Someone told me about magicJack a couple of weeks ago and at first glance it sounded great. Unlimited calls to the U.S. and Canada, free directory assistance, voice mail and a bunch of other things for only $40 the first year and then $20 per year. I took a look at their site on March 16 and it was saying hurry and sign up now for the free 30 day trial which expires on March 17. Well, on March 18, it was hurry and sign up now for the free 30 day trial which expires on March 31. I'm willing to bet that on April 1 the last sign up date will be April 14. This is the first lie that I caught them at. Not all that big a deal because there are other companies that just as dishonest and permanently say things like special offer, expires today.

Anyway, I made the mistake of ordering 2 units, paid for an extra 5 years at half price and paid an extra $7 for rush shipping. When I had second thoughts about the order and I tried to use the link to modify the order, it didn't work. The order was mailed first class and I received it on March 18. When you plug the unit into a usb port, it downloads a bunch of software. Well, it ran into problems and displayed a phone number to call. When I called the number I got a message saying that this was not magicJack and that I should go to their website to contact them. There is absolutely no contact information on the website. No email address. No physical address. No phone number. The only way to contact these male offspring of female canines is through online chat that doesn't work half the time. By this time, I'm starting to get pretty unhappy.

I finally get the software installed. It takes forever to load and while it's loading, there's a splash screen that's always on top that you can't move. Damn! Now it's telling me that it can't contact the registration server. So I try the technical chat. It's try this. This didn't work. Well, try that. That didn't work. Try the other thing. The other thing didn't work and now I lose the chat because of my flaky internet connection. So I open another chat and tell them at the beginning that I've tried this, that and the other thing and it still doesn't work. Try this. But I told you that I tried this and it didn't work. Try that. I already told you that I tried that. Try the other thing. I'm at the point now where I'd be screaming if I were on the phone.

I left it for a few days and tried again. Now, for some reason, it's finally contacting the registration server and I'm presented with the tos for the very first time. You have to agree to accept advertising. It doesn't say whether the advertising is on the computer screen or on the phone, but either way, I find that unacceptable. I run software that filters out most of the advertising on the net. But since I've gotten this far after a great deal of wasted time, and I'm still a long way from the end of the 30 days, I decide to complete the registration. Now it raises errors from the registration server. That finally does it. I don't want this piece of shit. I remember reading someplace that you had to get an RMA but I can't find any information in the emails that I've gotten. I go into my bank and find out that magicJackOff has gotten an authorization for $106.84 that very day. I have my card canceled so that they can't make any more charges. The next day I manage to get an RMA by going to the billing chat. That chat is going to take a whole page just by itself. Then yesterday, the charge for $106.84 came through on the twelfth day since I ordered their crap. So much for the 30 day free trial. I am not angry -- I am totally enraged and I am going to do everything that I can to put this sleazy company out of business.

If you want to get an RMA you can go directly to http://my.magicjack.com/returns.html and avoid the assholes that do the chats. Their mailing address is
magicJack
PO Box 6846
West Palm Beach, FL 33405

The tos is at http://www.magicjacktv.com/1/tos.asp. It would be really nice to be able to read this before ordering. But then they probably wouldn't get any orders.