Magic Jack Review
I like to try new things, especially when they could mean more efficient and productive work.
A small portable device that lets me make phone calls from any phone from any computer sounded like it would fit the bill.
On my never ending quest to a more mobile and efficient office I decided to purchase and try the Magic Jack, a small USB-powered device that is promised to allow you to make phone calls via your computer and your existing broadband internet connection. Supposedly you plug in the Magic Jack into your USB port, plug in any analog phone and you can make calls.
The price for one entire year of free calls within the United States and Canada is around $20 plus one time shipping of the device.
The first 30 days are supposedly a risk free trial.
So unlimited long distance and local calls for twenty bucks, sounds great.
I ordered one device for testing purposes.
MAGIC JACK – in practical application
The Magic Jack arrived about a week after ordering. It came in a small box which included the Magic Jack plastic box, and a USB extender cable.
The device itself is small and neat looking, the little window lets you look at the circuitry which the nerd in me thinks is pretty cool. But the Magic Jack will be hidden behind the computer so looks don’t matter.
On to testing the Magic Jack’s functionality.
I took the Magic Jack and hooked up the extender (there was no room otherwise among my other stuff I have plugged on the back of the system I used for testing purposes).
Magic Jack – First Time Installation
The first time installing the device didn’t work at all. No dial tone, nothing. I went online, tried to log in to my Magic Jack account with the order information. Didn’t work.
I had to have them send me my password. With that new password and the email address I used during purchase as my login ID I was able to get into my account.
It said my Magic Jack device was disabled. No further explanation about this.
I noticed no phone number had been assigned to me and figured this might be the problem. It was – I selected my new Magic Jack phone number and my account then became enabled.
Nice but an explanation about this would have been even nicer.
—— Okay, now it’s time to use this thing for the first time…—–
After plugging in the device it installed a desktop icon. I clicked that icon and…oh no!…a software dial pad comes up.
Why a dial pad? Why is this thing installing additional software (or in this case a shortcut to the software located on the Magic Jack itself)?
I was expecting the device to work without any other software running.
More software means less system resources, more potential for driver conflicts, and in this case, an ugly ass interface with annoying animated Magic Jack ads.
I don’t want any icons cluttering my desktop or system tray. Since the dial pad software didn’t always load automatically after plugging in the Magic Jack I had to manually start it – just an added hassle I don’t need.
Magic Jacks’ ads don’t tell you that their software dial pad needs to be up for it to work.
I’m thinking maybe my device is defective so I began searching for answers on Magic Jack’s web site. Their FAQs are decent but didn’t address my particular issue, which confirmed my initial thought that I had a defective device.
Since I could not find any reference to this issue on their web site (http://www.magicjack.com) I hit up their 24 hour live support online.
Bad mistake.
I wasted close to one hour (57 minutes as per transcript which you can have emailed to yourself) with three different agents who apparently read off a script or are, for all I know, robots.
Instead of a simple yes-or-no answer to my question if it was normal for Magic Jack to require the dial pad software to be active and loaded on my desktop in order to work, the first agent had me jump through hoops – restart, download updates, reformat, unplug the Magic Jack, plug it back in (and again and again) and even re-configuring the device on their end.
Nothing helped. I still was unable to use the device without the dial pad software loaded.
Since agent #1 couldn’t help me I was transferred to agent #2. That one stopped responding after her introduction so I was auto-transferred to agent #3.
I restated my question: Can Magic Jack work without the dial pad software loaded?
Finally I got the answer: no, Magic Jack needs the software to be loaded.
Grrrr…why couldn’t I get this answer from the first agent?
So in summary, their dial pad software needs to be loaded. You can minimize it to the system tray but it needs to be on regardless.
Sounds like a small deal? Well, it’s not because that makes it about equal to Skype in terms of usability.
I wanted Magic Jack to be just that piece of hardware, without having to launch any software or using any more system resources. I want the phone to work without having to touch my keyboard, mouse or go into any damn menus to launch more software.
That’s how Magic Jack ads presented themselves and unfortunately that’s not true.
To make matters worse, the call quality of Magic Jack is horrendous. Think bad cell phone reception horrendous. I’m getting great broadband speeds from Cox Communications so that certainly wasn’t the issue.
Why Did I Try the Magic Jack?
I’ve had Voice over IP (VoIP) phone service from Lingo since 2005. Been pretty happy with it except for the past few months I keep losing dial tones and I thought instead of trying to get another router and putting up with Lingo’s increasing monthly fees I’d try Magic Jack, which promised to be like the best of worlds of Skype and VoIP phone service, for $20 bucks a year.
It sounded too good to be true and it’s clear now that it is.
Magic Jack – Review Summary
Bad call quality, requires to load software in order to use it, this software is quite buggy (at least on my machines), and the computer needs to be ON to work (this I knew but I could live with that if it weren’t for the other problems).
Overall, the live help agent was of little help and I decided to return the Magic Jack and get a refund. They require you to fill out a RMA form and go through their return steps.
I could have done that but frankly don’t want to invest any more time on this piece of junk so I write off my small “investment” of $30.00.
- Lesson learned – I bought into the good reviews from renown magazines and newspapers about Magic Jack. Bribed authors? Drunk reviewers? Who knows, fact is my experience with Magic Jack was unacceptable.
- I can’t claim Magic Jack is a fraud because it does somewhat/kinda/ work. Sometimes. But sometimes isn’t good enough to make Magic Jack your next phone solution, no matter how cheap.
To the maker of Magic Jack, I hope you guys will improve on this. Your idea is great but as of right now there are some serious problems. Make the Magic Jack work without having to have any software loaded. Improve the call quality. If you want, keep your dial pad but make it optional – and PLEASE turn off those ads. For your customer service, please fire the robots.
Tags: analog phone, call quality, cheap phone calls, dial pad, digital phone, good reviews, hard line phone replacement, internet connection, lingo, local phone calls, long distance, magic jack, magic jack review, magic jack scam, magic jack test, magic jack use, pc mag, phone broadband, phone hardware, possibly fake reviews, software, voice over ip, VOIP, vonage
