Common Magic Jack Complaints

Over the last four years there has been a verity of Magic Ja ck complaints. We will take a look at some of the more common complaints and see if they are valid or maybe some of the problems are self inflicted.

 Today people have more choices in home phone services than ever before and Magic Jack internet phone has a great appeal due to a very low startup cost and yearly phone service renewals of under $20.00 a year. This also makes people a bit skeptical and ready to yell scam when it isn’t working for them.

The truth be told, there have been a number of Magic Jack complaints by customers that have had real problems getting or keeping this VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) device working; but in comparison to the number of people who have had good luck with it, this number is very small.                  

Don’t get me wrong I know that these people are having real problems; but it is not always the fault of the Magic Jack. Most discontent customers are ready to put all the blame on this inexpensive but simple VoIP device when there may be other forces at work.

The one thing I do know, Magic Jack complaints are not as abundant as it may seem. It’s just that someone that is upset about something or has had a bad experience about something is many more times likely to write down their displeasures in a blog or forum then someone who has had a good experience.

Here is a statistic that may shed some light on this. When Magic Jack had an F rating with the Florida BBB at the end of 2009 (after more than 2 years of operation) it was from a total of just over 2700 Magic Jack complaints. There were millions of these VoIP units sold in that time. There were around 250,000 being sold a day and that number has doubled since, so 2700 complains is just a drop in the bucket compaired to the massive amounts of units sold.

The rating now for MagicJack is an A- now, so you can see that in most cases the Magic Jack complaints are real but by a small percent of the people who want a cheap VoIP for their home phone service.

 
Now for The Magic Jack Complaints That are Most common

1. The Magic Jack free trial – The purchase price taken from the customer’s account before the 30 day free trial was up. People assumed that no money would be exchanged until after the 30 day period. This is not as much of an issue now then a couple of years ago but a lot of people were very upset when the cost was taken from their accounts soon after purchase.

The Magic Jack free trial misunderstanding is also what made up the majority of the Magic Jack complaints that gave Dan Borislow’s MagicJack an F rating with the Florida BBB in the beginning.

What was happening was that it is customary for banks to place a hold on the purchase amount soon after, if not right after the transaction was completed. The money was no longer available but not gone. This hold would last until the Magic Jack free trial was complete where either it would be placed back into the customer’s account upon a return of the magicjack on or before the thirtieth day from from the day of purchase – NOT FROM THE DAY IT ARRIVES.

When a merchant begins to process your credit card account for a purchase the funds are instantly placed on hold in their name to make certain the funds are available - this is called an authorization or pending hold. If a hold being placed on the purchase price would be an issue for you, you could call your bank and find out about their policies on this.

2. The MagicJack billing – This is separate from the Magic Jack complaints of being billed before the free trail is up being billed twice for one purchase.

I’m not too sure what’s going on here but occasionally customers have be over billed or double billed. The majority of the Magic Jack complaints seem to come from customers who have ordered over the phone and a few online. Most of the complaints that I see are old ones 2 years ago or more. So this is not something that is constantly happening.

Auto Renewal is another MagicJack billing complaint that has cropped up every so often within complaint blogs and forums. This is something a new customer needs to be aware of because you can deselect this option when setting up your account. Auto renewal is the default setting and you have to deselect it. If you are not sure if auto renewal is selected you can go into your MagicJack account and check.

What happens is that when the first year of service is up and the box for auto renewal is checked and the credit or bank card is still valid then you will be renewed for an additional year automatically and you cannot in most cases get your money back.

This is not a problem but a convenience for people who want a new year of service without any interruptions of service. Where it becomes a problem and where the Magic Jack complaints stem from; is some people who tried it for a couple of months and decided not use it, figuring that they just wouldn’t renew when the first year was up found a fresh charge to their accounts for another full year of service.

Another billing issue that has made the Magic Jack complaints list is being billed for a multiple year deal when only a single year deal was wanted. I believe that this billing charge can be reversed if it is obvious that it was a mistake.

3. MagicJack long distance ( Excessive calling) -  For most people this is never an issue but there have been people who have lost their MagicJack accounts due to excessive calling. What makes this one of the Magic Jack complaints to make this list is that MagicJack offers unlimited local and long distance calling – so how can there be excessive calling?

When Magic Jack offers unlimited free VoIP calls they mean within a normal usage of a home phone service. What they consider to be excessive is if you are calling 20% more than the average customer. This is stated in the TOS (Terms of Service) agreement section 6. You can go over the 20% limit either by too many calls or long lasting calls.

The complaint here is how can something that is supposed to be unlimited have limits. This is a good question, and should at least read - unlimited within reason or maybe unlimited as not to exceed customer average, something like that. At least it gives the customer a heads up.

           CBS News Report - Company Behind Magic Jack