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RodBsr
magicJack Apprentice


Joined: 05 Oct 2012
Posts: 13

PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 9:57 am    Post subject: Question Reply with quote

I am just wondering with all I read here on this forum, if so many people have so many issues with MagicJack then how in the world do they sell so many units?

If their customer service is so bad, then again how do they sell so many units?

If everything with MagicJack is so bad then how do they even stay in business with all the bad publicity?

Or... do we only read, see, hear about the bad and never the good which COULD be the majority?

again... just wondering as I just don't get how they could stay in business if things really are so bad with them.
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SailorDave
MagicJack User


Joined: 17 Nov 2011
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:07 pm    Post subject: Question Reply with quote

I think the answer is that people who buy don't often research the issue in depth b4 they buy the thing. Then, they only encounter the truly wretched tech support when and if they have real trouble getting it to work. And they don't find THIS site until after the tech support failed to get it to work properly. And that is only if they feel it is worth the bother to TRY to get it to work. Most of us would toss the thing in the trash and move on. We now find ourselves having to pay more for everything and it is not clear that MJ+ will be the long term answer in my book, but for now I keep it running.
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SteveHC
Dan isn't smart enough to hire me


Joined: 26 Dec 2011
Posts: 498
Location: Southwest Florida

PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 3:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Basically, I agree with SailorDave. But to his post I'd add the following:

When MJ works, it usually works GREAT. But as with most Internet-connected electronics, when it *doesn't* work (or doesn't work properly), trying to determine the exact source of the problem can be VERY difficult (at best)... because of the sheer complexity of the nature and design of the product/service.

MagicJack is NOT merely a typical VOIP service. It has its own hardware, which is very heavily reliant on one's router. It has its own phone company (YMAX), which provides the service's "backbone" and whose equipment and programming etc. must be properly maintained for calls to go through properly, and which needs to have properly implemented interconnection agreements with all OTHER phone companies. And because MJ Vocaltech and YMAX try to be a lowest-cost leader, their entire operation is reliant upon the highest degree of system automation possible, lowest-cost manufacturing possible, and cheapest customer support possible.

The fact that it is a phone company which relies on VOIP technology as well as more "traditional" telcom network services and equipment *seems* to GENERALLY produce certain results, namely greatly improved audio/call quality (when EVERYTHING'S working properly) but increased difficulty in resolving problems when everything is NOT working properly.

So it's important to remember that it's probably NOT realistic to expect that a phone service that only costs $20-$30/year would be just as reliable as one costing $30-$45/MONTH. But a lot of people tend to forget this when problems with their MJ functionality arises.

FYI, *MY* gripe with MJ is with the fact that there are occasions when the company has the *ability* to at least temporarily provide a "work-around" to a customer's inability to complete calls properly (such as when the server that their number is assigned to starts "acting up," and when a dialed number SHOULD connect properly but is mis-routed or otherwise mis-identified) but refuses to do so as a matter of company policy.

Having said all of this, judging from comments posted across the Internet over the past month or two it *appears* that *most* of MJ's own network-related problems that people were experiencing a few months ago seem to have finally been resolved... but who knows when they'll start popping up again, and when they do who knows how long it'll take for the company to get them fixed again...
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RodBsr
magicJack Apprentice


Joined: 05 Oct 2012
Posts: 13

PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 3:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks to both of you for your responses. I just wonder sometimes how many truly satisfied customers there are out there that simply don't get on forums because they have nothing to complain about and we never know how many people really do have a good experience with MJ.

