You have a great idea for a product. You have a great designer. You have a manufacturer willing to pump something out for not much money. You’re on your way to gadget riches, right? Wrong.
Dan Costa wrote a cautionary tale for all those looking to produce a consumer electronics product. His focus is magicJack, a company that we wrote about in August 2007, a post that currently has 167 comments, none of them particularly good. Here’s an example from our own comments:
How do you CONTACT these people I can find NO way to send them a message?
MagicJack is basically a VOIP dongle that plugs into your USB port. You then add a telephone and make calls. It costs $40 and then $20 a year. It should be plug and play but, as with everything in life, it often isn’t. Fair enough, you say. Just make a phone call to the support line and you’ve got it solved. Sadly, this is not the case.
MagicJack is one of the reasons we gadget writers are so cynical. We see a great idea but there is something missing either during the review or on delivery. After a while you get a sixth sense about these things but unfortunately I couldn’t see the problems with this device until far along the product life cycle. I didn’t know the company would fail so badly at support and marketing.
When designing a product – any product, really – you deal with a life cycle. At its core you have something like this circular design. The best products – I’m not going to say the best companies, because everyone is entitled to a dud – excel or negate each of these steps. By negate I mean they produce something so amazing one of the steps is unimportant – maybe marketing or support. No real examples of this come to mind. If one step is bad, however, you’re sunk totally and completely. MagicJack failed on two fronts: support and marketing.
First, magicJack is now probably the most reviled company in CE in terms of customer service. As Costa points out, there is no contact information on the site. The only recourse you have when the dead-simple product fails is a chat session with someone in the Philippines who may or may not ask you to edit your registry settings. While magicJack should be easy enough for anyone to use – as evidenced by their predilection for selling it in late night infomercials – support is key in post-purchase scenarios.
Then someone at magicJack thought it would be a great idea to spam the Internet. Take a look at this comment from Tim L, snipped for sanity:
Over the last few months I’ve been closely following the blogs and growing media coverage on the magicJack, the coolest product to hit the marketplace in a very long time.
For those who do not know or do not have a full understanding of the magic behind the magicJack (and how its different from Skype and others…) my product overview is below.
magicJack is a USB phone jack that allows users to make FREE local and long distance phone calls anywhere in the US and Canada. Users can bring their magicJack anywhere in the World and make FREE calls to the US and Canada, as well.
It’s easy to use. After plugging the magicJack into the USB port of your computer, the software that resides in the magicJack self-loads, a brief & standard registration process follows (during which time you get to choose a telephone number for your magicJack from a large inventory of area codes/numbers in most every major metro area in the US)and when done you simply plug any standard corded, cordless or portable phone (headset or Bluetooth also works) into the magicJack, pick-up the phone and dial-tone has been delivered! You’re free to make FREE phone calls anywhere in the US and Canada! So, much different than other IP telephony options since it can be used with ANY regular phone and you get your own telephone number for LIFE!
Thanks, Tim! What a great… wait a minute… You seem to be everywhere! That’s right: magicJack resorted to a spam marketing campaign. Strike two.
What I originally considered a great product is now highly suspect thanks to two systemic failures in the launch process. The company do two things: solve these problems with a US-based support line and rethink their marketing strategy or ignore the problems because they’ve already sold 2 million of these puppies. As Costa writes:
It’s a mistake to think of YMax in terms of the $40 adapter it hawks on late night TV. YMax is a phone company, and a pretty big one. Yes, it uses VoIP, but its business model is very different from those of companies like Vonage or the cable operators that offer phone service. The magicJack service has its own nationwide network of media gateways and session border controllers, and has CLEC (competitive local exchange carrier) certifications in all 50 states. YMax is a huge company with a vast technical architecture to support. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be spending enough to take care of that customer base.
This is an important lesson to start-up CE providers. You might have a great idea and a great manufacturer, but if you miss or fail to deliver on any one of a few complex steps, you risk losing a new and repeat business as you expand.
Huh?
Why are you even talking about this product? Have you seen the ads for this thing? Pure Direct Response genius! Its not the product that is amazing its the marketing!!!!!
The product is obviously a POS and is obviously targeted at the noobies and technomorons of the world not the techies or early adopters.
I am in awe of their marketing and would love to, LOVE TO figure out how they take a simple cheap and crappy product and wrap it in foil and sell the hell out of it.
ARRINGTON should take an example in this with his $300 dumb tablet idea.
While india is working on a $10 laptop, Arrington is trying his pipedream…. now T$ own posts show how tough the business is…
I have a magicjack and it works great. I’ve disconnected my phone line and only use magicjack. It has saved me hundreds of dollars.
