How many tech support chats does it take to....

djbryce · Post by **djbryce** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 9:54 pm

...get a MagicJack+ to work?

So far, the answer is 5. Two hours and 5 chats later tech support can't get my MJ+ to work when plugged into the router. Works great as a USB plug in, but no-go using it as a stand-alone item. I get "Error 1" recording.

So I sit here...waiting for Ruben, my newest tech support "buddy" to see what HE can do.

...I'm not holding out much hope.

djbryce · Post by **djbryce** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 10:08 pm

Ruben was a lost cause, so now we are on hold with Mandy. She's supposed to be one of the top 10% agents...

OK, Miss Mandy, show me whatcha got...

Mandy: I understand how frustrating this issue has become. Let me find out what happened and I will check all available resources I have so we can straighten this out.

Bryce: Thank you

Mandy: You're welcome.

Film at 11 ..........

djbryce · Post by **djbryce** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 11:23 pm

Well, Mandy helped a little. Seems I need to set up port forwarding for my router NETGEAR WNR2000.

Still couldn't get it to work

Mandy says she'll connect me with top-level tech support that will log into my computer and take care of it for me...SWEET!

...but then nothing. 20 minutes waiting. No top-level tech support.

Now it's 11:30...Tried another chat session...with chat ticket numbers in hand, I start over. Hi Crystal!

She wants me to make sure I have both ends of the cable plugged in...

Sweet Jesus, kill me now.

scotty200 · Post by **scotty200** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 11:57 pm

hi djbryce netgear don't play well with mjp i wold suggest to get a different router i know this sucks but trust me it will save u a lot of trouble get a Linksys or a Belken there not over expensive and work even TPlink works that what i been using and it seam to work well for me

hope this helps

Pablo123 · Post by **Pablo123** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 12:02 am

LOL, maybe its better to give up on them and get real support. You might want to try out nettalk.com

djbryce · Post by **djbryce** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 12:26 am

I had a Linksys and it wouldn't work on my original MJ. Got the Netgear and had no problems.

So here we are 4 1/2 hours into this adventure...finally get in que for a "LiveLook Operator" who is supposed to log into my computer to adjust the router for me.

So far, 21 times I've gotten:

"All operators are currently assisting others. Thanks for your patience. An operator will be with you shortly."

Scotty: You would think that since this thing is DESIGNED to work with routers THAT IT WOULD WORK WITH NETGEAR. I mean it's CISCO for the love of Pete!

I'll give them another 30 minutes, then I give up.

djbryce · Post by **djbryce** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 1:02 am

It's 1 AM...still no live person. I think I'll leave the chat window open overnight, just to see how long it will take.

Matt9876 · Post by **Matt9876** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 5:10 pm

Get a new Linksys router, or flash/upgrade an older one.

djbryce · Post by **djbryce** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 6:45 pm

Round 2

Talked with 2 more tech support reps that finally got me bumped back up to a LIVELOOK operator. She was great...knew right what to do, did it, explained what she was doing along the way.

She opened up a couple of ports, I said thanks, she said "it should work just fine now" ...I rebooted the router....drum roll please....

"ERROR 1. Check your internet connection or visit Customer Care at MagicJack.com."

So now I am on chat-hold again, waiting for another LiveLook operator.

I'm gonna get this dang thing to work if it's the last thing I do!

djbryce · Post by **djbryce** » Thu Nov 03, 2011 8:44 pm

THROWING IN THE TOWEL

Final Tally:
--Total number of reps spoken to: 14
--Total number of Senior Level LiveLook reps: 2
--Total number of days: 2
--Total number of hours: 8 1/2

Result: The MagicJack PLUS and it's associated tech support are basically worthless. I am no better off than I was 2 days ago. And please don't tell me to get another router...that's BS. This is a realitively new NETGEAR WNR 2000 box with the latest firmware. It is one of the most popular routers on the market. If the crack engineering team at MJ can't get it to work on a common box like this then MJ+ should have never been released to the public until it was.

Cya later MagicJack...

udsting · Post by **udsting** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:16 am

Dan just keeps on releasing new products without doing trouble shooting or test or are we doing it?

VaHam · Post by **VaHam** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:54 am

djbryce wrote:THROWING IN THE TOWEL

Final Tally:
--Total number of reps spoken to: 14
--Total number of Senior Level LiveLook reps: 2
--Total number of days: 2
--Total number of hours: 8 1/2

Result: The MagicJack PLUS and it's associated tech support are basically worthless. I am no better off than I was 2 days ago. And please don't tell me to get another router...that's BS. This is a realitively new NETGEAR WNR 2000 box with the latest firmware. It is one of the most popular routers on the market. If the crack engineering team at MJ can't get it to work on a common box like this then MJ+ should have never been released to the public until it was.

Cya later MagicJack...

