The only reason I give this one star is the price. I am writing this to tell you about the magic jack. As a caveat I have not used the Ooma product, I just found out about it in an Amazon email today. But the cost alone for me is prohibitive. Particularly since I bought 2 Magic Jacks nearly a year ago. The initial cost for the MJ is $40 each and ongoing is I think half that per year. The call quality is great, pretty nearly indistinguishable from my ATT land line. It depends on your internet connection, of course and your pc must be on. But used as an adjunct to your landline it is perfect for me. My ATT phone bill has not exceeded $34/month for quite some time. I use the MJ for nearly all calls. I do have a couple of minor gripes, however – I run a Windows pc and boot up takes about 5 minutes for the MJ to begin working (it is much faster on a Mac). The second thing is the MJ display is fixed in the middle of the screen while getting activated. After that you can minimize and move wherever you want on your monitor. Other than that it is a beautiful product. I also have a cordless system I use with it, which allows me to make calls from my basement while watching my home theatre (which incidentally, the tv, receiver and speakers all came from Amazon – great price).
I do not have any interest in MJ corporation whatsoever, I just have great interest in saving money. And because of that, MJ would beat this Ooma thing hands down in my opinion. You can call anywhere in the US or Canada and can call from anywhere overseas to US and Canada (provided foreign countries have the RJ45 connector, which I don’t know how prevalent that is). And MJ does have calling plans for calling overseas from the US. Once again, any internet calling is subject to the vagaries of your internet connection, age/speed of your computer and how many windows you have open (I always have many and do not reboot frequently) so any minor issues with the MJ I attribute to those 3 aspects. If you do any research on the internet about MJ, you will find many detractors. I can not figure out why those people have such problems because my experience has been very good. An ATT bill of < $34/month is proof of that.
I have a very high interest and been waiting for this product availability. But after reading the some of previous reviews and found out that the free (free up to the first 12 months) basic plan does not include caller ID but and 800 support …, I just find it quite ridiculously outrageous. It outrages because that:
1. The device costs up to $250 up front
2. The so call free call sucks, only free up to the first 12 months then $10 per month after that and still with basic plan
3. Adding all these costs, why should I have to pay this much for their service that goes through my monthly DSL service that already costs me a bunch.
The thing is I have been waiting for with high hope for cutting telephone bill cost but now found out these really back fires for all that this device can offer. I rather pay $18/month including taxes for Cox, or Comcast, telephone service that is more reliable since their converter box has a built-in power back up device. Furthermore, I can call up for support anytime. Very very disappointed.
Rating: 2 / 5
I was becoming a fan of ooma and had started recommending it to other but I just discovered that Ooma is very sneaky with its Trial subscription and it has me pissed.
When their 2 month trial subscription to ooma premier expires and they automatically start billing you and they go to lengths to hide this fact.
1. In the welcome to Ooma email they send you, they dont tell you that will be billed if you don’t take the action to cancel.
2. They send you an email before the trial expires telling you that it is expiring, making you believe that the benefits will go away but do not inform you of the pending auto subscription.
3. They make you have to call a number where you are placed on hold for 30 mins to cancel the subscription when you discover the charge. During the trail period, I think they have a link you can click on to cancel.
4. They will not refund the period you have been duped into having a subscription.
On another note they charge a yearly fee of $12 after the first year which they do not highlight either.
I can understand they need to make money, but if they want to make money with a premium subscription, they should make it with satisfied customers not dupe people into paying them money.
Outside that I like the service and hopefully they have an economic model that really works. If they need all these crazy tactics, most likely we are benefiting from their VC dollars and at midnight the Ooma box may turn into a pumpkin.
Rating: 2 / 5
Ooma wanted your credit card and charged whenever they want, the sound quality is bad it sucks just like the Vonage , if you give them your credit card number ! good luck
I go with Magic Jack , only cost me 45 USD , it works great no hassle, did not have to give them my credit card number either, with their promotion I can add another 5 yrs for 60.00 USD
That is fair , I don’t believe OOMa as saying no bill then you come for a surprise.
after 6 yrs i am with magic jack i’m sure the technhology will be different , if it happened i only have 100 bucks out of my pocket, i still come out ahead compare to OOMa that’s a rip off big time
Rating: 1 / 5
I came across this and was eager to order it until I read about all the charges.
Kind of silly to call something a free telephone service, when it clearly never was and always has a monthly/yearly charge to it.
Almost got me to make the switch from MagicJack.. but I will stick with what we have. Magicjack is the most reliable phone service I’ve ever tried. And for $20 bucks a YEAR, it simply can’t be beat.
It all depends on where you live and what you’re using for an internet connection, but for us, we’ve never had a dropped/lost call or anything. Simply crystal clear reception.
My advice is to save your $230 bucks for something that is truly revolutionary and ‘free’.
