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865 of 900 people found the following review helpful.
Comprehensive MagicJack Plus Review
By Fred
I have been using MagicJack Plus for over a month, and I am very impressed so far. I had a lot of questions about this device, and I will try to answer those questions for others who are interested in saving money on their phone service. Here are my answers based on my experience.Does it work? It really works. After you register by plugging it into your computer USB port, you just plug in your router, power, and phone.How is the sound quality? It is about half way between a cell phone and a regular land line. Sometimes I briefly hear some low volume static after talking, and some people say my voice sounds slightly synthesized. There is also a slight delay.How many phones can it support? I activated the phone wiring in my house and plugged in 3 cordless phones, and they all worked. If you do this, be sure to disconnect the phone wire that comes in from the phone company. Cordless phones provide their own power, so they are not much of a drain on the MagicJack power. Other reviews have said that only 1 to 2 corded phones can be supported. The easiest and best way to hook up your phones is to use a DECT phone system. I love the Panasonic KX-TG6645B DECT 6.0 Cordless Phone with Answering System, Black, 5 Handsets system.Can it fax? I tested it using my computer fax modem, and it works!Can I transfer my old phone number? After you set up MagicJack with a temporary phone number, you can request that your old number be transferred to your MagicJack service for a $20 fee. This will cancel your old phone service. Do NOT cancel your old phone service yourself before the number is transferred.How does the voicemail work? After 4 rings, a call can be either transferred to another number, or it can be sent to voice mail. If you want to use an answering machine, you have to set it for 3 rings. 3 rings does not give you much time to answer the phone, but you can leave a long answering machine greeting, and you can always pick up during the greeting. MagicJack voice mail will leave a notification on newer phones. The voice mail will also send the message as a WAV file to 1 e-mail address. I wanted the e-mail sent to multiple e-mail addresses, so I created a dummy e-mail address on my ISP. I set the dummy e-mail account to automatically forward incoming messages from MagicJack to multiple addresses.[Update 5/20/13: The number of rings before voicemail answers can now be set, but call forwarding has been disabled.]How does international calling work? You must pre-pay for international calling. Most countries are $.02 per minute. The normal international phone number is all you need to dial. Calls to China have been working better than they did with my last phone company.How is the customer service? There basically is none. But if you can use a computer and hook up a router, you should have no trouble getting MagicJack working.Why are there so many complaints? I would guess that many of the problems people have had in the past are related to the use of the USB connection. That adds an extra layer of software and data conversion to give problems. MagicJack Plus should solve the USB problems because it can connect directly to the router. MagicJack needs a good, steady internet connection to work properly. Minor problems with an ISP might not affect the browsing of web pages, but they will affect a real time phone connection.
194 of 200 people found the following review helpful.
One month assessment of Magic Jack Plus
By Robert J. Cotter
I ordered the MagicJack Plus (MJP)(NOT original MagicJack) to replace my existing Verizon land line which was costing me about $100/month (including about $40 in base access charges / fees / taxes). I used the 30-day trial period to see how the MJP worked and whether is was a viable replacement. I call-forwarded my Verizon line to the MJP for 2 weeks to receive all incoming calls and made all outgoing calls directly through the MJP. Just an alert: the 30-day free trial starts on the date of your order, not when it's activated.BOTTOM LINE: I would recommend the MJP to friends, and I have completely migrated from Verizon to MJP .....BUT.... you get what you pay for. In my view, the cost of MJP, initially $70 plus the yearly fee of $20, greatly outweighs the things I've discovered.PROS: 1) SET-UP was easy with the computer. No problems getting a temporary phone number from MJP to call-forward from Verizon. My biggest delay was getting Verizon to add call-forwarding to my existing service, which took a week and a few phone calls to accomplish. As I was eventually going to migrate my existing number to MJP I didn't care what the interim number would be.2) MIGhttps://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkKjzXgj1vRi5WkgFaCMzRYdRgQ5DkReX1pm65erApflESpVwtvzok8RVo50xhvIU8GFKMRpKpB0n_XkNwycb8a65FF7q0KnTT8X5qGJF0nCYoCjGQfH8OUOCV1R3sE7sAt5ex6P6ejko/s1600/rating.png my existing telephone number was not