The magicJack claims to be an easy to use alternative to the customary telephone services. Basically, you are supposed to be able to plug your regular telephone into the magicJack, then you plug the magicJack into a USB port on your computer. Then all you have to do is pick up your phone and make a call. Sounds pretty simple, but how well does it work?

Although the magicJack is not the first of its type to be placed on the market, it seems the magicJack still has more bugs to work out than some of the other VoiP services available. According to quite a few consumers the magicJack just isn’t all it has been hyped up to be.

Among the multiple complaints about the magicJack, one really concerns me. Through investigating the magicJack, many reviews and testimonials were read, nut one really causes red flags to go up for me. The complaint is about the service and how it works. What the magicJack company fails to tell the consumer except in the fine print, is the computer needs to be turned on in order for the magicJack to work. So, if your computer goes into suspend mode or hibernation you lose the telephone service as well.

That might not seem too important to you, but consider the possibility you have an emergency in the middle of the night and no one is on the computer. In order for you to make a call for help you need to start your computer. As if that is not disturbing enough, if you call 911 with the magicJack service you are actually calling a computer. In the event of an emergency, you will have to give them your telephone number, address and name before the computer will redirect the call to your local police department. This is very disturbing. These added minutes of talking to a computer can literally be the minutes between life and death.

Also, on the official magicJack website it states in the FAQ section that there is the possibility that a user of magicJack will be unable to contact the local authorities through 911. Although this is in their disclosure, it should be clearly printed on at least the first page of the website. Information like this should not be hidden in the fine print. In all seriousness, this might be legal but it is not moral. Being openly deceitful does not prove to me that this product is all it is cracked up to be.

The next troubling thing that was uncovered while writing this article is about the customer support. With a company like magicJack, you would assume there is a live representative you can speak with on the phone. Especially since the magicJack is a phone service. However, you will not be able to find a live person to talk to if you are having issues with your magicJack. Instead, you are required to go on their website and wait for someone to chat with you online. In my opinion this isn’t very good customer service.