February 9th, 2010 9:49 AM
The only reason I give this one star is the price. I am writing this to tell you about the magic jack. As a caveat I have not used the Ooma product, I just found out about it in an Amazon email today. But the cost alone for me is prohibitive. Particularly since I bought 2 Magic Jacks nearly a year ago. The initial cost for the MJ is $40 each and ongoing is I think half that per year. The call quality is great, pretty nearly indistinguishable from my ATT land line. It depends on your internet connection, of course and your pc must be on. But used as an adjunct to your landline it is perfect for me. My ATT phone bill has not exceeded $34/month for quite some time. I use the MJ for nearly all calls. I do have a couple of minor gripes, however – I run a Windows pc and boot up takes about 5 minutes for the MJ to begin working (it is much faster on a Mac). The second thing is the MJ display is fixed in the middle of the screen while getting activated. After that you can minimize and move wherever you want on your monitor. Other than that it is a beautiful product. I also have a cordless system I use with it, which allows me to make calls from my basement while watching my home theatre (which incidentally, the tv, receiver and speakers all came from Amazon – great price).
I do not have any interest in MJ corporation whatsoever, I just have great interest in saving money. And because of that, MJ would beat this Ooma thing hands down in my opinion. You can call anywhere in the US or Canada and can call from anywhere overseas to US and Canada (provided foreign countries have the RJ45 connector, which I don’t know how prevalent that is). And MJ does have calling plans for calling overseas from the US. Once again, any internet calling is subject to the vagaries of your internet connection, age/speed of your computer and how many windows you have open (I always have many and do not reboot frequently) so any minor issues with the MJ I attribute to those 3 aspects. If you do any research on the internet about MJ, you will find many detractors. I can not figure out why those people have such problems because my experience has been very good. An ATT bill of < $34/month is proof of that.
Good Luck.
Rating: 1 / 5
February 9th, 2010 12:05 PM
I have a very high interest and been waiting for this product availability. But after reading the some of previous reviews and found out that the free (free up to the first 12 months) basic plan does not include caller ID but and 800 support …, I just find it quite ridiculously outrageous. It outrages because that:
1. The device costs up to $250 up front
2. The so call free call sucks, only free up to the first 12 months then $10 per month after that and still with basic plan
3. Adding all these costs, why should I have to pay this much for their service that goes through my monthly DSL service that already costs me a bunch.
The thing is I have been waiting for with high hope for cutting telephone bill cost but now found out these really back fires for all that this device can offer. I rather pay $18/month including taxes for Cox, or Comcast, telephone service that is more reliable since their converter box has a built-in power back up device. Furthermore, I can call up for support anytime. Very very disappointed.
Rating: 2 / 5
February 9th, 2010 1:56 PM
I was becoming a fan of ooma and had started recommending it to other but I just discovered that Ooma is very sneaky with its Trial subscription and it has me pissed.
When their 2 month trial subscription to ooma premier expires and they automatically start billing you and they go to lengths to hide this fact.
1. In the welcome to Ooma email they send you, they dont tell you that will be billed if you don’t take the action to cancel.
2. They send you an email before the trial expires telling you that it is expiring, making you believe that the benefits will go away but do not inform you of the pending auto subscription.
3. They make you have to call a number where you are placed on hold for 30 mins to cancel the subscription when you discover the charge. During the trail period, I think they have a link you can click on to cancel.
4. They will not refund the period you have been duped into having a subscription.
On another note they charge a yearly fee of $12 after the first year which they do not highlight either.
I can understand they need to make money, but if they want to make money with a premium subscription, they should make it with satisfied customers not dupe people into paying them money.
Outside that I like the service and hopefully they have an economic model that really works. If they need all these crazy tactics, most likely we are benefiting from their VC dollars and at midnight the Ooma box may turn into a pumpkin.
Rating: 2 / 5
February 9th, 2010 3:57 PM
Ooma wanted your credit card and charged whenever they want, the sound quality is bad it sucks just like the Vonage , if you give them your credit card number ! good luck
I go with Magic Jack , only cost me 45 USD , it works great no hassle, did not have to give them my credit card number either, with their promotion I can add another 5 yrs for 60.00 USD
That is fair , I don’t believe OOMa as saying no bill then you come for a surprise.
after 6 yrs i am with magic jack i’m sure the technhology will be different , if it happened i only have 100 bucks out of my pocket, i still come out ahead compare to OOMa that’s a rip off big time
Rating: 1 / 5
February 9th, 2010 5:08 PM
I came across this and was eager to order it until I read about all the charges.
Kind of silly to call something a free telephone service, when it clearly never was and always has a monthly/yearly charge to it.
Almost got me to make the switch from MagicJack.. but I will stick with what we have. Magicjack is the most reliable phone service I’ve ever tried. And for $20 bucks a YEAR, it simply can’t be beat.
It all depends on where you live and what you’re using for an internet connection, but for us, we’ve never had a dropped/lost call or anything. Simply crystal clear reception.
My advice is to save your $230 bucks for something that is truly revolutionary and ‘free’.
Just another hoax.
Rating: 2 / 5