More proof (see: the Perfect Pushup and the Snuggie.) that having a quirky, on-all-the-time commercial is a step in the right direction toward Big Success. MagicJack (commercial here) is selling something at the rate of 9,000 to 10,000 units per day, making its parent company, YMax Communications, some $100 million this year alone. But, in this age of Skype, who’s buying this thing?
Two points for you if you guessed “older people.” The company’s average customer age is 50, and and live in retirement-friendly places like California or Florida.
MagicJack, if you have no idea what I’m on about, is a device that plugs into your computer’s USB port that in turn lets you make and receive phone calls through your Internet connection. The reason why it’s so popular, I guess, is that you get the first year of service for free, and after that it’s only $20 per year. That low price is especially appealing to people on fixed income, or for people whose regular phone bills are too high.
One side note: you do need to keep your computer on all the time for something like the MagicJack to work, so all that savings you’re getting by freeing yourself from the phone company may go straight toward powering your computer.
MagicJack gives the best dialup service.
Hi Dan, will you send me your email adress, it´s regarding Delray Hot Shots.
Benny
I am the inventor of MagicJack.I just wanted to say,most people keep there computers on all the time anyway and certainly if they are in their house.They have hibernate and sleep modes that conserve power,but the real consumption of power is with the monitor,which you can shut off.Also,you can shut off the computer and call forward magicjack calls to your cell or business phone.We have voicemail for free too.I know you were just kidding about the power anyway,we all know the $900 you can save a year with magicJack is not anywhere near what it costs for power for your computer for the year.Lastly,most people are going to green computers and netbooks,which hardly consume any power at all with 3-4 watt Intel atoms. Dan
Hey, you’re making a killing on this product. Who are we to nit-pick. *much envy*
Great job – you nailed it.
Dan. I have been using your magicjack for 3 weeks now. Every call i make, the person im tlking to says they hear beeping, like someone pressing the key pad. An internet search of “magicjack beeping” shows MANY having same issue. I have spent hours with support and nothing fixes it. If you fix that stupid beeping noise you will have a great product.
Hey Dan – CONGRATULATIONS – great product.
I live in Australia where we are more or less under the thumb of one Telco – we pay the world’s highest phone and data prices!
This product would literally fly off the shelves here – whats the setup cost (I am assuming theres a reasonable sized server farm running this thing) – I would love to make it happen here – franchise perhaps? We’ve got VOIP and Skype but you’re product is so simple for the average consumer to get their head around. Great job. PS we only have a small population – 20million.
I’ll second that. I’m a South Aussie, and I’m just sick of Telstra (still!!) monopolising Australian telecomms. I pay $80 a month for crappy telstra cable internet with 25gb SHARED upload/download usage, and don’t even get me started on the phone bill. Dan the 2nd, bring MagicJack to Australia!
This has the potential to be a good product. My community is served by Frontier for landline service. I have been waiting for at least 2 weeks for MJ and Frontier to complete an agreement so local calls from Frontier can be completed to MJ. The MJ website says anyone can call your MJ number. That is FALSE and should be clarified. I spoke to a rep from Frontier who confirmed that this is a problem in all Frontier service areas.
I think Dan you should offer the sip info so we can use the Linksys phone device… I would pay the same price for the service…. I just would like to use the Linksys or any phone adapter… it just makes since then people would have a chose whether to use the USB or the phone Adapter by Linksys…. I myself do not live my computer on all day….Dan I tell you what give me the chose and I would pay Magic jack 20.00 more just for this service? Why….. so we could get phone support for the different phone adapters…. If it was posted on the website most people can put the info in… So that’s 39.95 up front plus 20.00 free first time just for the sip info…. Which means more money for you…. Then plus the number of years we stay with you…..just because we are happy…… yes that means we would have to buy a USB setup first time….. Fine with me…. Just give us a chose….
Thank You!
Phillip Cott
MagicJack and Ymax Communications Corp have the worst customer service of any company that I have ever done business with.
