MagicJack/Sentiment/Cons

Like all consumer products, MagicJack has flaws. To various degrees this can be attributed to the old adage: "you get what you pay for." Nobody should expect perfection from a $1.67-per-month telephone service. Even among those who have complained about any of the following, a common refrain is "but, it's still a great deal."

Criticisms can be grouped generally into four categories: 1) missing features, 2) performance issues, 3) privacy concerns, and 4) business practices.

Missing Features

These issues are mostly a "wish list." However, some customers really wish for certain features. They may refer to the absence of a particular feature as a flaw.

• Three-way calling.
• CallerID blocking on outbound calls.
• Blocking of inbound calls (by number, or all anonymous calls).
• No international call forwarding
• No exit feature on the softphone (to gracefully unmount the USB device).
• No option to purchase and run the softphone by itself, without the USB device (dongle) thereby saving $20.00 plus shipping in the first year.
• No option to use a traditional ATA device.
• No choice of audio codecs (Uses only G711. G723 and G729 not available.).
• No refunds of unused time. (More important to someone who pre-purchases 5 years.).

Performance Issues

Customers tend to dismiss these issues as "you get what you pay for."

• Poor Customer support.
  • Hard to reach. Non-responsive.
• Poor Tech support.
  • Offshored.
  • Tech Support poorly trained; read from a script.
  • Reported to recommend solutions that can damage a customer's system (opening firewall ports, giving priority to all background processes, editing the registry, disabling anti-virus.).
  • No business address or phone number provided to customers. (Although, that information is available.)
• Availability, reliability.
  • Server down.
  • Calls don't go through.
  • Voice mail stops working.
• Quality complaints
  • Echo.
  • Static.
  • Beeps.
  • Distortion.
  • Cutouts.
  • Most phones do not ring when incoming calls are received. Tech support blame it on insufficient power in most computers USB ports and suggest a powered USB hub that does not solve this critical problem.
  • Volume is often too low, with no way to increase it (router connection mode).
• Poor programming
  • The softphone re-reads the Windows registry every 3 seconds. Opens the USB device writable every 3 seconds. This will inevitably corrupt your flash drive if the device is frequently not removed properly.
  • No exit feature. However, you can terminate Magicjack from the task Manager.

Privacy Concerns

Passions about privacy vary greatly. For example, some object to Google Mail's targeted advertising (by analyzing mail). Yet, it's a hugely popular email service. For some, such concerns may appear to be excessive or unfounded paranoia. For others, paranoia is just another word for "perceptive."

Similarly, this topic can be divisive among MagicJack users. The following is merely presented to acknowledge a viewpoint which has been expressed on user forums frequently enough that it can't be dismissed as "fringe."

• Tracking phone numbers called by users, for the purpose of selling targeted advertising (which has not yet materialized).
• Open-ended Terms of Service. Suggested by some to allow future malware activities and related to criticisms of poor programming, some of the behaviors of the softphone have been suggested to be malware-like.

Business Practices

These topics have created the worst feedback about MagicJack, and contentiousness among its users. They can be difficult to excuse as "you get what you pay for." Individually, any few of these might be viewed as innocent mistakes. But, the prevalance or seriousness of any (or all) have caused concern even among the most satisfied MagicJack customers.

• Charging credit cards before shipment.
• Overcharging.
• Charging credit cards after service had been clearly cancelled.
• Not disclosing to debit-card purchasers that funds will be reserved immediately, not 30 days later. (There have been reports of debit cards charged before the 30-day trial. But, it's not clear if these customers were merely confused about how pre-authorizations work with debit cards. Or, if charges are for additional items purchased, such as the additional 4 years, or expedited handling.).
• Not processing refunds in a timely manner.
• Removing money from pre-paid international minutes, without explanation
• Not disclosing that the "30-day free trial" begins at time of purchase, not time of receipt.
• Infomercial tactics.
  • • The web page's design,
    • "As Seen On TV" hyperbole, proclaiming "30-day trial ends today," every day. (See http://www.magicjack.com.).
    • Random number generator depicted as "the number of people who came for a free trial."
    • "Come on" tactics during the order process. Such as, offering "expedited handling" when those who didn't purchase it received their orders in the same amount of time.
    • Infomercial promises to pay return shipping, but magicjack does not honor their own promotion.
    • Infomercial claims that magicjack does not install anything on your computer, this is also not true.
    • Infomercial AND Website false claim that Magic-jack Plus requires no computer, when in fact it does.
    • Infomercial-like overstatements designed to lead customers to believe the service is unlimited when the Terms of Service provide for termination based upon "excessive use," and when terminations have occurred.

• Terminating users for "excessive use", without defining what constitutes it, without warning, and without notice. Not even informing the support group of this sudden action (causing the support group to spread misinformation to customers for 2-3 days). (Late Oct. 2008).

• • Based upon no further reports of terminations, this activity appeared to stop as abruptly as it started.
  • Although "excessive use" wasn't defined, there were some educated guesses based upon the estimates of affected users. Also the report of a telemarketer making 200 calls per day.

• Selling five years of service, but only extending licenses by four. (Thanksgiving weekend, Nov. 28, 2008). A few days later licenses were extended by one year. It is worth noting that this occurred at the same time representatives of MagicJack met with the Better Business Bureau, promising to improve their business practices, resulting in the BBB temporarily reducing their "F" rating to "NR." As of March 2009, the BBB website now gives the company an "A-" and states that it is fully in compliance with BBB standards.

• Implementing 30-minute call caps, without warning, and without notice. Not even informing the support group of this policy (causing the support group to spread misinformation to customers for 2-3 days). (Late Dec. 2008.). Extended to 60-minute. Extended again to 120 minutes. Is currently at 90 mins (April 1st, 2013). Reported to be an "experiment" by the inventor.
• Selling 5-year plans with a stated warranty, but not honoring it. One user reports being assured by Richard (MagicJack Support Manager) that they will honor the warranty of the USB device, and transfer unused time to a new USB device. It hasn't been confirmed whether chat support is aware of this policy.
• Not providing number portability even though the FCC requires VOIP providers to honor requests from customers, particularly for porting out a number.
• Blocking access to conference calls to numbers by FreeConferenceCall.com, for both attending and scheduling meetings, and requiring customers to host any conference calls through their own FreeMagicConference.com service.
• Silences critics through legal action. MagicJack sued Boing Boing for discussing negative behaviors similar to those presented on this page. The DSLR article contains a link to the actual court documents. (MagicJack lost and was ordered to pay $50,000.).

These types of things have resulted in disappointment among (and contention between) many MagicJack customers. But, they usually suffix their complaints with "but, it's still a great bargain."

It has also led to negative feedback to consumer reporting/protection agencies:

• BBB Summary
• BBB Details
• ripoffreport.com search for "magic jack"
• ripoffreport.com search for "magicjack"

It has been pointed out that these consumer organizations have a conflict of interest (to publish negative feedback in order to encourage the accused to join their respective organization for "assistance" cleaning up their reputation). This could explain these complaints to some extent. But, those organizations aren't making up the complaints.

Notes