I have read all the post and really i have to tell you this is wy so many people in this country fall for late night television ads.If you do not know this technology is not new Skype has had it for ever.You can plug a phone to skype and have the same thing but cost is the same or more.Also you have a new strtup that gives you the same things but for free bueno.com
This doesn’t look like a real product. This looks like the typical crap hawked via spam and late night TV ads. They don’t care if you *keep* the service, they’ve already got your money, and lots of it because they spend almost nothing on support. In addition to the fee for the dongle, they score a few rebills on the service before you cancel. Sad, but real.
it works really good i have one
While I can understand your frustration with the product, I disagree with some of what you have stated. While the site does not specifically have a contact us email address, they may be thinking the immediate response via the chat method is better. In any case, I have had luck using the magicjack@magicjack.com email distribution to get email support. Your point about email support is partially valid. Your next point is the cost of running your PC 24×7. Who does not do that today? I personally know few people who ever turn their machines off. With anti-virus updates and security patches, most I know leave their machines up 24×7 and schedule the updates for late at night. An interesting feature with this product is when the PC is off, such as the middle of the night, your calls roll over to voice mail. I doubt most people would want calls in the middle of the night, other than emergency calls of course. Therefore, your point about the cost of the product being more than Vonage, or any other voip product via RJ45 or not is a bogus claim. Another point you brought up that really has nothing to do with the product or service is that “Tim” is out there spamming forums and providing comments like this one to ‘pimp’ the product. While this might be true, I also notice that vendors also appear to be spamming those same websites against competing products. In reality, it has nothing to do with the product performance or services. One thing you did not mention is how the product works? I do have the unit and it works fine, as long as you are not doing anything else on your computer related to Internet browsing/email or network traffic. I have a quad core machine with 4GB of ram and Vista. The unit plugged in, installed the software after approval from Vista, then was up and running in about 30 seconds. In closing, I might agree with some of what you say, you are painting a much poorer picture of a pretty good product. My recommendation, if you have $40 to test this item out for a few months it might be worth it. When your existing number is available to be ported over to MJ it may be more worth it. It could be used as your everyday phone as long as you understand the functionality. MJackie.
We can argue and agree or disagree about how great this product is or if it is really a practical replacement to your landline phone but if you ask anyone who tried MJ and didn’t like it “why they didn’t like it?” you will find that the majority agree on one thing which is the lack of real effective SUPPORT. The real failure of this company is in the “after-sales” support. I got the MJ a while back but was not able to make it work on my computer. This was not because I couldn’t plug the MJ in the USB port to start making calls, but because there was a conflict between the MJ software and some of the tools I have on my computer that made the MJ softphone application freezes every time I receive a phone call and then I had to restart my computer to get it back to work. I couldn’t get any support except through chat and nothing worked from what they told me. They know NOTHING. They only copy and paste things that might not be helpful at all in your case. This first level of support is ok if there is a hierarchy of technical support levels where each level will escalate the problem to the next level if they can’t resolve it and of course each level will have more depth in the technical and operational knowledge than the level before it. But to limit the support to this shallow level which MJ is giving its customer is where the failure is.
From my experience with MJ, you can not rely on it to be your ONLY home phone because if something goes wrong (and trust me it will) you have no one to help you fix it back ASAP. If you want to have a SECOND phone line then MJ might be a cheaper option for you but not as reliable as the other available options.
the only thing i agree with is that MJ should have local US support available. MJ can’t be responsible for conflicts with over-burdened, over-software-packed PC’s just as small software companies can’t be required to trouble-shoot similar issues. i have been using my MJ trouble-free on my Mac for 2 weeks. i had one issue after trying to set it up on my POS Dell latitude but after i “live chat” session with MJ i found that the usb port required more power so i added a powered hub. now it also works great. stop complaining about MJ. it works and only costs a fraction of what other voip and/or landlines cost. i tried Vonage but they kept raising their prices (taxes). then i signed up for Sunrocket and they stole my money and went out of business without any warning. i’ll keep my MJ as long as it continues to work as well as it does.
I just ordered a magicjack before I came across all this negative postings. I was especially concerned to hear the negative feed back due to the “beta” mac version on mj. It is good to here it works well with a mac since I will be using it on my intel mac. I look forward to using this device and if it only works for a few months then it will more then pay for it self.
The tech support via live chat is more than a lot of software companies provide. I usually do support through email so to talk to a person is far better. I pray I have not made a big mistake.
Its actually a pretty good product if you look at it. You get a US phone number and can talk unlimited for only $20. Its easier than carrying skype phone around, you just take the magic jack then you can use any standard phone at your destination.
I think I’m the only one in the world who likes magic jack
No I use it also and it’s great
I like it too! but i cant get caller ID to work on my mac (works on XP but not on mac?). SEVERAL hours on their support chat was very frustrating. Havent had time yet to try to press it to the next level of support. I even had the same “supervisor” purposely disconnect my chat twice because he didnt like my telling him that there is nothing wrong with my mac, its the software!
