Nothing Magical About MagicJack

Everyone is always looking for the lowest prices for local and long distance telephone service. Many people resort to just having cell phones and no "land lines". Now, I have a Magic Jack VOIP. But, I'm not so sure that Magic Jack has helped to solve my land line crisis.

Until recently, I still had a land line in my home. I thought it was necessary in order to have DSL internet services. My telephone company, AT&T, recently started offering their DSL internet services without having to have a land line phone. When I found this out, I immediately called and had my land line disconnected. After all, I had my cell phone if anyone needed to call me.

My first trip to the grocery store sealed my reason for needing a land line phone. I have a cell phone, but my husband does not. So, with our land line phone now gone, I had no way of calling him.

As soon as I returned home, I went to a thread posted on my internet mom's message board. Someone had posted about a new thing called Magic Jack. She said it was a little phone jack that plugged into your computer and that you could make calls on it just like you would a land line. It costs only $19.99 a year, so I eagerly went to Magic Jack's website and ordered my free thirty day trial.

My Magic Jack arrived less than a week later via standard mail. I immediately opened the package and looked for instructions. The instructions were hard to find, but were on the back of the paper "sleeve" that contained the Magic Jack.

According to the instructions, all I had to do was plug my Magic Jack into a USB port on my computer and it would automatically install. The only other instructions were about what to do if your Magic Jack did not automatically install and an overview of their 911 services.

I plugged in my Magic Jack and within seconds the jack was installed on my computer. I registered online and picked my new phone number.

After this was done, I tried to call my mother. I dialed my mom's number on the phone hooked up to Magic Jack. According to the screen, the call was dialed successfully and was ringing. I could hear the ringing, but when my mom tried to answer on the other end, that's when my experience with Magic Jack went down hill.

My mom could not hear me and I could not hear her. So, I hung up and called again. Same scenario. I tried a third time before my mom called my cell phone to see what was wrong.

At this point, I went to Magic Jack's website and read through what to do. There is a thing called Magic Fix that is supposed to solve most problems with Magic Jack. I ran the fix, then tried to call my mother again. There was still no sound.

After punching and prodding around on Magic Jack's website for a while, I was finally able to get to a live internet agent. I told the person my problem and what I'd already done to fix it (which by this time was numerous things). The agent made me go through everything I'd already done and redo it. Finally, after telling the agent numerous times I'd already done the things she was asking, I closed my chat session.

I waited a little bit and tried again for a live agent, this time reaching someone who knew what he was doing. He had me go into my computer and change a couple of things around finally Magic Jack was working. I could finally make my first call using Magic Jack! I called my mother and this time the call went through.
I thought my Magic Jack was working great, until the next morning. I went to call my mother, and there was again no sound. So, I made trip number three to talk to a live agent online.

This agent had me do something entirely different. She had me go download some free software from some place. I did so, rebooted my computer and my Magic Jack was once again working. But now, before I could talk to anyone, there was this very loud squeal. Other than that, everything was ok.

Day number three rolls around and once again the phone is not working. This time I decided that I would unplug my computer to see if it made a difference. The Magic Jack did function after my computer is restarted.

After two weeks of having Magic Jack and numerous attempts to get it to work properly, it still only functions correctly about 50% of the time. I attempted to find a number to call about my Magic Jack and found that they only have internet support.

Within the next few days, I will probably be boxing up my Magic Jack and sending it back. That is if I can find where to send it. Magic Jack just didn't work well for me.