After hearing all sorts of good things from some friends, I spent $40 for a Magic Jack phone jack since I needed another line. I'm going to have to give it a mixed review. I hope maybe someone else has one and can add more.
First off, installation is simple. Plug it in and follow the prompts. Well, that is until the prompts stump you. For example, according to Magic Jack, the 812 area code doesn't exist. Unfortunately, that represents a full 1/3 of the state of Indiana. After spending a full hour of wasted time on 'chat' with a live tech (who clearly didn't speak English as his first language), I had to just disconnect from him. His best suggestion was for me to choose an area code from a place like Montana "or something like that" because they had a lot of numbers available. Unfortunately, I don't live in Montana. And, as opposed to his adamant statements, people still do place your location based on your area code.
His best 'other' solution was that they were "working" on getting some numbers in the 812 area code. I'm sorry, but all I could think of was "dipshit!". After doing a bit more research, I found that there are dozens of area codes that are not available with Magic Jack. I suppose if you want to act like you are from somewhere else, that's great. If you have local relatives who want to call you on that line, they better have a nationwide cell plan or be prepared to pay long distance charges to call you even if you are next door. You get free local and long distance with your Magic Jack phone line, so they don't see it as a problem. Again, I see a failure to think this thing through on their part. Basically, it seems rushed to market to recoup some R&D and then, after some money comes in, they hopefully will address the problems.
On the positive side, I played around with it enough to get a Kentucky based phone number to use in my office (that's really gonna confuse people) and it seems to work rather well at both making and receiving calls. I've not had an opportunity to make any long calls yet. I'm wondering how they will be. I've read where they are frequently dropped. I hope not and, as I said, I've not experienced that yet. With the option to get 5 years of unlimited local and long distance phone service for $69 bucks or so, I'm tempted to use it for my fax line and possibly get another for my office line to avoid long distance expenses. I just need to have a local area code, which they say they are working on. I have my doubts. Hopefully I'm wrong.
I did call my local Sears, Lowes, Target and Wal-Mart stores and none of them were aware that our area code was not available and seemed terrified at the prospect of long lines of irate people since they just started selling the devices. Each place said that, once they verified that fact, they were going to have a large disclosure sign made to place over the display of the devices. They all said they'd rather lose sales than have the huge headache of people all pissed off returning them. Anyone else have any experience?
First off, installation is simple. Plug it in and follow the prompts. Well, that is until the prompts stump you. For example, according to Magic Jack, the 812 area code doesn't exist. Unfortunately, that represents a full 1/3 of the state of Indiana. After spending a full hour of wasted time on 'chat' with a live tech (who clearly didn't speak English as his first language), I had to just disconnect from him. His best suggestion was for me to choose an area code from a place like Montana "or something like that" because they had a lot of numbers available. Unfortunately, I don't live in Montana. And, as opposed to his adamant statements, people still do place your location based on your area code.
His best 'other' solution was that they were "working" on getting some numbers in the 812 area code. I'm sorry, but all I could think of was "dipshit!". After doing a bit more research, I found that there are dozens of area codes that are not available with Magic Jack. I suppose if you want to act like you are from somewhere else, that's great. If you have local relatives who want to call you on that line, they better have a nationwide cell plan or be prepared to pay long distance charges to call you even if you are next door. You get free local and long distance with your Magic Jack phone line, so they don't see it as a problem. Again, I see a failure to think this thing through on their part. Basically, it seems rushed to market to recoup some R&D and then, after some money comes in, they hopefully will address the problems.
On the positive side, I played around with it enough to get a Kentucky based phone number to use in my office (that's really gonna confuse people) and it seems to work rather well at both making and receiving calls. I've not had an opportunity to make any long calls yet. I'm wondering how they will be. I've read where they are frequently dropped. I hope not and, as I said, I've not experienced that yet. With the option to get 5 years of unlimited local and long distance phone service for $69 bucks or so, I'm tempted to use it for my fax line and possibly get another for my office line to avoid long distance expenses. I just need to have a local area code, which they say they are working on. I have my doubts. Hopefully I'm wrong.
I did call my local Sears, Lowes, Target and Wal-Mart stores and none of them were aware that our area code was not available and seemed terrified at the prospect of long lines of irate people since they just started selling the devices. Each place said that, once they verified that fact, they were going to have a large disclosure sign made to place over the display of the devices. They all said they'd rather lose sales than have the huge headache of people all pissed off returning them. Anyone else have any experience?