an issue. It took about 36 hours (though according to MJP, could take up to 10 days).3) CALL QUALITY: Not an issue, AFTER I moved the MJP about 3 feet away from the telephone. There was a hum in the line while it remained close to the wireless telephone set. Currently I have 7 phones (cordless and corded) hooked up without any call quality problems.4) VOICEMAIL seems pretty simple to use (though see CONS, below). A nice feature is the notification process via email. Call forwarding to a cell phone is also possible, but I have not used that feature.5) INTERNATIONAL CALLING: It's cheap, plus a nice feature after you dial is that MJP alerts you, at the beginning of the call, how many remaining minutes you have based on the number you've just dialed. Given the different rates in calling landlines and mobiles in foreign countries, this is a very nice feature...and eliminates the need for a calculator :-)CONS:1) [FIXED SINCE ORIGINAL POST!!!!] VOICEMAIL is required. I have an answering machine at home that I can use so don't need the voicemail feature. The problem this causes is all calls are picked up by MJP's server and not my answering machine which I would prefer. Even this would be OK if I could either (1) disable voicemail or (2) add to the number of rings before MJP pick-up (e.g. 6 rings) As it is now I've adjusted my home answering machine to pick up after 2 rings, but that causes me to race to the phone to answer it before the machine picks up or deal with the outgoing message playing while I'm talking to the caller. I've been told "The engineers are working on it" but was given no date for when alternatives might be available.UPDATED COMMENT: See post from Kristian below. Voicemail can now be turned off and/or delayed to allow for a local answering machine.2) [RESOLVED SINCE ORIGINAL POST!!] ALERTS CAN ONLY BE SENT TO ONE EMAIL ADDRESS: As multiple people live in my household, having the ability for only one email address for all voicemail alerts becomes problematic. Adding the capability to send alerts to multiple emails would eliminate the need to one person to be the grand poobah of voicemail. This change can't be that hard to make.UPDATED COMMENT: A gmail account can be used to forward voicemails to multiple email addresses. I've been using this for months without any problems.3) CALLS GONG DIRECTLY TO VOICEMAIL: I have had a situation where my phone does not ring at all and goes directly to voicemail. Simple fix is to disconnect everything for 2 minutes to reset the entire package. It's a pain. According to the MJP "techchat" people, I will never see this problem again (yeah, I believe that one).4) NO LIVE HELP: Chat is the only way to get help. I understand the business model, if I wanted live help then MJP would be more expensive. C'est la vie. Something to live with for now.5) 10-DIGIT DIALING IS REQUIRED: Not a big deal, I just need to get use to dialing the area code when calling next door.Hope that helps,Bob C.
283 of 299 people found the following review helpful.
Usable for outgoing calls, line is dropped too often to receive incoming calls reliably
By Liz
Since I got MJ+ a few days ago, the line has been dropped just about every day at least once--that's not nearly reliable enough to function as phone service for incoming calls.Customer support is poor. FAQ's don't really address much technically. I couldn't find any phone numbers to call on the website and used the chat line twice. Had to wait quite a few minutes for the first chat to start up--that was for help when the MJ website dumped me during the middle of initial registration. However the chat rep was reasonably helpful. 2nd chat today had a shorter delay getting started, but when I asked for help with the frequent line drops I got dropped from the chat line.I live in central NC and get my hi-speed Internet service from Time Warner Cable. Using the Speakeasy speed test (accessible through the MJ FAQ page under "What type of Internet service does magicJack require?"), I found my upload speed averages around .95 Mbps--which should be more than fast enough for MJ+'s minimum bandwidth UPLOAD speed of 128 kb/s. However, I suspect the TWC line may be the problem--that is, if the line isn't working with high consistency, maybe that is what is causing the MJ drops.I am giving MJ+ two stars rather than one star, because if I unplug the unit for 1-2 minutes, plug it back in, and give it a few minutes to reboot, I can make outgoing calls with moderately good call quality. So MJ+ is a dirt-cheap way for me to save phone minutes that I would otherwise have to rack up on my cell phone.If you are thinking of giving MJ+ a try, I would strongly recommend buying it at Radio Shack (or another store?) rather than through the MJ website. (I got mine at RS for $59, which includes the first year of service.) I've seen a number of reviews about double-billings and other billing problems that suggest MJ is a company you should NEVER disclose a credit card number to.
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