Overall- I think it is well worth the $, you just need to know what you are getting into and not expect much from their support people.
I talked with friends who love magicjack. They can use it on the road, in internet cafes, even foreign countries to make free calls.
Skypeout is .02 – .1 per minute, Lingo (my favorite) is 21 per month.
This product is brain dead simple and is a perfect compliment to the contemporary professional that relies only on cellphones, not landlines.
Me too! Works perfectly. I have a pretty clean four year old Dell that was the cheapest computer in the Dell line. I did buy a powered hub, based on comments I’ve heard on various BB’s
A_Guy– one factor in the success of things like this is the general trend of people taking no responsibility for their own stupidity. Buy cable and hand phones, don’t buy health or flood or fire insurance, then scream for help. At some point, instead of just going under for being a crummy idea to begin with.
Then the comment that guy left– he knows, without owning the product, that it’s a terrible idea. Why is he wasting another second on it? Why does he care about contacting anyone? Why does he want to know more if he already knows it’s more than Vonage?
There’s a lot of garbage you can spend your money on. This is an example of such garbage. It should be treated as such and left to fail on its own. That starts with people, that starts with not believing everything you hear.
My concern with these types of things are not their original advertising or even support. The problem that everyone needs to think about is how is this going to work long term? Will this company be around in a few years? Look at Sun Rocket a voip provider like Vonage just shut everyone down over night!
How can this company afford to let users have their own number and make calls anywhere for $20 a year? Even with voip, it still costs real money to terminate calls to regular old telephones.
Yeah, I saw a MagicJack advert on TV once and was hooked right away – made a very compelling, clear case. BTW, they do have a support (and I’d contacted them once and got a prompt response), see http://www.magicjack.com/1/customercare.asp. I wouldn’t be surprised if at least some of the negative comments are from riled competitors.
The product was the “IT” thing – in a technology sense – and (promised to fill) a popular need by consumers (by the easiest and cheapest route).
Then, with the marketing campaign – why would you even think that you would need support – with a product this simple!
= educated (more skeptical), future consumers (yes we can!) ;-)
nice post.
John Biggs,
Have you tried thier product before you wrote this review? I purchased MagicJack a year ago. Its a great backup phone which is not meant to be a primary number.
There is feedback problems and breaking up on the other caller’s end from time to time. When you have the caller call you back the service is better.
For $20.00 a year you expect Bell Telephone quality? Have you sold 2 million of anything?
earlwallace
I actually like the MagicJack too. I run it on the Mac. There are a couple of minor annoyances, but overall it works as advertised. Also, I save $30/month on my phone bill.
I should state that I have a very solid internet connection though and I use DD-WRT which is a good router firmware; I was able to configure it to keep things working smoothly….
How ironic. A blog on technology does not use technology to do research:). If you had used google to do your research for this article, you could have easily found that you do not need computer to be on all the time for magic jack to work. There are ways to make it work without a computer, just like any other VOIP product. Also while you are at it, why don’t you count cost of running your HSI modem and router 24X7 while calcualting costs. For a POTS line, you don’t need to run your HSI modem and router. This may provide you with apples to apples comparision of running POTS, other VOIP provider and magic jack.
Also don’t forget ooma. You pay around $200 once and you never pay nay costs again and it does not reqire computer to be running all the time.
Don’t jusr spout venom, provide alternatives to make tihs article useful.
“You pay around $200 once and you never pay nay costs again”
And pray they don’t go out of business. :/
I love my MagicJack… use it all the time and have never had a problem. It’s great for all long distance calling and for the many teleconference calls.
I don’t leave my computer on all the time, so I have a local house phone and cell phone for non-long distance calling. But for $20 a year! I can talk for hours and I can take it with me where-ever.
I actually bought one of these a few months ago. Its been working fine., specially for making Long distance calls from over seas. After all it’s $20/yr …. what more can you expect ?
Yeah dude, I TOTALLY so didn’t get your point.
I thought you were going to write an article about how this company crashed and burned. But there was none of that. There was just some stupid speculation on how not to run a company but no evidence this “strategy” has hurt the company in any way.
AFAIK, the company may be a raging success…. well maybe not… but your article doesn’t say either way.
Article = FAIL.
The article claims a huge number of angry customers unable to get SUPPORT. Presumably, they are not getting what they expected or what they were promised.
I first purchased it 2.5 years back, and since then, I have purchased total 4 of them, and recommended it to many. There are numerous magic jack purchased in my circle of friends.
We all use it for the overseas calling needs. I have 3 families overseas with whom I am talking twice a week for few hours. I delievered one to each place, and now I am not paying any more for my overseas calls. :)
Note that this are not 24*7 computers (they even use dialup broadband so not persistant connection as well.)
I for one is happy with it and definitely recommend it for scenario like mine.