I'm looking at all alternatives to try to ease the release of our landline which my wife has been hanging on to for way too long! She likes Ooma but I don't like the up front cost. She also worries about reliable 911 service as we are getting older and that can be more important to us than to most here I'm sure.
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SteveHC
Dan isn't smart enough to hire me


Joined: 26 Dec 2011
Posts: 498
Location: Southwest Florida

PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 5:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

RodBsr:

I went through the exact same question - OOMA vs MagicJack. Here's what *I* found, and did:

1. OOMA has far better customer service, hands-down. OOMA has customer support available both online (via text "chat") and phone, while MJ offers help only via online text chat.
2. OOMA (as you know) has far greater start-up costs and costs more per month, so it takes longer to "pay for itself" than does MJ (assuming MJ works, for most people it basically pays for itself in about 2-3 months).
3. To "port" your old number over - OOMA charges an initial fee but ALSO charges you an ADDITIONAL $10 annually to KEEP your ported number from one year to the next (starting with one year after the initial port). OOMA charges a slightly higher initial porting fee but does NOT charge anything annually thereafter to keep the ported number.
4. To port a number OUT (if you decide you don't want to keep the service), OOMA charges nothing but MJ charges $30.
5. MJ's network equipment etc. *occasionally* screws up, resulting in calls to *certain* local numbers resulting in your not hearing the other person, and/or the other person not hearing YOU. Such problems may occur once or twice per year - or not ever at all - and can take up to a month to get fixed.
6. OOMA's network seems to "go down" about once/year NATION-WIDE, but the outage will only last less than 24 hrs.
7. e911 works equally well for both OOMA and MJ - as long as you've got your correct home address registered with them on your account.
8. Regardless, you'll need at least basic cellular service ($10-$15/month, or some other pay-per-use plan) for true emergencies when you're either out of the house or at home but your Internet or electricity is out of service. If you go with VOIP, get a good Uninterruptible Power Supply (1200-1500 watts) to power your modem, router, MJ+ or OOMA device, and phone for 2-3 hrs during a power outage; doing this will also lengthen the life of your equipment as well as help prevent power fluctuations from messing up the electronics' settings.
9. OOMA connects all calls to virtually all US numbers. MJ charges an extra per-minute fee for calls to Alaska and certain mainland numbers; there currently is no reliable way to determine in advance exactly which US numbers will incur that additional per-minute fee, to pay for those per-minute fees you have to maintain a pre-paid balance in your MJ account, and that pre-paid balance (minimum initial fund amount is $10, paid via credit card) *EXPIRES* - in one year, I believe. BOTH services charge extra for international calls.
10. For me, I found that MJ's audio quality is virtually identical to that of regular landline phone service (but slightly softer - so use it with a phone whose volume can be turned up high). I found OOMA's volume to be louder but the quality of its audio to be worse than OOMA's or a regular landline's; others have had the exact OPPOSITE experience that I did regarding audio quality (seems to depend on one's Internet service provider, location, modem and/or router model).

11. Both companies offer a 30-day initial money back guarantee if you buy directly from them (otherwise it's up to the retailer that you purchased from)... BUT MJ starts "counting" the days from the date you first place your order, while OOMA starts counting from the day you receive your hardware delivery (as I recall).

So here's what I did:

I didn't care about old number porting. So I bought MJ for my son; worked great and still does (has worked flawlessly from day one, going on two years now).

Then I bought a MJ+ for myself, which has an area code and number different from my son's. Worked great for about 6 months. Then when I'd call a few certain local numbers, either the other person couldn't hear me and/or I couldn't hear them. 3-4 weeks into the problem I discovered that when I went online and temporarily transferred my son's MJ phone number to my MJ+ device it worked perfectly fine (you can do this sort of thing if you have more than one MJ device and number).

So I went online to MJ's "live help chat" and told them what I discovered and that if they refused to reassign MY MJ+ number to a properly-functioning MJ network server - or fix the problem with the current server assigned to my MJ+ number - within 7 days, I'd have to switch to OOMA and not renew my MJ service.

MJ refused to reassign my number to a different server, so I immediately ordered an OOMA (directly from OOMA). 7 days later I received the OOMA, but wouldn't you know it, on that same day MJ finally got around to fixing the problem AND emailed me a discount deal on a 5-year service renewal plan (LESS than $100 Wink.

Seeing as I had the OOMA device already in hand, I tried it out and found the audio quality to be unacceptable - at least to me, in MY home with MY equipment. So I called OOMA, told them I wanted my money back, sent the device back to them, got my money back, and have kept the MJ+.

Even if MJ HADN'T ever fixed the problem with my MJ+ number, I STILL would've made out better than if I'd kept landline service.

