Is MagicJack highjacking your calls with confusing 305-848-8288 recording?

Have you recently tried calling someone outside of your local area code only to receive a confusing message about your long distance call not being a local call so you need to contact your carrier or call 305-848-8288?  If so, the person or business you are trying to reach is using magicJack.  And you are not alone in your woes.

MagicJack, the voice over internet phone service (voip) you see advertised for just $19.95 per year seems almost too good to be true.   A customer pays $39.95 to get the magicJack device which plugs into a computer's USB port.  The new user then plugs his/her own telephone into the magicJack.   It does not take long to set up, and new customers can even select the new telephone phone number of their choice.  Then that person can give out the new phone number to friends, family, business associates, and start receiving phone calls from anyone, anywhere, at anytime ... until recently.

Starting Friday November 12th, problems began to occur when long distance callers received this unexpected recording:

"Please listen to this entire message.
Your phone carrier has routed this call improperly.
This call is being identified as a local call, and it should be identified as a long distance call.
To complete this call, please call your carrier's customer service number.
Or dial 305-848-8288, wait for a dial tone, and enter the number you are trying to reach."

Needless to say, confusion and a bit of panic ensued as callers who had no problem the day before were suddenly faced with a recording that made absolutely no sense to them.  Some did call their carriers seeking help.

ON A PERSONAL NOTE

Allow me to share what happened on my end as a magicJack user of several months.

On that same Friday, Nov. 12th, I received a phone call from a number I did not recognize so I answered the call in my professional business voice:  "This is Réne Girard, how may I help you?"

On the other end was a lady who worked for AT&T.  She proceeded to clarify who she was, who I am, and the number which she called to reach me. (my magicJack number)  She informed me that one of my clients was trying to get through but had received a recording with a 305 area code.

I was completely unfamiliar with the 305 area code.   Living in San Diego with a 619 area code, coming from Texas with a 940 area code, a cell phone with an 817 area code, and working with my clients from possibly every area code in Texas, none of which started with 305 as best as I could recall, I was honestly stumped.

Turns out that the 305 area code is in Florida.   I currently have no business in Florida, and searching for the number online led me to no resolve. (at that time)

RESPONSE AND REACTIONS

It did not take long for other magicJack users to also start searching and posting their same dilemma online.   One of the most enlightening sites can be found here:  http://800notes.com/Phone.aspx/1-305-848-8288

MagicJack customer service has tried to help disgruntled customers although for the most part the typical response can be summarized like this:  "It is not our fault.  You must call your carrier.  You must tell other people to call their carriers and ask them to reroute the calls."

Major carriers, such as AT&T, claim the problem is not on their end.  Magic Jack says it is not on their end.   So whose fault is it?

It could be a third party "hijacker" who has found a way to intercept magicJack callers in order to provide them with the mysterious recording.  Or it could be magicJack themselves.

One poster under the alias "mjuser" reported: "You have to enter your MJ number and it will conncect you to your phone. Hopefully you won't get charged for calling that number. It appears to be a US number out of Florida, registered to YM Communications which I believe is MJ."

He could indeed be correct.  As another user named "Bob" posted on Nov. 14:

"MagicJack is from YMax Corporation, located at:
5700 George Ave Phone: (561) 722-0433
West Palm Beach, FL 33405
(561) 722-0433

They recently merged with VocalTek:
USA Office
5700 Georgia Ave.
West Palm Beach, Fl 33405
(561) 771-2255"

On Nov. 15, Another poster named "Rob" noted:
"This has all the markings of a sales/billing dispute between MagicJack and the major carriers, and MagicJack is trying to deflect blame and/or get angry callers to dial Sprint, MetroPCS, AT&T, etc. hoping to it'll pressure the big boys to drop down to one knee and grant Long-Distance pricing concession(s) to MagicJack.

I'll be curious to see how this shakes out... has it made the news yet?  ;)   That might be far more effective in getting the issue QUICKLY resolved, rather than calling the FCC, etc."

Yes "Bob" had quickly taken FCC action and more as revealed in an additional post:

"Well, apparently MagicJack will not acknowledge that the problem is systemic with their service and is not a problem with every phone carrier in the world, as they keep claiming.

Their phone is locked up with a full mailbox, because everyone is complaining about the systemwide problem. My last contact with Live Chat resulted in my essentially getting hung up on.

So, I filed a complaint with the Florida Attorney General's Office
http://www.myfloridalegal.com/
With the Federal Communication Commission
http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
With the Better Business Bureau
http://www.seflorida.bbb.org/
The U.S. Attorney's Office
http://www.justice.gov/usao/fls/ContactUs.html

I would urge everyone else to do the same to get YMax to acknowledge their errors and fix the problem."

IN CONCLUSION

As a writer here at examiner.com for the Religion section (Christianity & Culture)  I must admit that I have no idea if any of these people are Christians, or if the people who run magicJack are Christian or not; however, magicJack has definitely become a cultural phenomena affecting how millions of people communicate in today's world.  Getting to the bottom of this issue and resolving it quickly in order to protect the best interest of everyone involved, such as myself and my clients who call me for help with their insurance needs, would be, in my opinion, the right and Christian thing to do.

Thank you to all who help resolve this issue.  Let's hope this is not another case of sinful corporate greed at the expense of "the little guy."  At the very least, there appears to be some form of deceit in order to manipulate unsuspecting callers.

In the meantime, I'm switching back to Vonage.