Also, note that they only have online support. Their support people don’t have good communication skills – probably an off-shore outfit.
Their only support option is online on their sales/support site. It will probably take you five to ten minutes to find the support line and get someone online.
I had an issue where the Magicjack (M.J.) would not work. They said they would send a new M.J. and not charge me. I did receive another M.J. It didn’t work either. Later I tested it with a different computer. It turned out that the computer I was originally using wasn’t fast enough to handle the M.J. – a P3 laptop with Win-XP, 512MB of RAM, and a 56MB wireless connection. For some reason Magicjack doesn’t list a minimum set of computer requirements. After I returned the additional M.J., I waited about three months to receive a refund. I started contacting them online. They would say that they would have someone in their accounting department email me as to when my credit would be processed. About five times and one month later and still no credit, I filed a dispute with my credit card company. They did get my refund for the additiona M.J. I did pay for the original M.J. and the one year of service.
Later in the year, my subscription expired. I never received a renewal-email prior to my expiration. We tried to renew online and there was as error. We contacted online support. They said they would email us in 24 hours with a response. We never received an email. Four attempts later – we asked for a manager or supervisor. We asked who the current president of the company was. They were not willing to discuss or comply with these requests. They said that they would be able to talk with us after we had filed our lawsuit. We said “what lawsuit”. Not sure where they came up with that information. Very poor customer support!
I did write a letter to the original founder of the Magicjack, about 4 weeks ago. I have not heard form them. My service is now turned off. Not a very friendly company to work with. I wonder how someone could trust this company with any of there personal information. They don’t want to be accountable to anyone. Everything they said about emailing or contacting us was never completed. Buyer beware!!!
I have also included some other issues that you should be aware of if you think the Magicjack phone system can be used to replace a more reliable land-line or reputable VOIP service provider, like Comcast, Vonage, or Lingo.
Cons: To have the phone available 24×7, you will need to have a computer setup that is on and running 24×7. The service is only available to ring in your house if your computer is turned on. I did have many issues with the Magicjack where it stopped working, (approx. two to five times per month). Usually the computer or some software (Magicjack software) would interfere with the M.J.’s operation. I think the computer would go into power saving mode and that would cause the M.J. to stop working; or, Windows or other software would have an update that would interfere with the M.J. service. I would say that the M.J. is not for a beginner computer user. There will be many issues that you will have to correct – with updating the computer to keeping the M.J. operating which will require advanced to intermediate level computer skills. The quality can be very bad at times with cutting in and out. You can also just have your call dropped without notice. Customer service is not responsive to issues. They say they will contact you with answers and they do not.
Pros: The price is very low. Having voice mails emailed to my email address was a nice feature.
Why are you surprised it’s selling? Skype’s cool and all, but it’s more complicated. People understand this. There’s a phone jack on it. You plug a regular phone into it. Done.
I’m getting increasingly annoyed with CrunchGear’s tone when they discuss things like this.
Realize that you all are part of a very small group of people that are constantly researching and learning what’s new and what’s better. Most of us don’t have the time, patience, or most importantly, the interest to spend a few days to research the best and newest option of everything technology related, probably because we don’t care that much about it. A cell phone’s just a f*cking cell phone after all, it’s not your life.
Me again. In reading my comment, I feel the need to clarify.
I read crunchgear to get interesting information regarding new gadgets. It’s getting increasingly hard, with John bashing the Pre and netbooks unapologetically, and with Nicholas bashing pretty much anyone not in the cutting!edge!!11! and grouping them together as “old people” (not just this post, there have been more than several). And everyone everywhere goes nuts every time someone in Cupertino has to poop.
Can we get some semblance of decent journalism here? I understand this is a blog and not the New York Times, and I’m not asking for black and white professionalism. I’m asking for some thought to some of these stories before they’re posted.
If you are a MILLISECOND older than me then you are old and you should get a lot more junk mail!
Ramses called and said his server is down again…hop to it!