So MY recommendation: If you and/or your wife really don't want to have to put up with unpredictable VOIP service issues like this in order to save a lot of money on your phone service, stick with regular landline service and pay whatever it is you pay for it. But if you are willing to, especially if you don't particularly care about phone number porting, do this:

Get a MJ+ - preferably from a local retailer that offers a 30-day return policy if its opened (Radio Shack, for instance); try it out for 30 days on its included initial one-year plan while keeping your landline service. During that 30 days call ALL numbers that you tend to call. If you're satisfied, keep the MJ and cancel your landline. If you're not satisfied, return the MJ, get your money back, order an OOMA and try IT out on its 30-day money back guarantee. Or try out OOMA first, if you prefer. Regardless do NOT port your old number to your new service and/or cancel your old service until you're 100% certain that you're satisfied with your new service.

And should you order MJ service but later decide to cancel it, right after you've received your money back be SURE to go online into your MJ account and a) CANCEL automatic renewal, AND b) DELETE any credit card that you might have stored online within your MJ account. The same holds true if you should order but later cancel/return OOMA.
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RodBsr
magicJack Apprentice


Joined: 05 Oct 2012
Posts: 13

PostPosted: Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow! That was a really detailed response and I greatly appreciate you taking all that time to type all of that in! Thanks! And your advice is quite sound.

We CAN change our landline plan to a lesser plan and keep it really just for 911 service but to me it seems overpriced for just that. We are also considering unlimited cell phone plans instead of the limited we now have. My wife's concern of course is if one of us is alone and we cannot speak after dailing 911 on a cell. With a location based lanline that problem solves itself... something I find myself reminding the young of when they say THEY don't need that. Hey... maybe your PARENTS OR GRANDPARENTS DO... it's not always just about ourselves after all.

We do have a battery back up that last about 2-3 hours when the power goes out.

I will probably try a MJ+ as it's not a great loss if it doesn't work after just a couple of months. I have an older and very simple router so I hope that works... I'm not a techie so if something doesn't work and getting help isn't good then I'm pretty much at a loss. But like I said $70 is about what I would pay for the least landline bill for a couple of months so no great loss if it doesn't work out.

Funny... I read forums about tech and instead of feeling helped I end up feeling more confused! So many say so many different things it really ends up hurting my thinking more than helping.

Thanks again... I do appreciate the replies and time spent on them!
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conniemadagain
Dan isn't smart enough to hire me


Joined: 31 Mar 2009
Posts: 396

PostPosted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 7:47 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

lets cut through the crap ... it is cheap ... !!!
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Palerider0098
magicJack Apprentice


Joined: 27 Sep 2012
Posts: 27

PostPosted: Sun Oct 14, 2012 6:48 am    Post subject: Question Reply with quote

I think that alot of the issues people have valid ones; however try inquiring via live help regarding the "Call Forwarding" issue. You will not get a helpful response and while your at it read their responses, you most likely will have to ask more than once as their answers will make no sense, not apply to your question or they will blame MJ policy on System Engineers. If you do not believe me track down some of the chat sessions that I post in the Call Forwarding? topic in this Tech Support Area.

Honestly, I'd switch to a different provider given the recent issues that MJ is experiencing. They have been sued for Patent Infringements by Nettalk; the Court Docs were files on 9/21/2012 and now they are charging 19.95 a year for 500 monthly call forwarding minutes. They are no longer the Great Value which sucks, especially since I have 3 MJ's to replace now. You can attempt to get any answers from their live help, but I wouldn't bother as I have asked them many times about these issues and all I get is incorrect or B.S. answers from them.

Go to http://www.nettalk.com and check out their products; They offer a USB Model and an All in one that will work when connected to either a Network Jack or your Wi-Fi Connection. They will also port your current MJ number and they offer free call forwarding as well. MJ now charges for call forwarding and current users will lose this feature as well so there is no grandfathering for us.
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shmeng
magicJack Apprentice


Joined: 28 Nov 2012
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 2:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

conniemadagain wrote:
lets cut through the crap ... it is cheap ... !!!