For the money it’s not a horrible product if it actually had good sound quality and if you already run your computer 24/7 anyway, which unfortunately many people do. The quality though is horrible and worst than a cell phone on a windy noise. Worst than just the quality the calls drop at least once or twice in a half-hour conversation. The marketing team they have is amazing though as more and more of my relatives have called me over the last year to ask me if I can setup/fix their MagicJack for them. Stick with either Vonage or Skype for VOIP, because they are many cases cheaper while also having better quality and customer service.
I disagree with your post. I’ve had the jack for weeks now and it works perfectly. Yeah you may need to plug it out and back in every now and then, but who cares. My computer was always on anyway and I don’t mind having to recycle the jack to make a call. If you need a mission critical phone line, then this is not for you. But for the rest of us who just like having another option than their cell phones this thing is perfect. I only pay $19/year so I really don’t expect any support. Who offers support for $19? Is it any good?
You techno snubs need to give it a rest. If you don’t like the jack then move on. It doesn’t like you either! :-P
Same here,from time to time need to unplug and back again but like you said for $19 how much technical suport you expect.Local monopoly company charge me $42/mo(qwest)for local calls and give crap customer service beside charge you $ 0.75 if phone line you try is busy(in purpose to charge you) to keep trying for you and when I try with cheap magick J, I make the call with no problem.For the price and quality(squick sometime)but is better than big tief companies that is for sure.we need something like MJ to keep
big companies at bay.I have 2 and plan for 2-3 more for family.
i bought this about a month ago,and aside from the occasional spitter of quality on a call or two, it’s been working just fine, and yes, worth every penny. ’sides it allowed me one thing: i was able to tell vonage to shove their $31/month.
bought the product based on word of mouth – works great as a backup phone (my cell doesn’t work well in my house). I’ve taken tons of conference calls on it and have never had any complaints from the other folks on the line.
who doesn’t keep their cpu on all the time? the power consumption argument is garbage.
initially, had a few problems getting the phone to work through my firewall. online resources were sufficient to get it up and running fairly quickly. frankly, i prefer using online customer support as opposed to calling a number when I’ve got problems with my *phone service*!!
crunchgear, i think you goofed on this review. set it up in your home on a stable connection and see for yourself.
We have a magic jack for all our team leaders in our organization in India and it is awesome – they can connect it from home, work, wherever they are.
As you can see John, there are people using MJ for many different purposes and it is worth it. Your theory about CE model is correct and they have done their homework right. Its time you do yours.
FYI. I am not one of those non-technology guys who just bought it because of the ad. I am guy who has used it and then bought more of it, because of its use.
Regards,
Syed
For $20 a year, I would a decent but imperfect product with mediocre support, which is what this seems like.
what do you expect for twenty dollars?this product works great for me,noproblems.i make long distance calls all the time.if you can use a puter,you can use magic jack.come on its not that bad.if a person doesnt like it dont use it.isnt life like that?
So someone should sign up as an affiliate and start a info page and offer a help line… that or just sell a similar product with the claim: And We Have US based support
I love the product and am an avid user but I recently had to close a post I wrote on the subject after 167 comments
http://patphelan.net/magic-jack/
I was getting at least 10 phone calls a week regarding help and still get 2 or 3, I think they have sold this product into a very non technical market and this is impacting them
I commend the guys especially Dan on a fantastic product but I definitely think their customer service is practically non existent.
If a company is to launch a “high street” product they definitely will need “high street” customer support.
Dropped calls,Phone does not ring,no inbound calls.Is not good. Any help ?
Once again, always count on cynical asswipes like John Biggs with ZERO experience in CE industry to give feedback about a business in CE.
TechCrunch is out to lunch on this one – I’ve been happy MagicJack user for 1.5 years. If they are spamming that is a problem, but it doesn’t make their product any less great.
Maybe someone needs to give the author a demo.
I’ve been in IT for 20 years and am not easily sucked in by hype or “shiny things”.
I work from home and have a company issued cell phone for business, but can’t stand talking on a cell phone all day, even with a bluetooth headset.
I decided that for $40 it was worth the risk to try one of these things out.
Sure, there are a few bugs, but nothing that I’d consider a show stopper. I get caller ID on my Mac, but not on the phone I have connected to the magicjack. Not a problem since I’m sitting in front of the computer all day anyway.
Call quality has been good. At least as good as my cell phone was and I’m saving the company money on air time.
I keep my cell phone forwarded to my magicjack number unless I’m leaving the office, so I get the benefits of using a “real phone” without having customers get hold of my home phone number.
It’s been working so well since I got it that I’m considering dropping my home phone service and getting another one of these to replace my landline. It won’t be my only phone, granted. I still have my personal cell phone and if it’s a real emergency, friends and family can reach me that way or I can use it to call out if need be.
