MagicJack: You Get What You Pay For

Some of us unemployed folks who can't afford a land line (and have bad cell service because all those red-shirted guys in the Verizon network can't seem to find the elevator to my floor), have been forced to try a VOIP system called MagicJack. It's dirt cheap. You pay about $40 for the USB device that plugs into your computer, then about $20/year for unlimited local and long distance calls.

My 30-day trial period is up today, and I've decided to keep the MagicJack, despite its flaws. This is fair warning to anyone out there who wants to try this product. It's a true fact that you will get what you pay for.

The MagicJack works OK for the most part. But there are issues. One issue is that the phone will stop dialing out occasionally. Stopping and restarting the software will generally fix that. Or I just reboot my PC.

Another issue is that you'll hear occasional beeps on the line, as if your cat was walking on the telephone pad, pressing the dial buttons. These can be annoying. Sometimes you hear them on your end, and sometimes your call recipient only hears them on his or her end of the line.

I've seen other complaints about this problem on online complaint boards; therefore, it's what we in the software industry call a "known problem." For every known problem, there should be a fix.

Not with MagicJack. They don't have a clue. Worse, the only way to obtain technical support is via online chat. If you can find the correct link to click on at the MagicJack web site to access the chat support folks, then you're 90% of the way there. After that, it's all downhill.

The support person, who is no doubt sitting in Bangalore (based on the lack of command of the English language) will never offer you a cause for the problem, much less a resolution. The toubleshooting steps consist strictly of trial-and-error, with the tech support person offering such sage advice as, "disable your firewall." Right. "How will that help the occasional audio beeps on my phone?" I asked. "Um, never mind. Don't do that. Let's reboot your router instead."

Unplug your MagicJack. Plug it back in.

Edit the registry. Change permissions on several USB-related folders to Full Control and then delete several registry keys. (My god!!)

If you aren't using the [absolutely unnecessary] USB extension cord, plug it into a USB port and plug your MagicJack to the extension cable. It will magically 'help add power' to your MagicJack. (I beg to differ.) Go to Disk Management and right-click. . .

And that's where I hung up. I know that the phone beeps have got to be a bug in the software. Everything points to that.

Nonetheless, it's a minor inconvenience and I will hang on to my MagicJack for now since it's saving me the 50 bucks a month plus taxes that Verizon wants for a land line, which I think is highway robbery.

To give you an idea of the quality of support you'll get, here is a snippet from my most recent online chat, about 35 minutes into it, which was "escalated" to Rosey. (Note that, at this point in the ridiculous conversation I was just a tad frustrated with the poor quality of support and on the verge of losing my sense of humor. . . . )

Rosey: You are only saying that you are a one
Rosey: If you don't want me to help you fix it, then fine!
susan: I am a "one"?
susan: I want to speak to someone who can help.
susan: Please
Rosey: I am trying to help you, so don't be rude
Rosey: I am trying to be nice.
Rosey: Don't try mew that I will not treat you nice
Rosey: And i am not that..
susan: Oh my god.
susan: Let me speak to your manager please
Rosey: I respect every people and my custoer
Rosey: *customer
susan: Thank you. Please escalate this issue to a manager.
susan: Is Therese available?
Rosey: They are on a meeting right now and I am the one who assigned to assist customers.
Rosey: Therese is not available right now, she is handling other chats.
susan: Well, I still don't have a fix for my ongoing problem. I just made a call and heard the beeping. What next?
susan: Can you just look in your knowledge base and tell me what the known fix is for this, if there is one?
Rosey: Are you using the extension cord now?
susan: yes
Rosey: Okay..
susan: what is the correct fix? if you don't know, then please say so. trial and error is not going to fix a bug in the product. can you please email your developers and ask them what they are doing to fix this?
Rosey: Please go into Task Manager (press alt-ctrl-delete on your keyboard one at a time together to get to it), look for the magicjack.exe process, right click on it, and set the priority to High.
susan: already did that, two days ago.
Rosey: Please do it again
susan: It's still set to high.
Rosey: Okay..
susan: ?
Rosey: Please unplug your magicJack. Now go to "Start" in Windows and click on "run". In there write regedit and press enter.
susan: you want me to edit my registry?????