That hits the spot! haha... if you want better service, go to a expensive one..
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SteveHC
Dan isn't smart enough to hire me


Joined: 26 Dec 2011
Posts: 498
Location: Southwest Florida

PostPosted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 7:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

- I meant to say in my post above (a couple of posts back) that I actually found OOMA's audio quality to be worse than MJ's, but that's just me at my location; just realized that my typo's in that post made it difficult to understand this. Going with a more expensive VOIP service is no guarantee that it'll be any better overall than a much cheaper one. Thankfully all 3 of these - NetTalk, OOMA and MagicjACK - offer money-back trial periods, because determining which one would be best at anyone's particular installation definitely requires trying each one out - least expensive one for the features you need/want first - until you (hopefully) hit the one that works best for you.
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RodBsr
magicJack Apprentice


Joined: 05 Oct 2012
Posts: 13

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I figured this post died out but

I will try a MagicJack Plus when we cancel our landline and if it doesn't work well then I'll go with the GVJack app and use the dongle that way as that seems to get decent reviews.
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shmeng
magicJack Apprentice


Joined: 28 Nov 2012
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Sat Dec 01, 2012 12:12 am    Post subject: Re: Question Reply with quote

Palerider0098 wrote:
I think that alot of the issues people have valid ones; however try inquiring via live help regarding the "Call Forwarding" issue. You will not get a helpful response and while your at it read their responses, you most likely will have to ask more than once as their answers will make no sense, not apply to your question or they will blame MJ policy on System Engineers. If you do not believe me track down some of the chat sessions that I post in the Call Forwarding? topic in this Tech Support Area.

Honestly, I'd switch to a different provider given the recent issues that MJ is experiencing. They have been sued for Patent Infringements by Nettalk; the Court Docs were files on 9/21/2012 and now they are charging 19.95 a year for 500 monthly call forwarding minutes. They are no longer the Great Value which sucks, especially since I have 3 MJ's to replace now. You can attempt to get any answers from their live help, but I wouldn't bother as I have asked them many times about these issues and all I get is incorrect or B.S. answers from them.

Go to http://www.nettalk.com and check out their products; They offer a USB Model and an All in one that will work when connected to either a Network Jack or your Wi-Fi Connection. They will also port your current MJ number and they offer free call forwarding as well. MJ now charges for call forwarding and current users will lose this feature as well so there is no grandfathering for us.



haha... as stated by one of the member here. Magicjack is Cheap, and that is why people buy MJ, a lot of people complain and complain saying they will transfer to a different provider and all. but did they?
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cell14
Dan Should Pay Me


Joined: 23 May 2009
Posts: 673
Location: South FL

PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 1:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
haha... as stated by one of the member here. Magicjack is Cheap, and that is why people buy MJ, a lot of people complain and complain saying they will transfer to a different provider and all. but did they?


Yes, they did, just about every informed person.
Unfortunately, in a brainless nation, junk sells, whether it is junk food or junk VOIP.
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redpepper
Dan Should Pay Me


Joined: 13 Oct 2009
Posts: 501

PostPosted: Sun Dec 02, 2012 9:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The only real stats I can add is that hundreds of people are buying the GVJack App every week to link their magicJack and magicJack Plus dongles to Google Voice.

Sales of the GVJack App have been increasing on a fairly steep curve month on month. The same for the number of people downloading and trying it out. I'm not sure of their source but somebody in Philadelphia dumped 200 x expired magicJack Plus dongles on Ebay for use with the GVJack App last week. Only a few are still left at the moment.

The timing of the largest recent spike in sales was around the time magicJack announced they were dumping free call forwarding.

The split between people buying the $12.95 standard version and the $19.95 professional version is circa 50/50.
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Palerider0098
magicJack Apprentice


Joined: 27 Sep 2012
Posts: 27

PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2012 6:34 am    Post subject: Magic Jack Vs. Google Voice Reply with quote

I surely did dump my Magic Jack...one of mine expired on 11/11 and I ditched it completely for the Google Voice App. I love this App and it works just fine for me; Great call quality and no charge for call forwarding.
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