I’ve heard customer service is abysmal, but to tell the truth, I don’t care unless the thing breaks or something goes drastically wrong. I have fallback solutions for just about any crisis that could arise.
The scary part is after reading the comments, I’m almost inclined to buy one of these things.
As I said, if it works for you, it works well. If it doesn’t you’re SOL and considering the target audience – and it’s not TC readers – that’s a big problem.
?? I don’t understand why you say it has to be on 24/7. Ok, maybe 12/7 – If I am not home why does it need to be on? It has voicemail if you have it turned off, and you get an e-mail when you do get a voice mail. Great product (have one) great idea (the “idea” is not new it’s the way it is set up), this guy is gona make a mint.
This thing works like this, It is no more than any VoIP device you can buy except there is some smart thinking here. You plug it into the USB and the autorun program takes off installing the software from it’s own memory. Very clever.
why use this kind of devices when you could easily buy a phone or try something skype-related?
You learn the limitations of the MJ and then you use the hell out of it. I travel outside the US and have use it to call the US. My clients don’t even know I am out of the country..
i have been using mj for a while now even though i work at a free calling website poketalk.com and its really very impressive. i dont see the appeal so much for users in the usa with unlimited plans and such, but for an overseas substitute its unbeatable.
overall though johns right that with these gadgets support must be top notch but the execution is not always so easy when you need to balance continual marketing & sales which produce money and support which costs..
John
You should not believe everything you read.We have put together the most sophisticated tech chat I have encountered.I know how well we are doing,because our customers grade us every day from 1 to 5.One is the worst 5 is the best.When we started,we were getting one 1 to three 5s.Now we recieve one 1 to twenty 5s and getting better.These numbers cannot be manipulated and I am willing to show you in person.A newer thing we have done,is to be able to take over your desktop with an invite in chat and fix any issues very fast and effectivly.But the newest thing we did is very cool.We have three groups of agents now.The main group,the 15% group who grades better than the others and the 2% group being the supreme agents.What we started last week,is anybody who grades us a 1,will go right to the 15% group his next time in chat.If you were in chat more than twice in a day,you will go to the 15%.If you were in chat more than 3 times in a day you will go to the 2% group.As far as people posting positive things about us,I have no idea who they are other than fans of the magicjack.look at the reaction above.We have all sorts of bug fixes over the last 12 months with over 40 people working on this.Our Network is the Best,just as I believe our customer service now is.I have spent over $35 mil building these companies out,$14 mil of my own money which I have not gotten back so far.As far as a phone number to call is concerned,everybody who buys a magicjack online or thru the phone gets a phone number to call.I know people mean business when it comes to money,and we take over 300 calls a day,7 days a week.Chat is open 24/7 with a average of 4 second wait time.We handle 7,000 chats a day.How many does Skype have or how many calls do they take-oh,a big zero.I built a $2 Bil company previously,I know all the ingredients it takes to build a succesful business.The innovation we will continue to show will be remarkable.Lastly,most of the sales are viral in nature,that means there is hundreds of thousands of Happy customers who pass the good word.love you dude
Dan Borislow Inventor of the magicjack
I got a Magic Jack last February. It took 3 weeks before it would work reliably. Even then call forwarding did not work. However the voice mail did work and that was better than nothing.
Out bound calls worked just fine, equal quality with Vonage.
I can compare it with Vonage very easily since I had two Vonage lines for 3 years.
The reason I got the Magic Jack was to save money from what I was paying Vonage.
It took about 8 months but they finally fixed call forwarding.
I still have one Vonage line.
My Magic Jack has worked so well in the past few months I just renewed it.
However the customer support function is horrible.
Their staff would argue with me about how call forwarding should work. I think their customer support staff was in some third world country where the staff had never heard of or used any telephone before being hired.
Some claimed call forwarding was only supposed to work when the device was active in a computer. Others claimed it was only supposed to work when the device was not active.
To me call fowarding, when enabled should work all the time, no matter what.
One of the remaining problems is that I get lots of E-mails from people telling me they are calling my Magic Jack number and they get a “All circuits are busy now” message way to often.
Another problem which has not been solved is when using it with my laptop is this: When running on batteries, after five minutes on the phone my computer goes to sleep to save its battery. The computer does not know that it is busy with a phone call and when it goes into standby mode, the call drops.
Another problem is that calls drop if the computer gets too busy doing other things. The Magic Jack does not set its internal priority high enough. And if the computer is nearly idle, my Virus software starts up a back ground scan and that can cause calls to drop.
And since customer service is horrible I don’t think their management is yet aware of the problem.
All that aside, I have a phone which works most of the time for less than $2 per month in an area code where I used to live but no longer live so friends from their can call me with just a local call.
And I can call anywhere in the USA or Canada all I want.
With my Magic Jack number forwarded to my fax machine, even faxes go thru.
