won’t come up, so you really do need a computer.
DSL some time require a user name and password for the dialer
But it can be entered in the modem / router
My brother knew how to and did it for me
Sometime the dsl providers don’t provide a capable modem and other times they don’t want to help the customers get in the router and make changes
i have magic jack but i will be travelling to hong kong I have a canadien number if I take my magic jack would i be able to make calls to canada for free ?
Magic Jack is a good product and provides consistantly reliable phone service with good quality 8/10. The reason it cost so little however is there really is no tech support or help available if a problem exisits. I have a business and provide employees with a magic jack I have found it is more cost effective for me to “eat” the cost of a device that is not working well and just set up another one. Probably about 1-3% are defective and need to be replaced anyway. The aggravation of chatting with tech people who only understand the ultra formal Brittish english, have limited tech skills along with the lost hour or so of my life is eliminated and that is well worth paying for a defective device. It may help them stay in business.
If you cant accept that and want a truly reliable IP phone I suggest you pay a little extra for one of the higher quality systems available.
I would like to know if I buy magic jack plus can I use it on all my land phones in various rooms or just the one plugged into computer?
i just ordered it, what we have at the moment is a normal home phone no long distance no features, and we live in a small town, so everywhere is long distance. That is costing us $20 a month. They thing that might make people leary, is that they say things like you get ……. free for $29.95.. Also, you have to have a CREDIT card for the free trial NOT a debit card, so bummer, hope i love it!!
I have a cell phone. If I have this cell phone number transferred to the Magic Jack unit, will I still be able to use my cell phone? Or, I guess I should say, use the MJ phone at home and use my cell (both phones will have the same number) when I’m away from home.
I have been with this company since you first produced Magic Jack. I was pleased with the service as well as the renewal prices. I was interested in renewing my contract , but sadly your customer care that promised me a email that would beat the current prices that showed upon my renewal. The email never came and after checking all my email accounts numerous times it never showed. I went back to it again on July 22, 2013 and last contact was Heather and she just referred me to my telephone solicitation for current ads regarding renewals. I copied my posting between Heather and I and said I would post it on my Facebook, letting my many friends read the response for themselves. We are very proactive and share our posting especially when someone says one thing and does another. Great customer relation piece on “How Magic Jack treats their costumers after they have a meeting of minds to send a discounted email so as to use towards renewal. Thank you for nothing but aggravation.
Sheila Lauderdale