You`ve probably seen commercials on TV for Magicjack and wondered how a company could offer telephone service for as little as $19.95 a year. It`s because it`s not really telephone service in the traditional sense.
Like Vonage, Magicjack uses Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, riding piggyback on the Internet instead of relying on a telecom network. Magicjack customers are assigned a telephone number and receive a phone jack that plugs into the USB port of their computer.
Despite the price, which is well under $2 a month, there are a number of dissatisfied customers.
"I bought a Magicjack and it worked for a couple of weeks," Monica, of Chattanooga, Tenn., told ConsumerAffairs.com. "Then when I would go to use my phone, there would be no dial tone. I have chatted with them twice and the solutions they give me work for a day. The next day, no dial tone again."
Susan, of Marysville, Ohio, also reports quality problems.
"I purchased the product and received it, only to have people I called inform me that they couldn`t hear me, my voice kept breaking up, their phone didn`t ring when I called using the product and in the middle of several calls, the product just quit working, she said.
Giant pop-up
Still others complain that the price of using the inexpensive Magicjack is having a large pop-up ad for the company launch on your computer screen every time you make a call.
"Whenever I open my computer, anticipating the gorgeous picture I put on my desktop, I am assaulted with a big Magicjack ad immediately," Anna, of Tallahassee, Fla., told ConsumerAffairs.com. "Not one of my other many programs has the audacity to perform this extremely rude behavior. And it won`t go away! It is in the way of everything I do!"
Not everyone, of course, experiences these problems. James Limbach, a reporter for ConsumerAffairs.com, has been using a Magicjack as a secondary line for a couple of years now and is still fairly satisfied with it.
"It`s generally good," Limbach said. "Sometimes I have to redial, but it works the first time about 90 percent of the time."
Limbach also said he has never seen the Magicjack pop-up that others have reported. He purchased his unit in 2008.
He does note that it sometimes takes several attempts to launch the program. For that reason alone, he says, he might not use Magicjack if he had to pay much more than $19.95 a year.
In researching this story, we found that ConsumerAffairs` main telephone number is provided by Vonage and an official of the Web site said there has never been an issue with quality, reliability or billing. The site also uses Skype, primarily for overseas calls, as well as Google Voice, landlines from Verizon and cell phones from every major provider.
"Cell phones are amazingly expensive compared to every other form of telecommunications," said the consumer site`s president, Jim Hood. "They`re the bottled water of the communications business. VoIP is tap water."
Alternatives
Alternatives in the VoIP sector can be more expensive, and are not immune to unhappy customers. Vonage costs $25.99 a month for unlimited local and long distance calls. But consumers report issues with it too.
"The service never works properly," Paulette, of Detroit, told ConsumerAffairs.com. "I have spent many hours on the phone with them to try to resolve the issue."
Skype, based in Luxemburg, offers VoIP services, as well as video calls, and its basic cost is in line with Magicjack`s. But it, too, draws its fair share of consumer complaints, mostly for its business practices instead of its technical performance.
"Skype made five unauthorized transactions through Paypal directed ACH out of my bank, each costing $25 dollars," Junart, of Dallas, told ConsumerAffairs.com.
No matter which VoIP service you try, it might not be as reliable as the traditional telephone services most consumers grew up with and now take for granted.
It`s important to remember that the quality and reliability of VoIP service depends on your local Internet connection. If you have a slow or noisy DSL line, no VoIP service will work very well. VoIP usually won`t work at all with satellite Internet connections or dial-up Internet services.
Nor should you rely on VoIP for emergency 911 service. Vonage and some other VoIP providers say they provide 911 service but others, like Skype, say very clearly that they are not a substitute for a landline and should not be used for emergencies.
Consumers need to decide for themselves whether the low cost and added flexibility of VoIP is an acceptable trade-off for possible reliability issues. A wise choice would be to try to VoIP service for a month or two before getting rid of any other telephone service you might have.
