Syracuse, New York (WSYR-TV) - Their commercials have been airing non-stop for the past few months, and we’ve been getting a lot of phone calls and emails asking for the Real Deal on the “Magic Jack.” The company claims all you have to do is plug their device into your computer, and you can make all the long distance calls you’d like for $20 a year. Is it worth it?
Their commercials say the Magic Jack will make your monthly phone bill magically disappear. Once you have the jack, you plug your phone line in one end, and then plug the other end into your PC. Then the company says you can call anywhere in the US or Canada for free.
Well, not exactly. The jack itself costs $40, and includes the first year of service. After that, there’s a $20 annual fee. You also need a broadband Internet connection.
Once you’re hooked up, you’ll be assigned a new telephone number. You can’t use your current number.
And if you want to make calls outside the US or Canada, you have to purchase international minutes from the company.
Their alleged “free trial” has the company in some hot water with the Better Business Bureau: Magic Jack has an F rating with the BBB with more than 750 complaints. Customers say funds were withdrawn from their account before the end of that trial, and they had trouble getting in touch with the company to get a refund.
Bottom line, Magic Jack may save you some cash, but you’d better know the Real Deal before you sign up.
There’s a similar service called Skype that you may have heard about. Oprah uses it a lot on her show. With Skype you don’t have to buy an actual jack, you just download a program onto your PC. If you call someone with the program, it’s free. If you call a landline or cell phone in the US, it’s $.02 a minute.
Statement from MagicJack on 11/19:
"MagicJack is working with the BBB to rectify the F rating. The company has sold over 1M devices to date and only a small number of these have placed any sort of complaint to the organization - many of which have been remedied and closed out by magicJack. The claims regarding getting billed before the expiration of the 30 day free trial are due to customers that use debit cards to order their magicJack. Financial institutions will put a hold on the $39.95 purchase price during the 30 day trial period but magicJack does not receive funds until day 31. The ‘debit card’ payment structure is clearly stipulated on the magicJack website."
As for the customer support issues a spokeswoman says "Customers can troubleshoot any problems with online support at magicJack.com. Online support is the fastest way to handle questions and concerns as Internet access is essential before any customer support can be performed (after all, Internet access is necessary for the magicJack to function). magicJack’s Tech Chat is supported by hundreds of people and the average wait time is seconds. The company has grown drastically since its launch and is striving to scale its customer support to meet customer service expectations. Therefore, magicJack allows customers to rate agents on a 1-5 scale (5 being the best) those that do not receive the highest grades possible are replaced. At the end of the month, the bottom 15% of agents are dismissed. With measures such as this in place, the company has seen its overall customer service ratings dramatically improve since launching in January of this year."
