Warrantee ? Repair/Replace of MJ's ? (can't dial out anymore

[monkeyboy]

So what exactly is MagicJack's policy wrt repairing or replacing MJs that have gone bad ?

My MJ's been fine +/- for the past 2-3 months... then today it just stopped working for dialing out. No matter what keys I press, the dialtone persists. Dialing out on the softphone didn't work either. BUT I could dial IN to the MJ fine, so obviously the Internet connection, etc was fine. Rebooting and the usual reset steps did not change the symptoms. Tried another phone, still the same problem.

[Stewart]

Some other users have reported this same failure. If you can't get a replacement from tech chat, emailing management may help.

However, in the other cases, dialing from the softphone did work. When the softphone has focus and you press numbers on your keyboard, do they appear in the softphone window? If so, what happens when you dial the last digit? If the display changes, report what status messages you see.

[rr46033]

Hi,

I have had similar problems to those Monkeyboy is having (sudden inability to dial from phones that previously had worked fine for dialing). Several people have described their problems and attempts at solutions (unsuccessful) in the following thread:

http://www.phoneservicesupport.com/unab ... 05-15.html

Regarding Stewart's questions: I can dial with the softphone and the call will connect. However, my outgoing audio is extremely quiet and garbled to the person receiving the call. This, also, was never a problem prior to a couple weeks ago when the dialing problem began. As I said in the thread referenced above, I didn't change or add anything on my computer around the time the MagicJack malfunctions began, so I'm stumped. I have read many, many threads in this forum to try to find a solution, and none have worked. I briefly thought that a Windows update might have changed something that affected my MagicJack, but I removed months worth of Windows updates from my computer and the MJ problem is still the same.

I am to the point where I will have to request a replacement MJ also. Monkeyboy, if you are successful in getting a replacement, please post and let us know.

Thanks,
-RR

[Stewart]

There have been several credible posts that lead me to believe that the MJ has a hardware design flaw. An internal component, which is in the outbound audio path, will often fail. This results in both weak/distorted sound heard by the remote party, as well as the inability of the internal DTMF decoder to "hear" the touch tones.

To confirm that this is what happened in your case, download and install this test program: http://tjnet.com/software/download/voip ... up1313.exe . Kill the MJ app, start the test, click the Audio Test button and follow instructions. The test does not depend on any other software, except for Microsoft drivers.

If you are an electronics professional or hobbyist, you may be able to fix it yourself; see this post: http://www.phoneservicesupport.com/cant ... t1801.html .

Until you get the MJ replaced or repaired, you should be able to use the softphone with a computer headset, which should give you good outbound quality and volume.

[monkeyboy]

However, in the other cases, dialing from the softphone did work. When the softphone has focus and you press numbers on your keyboard, do they appear in the softphone window? If so, what happens when you dial the last digit? If the display changes, report what status messages you see.

When I use the softphone to try to dial out, it accepts the digits and when it hits 10 digits, it attempts to dial out and actually LOOKS like it is working. It says "Trying", then "Session Progress", then "Operational", with a credible counting of seconds. BUT the connection is not really successful at least 50% of the time (calling a phone next to me, it does not ring at least half the time). Sometimes it actually connects and sometimes it doesn't... BTW, sometimes, on certain phones, if I try to dial, occasional digits get through and are registered... perhaps 10% of them, and they tend to be certain specific digits, like 3's or 5's...

[monkeyboy]

Well my MJ is still dead, at least as far as I'm concerned...

There have been several credible posts that lead me to believe that the MJ has a hardware design flaw. An internal component, which is in the outbound audio path, will often fail. This results in both weak/distorted sound heard by the remote party, as well as the inability of the internal DTMF decoder to "hear" the touch tones.

To confirm that this is what happened in your case, download and install this test program: http://tjnet.com/software/download/voip ... up1313.exe . Kill the MJ app, start the test, click the Audio Test button and follow instructions. The test does not depend on any other software, except for Microsoft drivers.

If you are an electronics professional or hobbyist, you may be able to fix it yourself; see this post: http://www.phoneservicesupport.com/cant ... t1801.html.

I tried the TJ tests. Not sure what exactly to do, but I tested the hook (works), audio rec/play (works), ring (works) and key input (if it was supposed to recognize key presses, that did NOT work).

I finally tried an old, old Bell phone, and that seems to work. But all of the (about 5) different other phones that USED to work with MJ no longer work for dial OUT (dial tone persists, acts as if it doesn't understand keypresses/touchtones, as you suggest). It may be an issue of touchtone DURATION -- most modern phones time the duration of a touchtone, regardless of the duration of the keypress, whereas the old Bell phone delivers the touchtone for the entire duration of the keypress, and that apparently needs now to be long (+500ms).

I tried to engage in an intelligent tech chat with MJ support... VERY frustrating.... the agent "Jan" kept saying... "Please upgrade", "Do it again", "Please upgrade". Finally she said "We're busy here and having problems, please try back later...".

So I'm not sure what to do at this point. Yes, I can do electronics. But is it *really* worth it to me to spend hours to fix a $40 device ? probably not. I'm not happy just using that old Bell phone (nor the PC's audio interface). I want my MJ to return to the function it had a month ago. I guess I will try MJ support again... (sigh)...

[Doppio]

So what exactly is MagicJack's policy wrt repairing or replacing MJs that have gone bad ?

My MJ's been fine +/- for the past 2-3 months... then today it just stopped working for dialing out. No matter what keys I press, the dialtone persists. Dialing out on the softphone didn't work either. BUT I could dial IN to the MJ fine, so obviously the Internet connection, etc was fine. Rebooting and the usual reset steps did not change the symptoms. Tried another phone, still the same problem.

Regarding the replacement, you can ask the Tech support of magicJack to troubleshoot your device. They have this category of symptoms where if they find it on your device they will issue a replacement. You can try to tell them about your, issue, and as long as you cooperate with them in a peaceful manner (lol), I guess they should issue a replacement, that would be shipped for free to your place. And also the shipping is expedited.

[mutedmajority]

I paid $39.95 for a month of crappy phone service. I'm telling my friends like the splash screen says to. I suffered the online tech support, purchased the phones and devices they told me to. Those suggestions just aggravated my loss. After the smoke cleared, I had been ripped off just like everyone fears when watching these info-mercials late at nite.