Well tech support certainly has not improved with MJ+

Have you tried simply putting the MJ+ in the DMZ?
How to - from the WNR2000 manual here

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 12:22 pm

VaHam wrote:Well tech support certainly has not improved with MJ+

Shocking, absolutely shocking.

What amuses me is those that complain that there isn't a phone number to call them at.

The nonsense answers over the phone would be the same as the ones received over their internet chat system.

Does anyone honestly think that they would be any more useful because you could yell at them instead of typing in CAPS with lots of !!!!!!!! ?

VaHam · Post by **VaHam** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 12:56 pm

Most wish MJ were like Nettalk which has tech support phone numbers to call and intelligent tech support people on the end of the line to talk to, who speak English as a first language.

Some folks are slow but are catching on to MagicJunk Co.

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 1:55 pm

VaHam wrote:Most wish MJ were like Nettalk which has tech support phone numbers to call and intelligent tech support people on the end of the line to talk to, who speak English as a first language.

Some folks are slow but are catching on to MagicJunk Co.

My point was being amused when some people repeatedly post that being able to call someone is an advantage for NetTalk. That isn't the real advantage. The intelligent tech support person on the other end is the advantage, whether it's on the phone or the internet. Even if MJ support was in Kansas, on the phone, with all English speaking support, they would still be giving out useless advice. It's not bad customer service because it's in India, or wherever. It's bad customer service because of the system they have set up. In my opinion.

And it's always been magicJunk. I was somehow one of the lucky ones to have it work for me for 2 years like a charm. I knew I was pressing my luck when I renewed for the 3rd year about a week ago. I think adding the Plus to their system has caused issues. Whether they have sold more than they thought and it's overloading their system, or their "magic" engineers didn't have it all worked out ahead of time doesn't matter. On my end at least, the system seems to have gone wacky. Hopefully it clears up soon.

My opinion is that at some point they are going to just quit supporting the regular MJ and offer prorated refunds on time left. For that reason I did seriously look at NetTalk and Obi before I renewed. I had forgotten that NetTalk either doesn't play well, or at all, with 64bit systems, which I have. So because of that, not working well with GoogleVoice and still no number porting, I had to pass. I like MJ because I'm cheap. I passed on Obi because I would want to stay cheap and use it with GoogleVoice and there are too many complaints on their forum about issues with it, although I'm sure it works great for you. But as someone in here or another forum posted, if people think MJ customer service is a joke, GoogleVoice customer service tops them in being useless. They have a message board that is apparently monitored by volunteers.

Edit: And not that it matters, but other than GV not working and a yet unknown number of callers being directed to magicTalk, my call quality is fine. I knew about the GV issue before I renewed. So the decision came down to going to another system that may not be perfect for me either or pay $20 and stick with MJ for another year. I can live without GV, maybe. Hopefully the Talk re-routing is just a temp glitch.

VaHam · Post by **VaHam** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 6:31 pm

nailgunner wrote:
VaHam wrote:Most wish MJ were like Nettalk which has tech support phone numbers to call and intelligent tech support people on the end of the line to talk to, who speak English as a first language.

Some folks are slow but are catching on to MagicJunk Co.
My point was being amused when some people repeatedly post that being able to call someone is an advantage for NetTalk. That isn't the real advantage. The intelligent tech support person on the other end is the advantage, whether it's on the phone or the internet. Even if MJ support was in Kansas, on the phone, with all English speaking support, they would still be giving out useless advice. It's not bad customer service because it's in India, or wherever. It's bad customer service because of the system they have set up. In my opinion.

And it's always been magicJunk. I was somehow one of the lucky ones to have it work for me for 2 years like a charm. I knew I was pressing my luck when I renewed for the 3rd year about a week ago. I think adding the Plus to their system has caused issues. Whether they have sold more than they thought and it's overloading their system, or their "magic" engineers didn't have it all worked out ahead of time doesn't matter. On my end at least, the system seems to have gone wacky. Hopefully it clears up soon.

My opinion is that at some point they are going to just quit supporting the regular MJ and offer prorated refunds on time left. For that reason I did seriously look at NetTalk and Obi before I renewed. I had forgotten that NetTalk either doesn't play well, or at all, with 64bit systems, which I have. So because of that, not working well with GoogleVoice and still no number porting, I had to pass. I like MJ because I'm cheap. I passed on Obi because I would want to stay cheap and use it with GoogleVoice and there are too many complaints on their forum about issues with it, although I'm sure it works great for you. But as someone in here or another forum posted, if people think MJ customer service is a joke, GoogleVoice customer service tops them in being useless. They have a message board that is apparently monitored by volunteers.

Edit: And not that it matters, but other than GV not working and a yet unknown number of callers being directed to magicTalk, my call quality is fine. I knew about the GV issue before I renewed. So the decision came down to going to another system that may not be perfect for me either or pay $20 and stick with MJ for another year. I can live without GV, maybe. Hopefully the Talk re-routing is just a temp glitch.

