Magic Jack?

[starry_solo]

I received one referral about Magic Jack (colleague) and am wondering whether anyone around here has used it and kept it.

Reviews? Thoughts?

 

[Disneyliscious]

I have never used one myself but a friend moved to Scotland for a while and he got one. He loved it. He would call me and you couldn't tell he wasn't on a land line phone. No static, no dropped calls, I heard him very clear. It was great! He swears by it!

 

[sk!mom]

I haven't but my sister's DH works in Kuwait and he has one and uses it to call the States. She says that it's the best thing ever.

 

[princesspaige]

I have it instead of a traditional land line. No problems other than if you turn off your computer your phone won't work so you just need to remember that.

 

[ccstrickler]

How do they assign telephone numbers for your area? TIA

 

[nicj8506]

We have it and love it! You do have to remember to keep your computer on and if the power goes out than so does your phone. Our phone number is weird compared to everyone else around here, most people are a 882,862, our is a 614 number so people always think we are giving them a fake number. I like that you can check your voice mail on the computer. If you are on the computer when someone calls you can actually pick up from your computer and talk through that if you have a microphone hooked up. So that is nice as well. Haven't had any problems with it. Oh I also just remembered you have to dial the area code when calling, even local numbers.

 

[akenneson]

We had one but no longer use it. We only use laptop computers so when it was attached to the USB it stuck out the side of the computer and it broke the Magic Jack piece. We also had problems with static and echoing.

 

[DawnM]

We went with ooma instead. LOVE it!

 

[mariacj]

Internet Speed will affect your calls. If you just have basic internet, you may need to get the next fastest tier.

I use it for managing my apartment. I can forward calls to my cell when my laptop is off. Voicemail, and the site are very easy to use.

I like it, but I need faster internet to get better use.

 

[sookie]

Explain to me more about ooma? What's the difference! Heard good things on the Clark Howard podcast

 

[mrudman]

We also went with Ooma... not too sure how Magic Jack works, but we LOVE our Ooma! Chose to keep our previous phone number, and has lots of options we've never had before for a fraction of the price (second phone line (great for dd's, lol), caller ID, e-mail notification, free nationwide calling, blacklisting #'s, etc). And just got back from a week-long vacation yesterday.. was able to forward our home calls to our cell, so didn't miss any calls.

 

[DawnM]

You must have Premier.

They often offer a deal for Premier if you purchase a full year at a time. Premier also allows you to add 1000 min. to your internet based cell phone service or ipod touch wifi.

We only have basic service. One phone line with unlimited long distance, call waiting, caller ID, voicemail and online service to check call logs and messages.

We do not have call forwarding or a 2nd line or call block.

However, we also only pay $11 per YEAR for service (taxes.)

I don't know much about Magic Jack other than what my friends have told me. They aren't long lasting, your computer must be on all the time to receive calls, and calls are sometimes dropped/scratchy.

Dawn

We also went with Ooma... not too sure how Magic Jack works, but we LOVE our Ooma! Chose to keep our previous phone number, and has lots of options we've never had before for a fraction of the price (second phone line (great for dd's, lol), caller ID, e-mail notification, free nationwide calling, blacklisting #'s, etc). And just got back from a week-long vacation yesterday.. was able to forward our home calls to our cell, so didn't miss any calls.

 

[mrsbornkuntry]

I use vonage. It's about $17 a month with tax (I have the basic service with 300 outgoing minutes, we don't use our home phone much). They have a more expensive service for $26 before taxes, too. I don't have to have the computer on to use it, but the modem has to work so if we lose power calls are forwarded to my cell. I've always been happy with it.

 

[DawnM]

We had Vonage before Ooma. We paid $33/mo including taxes. I do use our phone often.

When I heard about Ooma I figured that even if it only lasted 6 months it was breaking even with Vonage.

Ooma costs $199 (from Costco) for the hub (box) and then if you have the basic plan there is only a tax per year (for us $11 per year). You can pay the Premier membership of $11/mo or sometimes they have specials for $69/year for the service. There are some nice features, but not worth it to us as we dont' need them. Basic includes call waiting, caller ID, and voicemail. Plus you can check your voicemail online. The premier includes the call forwarding feature.

The call forwarding you mentioned in a Premier feature, but if people can leave a message I am good.

So, Vonage was $396/year for us with taxes and Ooma is $11/year for almost the same services.

For us, it was well worth the switch. We have had it for 2 years now.

Dawn

I use vonage. It's about $17 a month with tax (I have the basic service with 300 outgoing minutes, we don't use our home phone much). They have a more expensive service for $26 before taxes, too. I don't have to have the computer on to use it, but the modem has to work so if we lose power calls are forwarded to my cell. I've always been happy with it.

 

[GinnyEmma]

We like out magic jack.

 

[DumboPrincess]

My friend and her family have Magic Jack because they moved to Denmark. It allowed them to keep the same area code as us, so calls to her (and her to us) are local.