I have yet to try sending or receiving faxes directly but one of these days I will.
For right now I’m keeping both my Magic Jack and my Vonage number active.
you fat old bastard
Dan, while I am fully aware that the product works well for 99%, I can’t abide by whatever weird marketing method you guys have cooked up that auto fires whenever it picks up a mention of the word magicJack. Your support is bad – face it and fix it. I have no beef with your product and I’ve used it and would recommend it to a friend over a monthly Vonage account for example. But you’re failing on two fronts here and it’s embarrassing. See below, a note from “Tim L” for an example of your cretinous marketing practices. Are these your affiliate sales people?
Hi Dan,
I haven’t tried the product yet as last time I checked service was not available in Canada. Any idea of when that might happen?
Some history for TechCrunch readers: I actually have a patent for the “Serial Telephone Adapter” STA (assigned to Nokia) which I developed the firmware (Motorola 6805 assembler in something like 196 bytes of RAM – something like 2-4MHz clock – audio was perfect – better than PSTN – every single cycle and byte of RAM was consumed!) and Windows driver for it while working at VoIP pioneer Vienna Systems in 1995. Vienna was purchased by Nokia in 1999. I didn’t write the patent, otherwise the MJ (and similar products) would be in violation of it :) Like the MJ the STA allowed any standard phone to connect to a computer for VoIP calls using Vienna’s VoIP client, server, and gateways, but the STA managed full duplex uncompressed G.711 audio over a 115.2kbps RS232 link to 75MHz WIn95 PCs. Oh yeah, my protocol also supported commands, responses, and events for things like ringer control, switch hook, DTMF digits etc.
The best thing to do for the next version of the MJ is to specify more CPU horsepower to run the codec(s) on the MJ add an ethernet jack to the MJ and use the PC only as a UI…it will probably require a selling price more than $20 but in volume you should be able get the costs down anyways.
Good luck!
I’m still surprised people fall for scams like this. You get what you pay for. You buy a cheap product don’t be surprised (or angry) when it doesn’t work.
Any company that has to resort to spamming to up its sales clearly doesn’t have that great of a product to start off with.
Companies like this often prey on ignorance of the average user. However, as often happens, there comes a point where that ignorance of the average user is overshadowed by the sheer word-of-mouth comments regarding failure of said product.
I had a coworker give me one after not being able to get it to work and the chat tech corrupted his registry, of which I had to fix. I tinkered with it on an XP machine with a fresh install and only word, firefox, and foxit installed. I could not get it to work even once.
Dan
That in fairness is bull
Its a great product as I have said above and in person to you at Von but your customer service is non existent at best.
My Magicjack post still gets me phone calls for help and had I not closed the post it would still be getting comments.
Great product but to defend you customer service is weak to say the least
Dan,you need a (575) code.See previous post,maybe 10 back,mine
I just love majick jacks. Its the best things since Bill Gates invented the computer !!!!!!!! I like the fact that keeper my computer on all day helps keep my apartment warm and the whirl of the pc fan enhances the bass for my stereo system . . .
oh god, please marry me majick jacks!!!! I want to have your kids!!!!!
- from astro turn delight
I’ve had MJ for a couple months and have had no problems with it personally. What I did become aware of while setting it up is a bit of “common sense” is required. So, for all of you whose complaints are regarding your “problems”, I can only say this: This item is obviously not to be used by people who cannot operate a computer without the use of “Video Professor”. Or maybe he needs to make this his new DVD that he can sell to all of you.
Hey! How about this???
All you guys out there that have the Magic Jack and know how to install it, all chip in and design a website that shows the average user who purchases this product at 3:00 am how to use it.
Better yet! How about the makers of Magic Jack add to their website, step by step instructions that even my dog could understand!!!
Chat support sucks! Email Support Sucks!
Lets get to the bottom line here. You created a product that you want to make a lot of money off of, with the least amount of work involved.
You do not want to service your customers because it is to labor intensive and you are using your valuable time spending the money you have made and working on your next grand scheme that would require even less of your precious time to sell and support.
It’s the American dream. I give you kudos for your success but take them all away because your lazy.
How about you hire me to handle all your customer support issues and I will design a guide that even my dog can understand for only…..$10k
Think about it, no more chat, no more outsourcing and no more complaints.
There, problem solved!
Warmest regards,
“Stupid Is-Stupid Does”
I dont know about you, but I have friends (note:plural) who swear by this product.
It makes for spectacular savings from people calling the US from abroad.
You pay $20/yr and expect to talk with a human being for support? Get real
Over the last few months I’ve been closely following the blogs and growing media coverage on the magicJack, the coolest product to hit the marketplace in a very long time.
For those who do not know or do not have a full understanding of the magic behind the magicJack (and how its different from Skype and others…) my product overview is below.
magicJack is a USB phone jack that allows users to make FREE local and long distance phone calls anywhere in the US and Canada. Users can bring their magicJack anywhere in the World and make FREE calls to the US and Canada, as well.
