See my updates at the end of this post...
A short while back, I read something about a company called MagicJack. It caught my eye because they had this new gadget, and... well I am an admitted gadget junkie.
Here it is in a nutshell: You buy this $40 dongle (called a MagicJack of all things), you plug it into your (Windows only) computer's USB slot, you then plug an ordinary phone into the other end of the device. And viola, you have a dial tone and can make and receive calls over the internet, including long-distance to any phone number in the US, without any charges for one full year. You can also opt to purchase your second year of service for $20.
(image credit: getusb.info)
Sounds great, yes? I thought so, too... at first. Now in all fairness, I realize this is a new device. In fact their website has "BETA 4.0" prominently displayed across the page. That's your first indication that there will be bugs to work out. I knew that going in. So I ordered the doo-hickey, it arrived a few days later, and I had it plugged into my computer within minutes.
After it walked me through a short registration process, I picked up the phone I had plugged into the device, and there was a dial tone. I punched in my home number and it worked. I dialed my cell phone and it worked too. I called a few friends and the call quality was fine. No problems! Then I tried calling my new MagicJack number from my cell phone... "We're sorry" the nice lady said, "but the number you've dialed is not in service." Oh no she di-in't! I tried it again... same thing. I tried it from another phone; no luck. I had a friend try calling the number and he got the same annoying recorded message.
My first thought; go to the site and find a section called "Troubleshooting" or "FAQ" or "Technical Support". Their "Questions and Answers" section was anything but "answers". It was really just an extension of their sales pitch and contained no useful technical information. Then I went to their "Customer Support" section. There was an option to send an email, but you had to choose a topic first. Except that by choosing any topic gave you more sales pitch and no actual option to send an email. Frustrating to say the least. They also have a live chat option, so I tried that. I was connected to a person who may or may not have known anything about the product. My bet was he didn't have a clue. He tried dialing my MagicJack number and also couldn't get through. He eventually told me that my best bet was to just try again in the next few days to see if it starts working. Yeah, right. So I eventually found a way to login to my account and there, I saw a form to send an actual email for technical support. Finally! So I filled out the form, detailed the issues I was having and what steps I had taken thus far, and asked for a timely resolution. That was six days ago and I haven't heard a peep from the folks at M.J. Not even an automated reply.
Today, I happened across Dan Borislow's blog. Dan is the head (and I think inventor) of MagicJack. He made a post about how great his company's customer support is. I made a comment to that post to the contrary. Comments to that blog require moderation, so my criticism may never be posted, but I will be curious to see if I get any kind of response from any of my attempts to resolve my issue.
This gadget seemed really cool a few weeks ago, but all that coolness has evaporated. Poor (or no) customer service will kill a company, regardless of the product. I'll update this post as things unfold... or unravel.
UPDATE:
Dan Borislow contacted me directly and asked for a chance to fix things with my MagicJack! Perhaps this will all turn out okay. I'll update of course, so stay tuned.
UPDATE #2:
Dan followed through with his promise to resolve my issue and now I can receive incoming calls to the phone connected to my MagicJack. Outgoing calls and voicemail also work. I'm really impressed that Dan got personally involved to fix this problem and turn a frustrated customer into one who is willing to give them another try. I still think the customer / technical support is lacking, but I'm hoping for improvements in that area. And I'm much more willing to put up with some glitches, knowing how dedicated they are to make things right.
Now that the system works like it's supposed to, I plan to use this side by side with my existing home phone system (currently Packet 8) and see how they stack up against each other. I'll admit that I'm pulling for MagicJack to come out as a viable replacement, seeing how much money I will be saving over Packet 8's $25 monthly charges. I will post more observations in a few weeks after I've had time to test everything out.
Oh, and if you're interested in trying out MagicJack yourself, you can order it here.
UPDATE #3:
This update is long overdue, but after using my Magic Jack for about one month, it stopped working. I'm no longer a fan of Magic Jack. Read more here.
27.11.07
MagicJack: Is it worth a try?
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19 comments:
This is Dan Borislow the inventor of magicJack.
The reason the rep said to try in a few days,is because the Bell company who controls the routing of that number did not do their job-yet.I hate to make excuses,but this time I must.
