I’ve been cruising the forums and the search engines.

Man, some of you people are brutal.

Calling the new phone service everything from a fraud to a scam. Some seriously harsh words. I admit I’ve only had my Magic Jack for a short time, but so far I’ve been extremely pleased with it. However, for the sake of argument, I thought I’d post a few comments I’ve found around the web and try to answer some of the more common questions.

Once again, I do NOT work for MagicJack, nor does this site have ANY affiliation with the company that sells it. I’m a real user and I’m just trying to build up this site as a real resource for other real users and for people considering purchasing the product.

So here are a few of the things I found this morning.

1. Fraud and Scam –

Magic jack is a scam i would not recommend this product i would not put anyone through this *** *** junk and having that little girl lie for them on site shame on you magic ***. They need a law suit on them and especially no phone number for customer support they must not like it either for them to have magic jack and not have phone for c/s whats up with that and there chat clients are not good also they must of just started to school on customer service and still in kindergarten, magic jack you need to be put out of business and a big law suit.

OK, you are the current reigning champion in the run on sentence challenge. Please, for the love of Pete, consider decaf…..magicJack could easily provide phone customer service but if so it wouldn’t be $19.95 per year. I bet it would cost quite a bit more. magicJack’s specialty is in it’s low price and they customer service is designed to allow them to offer the magic Jack at a ridiculously low price.

2. Truly Unlimited -

Did you actually believe that could get unlimited calling to the US and Canada for $19.95 per YEAR? Really? I like to think I’m up to date on just about all the digital phone services available these days, especially considering that I routinely blog about how much I believe in IamVoip and their service. So when I heard about this “incredible” Magic Jack everyone was talking about, I took some time to see what people had to say about it in the blogosphere.

From a blogger blog promoting some other VOIP service. Of course they are going to trash anything that’s not THEIR product. What’s funny, if you read the comments below the blog post, most of the people commenting are actually defending Magic Jack and telling the writer how great it is….

3. Customer Service –

Where to begin, I ordered the unit over a month ago and it has not worked as advertised from day one. After looking for phone numbers to contact them and not finding any, I had to resort to Live Chat, after an hour of going round and round they tell me that I need different phone and a Powered USB Hub. I told the Live Chat person that prior to purchasing the unit I watched the infomercial, which states ‘will work with any phone’. They wouldn’t respond to that… I told Live Chat that I had tried the unit with several different phone, both wired and wireless. I also told them that I had tried it with several different computers.

I’m going to hold off on my customer service comments because I have not dealt with them directly. I’ve had no problems that require I contact them to date, so I’ll leave you to your own opinions here. Truth here is also that most issues that need customer service help are related to something that the rep. can’t even help you with, such as a slow internet connections or crappy computer.

4. Call Quality -

The call quality is not great. It sounds like a really bad cell phone connection. My major problem has been trying to make local calls. MagicJack’s fix is to put a * after the first number in my area code; but then when I type the rest of the number, the phone acts like its trying to dial, but then disconnects the call.

I’ve only used my Magic Jack for a short time, but I’ve got to say that from my end there’s been zero indication that the call quality is poor. In fact, it’s been extremely good. Much better than Skype’s quality based on the feedback I’ve received. Perhaps these issues are again cause by something on the users end. Everybody knows it takes a decent computer and a good internet connection to use any VoIP service.

5. Free Trial isn’t Free -

I ordered this from a TV ad on 5/15/08 which stated that you had 30 days to use it before being charged. I was charged immediately in the amount of $47.90.

When you go through the process their ordering system specifically states that only a credit card may be used. It goes on to tell you that if you try to fool the system by using a Visa or Mastercard Debit card, you will be charged immediately. What I’m sure is happening here is that some people are convinced that they are the exception and that a Visa or Mastercard symbol is the same from credit to debit. I’m going to guess that the MagicJack team has this figured out or they wouldn’t warn you when ordering. If you used a debit card and were billed immediately, you were warned. I have no sympathy for your claims that the free trial wasn’t free…

6. Over Billed -

I found this one funny. There are tons of sites out there stating that there are reports of over billing, yet I could not find one real direct example. This may be a valid complaint, but everything I read this morning was second handed hearsay. If you have had an over billing issue, please post your comment in the comment box at the end of this post. Please be specific, noting dates, amounts, etc., if possible.

So let’s review.

It seems that the main problems people are having with Magic Jack center around customer service, or the lack thereof. Understand, the whole point of this thing is to get your phone service ridiculously cheap, which is probably going to mean some concessions here and there.

Did you really think you were going to get the same customer service that AT&T provides? Probably not for less than 20 bucks a year. (or less than 5.5 cents a day…)

If you are wanting to have a live person at your fingertips every time you have an issue, you are going to pay for it!!! But if you are wanting a no frills phone line alternative, and consider the savings, I still believe that Magic Jack could be your solution.