It’s easy to use. After plugging the magicJack into the USB port of your computer, the software that resides in the magicJack self-loads, a brief & standard registration process follows (during which time you get to choose a telephone number for your magicJack from a large inventory of area codes/numbers in most every major metro area in the US)and when done you simply plug any standard corded, cordless or portable phone (headset or Bluetooth also works) into the magicJack, pick-up the phone and dial-tone has been delivered! You’re free to make FREE phone calls anywhere in the US and Canada! So, much different than other IP telephony options since it can be used with ANY regular phone and you get your own telephone number for LIFE!
WHO IS DOING THIS ASTROTURFING? Dan, while I am fully aware that the product works well for 99%, I can’t abide by whatever weird marketing method you guys have cooked up that auto fires whenever it picks up a mention of the word magicJack. Your support is bad – face it and fix it. I have no beef with your product and I’ve used it and would recommend it to a friend over a monthly Vonage account for example. But you’re failing on two fronts here and it’s ridiculous.
John – I assure you that is someone making a joke by copying from your story above and not anything magicJack is doing.
- Kari Hernandez, PR for magicJack
I have MagicJack and am embarrassed to admit it. I suppose for the $40 I spent on it (it’s more for the first year because you are also buying the dongle), it’s an okay deal, once you get past the junk it installs on your computer and the more feature-limited (and sound quality limited) feature set. I frankly rarely use it, but didn’t mind having it either.
But over the course of the last year, I’ve become embarrassed to admit owning the darn thing because of the absolutely bottom of the barrel marketing tactics being used by this company. It’s about a sleazy as one can get.
I peeled the label off the thing just to be able to show it in public.
Fake website counters, a site bereft of honest support and contact information, vaporware-style promises of number portability and local numbers, and incomplete warnings to consumers that the 30-day free trial will put a temporary hold on their checking/debit card or credit card account funds. These are the things that don’t inspire confidence.
But then it got worse when the infomercials started with wild promises and ecstatic reviews. Then the Magic Limits started when the company put 30, 60, and then 120 minute timers on outgoing phone calls without bothering to inform their customers. The call just disconnects when the timer runs out. Real nice.
Then there is the “F” rating the company earned from the Better Business Bureau, a rating so abysmal the company founder actually took the time to meet with the BBB and have it temporarily switched to “NR” (Not Rated) to give the company a month of two to clean up its act.
And what’s happened since has not exactly demonstrated the company is headed in the right direction.
Now we see blogger spam as mentioned here, which is routinely followed up by suspiciously positive reviews from people who’ve never bothered to comment on a blog about anything before, but Magically seem to move en masse from blog to blog to tout the benefits of Magic Jack and then disappear again. The same basic comments, the same dog and pony show, the same parade of positivity. When you see this kind of thing and then consider the overall marketing tactics of this company, is it out of the realm of possibility this company is paying people to post glowing reviews of its products? Of course not. Take a look at their website and that Magic Counter and marketing techniques and then tell me they wouldn’t stoop to such a thing.
I’m embarrassed to be a customer of a company that is now selling its products like some male enhancement or mortgage refi spam.
There is a way to market a product with honesty, integrity, and real word of mouth recommendations that allow it to virtually sell itself. And then there is Magic Jack, which seems to be willing to resort to ANY marketing tactic around, no matter how sleazy.
And it’s only a matter of time before the attention the company gets won’t be from customers, but from state Attorney’s General offices across America that will want to review whether the promises made are promises actually kept. And with that BBB rating, I’m afraid that warning bell has already sounded.
Dan’s comment is interesting. I think I fell through the cracks before they implemented that system of trying to escalate chat sessions.
I bought in for the one month trial. I tried on Mac and Windows. I tried on multiple computers on multiple networks ranging from 1.5mbit/384kbit to 512kbit/512kbit and 8mbps/384kbit services. The device I had always cut in and out on the receiver side of the call at the magic jack end. There was nothing I could do to resolve it.
I tried the chat, but wasn’t able to get a good answer, and wasn’t able to rate it. So I sent it back.
I was ready to buy not just for myself, but for relatives that aren’t as tech-aware as I am. But I couldn’t chance it when the return policy and warranty for the device itself is really not fantastic. If the device breaks, I have to buy a new one, with a new number? There’s value in being able to reassign the old number. And paying full price for a replacement device is also painful.
The purchase experience is also confusing. The risk-free trial offer only works if you refuse all the other come-on offers for increased service during the checkout process. On the whole, it was a waste of time and soured me on the product as a whole.