I’m a fan of the magicjack even though I haven’t bought one, yet. The biggest advantage of the magicjack over skype is price. To get a dedicated phone number for skype was something like $8.00 a month last time I checked, and with magicjack it’s free. They also do free call forwarding and a lot of other features that would cost extra with Skype.
BTW
We started out on Direct Response,like Proctor and Gamble does and many multi Billion $ companies do.We are almost all Branding on our media now,like everybody else pointing our customers to go to Walmart,Best Buy,Radio Shack ,
Walgreens,CVS,Office Depot,Staples etc.People Love the magicJack now,after only starting selling it last year.Our Customer service is rated the best In Telecom now and we have done a massive amount of improvements in this time.We are coming out with a major upgrade in the next ten days,so people on Wireless cards can use the product even better.We have bought three major companies and spent over $50 million on the product and service.There are over 400 people dedicated to making things perfect now within the company.You will see how we are the most technology advanced company and intend to keep it hat way.We think the Apple model works and creates a lot of Love.My business heroes-Andrew Grove and Steve Jobs.If we can emulate these guys-wonderful. Dan
I own and run a Wireless ISP and I would love to recommend your product to my customers but I don’t agree with the usb device it is not practical! I know for a fact that most people do not leave there desktop on and running 24/7 every one is trying to save money and trying to go green. you cant do that running a 400watt desktop power supply 24/7! we all know that your running an system with asterisks SIP and that we could run the product on a SIP device so it will always be on and very low power usage. But then you couldn’t gather our information and generate adds to pop up on our computer if we don’t use that crappy device!
Dan get real and offer your service as a SIP Bring Your Own Device and you will have so many customers you wont know what to do with them!
Oh P.S. your tech support sucks! a phone company that doesn’t have a contact number??? that sound really fishy!
Apparently Inventors don’t see the need for a space bar, for some reason. Can CG explore this strange phenomenon?
On a side note Billy Mays died today!
i have a friend who uses the Magic Jack. SIP.
crazy stuff. he’s hacked them into working with the phone system and as a back end dialer.
I am a 32 year old techie who bought the MagicJack (and recommend it to others) simply because when you’re traveling through a bunch of different countries $20/year is the best deal available (over and above Skype). It’s more cost effective and even though you have to bring around an extra device (phone), it’s worth it.
I recommend it to travelers who want a fixed budget for phone calls to the States.
I like most people using this product have no use for the actual jack. We bought it for the SIP. And it works great on my iphone.
can you please tell me how mcoar@hotmail.com
Two things…
1) Not one person I know that bought it had it work for them. My Dad being one of them… and rather then argue with getting money back they just didnt waste their time and ate the cost… I think MagicJack counts on this…
2) I would like to know the stats of the people who leave their computer on before buying magic jack. Encouraging the older generation to leave their your computer on all the time just to receive calls is irresponsible and is what contributes to our energy crisis and not being “green”.
u must be crazy magic jack works great been using it for 6 months
You must not know many people is all I can say. I for one leave my computer on all the time. I don’t think you would know ‘green’ if it bit you it in the butt. I have had magicjack for about 3 months now and I am satisfied with it.
I have been using Magic Jack since they launched it the first time, I think I was one of the first few, when they used to have a public forum and there were only few people on that forum (later one they closed the forum for some odd reason ;) . It was very flaky at that time but later on they have improved alot. I have to travel alot and I am using it without any issues. I bought almost 11 of these to gift my friends and other people in my company who travels alot and they are using since then without any problem. I really love this product.
Dan is really a genius.
Jim your comment caught my attention, how are you using this product with iPhone. I would love to use it too, any information how to use it will be appreciated. Email me at hkit786 at yahoo.com.
Thanks
Am i the only one who finds both this post and all the responses annoying. The magic jack is a super duper little turd, which you plug into your usb port when they could just as easily make a gateway that plugs straight into your router. it’s just sip guys.. I’m sick of the fucking ads and half of these comments sound like pay to post ads.