Email me at Dan.Borislow@magicjack.com we will fix you up faster than you can type Jeffreyville.Give me your magicjack number to give me a headstart when you email me.
We are still in Beta and extremely busy getting a the release of the software out for the Official launch.
Dan
Jeffrey,
Speaking of glitches - LOL - it just took me about 12 minutes to get this comments page to load and I had to do all sorts of tricks to get it to finally open.
The reason for my missive is to tell you I've known Dan Borislow on a personal basis since about 1994.
I want you to know that Dan is a legendary man in the circles I run in. He's the only regular guy I ever met who went from working-man's wages to billionaire seemingly overnight, because of his own sheer brilliance and unique inititives. The point: I've never known Dan to promise anything to anyone and not follow through. Nor is he the type to give excuses like, "it's the phone company's fault."
If he wrote that to you, you can count on that being the reason.
Just to let you know, I write to you because what I wrote is the truth. I am not on his payroll and never have been. I am a career *journalist and writer with more than 10,000 bylines. (*You can Google it.)
Anyway, good luck with getting this problem fixed and have a great holiday season.
- Dusty Nathan
misterwriter111@hotmail.com
Well looks like a great deal. Keep me posted on how you like it. I will think about doing the same but as you can see I will take your word for it before I go and try it. Unless Curiosity kills me first and I get a hair up my ass and I just go and buy it.
I ran into a few glitches with the magicJack when I first got it. Luckily, with the help of the magicJack Forum I was up and running in no time.
I was amazed at the quality of the phone calls once I got my magicJack working.
Hi if you can tell me how to get this to that Dan guy let me know or if you can pass it to him thanks
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
The magicjack sucks got it all set up and theres no area code close to me so we picked on 100miles away got a dial tone made a call and guess what the people that we called could not hear us, so we tried again and again we could hear them but they could not hear us.
My wife chated with a rep she said we will have a area code in a week or two been 3 weeks and now we can’t get trough to anyone. The Magicjack is a big RIP OFF no wonder that
dan borislow is soo rich he’s coning people We got coned out of our money.
If any one knows Dan Borislow tell him to call me I want to get in on his little game I need the money.
Alot of people mainly the poorer people try this junk to save some money but people like Dan rip us off way to go Dan just like the gas and oil co get rich at the cost of the poor
I've had my MagicJack for nearly a year and most of the time it works fine.
It works best when making calls during non-peak internet traffic times. For me, that's easy because I live in the Philippines and work all night here, which means when I call the states or Canada, 95% of the time I have little competition for bandwidth.
Cons: MagicJack customer service SUCKS bigtime. A few months ago there was a screen message in the MagicJack module warning against the installation of Vista Service Pack 3 causing problems with third party software (were they talking about MagicJack? I wondered. Service Pack 3? Microsoft just released Service Pack 1!
So I tried their LivePerson Chat module. Fact, you can not get the LivePerson Chat window to appear unless you read at least one of the FAQ Problem/Solutions, and as Jeffrey points out, most of the FAQs are less than helpful.
Now, it seems Dan Borislow has discontinued his LivePerson Chat account, or they discontinued service because MagicJack didn't pay the bill. This was suggested to me when I chatted with a LivePerson at their corporate web site.
Dan Borislow has also deleted his Blogspot blog. Can't reach him through the blog.
Can't find an email address for tech support.
And I have a simple question: Can the Vista Service Pack 1 be installed without risk to continued MagicJack functionality? Remember, MagicJack warned me and others that Vista Service Pack installation would cause problems with third party software.
My concern with the non-existent customer service, the elimination of Live Chat, the deletion of Borislow's log is MagicJack is perhaps a company about to fail.