Well certainly sounds like a change of attitude on your part from this quote in another thread:

nailgunner wrote:By saying that MJ works near perfectly for me, and others I know, in response to your "it's a piece of junk" comments, how is that claiming MJ is superior to anything. ALL I'm doing is stating my experience that it isn't a piece of junk.

There is hope for you grasshopper

In this day and time when you can use a real ATA like the OBi and GV for free or purchase a high quality service which allows spoofing and has many many more features than either NT or MJ for just over $6/mo. It still amazes me that some folks still have not caught on; but time is a good teacher I guess.

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Tue Nov 08, 2011 7:36 pm

VaHam wrote: Well certainly sounds like a change of attitude on your part from this quote in another thread:
nailgunner wrote:By saying that MJ works near perfectly for me, and others I know, in response to your "it's a piece of junk" comments, how is that claiming MJ is superior to anything. ALL I'm doing is stating my experience that it isn't a piece of junk.
There is hope for you grasshopper

Yea, yea. Not fair throwing my own quotes back at me. My general distinction is it's a piece of junk as far as a quality electronic device. Every time I pull it out I think it's going to snap off at the usb port. I don't think it's junk as far as being able to give quality calls, at least for me.

VaHam wrote:In this day and time when you can use a real ATA like the OBi and GV for free or purchase a high quality service which allows spoofing and has many many more features than either NT or MJ for just over $6/mo. It still amazes me that some folks still have not caught on; but time is a good teacher I guess.

I would have gone with Obi if I hadn't kept reading reports in their forum about issues with GoogleVoice. At renewal my only issue with MJ was GV not working, an inconvenience at most. The GV issues in the Obi forum were mostly about unresolved issues on incoming calls. So I saw it as trading a small GV problem for a potentially bigger GV problem. At that point it was a fairly easy decision to renew MJ for $20, since I saw no incentive to pay for a new device and pay for a different service, even if it is only $6 a month. I have all the features with MJ I need since I purchased the Features add-on a long time ago. However, if I continue to have callers referred to magicTalk it will have been a bad decision.

nailgunner · Post by **nailgunner** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 12:07 pm

For what it's worth, my GoogleVoice is back up and working. Sometimes things with MJ just work themselves out. Still not sure if it was a GV or MJ issue. Also not sure about my other issue of callers being told I don't have long distance. No new cases, and the 2 that were are not good subjects to keep asking to make test calls, so it may have cleared up as well.

cell14 · Post by **cell14** » Thu Nov 10, 2011 11:37 pm

At that point it was a fairly easy decision to renew MJ for $20, since I saw no incentive to pay for a new device and pay for a different service, even if it is only $6 a month
Sometimes things with MJ just work themselves out. Still not sure if it was a GV or MJ issue.

I defended MJ for almost 3 years( defended in the sense of being relatively happy with the service while realizing it's shortcomings) and appreciating the the low costs of the service.
But things change. I have no problem tolerating certain things- like some numbers not working, some numbers almost always bad connection, some calls which had to be redialed because of bad quality, hours when the service was totally bad, issues with lucky you upgrades going banana and foremost Dan's crooked way of doing business.
But there are certain things which are intolerable. Like when suddenly my voice mail goes banana and disconnects callers and I find out several days later. Yes, you are right, issues with MJ usually clear themselves out, but when you have a situation like very recently that I could not make outgoing calls for 14 days(extremely weak audio) and the only answer I got from their customer ' service' was that everything was fine and that they only needed to make a few hacks into my computer(which I declined) I got pushed over the edge.
Even $21/year is too much for this performance. Interestingly, the problem cleared out after I initiated the port out of my main MJ number( most likely coincidence). And then this ransom note demanding $ 31.80 for a port out.
99% of all people do not know that this is illegal and either pay up or cancel the port and lose their number.
So, the number is now safely parked at my back up cell phone and it may even stay there. March/April i will make a decision about the second MJ and a new service, most likely it will be Obihai with GV because at least Obi can be used for a number of other VOIP providers.

bevanwillson · Post by **bevanwillson** » Fri Nov 11, 2011 2:51 am

Thanks for all the replies so far, yeah with the few companies we have talked to have mostly been recommending the VoIP phone systemfor us, but was also looking for some real world users with some experience and not just sales hype/because they say so its good kind of thing.

VoIP phone system

livewire94 · Post by **livewire94** » Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:17 pm

The Magic Jack Tech support are useless. I was on chat for over an hour because my new Magic Jack Plus connected only to router had a weird dialtone after awhile. They had me port forward 5060 and 5070 UDP to the Magic Jack and reset the device. Did all that a day before I got on the chat line with them. Then they say use the softphone dialpad after I told them numerous times that I am not using it with a pc, its only on the router.

The live tech chat people are more like your basic customer service people and have no clue on how to fix or troubleshoot anything. They basically read from a monitor.

MagicJack needs to have the people who actually designed the device to write up a help file or troubleshooting document and place a link to it on their homepage.