Magic Jack: Review

Discounts — By SavvyMom on April 11, 2011 9:30 am

Wouldn’t you love to save money on your home phone bills?

On average, home phone lines can run up to $50 a month (of course this is just for one line), unless if you are a new customer; which then the phone companies will usually set you up a line for around $30 a month for six months to one year term agreement.  These promotional offers are based on where you live, what kind of services you may have, and etc.

Well, I thought I was going to outsmart those phone companies by using alternative technology.  I opt out of Vonage because they only offered $15/month services for three months, and were not willing to spend $30/a month afterwards.

Our family really didn’t need a home phone because I am always out of the house doing my own things with children, and frankly we had our cell phones on us at all times.

Well, as children get older I guess they need to speak with their friends more often.  Phooy … what do moms know; right?  Honestly, I was not about to give my elementary children a cell phone.  Yes, my children’s friends, at school, have their own private phones with their private numbers, but I guess I am a lame mom for not getting one for them.

My daughter and her friends will speak hours on end talking on the phone while playing their online games.  I guess they can communicate with one another through their game, but they prefer talking on the phone since none of them are great at typing.

Eventually my cell phone battery dies out, and it is not fair for me to be robbed out of my own phone time with my friends and family.  End of the day I am the one who is paying for the phone bills and not my children.

So after serious thoughts, I decided to go with Magic Jack because we already had a T1 line and high-speed DSL lines at home.

To my surprise I had to purchase the kit at the store for $40 (without taxes) – I guess I should have paid closer attention to the commercial.

According to the commercial, “We now offer phone services for $1.70 a month.  With Magic Jack it’s $19.95 a Year.  Free local and long distance and your own phone number.”

Sound great; right?  My mom told me “if it sounds too good then it probably is.”  I should have gone with my gut, but without any research I went to my local Walmart store and purchased one.

I was so excited that my children will have their own “phone,” that I rushed back home to install this gadget.  Luckily for me, it really was easy to install the “software” because all you had to do was to plug in the adaptor to the computer and complete form.

I kind of got confused and subscribed to 5 year agreement for $70 (or so), but I thought to myself that will not have to pay a phone bill for next 5 years; so what the heck.

Like the commercial claimed, I did get to choose my number, but the choices were very limited.  There was a not a specific prefix designated to my area, but I did get to pick my area code of my current residence.

I honestly didn’t think anything of it because I had my local area code so my children’s friends can call them anytime.

The quality was “ify” because one day it was really clear and didn’t have an echo, but other times it was full of static, and very hard for the other person online to hear.  BUT … for $1.70 a month they can call and recall each other until they establish a good connection.  I really was not that picky.

So little after a month or so my friend informed me that they were charged $12 for calling my number.  I informed her that we had a local area code (which she already knew), so we both were really confused to why she was charged.

Unfortunately, Magic Jack does not have a designated phone number (they do, but recording specifically states that you can be on hold for a long time, and that best chance to get hold of MJ people are through their online chat form) so I got hold of the customer service through their live-chat.

The person was very helpful, and he informed me that the caller had to have the identical area code plus first three prefix numbers to call our number to be considered as a local number.  I was in an utter shock!  I thought since we had a local area code our numbers will be considered a local number; but WRONG!!!

I was very irritated at this point.  Not only I was dooped into getting this thing, but my friends were getting charged to call me.  I am wondering how many friends of mine were getting charged, but didn’t tell me?

MJ person told me to return the device first before they can give me any kind of refund.  Thank goodness for our local Walmart because they had a great return policy (and the fact that I did not want cash back made it much easier) and received my money back via gift card.

After successfully returning the device I chated with another Magic Jack representative and got my money back.  She did inform me that I will receive an email once the credit has been posed to my credit card.  Well, that was about a week now, and has not received an email yet.  I am going to give them another week to process my return of my funds.

This is a personal experience I am sharing with you.  There might be tons of people who are more than satisfied with their products and services (it is quite popular), but it did not work for me at all.  I was very disappointed with their product; however, the customer service representatives were very pleasant to work with and speak with.  That’s a plus; right?

Tags: Jack, Magic, Magic Jack, Magic Jack Review, Scam