Dan, if you read this, you can reach me at acecam at gmail
jscottk,
Mine worked for a bit... then broke completely. Instead of trying to get the problem resolved with customer support (or lack thereof), I decided it would be easier and less frustrating to forget about it, consider it a mistake, and go on using my reliable VoIP service from Packet 8. Because of your comment, I decided to update this topic with a new post.
http://www.jeffreyville.com/2008/01/magicjack-review-follow-up.html
Cheers,
Jeffrey
THE MAGICJACK INVENTOR SHOULD TEACH HIS CUSTOMER SERVICE EMPLOYEES HOW TO TREAT PEOPLE LIKE HUMAN BEINGS AND NOT BE SO RUDE BY ENDING A CHAT BY HANGING UP ON YOU WHILE YOU ARE TRYING TO RESOLVE REFUND ISSUES. AND WHAT IS THE INVENTORS E-MAIL ADDRESS, THAT SEEMS TO BE A MYSTERY. BECAUSE OF AN UN-AUTHORIZED PURCHASE AGAINST MY DEBIT CARD ABOUT 2 WEEKS AGO WHICH BY THE WAY HAD NO MONEY ON IT AT THE TIME. I LOADED MY CARD 11/19/08 TO PAY A UTILITY BILL AND MY PAYMENT WAS DECLINED DUE TO INSUFFUCIENT FUNDS BECAUSE MAGICJACK TOOK THE MONEY OFF MY CARD FOR SOMETHING I DID NOT ORDER. I WANT A REFUND AND I HOPE I DON'T HAVE TO WAIT 45 DAYS OR LONGER AS STATED ON A COMPLAINT WEBSITE. I READ ABOUT THE SO-CALLED 30 DAY TRIAL PERIOD BEFORE YOU WILL BE CHARGED BUT THATS A BIG JOKE. THE MONEY SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN TAKEN OFF MY CARD NOR SHOULD A HOLD HAVE BEEN PLACED ON MY CARD UNTIL FUNDS WERE AVAILABLE TO PAY FOR SOMETHING I DIDN'T ORDER OR HAVE NO USE FOR... I AM TOTALLY P. O....ED
They had a promotion to extend your license or add 5 years to your service for only $59.95 on Black Friday. I took advantage of this offer but they only extend your service 4 years. They said the 1 year service you get when you buy your majicjack is included. They went back to install date instead of black friday which only gives me 4 years 9 months from day I purchased the extension.
Dan: I have emailed you tonight Jan 19, 2009. My name is Gautam and I am in the 952 area code. That's all the information I will divulge in a public forum like this. I have used MJ for a year and then renewed it despite some technical difficulties faced during the last year.
My nightmare began after renewal. I was finally issued a replacement by your higher level tech support person named Lalie. I have received the replacement MJ and trying to send back the old MJ. I need an RMA. Please read my rather long email and let me know when I an get the RMA.
Suffices it to say that MJ support is almost non-existent. Yes, they answer the tech chat very quickly. That's the only plus point. After they have answered, your first level of support is ignorant to say the least, your higher level of support goes through a script cut and paste and can't solve the problems. Your tech support don't even refer to the previous chats that have taken place with the same customer even though they have that on record. I had to repeat my situation over and over again. This is unacceptable.
I know you browse different forums where MJ is discussed, so I am hoping you would see this and reply to my email.
Thank you
noone wants to fess up about sending 2 MJ when you order 1 and then want to hold on to someone's $
your customer service is crap. i have been in contact 4 days since the 22nd and today a customer service rep in the billing dept screamed at me to the top of her lungs as I was some child. I disapprove of these manners and your online service is even worse. I have employees give me one bout of info and then a totally different bout of info after that... and by supervisors might i add. then to top it off in one hours i spoke to lalie, jordan, maya, lizzie the lezzie, roger, joss. All of these supervisors? and they repeatedly ended chats on me. RUDE. you will definately lose business because of this....i know you have lost mine....
I have had and used MJ SINCE 6/26/ 07 and i have nothing bad to say about it. I have never been more happy with a product. I have DSL and more than once had the phone go down but the DSL was still working. The DSL still working allowed MJ to work and was my only phone until the regular phone came back. Because of that i can say MJ is more reliable than the regular phone. At less than $20 a year i do not expect nor do i want to pay for great customer service. The way MJ does customer service is all that is needed.