I had one, returned it, continued using a second cell phone. Sure it’s cheap. You get what you pay for. Magic jack is crap.
I think you are the turd.
LOVE IT when a smart entrepreneur knows how to tap a market.
Don’t care about the product, but fuck man…you guys sure know how to make money off a saturated market.
Would it really kill ebay to invest some money and have an infomercial featuring Skype on TV? All those online advertising dollars mean zilch to retirement home residents
I have had the magic jack for almost a year now. It was fairly easy to setup and was up and running within the hour. Everytime I read sites like this I am always amazed by the people that say the magicjack is awesome, great, flawless, etc…. Let’s be real…. The beeping when your talking is unprofessional and maybe talking to your friends/family is fine, but anything other then that and it’s just that, unprofessional. (Talking to teacher, client, doctor’s office, dentist, etc….)
Then you add in all the sites like this where people are typing out legitimate complaints and support they have recieved. There are just a lot of people with a bad story.
A user that says this things sucks or this thing is great without anything else, cancels them out and I know there are alot of people out there that are idiots and have no idea what they are doing but at some point, the negative complaints become overwelming.
Even if that is the real guy that invented it, he obviously is successful but at the same time clueless that many people are having problems with his device. He is like a pitchman just talking about the good things and never mentioning the bad. He can not address the problems because maybe for every 10 he sells, 5 work without problems…. So he keeps making money and people keep buying it.
I also agree that for people that spend $20 on it and it turns out to them to be crap, they just move on… it is only $20. This guy counts on that…. Almost like when you buy somethign for $20 on TV, and they have a guarantee when you ship it back….. (you just pay to ship it back….) yeah right….
I use the magic jack and the price can’t be beat, but lets be real. The device has problems, they have problems with customer support, don’t expect when you have a problem they are going to be able to help, and remember if you do have a problem, you might just be spending hours online/phone trying to find a solution. Add up that cost and see if its worth it.
I don’t think it’s just because of the corny ad or that it’s just for old people. You’re comments seem to be completely devoid of any logic.
The fact is that this is a great product. It’s easy to use and the price is unbeatable. I can talk all day, and pay nothing extra. I’m in college and I use this.
I’ve heard too many complaints and too many “conspiracies” about the magic jack to even give it a try.
Instead of spending $20 on the jack, you can simply go to maynex.com and get a VOIP sim card for only $11 for your cell phone and receive the same benefit.
i am considering buying/installing a magic jack but i would like to know what the pc/broadband requirements are ; whether utilizing the pc or being online interferes with the telephone operation & whether sending/receiving faxes is possible without problems?
For those of you who did not find enough information about the VOIP SIM card on Maynex.com, the site was recently upgraded and more information is now available. Click on my name
Im a little slow but what do you mean by “I like most people using this product have no use for the actual jack. We bought it for the SIP.”??????
SIP????
I seriously want my magic jack to work however it does not work well at all. I have the “beeping” issue. It sounds to the other person as if I am pressing buttons when I am not. There is then a two second pause until they can hear what I am saying again… I am reasonably technical. I spent hours on instant message chat doing all the reinstalling, firewall permits, reformating etc… I tried it on two seperate PC’s. I was even was able to swap out one MJ for another at my local retailer. The problem still continues to this day.
I wish I could say good things about the MJ but I can not. If anyone has any “fixes” that are different than the “script” the instant message “techies” have I would be interested in hearing about it. I figure I will mess with it another month or so. If nothing is resolved I will have to find another solution as this is not acceptable as it stands. MR DAN CAN YOU PLEASE HELP AT ALL? I KNOW I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE HAVING THIS PROBLEM.
I foolishly bought a 5 year subscription before I tested the hardware. I can hear Red Foreman now…
Dan why won’t you address the beeping noise that the reciever of the calls hear. It is quite annoying and the want to hang up immediately. You must know about this with all the complaints, every fix has not worked. Worked fine for two yrs and since about June it beeps all the time. I would not suggest anyone buying this product until they get it fixed. Otherwise it’s a useless piece of crap.
