The Skype-Watch blog has a new posting that details what I consider to be a couple of the major problems with Skype, both as a program and as a company:

- With significant fanfare and marketing hype, Skype recently announced a new "feature", which apparently interferes with the proper functioning of some other parts of the program. It would appear that the Skype "Quality Control" department is staffed by the same people as the "Customer Support" department.

- Once a Skype user determines that there is a problem, they have nowhere to turn for help. Skype "support" is an oxymoron, there are never any intelligent or useful replies from them, and Skype obviously doesn't care enough about their customers to do anything about it. The Skype User Forums might be of help, but you never know who you are going to get a reply from on there, and you are just as likely to get something which appeared to have worked at some time in the distant past for someone's Aunt Maude in the Bronx, as you are to get a clear and well-explained solution. On top of that, Skype is obviously trying to discourage users from going to the "Community" for help, since their recent overhaul caused the posting volume to drop dramatically and Skype declared it to be a success on the basis of that.

It is absolutely disgraceful for a company the size of Skype to operate in this manner. Disgraceful.

jw 14/6/2008