When the Advertisement came out on the T.V. I ordered one magic jack, but they send me two. They charge me $46.90 ON ONE CREDIT CARD, but they said that # was not good and asked me for another credit card, which I did. Then they charged me $45.54 on the second credit card. My year had been expired about two days ago, since this morning I am train to be in contact to pay for a one year extension and I was disconnected .I asked Janna why I was charge in two different cards, but I never get any answer and I don't know if finally they are going to connect me or not. The other two persons that i was talking with was Rizze and one more that I don't remember the name
I am very dissapointed with Magic Jack, because you can talk to anyone.
Joe.
I bought a MJ was told ok for 514 area codes.. Went through the process of registration and couldn't get a prefix, so I kept the registration on hold and opened another window and started a chat with a csr agent of MJ. She told me yes yes yes . Register first. I did. Then could not get a 514 area code. Chat again and jocel to me yes yes yes you can. I told her tried and cant. Jocel tells me now our engineers are working on it, chat again in a few days. Chatted the next day, Ermin supervisor says I could have got one 514 area code but new members only. Told Ermin send me on free with a 514 and prefix already registered, she then told me cant..... Not available yet. So they will BS you in every way to hang up the chat but will do nothing to fix their error. They tell you yes yes yes, no no no in the same conversation enough to drive you MAD. The gismo works but the CSR customer service id full of horse SH***. MajicJack is doomed if they don't get proper service agents, and a higher level of customer satisfaction happening soon. Really not happy ........
The only way I’ve been able to contact customer service, to actually get one of the alleged live agents to respond with the alleged tech chat is to go to this address: http://my.magicjack.com/returns.html. I could tell you, now, finally, how to reach them through the actual help selection on the softphone menu but it’s a waste of time. And if you don’t know how to get to the link in the help section, you’ll waste countless time following the questions and clicking on the buttons that advertise, falsely, an immediate response from a live agent in tech chat. Near the bottom of the page you’ll see this sentence: If you're having trouble finding your order, click here and an associate will assist you. Do so, and ignore the rest of that page. That will call up a chat window where you will actually get a response from an actual person.
I have posted comments on some various forums urging people to report any ripoffs by MagicJack to the FBI's IC3 site for reporting computer crime. This was between the first time I had managed to FINALLY get a response and the second time. The first time I spent a very long time with two agents because the first one couldn't manage to get the "Ready to Call" to replace the "Error 9 no connectivity" on the softphone.
By that time it was too late to call two time zones away so I didn't find out until the next day that it was anything but ready to call. And since I had been about to explode by the time I'd stumbled upon an actual response the first time, I did not remember how, after following all the false leads and outright lies, that I had finally managed to get through.
So I was about to explode the second time I got through, as well. And after spending a huge amount of time once again with tech chat, this guy took forever to respond throughout, the phone FINALLY started working again. And when the "agent" asked if there was anything else he could do for me, I said that he could tell me how to contact tech chat without going through all the rigmarole I had. His reply was that he thought I surely wouldn't need to contact them again and then cut the connection.
So the company doesn't seem to be the lying thieves I accused them of being in some of those angry posts. Liars yes, thieves no. Am I going to go back and update those posts, telling people that they aren't actually stealing from me by not providing the service I bought from them? Absolutely not! If they have such a horrendous help section, meaning customer service, one that is full of lies promising responses from people with the press of a button when none will be forthcoming at all, then they bloody well deserve horrendous reports and the loss of sales that might cost them. Just look at a small portion of the complaints against this company and you'll see that they are killing their own business with their shoddy practices.
Garden Guy - I agree with your sentiments about the support, or lack thereof, that MJ provides to its users. That is why I gave up on the device and the company a looong time ago. Lately I've seen more ads from this company and they are selling the device at Best Buy, etc. It's a shame that while they have expanded their efforts in sales, they apparently have not made similar efforts in their customer service.
I'm still happy and I use mine every day.
-dusty nathan
Thank you Jeffrey,
I was just conversing with 2 of Magic Jacks reps and getting no where at all. They even refused to give me the corp. address, e-mail, or phone number. I have no idea how I happened onto your site, it must have been the hand of God, because my last comment to the rep was, God will bring the truth to the light, then I found your site showing Dan Borislows' e-mail address. I will contact him with my issue. Thank you again. Sandy
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