Magic Jack users...

[5LittleMonkeys]

tell me about it. Pros and cons please. I'd LOVE to stop paying comcast 50 bucks a month for something I rarely use.

[LauraGB]

My parents bought one. Two things I can think of is that the number changes and has always been a long distance one (they are in WI and the number is usually from Alaska). The other thing is that it is really hard to hear them; they always sound really, really quiet or far away. My vote is no for the Magic Jack as a land line.

[5LittleMonkeys]

the number changes and has always been a long distance one

 

Does their phone number change arbitrarily without their knowledge? They live in one state but have the area code from another? Weird.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We have a magic jack. We disconnected it. About 10% of the time the connection is great. The rest of the time you sound like you are in a tin can or else there is an echo of everything that you and the other person says. We did call them and they could do nothing. It is the way it is - in our experience anyway. We tried it with a couple of different computers to make sure it wasn't just our computer connection and it was the same with each one.

[Mabeline]

Cons: The computer it is connected to has to be on for the phone to work. The number is not local. Sometimes the quality is not perfect but overall it is great.

Pros: Very cheap. I think they have been adding more numbers and depending on where you are, you might be able to get a local number. Easy to use. Voicemail gets e-mailed to your e-mail and you can listen to the message on your computer.

Overall, we like it and it is worth the trouble for a very small expense.

 

ETA: At first we had it connected to a laptop and it didn't work very well at all because the computer was connected to the internet via wireless. When we put it on the desktop that is connected directly to the cable internet, the voice quality greatly improved. I find that sometimes it can be a little jumpy but usually the quality is great.

Edited July 29, 2010 by Mabeline
added more info

[lollie010]

We had major technical difficulties and spend hours with tech support, but were never able to get ours to work.

[mom2abcd]

It worked ~OK~ , but we had to keep unplugging it for some reason. Maybe it slowed the computer down? I didn't like it at all, but we're going to try it again just because it's so cheap.

 

We had a landline and I bought minutes from onesuite.com and associated our phone with our account. Then I just had to press a few numbers and had long distance for 2 cents a minute or something like that. The connection was a lot clearer than with MagicJack.

 

Have you heard of the ooma? From my research I'm not sure it's any better.

 

Google is coming out with something, but it isn't ready yet.

 

I'd love to save $$$ with a good quality VoIP service.

[Julie in AZ]

I had it for work from home. It was terrible. There was a delay so the other person and I would end up talking over each other.

[Tap]

We don't use MJ as it has always had bad reviews. We do use Vonage ($20ish per mths) and have had great luck with it over the years. I don't even remember that we have it most of the time.

[homeschoolva]

We bought one last month and got a local number. Most times it is great, of course if a child accidentally shuts down the computer it cuts off your conversation :) Leaving the computer on and not hibernating is a minor inconvenience but the other problem is we can only have the one phone plugged in. It is cordless but with a two story house running down the stairs for a 7am phone call is not fun.

Once in awhile we get the delay, and some people have said it is hard to hear, I don't have a problem hearing, seems it is on the other end. We will probably switch back to a land line when we have the $ to.

My suggestion - order online through them and do the 30 day trial instead of buying it locally.

[tarana]

We got a local no. In fact we had a choice of 2/3 area codes.

Cons:

Reception was BAD! Even though we have Hi-Speed Interent connection it was horrible most of the time. Even local calls were terrible.

Pros:

Nobody wanted to talk to me! Phone calls were brief.

We had an emergency in Feb & the cops were calling me & were not able to contact me as the internet conncetion went bad & it was a mess. Even though it costs 75$ we still have the landline!

Edited July 31, 2010 by tarana

[grace'smom]

We have it and have had a great experience. We hooked it to our old computer upstairs (ancient and no one uses it). We did have a tin can sound sometimes with my parents but checked the FAQ on the site and realized we needed to lower our volume sound and that fixed it. We have our correct area code and could have gotten our old phone number but we had some strange people calling that number asking for someone else so we wanted to get rid of it anyway.

 

To the person who said you can only plug in one phone: here is what you do... Plug your magic jack into the computer. Use a phone cord to plug into the magic jack outlet, but instead of plugging that cord into a phone on the other end, plug it into a phone jack in your wall. All outlets in your house will now be able to use the magic jack connection. Just a quick tip.

 

Our only con is that if the power is out your phone is out. We have a cell phone for emergencies though, so that's OK. And when we had comcast phone we had the same problem- no power, no phone. Also, you always have to dial the area code even though you don't have a long distance number. That makes it hard to teach a five year old to use the phone.

 

If you use the free trial you will quickly be able to tell if you have issues with the service. I guess some people have problems and some don't. Most of the people in my neighborhood use it, and none of us report problems. Maybe it has something to do with internet speed in your area? Most of us use comcast cable internet and that's very fast where we live...

 

Oh- that's one more con... When we switched to magic jack our internet bill went up because we ditched the comcast triple play price. But our comcast phone service was so bad it was worth it. Don't ask me why but comcast phone service was always cutting off, not letting you dial, telling people your phone was disconnected. For us, magic jack is infinitely more reliable than comcast, which is pretty sad, LOL.

[cdrumm4448]

It works for me. We still have a landline but dropped the service down to just local calls. It's about $25 a month with taxes. So, I use the MagicJack to call my mother and brother who are considered local toll calls (like long distance.) We've never had a problem with it.

[2cents]

We tried it for a total of 3 days. The reception was horrible. It was a complete bust for us. We have Vonage and love it.