Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I ordered the MagicJack Plus (MJP)(NOT original MagicJack) to replace my existing Verizon land line which was costing me about $100/month (including about $40 in base access charges / fees / taxes). I used the 30-day trial period to see how the MJP worked and whether is was a viable replacement. I call-forwarded my Verizon line to the MJP for 2 weeks to receive all incoming calls and made all outgoing calls directly through the MJP. Just an alert: the 30-day free trial starts on the date of your order, not when it's activated. BOTTOM LINE: I would recommend the MJP to friends, and I have completely migrated from Verizon to MJP .....BUT.... you get what you pay for. In my view, the cost of MJP, initially $70 plus the yearly fee of $20, greatly outweighs the things I've discovered. PROS: 1) SET-UP was easy with the computer. No problems getting a temporary phone number from MJP to call-forward from Verizon. My biggest delay was getting Verizon to add call-forwarding to my existing service, which took a week and a few phone calls to accomplish. As I was eventually going to migrate my existing number to MJP I didn't care what the interim number would be. 2) MIGRATING my existing telephone number was not an issue. It took about 36 hours (though according to MJP, could take up to 10 days). 3) CALL QUALITY: Not an issue, AFTER I moved the MJP about 3 feet away from the telephone. There was a hum in the line while it remained close to the wireless telephone set. Currently I have 7 phones (cordless and corded) hooked up without any call quality problems. 4) VOICEMAIL seems pretty simple to use (though see CONS, below). A nice feature is the notification process via email. Call forwarding to a cell phone is also possible, but I have not used that feature. 5) INTERNATIONAL CALLING: It's cheap, plus a nice feature after you dial is that MJP alerts you, at the beginning of the call, how many remaining minutes you have based on the number you've just dialed. Given the different rates in calling landlines and mobiles in foreign countries, this is a very nice feature...and eliminates the need for a calculator :-) CONS: 1) [FIXED SINCE ORIGINAL POST!!!!] VOICEMAIL is required. I have an answering machine at home that I can use so don't need the voicemail feature. The problem this causes is all calls are picked up by MJP's server and not my answering machine which I would prefer. Even this would be OK if I could either (1) disable voicemail or (2) add to the number of rings before MJP pick-up (e.g. 6 rings) As it is now I've adjusted my home answering machine to pick up after 2 rings, but that causes me to race to the phone to answer it before the machine picks up or deal with the outgoing message playing while I'm talking to the caller. I've been told "The engineers are working on it" but was given no date for when alternatives might be available. UPDATED COMMENT: See post from Kristian below. Voicemail can now be turned off and/or delayed to allow for a local answering machine. 2) [RESOLVED SINCE ORIGINAL POST!!] ALERTS CAN ONLY BE SENT TO ONE EMAIL ADDRESS: As multiple people live in my household, having the ability for only one email address for all voicemail alerts becomes problematic. Adding the capability to send alerts to multiple emails would eliminate the need to one person to be the grand poobah of voicemail. This change can't be that hard to make. UPDATED COMMENT: A gmail account can be used to forward voicemails to multiple email addresses. I've been using this for months without any problems. 3) CALLS GONG DIRECTLY TO VOICEMAIL: I have had a situation where my phone does not ring at all and goes directly to voicemail. Simple fix is to disconnect everything for 2 minutes to reset the entire package. It's a pain. According to the MJP "techchat" people, I will never see this problem again (yeah, I believe that one). 4) NO LIVE HELP: Chat is the only way to get help. I understand the business model, if I wanted live help then MJP would be more expensive. C'est la vie. Something to live with for now. 5) 10-DIGIT DIALING IS REQUIRED: Not a big deal, I just need to get use to dialing the area code when calling next door. Hope that helps, Bob C.