Its junk. The company won’t survive. I am connecting via Facebook so I can be verified as a real user leaving a real review… many of the reviews saying OMG MagicJack is amazing are left by people with MagicJack or MJ or something similar in the name. That of course leads me to personally believe they aren’t real people but rather drones for the company. If you want to back it up and love it so much I would suggest using a name and not a company moniker.
WTF? This MagicJack rocks! I love mine and guess what? I don’t know about customer service b/c I never had to contact them. Plug and Play baby! Sure, a few things could be better, like a browser based vmail like Youmail has, but I love it none the less. Everytime someone tries to call me on Skype, the quality sucks or I just get plain dropped. All the problems I have had with my MJ simply require a quick reboot and I am good to go. Note here, I suspect the problems are actually my laptop running crappy Vista!!! The founder is gonna retire rich!!
i just do not understand why they released a USB based majicjack instead either a magicATA(that would plug into ethernet and work seperate from the PC) or a wifi based majicPhone(standalone wifi VOIP phone). if either of these were released with the same $20.00 yearly fee for unlimited calls the response would be absolutely unbelievable; it would rapidly dominate the US VOIP market.
the pricing of this thing absolutely rocks and that is why i use one(and use it a lot) but i would much prefer to use a more suitable hardware based SIP phone or ATA.
i know that there are quite easy step by step guides to hacking out the SIP credentials on these things. but for the vast majority of people that is irrelevant.
MAGICJACK IS SCAM AND FRAUD!!!
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I was incorrectly impressed by the device until I stumbled upon the fine prints.
One fine day, the company disabled my connection (after 3 months of service). They have the worst customer service I have seen. I chatted on their website with multiple reps, and finally they told me the only way to get help is to call a particular phone number. And as expected, there is no one there to pick up. About a weeks of trying, I got hold of someone and he bluntly told me that I have excessively used it. I asked what it is supposed to be unlimited talk. He DENIED and referred me to clause 6 of TOS. I asked how do you define “execessive”, he did not answer. I have used couple hours a day for 3 months and they think it is EXCESSIVE. They are not ready to enable my connection, but now asking me to pay 1cent/min (!!!). This is insane and a BIG TRAP!
Here is the clause:
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6. Proper Use
…
If magicJack sees excessive use or systematic or intentional misuse, it reserves the right, in our sole discretion, to terminate your use of the magicJackTM device and/or Software immediately, and you will not be entitled to get a refund of any licensing fee or any other fee you may have paid to us.
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STAY AWAY from this TRAP!!! They seem like BIG SCAM to me!
TechCrunch did a perfect PR job for MajicJack.
63 comments and a few thousands of clicks to their website.
Can we have one free PR too?
Yea? I think negative PR is always the best!
After reading this post, I went out and bought 10 of them, bookmarked their site and made it my home page.
NOT!!!!!
John
Do you want to meet Tim L,because if you do,I have no idea who it is ,you will have to find out on your own.We sell thru thousands of resellers who Love the product and very passionate about it.It does not surprise me that we have many people spouting off the positive atributes of the magicJack.Just like it does not surprise me,that our competition does the opposite.I can remember the PC versus MAC wars.The good news,the innovator has the edge.As far as astroturf,please come see my house and soccer field,the grass(turf) is pretty amazing.I have been a turf fanatic for 35 years.It is a hobby of mine.I don’t do astroturf.Now,As far as admitting something,I will,we have the very best customer service in Telecom.You need to see this for yourself and before you do,try Vonage,Skype(I don’t have any idea how you deal with a Live person there) and your cell phone company first.Our product is one of a kind,it is new,extremely easy to use for most people and there is a learning curve for a very small minority of the users.This is to be expected with a device that nobody has any experience with,although its plug and play.I guarantee you,as we introduce things like femtocell,where people can use there cell phone through there magicjack,getting a great connection in there house finally and saving cell phone minutes-we will start to have a cult following.The magicJack will be very easy to use in this fashion and rely less and less on a PC/MAC for there drivers and other resources.The trick is not how great you can make your customer service ,the trick is how easy you make your product to use and design something that creates no customer service.That is our main focus.We have a new version of the software coming out within 7-10 days that is really awesome.You can register post plugging in the magicJack and there is no registration process upfront.This will make it much easier for the small minority of people who struggle with any computer related tasks.Then there are constant bug fixes and adjustments for the operating systems we are used on.I know you like our product and suggest readers to use it,rest assured you will be proud you do so.We are one year into this,well over 2 million sold and have made great strides.I always address any issue with my business head on and spare no expense to get it right.Spread the Love
Dan
This is a great article.
My blog is one of the ones that gave MagicJack an average-to-bad review. And I say upfront that a big part of my hesitancy about the product is the trust of the company and the lack of customer service.
http://tech.spotcoolstuff.com/internet-telephone/magicjack-skype-vonage
I wish to reccomend,but not yet ! my phone never rings,callers say. Tech.suggests powered USB hub. Say what !