Trying to call Alaska but MJ says I need prepaid min to call

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hatingmagicjack
MagicJack Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2012 3:38 am

Trying to call Alaska but MJ says I need prepaid min to call

Post by hatingmagicjack »

I purchased Magicjack January 31, 2012 and in early March I was not able to call Alaska anymore. I did not get the 3 busy tones (I did shortly after a week of owning MJ, but after 4 days was able to call again) instead I get a message saying "calling a conference line or platform visit my.magicjack.com/prepaid to purchase prepaid minutes. I am not calling a conference line or a platform, I am trying to call my parent's landline or cell phone and neither work. I have contacted magicjack several times on the chat line and they are not helpful at all as they cannot tell me why they are considering Alaska a conference line or why I was able to call until my 30 day trial is up and all of a sudden I can't call my family anymore.

They keep telling me to purchase prepaid minutes and read Terms of Service. Which I read through and found no evidence of Alaska not being part of the U.S. or Canada. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling magicjack but not luck. Can anyone tell me what I can do to fix this other than buy prepaid minutes? Has anyone had this problem?
bitstopjoe
Future magicJack CEO
Posts: 2844
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2008 5:25 pm
Location: North East Pennsylvania

Re: Trying to call Alaska but MJ says I need prepaid min to

Post by bitstopjoe »

hatingmagicjack wrote:I purchased Magicjack January 31, 2012 and in early March I was not able to call Alaska anymore. I did not get the 3 busy tones (I did shortly after a week of owning MJ, but after 4 days was able to call again) instead I get a message saying "calling a conference line or platform visit my.magicjack.com/prepaid to purchase prepaid minutes. I am not calling a conference line or a platform, I am trying to call my parent's landline or cell phone and neither work. I have contacted magicjack several times on the chat line and they are not helpful at all as they cannot tell me why they are considering Alaska a conference line or why I was able to call until my 30 day trial is up and all of a sudden I can't call my family anymore.

They keep telling me to purchase prepaid minutes and read Terms of Service. Which I read through and found no evidence of Alaska not being part of the U.S. or Canada. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling magicjack but not luck. Can anyone tell me what I can do to fix this other than buy prepaid minutes? Has anyone had this problem?
MJ has blocked many rural TelCo's as they charge high(er) termination fees and MJ refuses to pay, so they just block the number. Sadly ALL of Alaska is on the "block" list.
If you get a free Google Voice number you can get around it. You can set up GV so if someone calls your GV number it will ring your MJ number.
Maybe one day MJ will stop blocking, till then GV should be a viable workaround.
Joe Sica
hatingmagicjack
MagicJack Newbie
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2012 3:38 am

Post by hatingmagicjack »

I was hoping MJ could tell me why during my 30day trial I was able to call AK, then after my 30days trial I was not able to call but receive calls. MJ could not tell me or would not, but I think I was given the false impression that I would be able to call AK anytime. I had not seen on this site if anyone else was given the same message I was given. When I asked for a refund they said that it is over 30 days. I am not completely unsatisfied as I can still call my in-laws in Arkansas from England.

I will try Google. Thanks for the reply
bitstopjoe
Future magicJack CEO
Posts: 2844
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2008 5:25 pm
Location: North East Pennsylvania

Post by bitstopjoe »

That is the first I have heard one was able to call Alaska when using MJ during the first 30 days. I do know, however, now and then numbers one could not call, all of a sudden they could. So maybe you got lucky and called during when they were allowing calls to go through. Since the only difference when you purchase a MJ FROM MJ is they dont bill your CC for 30 days, the service is exactly the same, or so I believe...
Hope GV works out for you..
Last edited by bitstopjoe on Tue Mar 27, 2012 1:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Joe Sica
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cell14
Dan Should Pay Me
Posts: 673
Joined: Sat May 23, 2009 12:43 am
Location: South FL

Post by cell14 »

I was hoping MJ could tell me why during my 30day trial I was able to call AK, then after my 30days trial I was not able to call but receive calls. MJ could not tell me or would not, but I think I was given the false impression that I would be able to call AK anytime. I had not seen on this site if anyone else was given the same message I was given. When I asked for a refund they said that it is over 30 days. I am not completely unsatisfied as I can still call my in-laws in Arkansas from England.

I will try Google.
Magic Jack's business practices have been discussed on this forum many times. One of the reasons why I am in process of gradually cutting my ties to MJ.
The combination of Obi- Google voice is so far superior(and cheaper) than MJ that I do not see any reason to use MJ. The only plus of MJ is a far better number availability in many metro areas, that's the reason why it may make sense for many people to go through the cumbersome and expensive 2 step process of transferring their MJ number to Googler Voice.
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