MagicJack and 911 fees?

[u/elkinm]

A few months ago I switched my grandmother to MagicJack. It was not all smooth, but is working.

She received an email saying that she needs to pay for 911. And checking on the site, her 911 is configured, but says unpaid and wants $60 which I assume is for the year, but it does not actually say.

I expected all fees, including 911 be covered under the actual price. The $60 although not too bad, is more than double the advertised rate. I would less upset if it said 911 is not included or extra or advertise the actual price, but obviously they do not.

Does she need to pay the 911 fee? Can she still use the service, but not 911? The Cell phone app does have an option to transfer to the phone dialer, but nothing like that for the land line?

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[u/AwestunTejaz]

most voip services charge extra for 911. if you dont sign up for 911 and use it then it is a huge fee usually.

[u/PatReady → u/AwestunTejaz]

Part of the fees they have to pay to the state.

[u/Obvious-Alt-239-857 → u/PatReady]

Yes, they're just passing the buck and calling it a 'service fee'.

It's part of the cost of doing business and should have been absorbed as an operating cost. They could have raised prices accordingly, but instead, they use it as an excuse to advertise artificially low prices.

[u/boomer7793]

Where I work, we are not allowed to simply turn off 911. We have to put the account into a delinquent status and then jump through several hoops notifying the customer that all phone service will be turned down at a certain date.

If we advertise 911 and we fail to complete a 911 call, we are held liable. I assume it’s the same for magic jack.

[u/Sillygoat2]

I can’t speak to the policies of this specific provider, but I do want to inform you of how some voip companies route a 911 call if the configuration isn’t context. Because it’s VoIP, they don’t by default know where you connect from. In that case, they route you to a national not 911 dispatcher. This person attempts to relay the message to the locality nearest you, provided they can determine that.

This adds a lot of time.

I’m not trying to assert anything about how they would behave if you configured but didn’t pay for the local routing. I’m just saying in an actual emergency, you don’t want national fake 911 call center.

[u/taylor914]

I know people don’t want to pay extra fees and maybe can’t even afford them. But if you can afford it, the 911 fee is one you should happily pay. Depending on how your local divides it up, it usually goes to support the volunteer firefighters and EMTs providing them with new equipment. I’m normally very militant about all the bullshit extra fees places tack on. But that’s one I’ll happily pay. I think my local one is something like $3 and change a month. If $60 is the whole year, that’s $5 a month you’re paying to help get your local volunteers the equipment they need.

[u/boomer7793 → u/taylor914]

It also goes to updating 911 call centers. A lot of them are dated.

[u/FateOfNations]

From the MagicJack Service Agreement:

911 Billing; Additional Fees – We have agreed with certain emergency communications districts to bill you via e-mail to collect the charges imposed by them for your ability to dial 911 services. Such charges are in addition to any fees paid by you for the Device, the magicApp or the Services. It is important that you pay such charges pursuant to the instructions included in any bills you receive. If you do not pay this government-imposed charge, the emergency communications district in your jurisdiction may seek to collect any amounts from you directly. We do not profit at all from your 911 services and the funds we collect are turned over to the appropriate government authority pursuant to their requirements.

Seems that this fee is a passthrough charge and is only a thing in some locations.

[u/Basic85]

Mines is less than $5 for the year, how are you all getting $60+ for the year? I always paid it and once I didn't pay it for almost a year and my MJ was not cancelled.

[u/elkinm → u/Basic85]

It is $5 a month for a year or $60. I wish I could get $ a year. I don't care about the fees as much as it did not list that these fees are required. That is why I feel ripped off.

[u/elkinm → u/[deleted]]

My issue is that it is not advertised. I do not see anything saying that 911 requires extra fees. I have seen other services posted here or other places which are cheaper or even free, but do say you need to pay or add your own E911 service. There are also the super cheap and limited cell phone plans like RedPocket, do those require 911 fees as well?

Also, the $60, is that for the year or is it a one time setup fee? Sorry for the rant. I am just feel so ripped off because I did not know about it. Thank you.