MagicJack: The Review
| Posted in Personal, Technology | Posted on 01-11-2007
17
After my initial excitement, No home phone but maybe a MagicJack to yesterdays and this mornings frustration of no registration, Magic(hmmmmmm)Jack, I finally have a number and am registered. I finally gave in at 9:40 this morning and emailed tech support within 15 minutes I received an email with a start at getting the problem fixed. I sent another email at 10:12 and within 30 minutes I received this email:
Dear Derek,
We are experiencing a small network problem. Could you please wait until tonight before trying to use your magicJack again.
We apologize for the inconvenience.Sincerely,
Richard
I have to admit I quite impressed with the response times as the website says for a “response within 48 hours,” I’m sure this must be for the weekends. This is a beta product so you expect there to be ups and downs. When I tried this afternoon (couldn’t wait till tonight) it did an auto-update and viola I was able to complete my registration. Looking at the forums online I didn’t see anything about the service being down so I’m assuming this was a registration issue only. The softphone interface is nice and easy to use and there’s a nice Outlook add-in that allows you to click to dial, as I’ve got mic and speakers built-in on my laptop this feature worked beautifully in testing. The MagicJack stores your contact lists and call logs on itself so you could take to any computer and be ready to go. The interface is easy enough to add contacts but it is one at a time, would be nice to have an import feature are syncing added to that outlook add-in.
After a little more playtime with the MagicJack all seems to going smoothly. The main reason I got it was to allow me to not have to pay the $5 a month my satellite company charges if no phone connection, that and my home has terrible cell reception. I was a little worried if would work for the satellite, but tested tonight and works like a charm.
UPDATE: After a couple of requests here’s the email addresses that came back from support requests:
I’m glad to hear that you got this to work. I am experiencing the same problem you were, which is the “Service not available” and “Cannot resolve proxy name” errors. It seemed to register with no problem, however.
I was wondering if you could post the email you sent your support request to. I’ve looked all over their site and found no way to contact them, save the “For assistance within 48 hours” link, which times out for me on IE and Firefox. It might come back up on Monday, but I’m quickly becoming leery of this whole deal. It seems strange that a telecommunications company doesn’t have an easy conduit for communication to them.
The fact that you got it to work gives me some hope, though.
Ben,
Updated the post the email address that came back from my 2 support requests. Let us know how it works out for you.
Derek
So do you still like your MagicJack? I just hear about it the other day. Sounds really cool. Was about to order it, but wanted to hear a real person’s opinion. You’ve had it a few weeks now. What do you think? Any new problems since registration?
Thanks!
-Chris
I tried downloading the Outlook plug in, but doesn’t seem to work. I am using Outlook 2007 – do you know if it works with Outlook 2007
Chris,
Yes, still like the magicjack and haven’t had any further problems with it.
David,
I only used the outlook plug-in when I was playing around with MagicJack, I’ll have to go back to that computer and try it out.
Derek
I had similar problems at first…and then it starts to work, as if by “magic”.
Well…I had to fuss with it a bit.
still can’t get mine registered. The opening screen begins to allow it and then changes screens and says either I’m not connected to the internet or their server is busy. Anyone have a idea how to get around this problem?
Thanks
Dan
Dan, if you are still having problems then go to the following site:
http://www.magicjack.com/site/customercare.html
Click on:
“have Vista” and downlod the upgarde and install. This will work both for XP and Vista.
Should work. Make sure your magicJack is plugged it.
I have attempted in every way to contact this company to cancel my order. the order page had a mind of its own and created a doubleorder totalling $99. Each dept I contacted would not cancel my order. Tech support said contact sales and billing, sales and billing forwarded this request to engineering. I emailed the contact number at ymaxcorp and all but one were bounced back as undeliverable. This reeks of shady business dealings.
I have attempted in every way to contact this company to cancel my order. the order page had a mind of its own and created a doubleorder totalling $99. Each dept I contacted would not cancel my order. Tech support said contact sales and billing, sales and billing forwarded this request to engineering. I emailed the contact number at ymaxcorp and all but one were bounced back as undeliverable.
my experience with magicjack isn’t so positive.
i read a lot of glowing reports about magic jack so decided to try it. my report will not be glowing.