Great its better than my cable phone. Haven’t lost any phones calls. Just remember you have to have high speed internet around $30 dollars a month. You have a great savings on the phone bill. Well worth it. :) :) :) happy happy.
The price is right, but I have had many people I have called ask what the beeping noise is – they ask if I am pressing buttons. I have had to repeat myself many different times because the beeping noise ‘beeps’ out what I am saying to them. They find it distracting and irritating. During our conversations they will say “there it is again”….
I am otherwise very happy with the product. The voice messaging, call forwarding, three-way calling – the $ savings still makes this product a winner.
Yep, I’m having the same beeping issue with almost every call. Almost every call I make with the MJ, the other person asks if I’m pressing buttons or something to make a beeping noise. I have not had a good clear conversation yet and I’ve had the MJ for about a month. I’m willing to try any fixes, but haven’t found any yet.
Hello,
I just recently bought the magic jack to use as my business’s phone line, it runs pretty smooth, but I have received a complaint about this random button pushing beep from the person on the other side of the phone.
I also seem to be receiving a bit of lag during phone calls, I’m hoping that upgrading my internet speed to 16 mbps will fix that though.
But I am definitely looking for any fixes for this beeping issue as it will become a large issue with talking to customers ona phone line where they cannot understand me or where they are lagging on my end.
I also am having the beeping issue. I thought it was b/c the battery was dying in cordless phone that I use; but, changing out the phones had no effect. I used this phone for business and it is embarrassing to be in the middle of a conference call that I am hosting and have this happen. I have searched online for a solution; but, all I come up w/ are similar complaints without a solution. Which is sad b/c I really want to continue using this but cannot if this issue cannot be resolved.
I think Dan and his friends should offer the sip info so we can use the Linksys phone device… I would pay the same price for the service…. I just would like to use the Linksys or any phone adapter… it just makes since then people would have a chose whether to use the USB or the phone Adapter by Linksys…. I myself do not live my computer on all day….Dan I tell you what give me the chose and I would pay Magic jack 20.00 more just for this service? Why….. so we could get phone support for the different phone adapters…. If it was posted on the website most people can put the info in… So that’s 39.95 up front plus 20.00 free first time just for the sip info…. Which means more money for you…. Then plus the number of years we stay with you…..just because we are happy…… yes that means we would have to buy a USB setup first time….. Fine with me…. Just give us a chose….
Thank You!
Phillip Cotton
The only issue I see with MagicJack is that you cannot forward your calls to an “800#” which would be great!!!!! Besides that, it’s a great gadget!!
Fixed beeping on magic jack (I hope for good)
Heres the scoop. Look on “my computer” and see that the MJ has two drives. One, when you right click it is (formatable) go ahead and reformat it. NOTE: you will loose all contact and telephone numbers. Then, I reloaded the MJ and went to MJ sight and got the latest code to (upgrade) to and the beeping has stopped now for a week…
- I did swap out the MJ hardware once – These things are so small and frankly dont look super well put together. I figured 1 in 100 at least is bad.
So, if you can swap yours out I think your level of success goes up.
- Now talking on it is tolerable -
Good luck
Magicjack is Magic
It took this 50+ person 5 minutes to set up while I was in the USA .. Now I am back in Australia and can talk to my friends and family whenever I like in the USA for $20 a year .. How cool is that!! I am impressed with the product and the service ..
I don’t leave it on all the time but when I check my emails and find a message I can call back .. Moving to an area with now cell towers but internet means I will still have a phone and contact with the outside world …
I could not be happier with this product and highly recommend it .. Magic jack rocks …
I am getting ready to head south from Canada for the winter and I am wondering if the complaint of beeping has been rectified. I plan on buying a Magic Jack while in the USA. Can anyone tell me if the problem has been fixed?