magicJack

magicJack is a point of contention for many users who’ve decided to give the low-cost telephony service a shot since its launch in late 2007. While many of have hailed it as a great, low-cost telephone service (including us in our magicJack review), others have voiced numerous complaints.

All you have to do is check out the comments section of our What’s New With magicJack and magicJack Inventor Q & A posts to witness some of the opinions being shared on both sides of the magicJack debate.

Being the intrepid reporters that we are, we decided to contact the Better Business Bureau to see what have been the primary customer issues with the little-telephony-device-that-could. A quick search on the company Web site revealed that the Better Business Bureau has given magicJack a less-than-stellar letter grade.

A grade is determined by a number of factors including the length of the time the company’s been in business, complaint volume, complaint history, how the company responds to said complaints, and other factors. So which grade did the Better Business Bureau give magicJack get?

A big, fat “F.” The BBB’s summarizes an “F” with:

“We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they’ve failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for is fraudulent business practices.”

According to the BBB, the two most common complaints involve consumers being charged the full price of the magicjack shortly after signing up for the free 30-day trial, and that it’s extremely difficult for them to contact customer service in order to receive a refund.

Since we’re a fair and balanced crew, we reached out to magicJack creator Dan Borislow for his response to these charges. Here’s what he had to say.
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Last week, we took a second look at the magicJack to see what new features found its way into the device since our initial magicJack review in the fall of 2007. Today we pick the brain of magicJack’s inventor, Dan Borislow, to talk Linux compatibility, number porting, customer service, and much, much more.

LAPTOP: How has the public taken to magicJack? Have sales met expectations?

Dan Borislow: The sales of the magicJack have proven just how much the public has taken to it. Since launching Version 1.0 in January, sales have grown 25% week over week and totaling over 250,000 so far, and we expect to hit 350,000 by the end of April.

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It’s been a while since we’ve checked up on the magicJack, the $39.99 telecommunications device that slides into a notebook’s USB port and allows chatters to make unlimited local and long-distance calls within the U.S. and Canada using a traditional landline phone or headset. In our magicJack review, we praised the device for its simple setup, very nice call quality, and amenities, but magicJack had promised additional features. Our mission was to find out if the company followed through.

Promise #1: Mac Compatibility Before the End of 2007

At the time of our November 2007 review, magicJack was PC-only; Mac compatibility was set to arrive before the end of the year. Did magicJack live up to its promise? Well, technically, no. OS X compatibility was added in January 2008, but we’re not going to split hairs over a few days; we’re just happy to see the magicJack love spread to more operating systems.

Promise #2: International Calling Before the End of 2007

Much like Mac compatibility, international dialing was slated to arrive before we said bye-bye to 2007. Did magicJack live up to its promise? Again, not quite. International dialing did arrive, but not until 2008. Still, we’re happy that it’s here, and this is how it works: You can call any other magicJack user anywhere in the world free of charge. If you’re traveling abroad, you can place free calls to the U.S. or Canada. In fact, the only time that you have to reach for your wallet is when you’re calling a non-magicJack international number; that requires the purchase of international minutes. Plus, if you’re overseas and plan to call someone in the U.S. or Canada, or want to dial an international magicJack user, there’s no need to use a country code.

Promise #3: Ability to Port Existing Numbers to magicJack Before End of 2007

We’re still waiting.

A magicJack unit just arrived in our offices and we’re eager to put the device through the paces. A question for the magicJack fans out there: What do you think of the new features?