1. it took several attempts to install. in fact, it would not install, out of the box, before i ran the separately downloaded upgrade. i don’t know if this means that the device will not work on other computers without carrying the upgrade software, or if the upgrade installs itself onto the device.
2. 4 out of 5 times it will not start at boot. i have to open task manager, and close the mj UTSCSI service. then mj proceeds to start. seems that this is a known problem.
3. magic jack does not have an exit option in the system tray icon, or on the program screen. the only way to exit mj is through task manager.
3. magic jack hijacks computer standby. if you want to put your computer on standby, you have to close mj through task manager first.
4. magic jack did not retain headset settings. it opens to default telephone. you have to open a menu, click on headset, and set the various sound card options, everytime you start your computer, if you want to use a headset.
5. the “outlook addon” is a joke. its toolbar only shows on the main outlook screen, not on individual contacts. if i type a name into it, it tries to dial the name. the toolbar has three buttons, for calling home, mobile or work, no other numbers. they didn’t dial anything at all for me.
6. the magic jack install gave no indications of what to do to get voice mail to work. or how to use it.
i tried running magic jack on 3 different usb ports. i installed the upgrade twice. i unplugged and restarted it over 8 times.
tech support is only via chat. clearly the chat personal are apparently dealing with several people at once. easily wait 5 minutes for each reply. have something else to do while dealing with magic jack chat. aside from their telling me how to access voice mail, and which registry entries to delete and then installing magic jack another time, in order to get the headset to work the first time, their advice for correcting the other problems became “try uninstalling firewall and antivirus”. i spent several hours with magic jack chat “support”. they are mostly useless and don’t seem to understand very well, based on their replies. nor do they know much about mj.
the call quality was ok, not better than skype, which i had been using. though i didn’t get to use it that much. i suppose that if you are plugging it into a computer that will be running 24 hours a day, and only using a standard telephone on it, it is ok. anything more than that seems to be too complicated for the magic jack software.
Hi, I received MagicJack in the mail within 3 business days. Software installed once inserted into USB port. Had to wait till after 10pm EST to register it. Once registered, worked well till the following day.
The next day I had a busy signal anytime the number was called. I spent 3 hours total with tech support chat (which was friendly and polite btw). After going through a number of trouble shooting steps including reformating the device’s drive and trying all USB ports on my computer, I was told the busy signal was from a upgrade they were doing on their end. Ha.
If you are having problems getting the MagicFix page to work, go install Java. It is required for the page. This hung up the tech support for a good 20min trying to determine the problem.
The next day (today – day3) so far the service has been working flawlessly. I am forwarding the calls from my other line to MJ and am planning to give it a good workout over the next week.
Hello,
their servers are down right now apparently. I have not had this thing more than a month yet. I am evaluating deploying these for business use. I don’t think I could deal with our people experiencing outages of days at a time.
Cheap is good for home use but I don’t think they are ready for business, even as a secondary number, for business it needs to be up most of the time, and service outages shouldn’t be more than a few minutes at a time. Sometimes you get what you pay for.
Please help, we too recently purchased MJ and I’ve had nothing but problems. Tech support was worthless as they never came back to the chat and left me with a download I knew nothing about. I cant seem to get my pc speakers to work now that MJ is installed and if someone is on the computer and on the phone at the same time all you hear thru the phone is horrible clicking and static w/ the occasional music that should be playing thru the speakers on the pc, not the phone. Has anyone else had this problem?? I was able to get intouch with someone however they are telling me I dont have a soundcard installed on my pc. I dont even know what a soundcard is, much less how to find it and they havent offered to explain either.
I have used my cell more now that we have MJ than ever before because half the time all you get is static. If you ask me this thing is not dependable for business, people w/ children, elderly or anyone without other means of communication.
Well…I’m one of the first, apparently, to venture into this MJ thing with a new Intel Mac–so some of you PCers will probably have fun with me for this one, since I’ve been a faithful Mac-er since ‘83.
Embarq (formerly Sprint) home landlines suck with static all the time, so needed to try something else beyond standard VOIP like Vonage or Skype. Found MJ.
My Mac has VMWare Fusion that seamlessly allows me to run Windows (Vista). Works great! The MJ must download the Mac firmware from Vista (or XP). So I thought it would be a piece of cake. Did so, revved up on Vista and got registered, out-of-area phone number and 911 assigned w/o any problems.
