Magic Jack is a Internet phone service with a twist. You get a regular working phone number in your area and you get a small device that plugs into your computer
I got it because money is tight in this household and to not have phone service at all is hard. We had been paying 200.00 to 300.00 a month for phone service then we went to Time Warner Digital phone service for 19.95 a month, however over the years they slowly increased the cost until we were paying over 50.00 a month for our service. Basically this digital service is the same as Magic Jack, when we started having trouble paying our bill we elected to turn off the phone since Rick had a cell phone. But not having a phone in the home is too hard for this girl so I invested in the Magic Jack.
My service with Magic Jack, the downs of having this service is you only have phone service if the computer is turned on. When you shut it down for the night there goes your phone service. Also if your Internet provider is having issues, you will not have phone service but that was no different with the digital service we had.
The other issue we have is that the local phone company is upset about the digital and computerized phone services and the 200 to 300 a month they are loosing from customers like me. But I warned them to bring my service cost down or I would go as soon as I could and I did. To try and force people like me into going back to them, they have BLOCKED all calls from Magic Jack into this community. That's right I can call anywhere in the country EXCEPT in my home town. I have to use the cell phone to do all my local calls. And no one in town can call me either. I don't care, because my phone is quiet and I only get calls from my kids which makes me very happy. The last downfall with Magic Jack is that there is virtually no contact information to reach them. They discourage anyone having to contact them and the only way is through their on line communications. When you deal with customer service you are talking to the Philippines , India or some other underdeveloped country and their English is less then stellar.
What I like about The service, it has call waiting, caller id, call forwarding all included. It has 911 and 411 service and I can make all my calls and not have a monthly bill. I have had this service about a year now and I have had little issues with it sans what I already mentioned and that wasn't their issue it was the local phone company.
On Cyber Monday I purchased a new Magic Jack Plus, this service is about 69.00 to purchase and 29.95 a year to use. What is the difference? I can have my phone on with out it being hooked up to my computer. You use your computer to program the service but then you hook it directly to your modem or router, your phone and then plug it into a power source and you are ready to go and it is operational 24 hours a day. Other then that there is no difference with the service. I was able to purchase this on Cyber Monday for half off. So I got one for my kids also. Well, I just paid for the year on my regular Magic Jack so After I installed the new system and got it up and running. I contacted M.J. and asked to change the phone number on the old box because I can send this thing to England and they can call their son for FREE using a local number and the magic jack.
I have heard that there are issues with Magic Jack and when there are, it is hard to resolve them because they don't want you to find them. No corporate address or phone number with them. But I have had problem free service so far knock on wood and I hope it continues that way.