BUT, MJ does not work with the Vista system or when I plug into the Mac—which is where I want to run it most of the time.
Heading out west next week to my father-in-law’s funeral and wanted to have it working from CA. Doesn’t look like that will happen.
I’ve attempted EVERY single fix suggestion found at the MJ site and have run Fix-It at least two dozen times (including multiple times with 3 different so-called techs who had no idea what to do to get my phones up and running w/o the echoes, stuttering and poor voice quality we experienced whenever we finally did get a call through–usually followed by having to reboot the cable modem and MJ–followed by the Fix-it, again.
In fact, I would compare the sound quality to that of a child making silly sounds by rubbing his index finger up and down over the lips while attempting to talk nonsense…kind of like what I get from the techs.
I too have spent over 3 hours on chat with techs who, after being disconnected from them twice, made me repeat absolutely everything from the beginning–because they don’t keep records of the previous chats (even though they have our emails). You would think they would, when disconnected, have the courtesy to contact by email and ask us to get back in touch…but noooooo….we must begin from the beginning and waste more precious time.
And we have to disable virus and other protections!?!? Now that sounds safe…
I’ve been attempting to get my MJ working since Saturday afternoon — well into the wee hours of Sunday morning with the first tech…and all day Sunday into the wee hours, again Monday with two different techs. And, guess what…the last tech said they were working on upgrades that would be available in 2 to 3 hours and to come back later. Then, somehow I was conveniently disconnected (for the second time). HAAA! And I was even courteous to them.
Isn’t that convenient. I came back 4 hours and 5 hours later and, what a surprise, no upgrades that worked for me (even when I ran MJ on my Vista). Based on what I’ve read in at least a dozen MJ review/blog sites, seems that MJ techs use any excuse like “servers are down,” or “have a new upgrade coming” “or check back later” just to get out from underneath problems them have no idea how to resolve.
Still, the phones ring occasionally from MJ connections…then no sound and a hang-up. Other occasions, we get a connection with horrible sound as described above. Might as well use Embarq or one of the other VOIPs.
Can you tell I’m just a little bit upset? Thanks for letting me vent.
BTW: I also bought 3 yrs service pkg. Thought it would be worth it since I pay about $1000 a yr to Embarq for so-called “unlimited” long distance and similar “free” services that we can rarely use since there is so much static on the landline. I was hoping to cancel Embarq and actually save some money for once.
It’s now almost Monday afternoon and, so far, MJ is sucking big-time with no solutions in site…even with Vista, new digital phones and a brand new MacBookPro 3,1, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz, Memory: 2 GB, 160 GB, Bus Speed: 800 MHz, etc. Works great with everything else…but no MJ.
I tested my cable modem on two sites and got better than great ratings for upload (1564 kb/s) and download (9696 to max 20801 kb/s) speeds, lack of jitters (0.6ms radio quality), quality of service (94%), packet loss (0.0%), connections MOS score at 4.2, etc.
Any Mac MJ users out there yet who’ve had a more positive experience with MJ? Appreciate any suggestions.
Again, thanks for the vent…
Hi,
I am running widows XP. I have had my magic jack for about two weeks and it has worked great. It installed very easily. At first my speakers were not working but foloowing the advice on the Magic Jack website solved my problem. I am in Tennessee and speak to my Brother in N.C. everyday.
So far, so good with magic jack.
i got my mj n the mail a few days ago…plugged it in & it said internet down & some other nonsense…so i put it away..i decided to really give it a go today…so i plugged in my average v-tech cordless & wallah!!!!i have service from mj…so i did the regular start up stuff ..fairly easy…except the fact i live in alabama & had 2 choose from 15 other states i know no one in…voicemail set up was easy…but it really didn’t matter because when i went to review it. it was full of static & i only heard every other word:(…anyway i said let me start calling everyone…thats the point right?)i found it was pretty clear on my end but i was full of static to everyone else…eventually it was like pulling the arm of a slot machine..is this going to b a good call? is my next call going 2 b better? so i realized i can talk /hear clearly for 30 sec. after that it’s curtains…i mean it is a free trial for 30 days…hopefully i will grow 2 love it by then if the rough edged smooth out…if not i will get a refund but i heard that is a whole other issue….let us pray for the baby engineers who are experimenting with us…..& pray even harder for those of us who keep giving them a chance…..