Skype what a total waste of time and money.
This is a total and utter disgrace for a company who is earning millions of pounds a year and does not seem to care one cent about it's customers.
Thursday 13 March 2008, 6:49 PM
Skype Customer claims to of had money stolen from his Skype account. UPDATE
I can now report that this Skype customer has eventually had his problem solved exactly 1 month to the day he first reported it to Skype CS. What an absolute disgusting length of time to have to wait and as far as I know he has not received any type of apology from anybody at Skype which IMHO is another kick in the butt for him. You can read about the end of the saga here
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Sunday 2 March 2008, 4:15 PM
Josh Silverman joins Skype as new CEO and what a hard time he has ahead.
I see that Josh Silverman has been appointed the new CEO for Skype detail of which can be see here. I like the comment that he makes
himself further on in the article.
"So what can you expect from me? That I’m serious about wanting to build the greatest products — and the greatest company — on Earth. That doing so means listening well, being willing to think different and take risks. And in everything we do, one thing is certain: we’ll always have the best interests of the Skype community at heart.
My comment to that statement: I really hope you do Josh because nobody else at Skype does.
I’m the new guy, and have a lot to learn. To really understand Skype’s cultural and technological DNA, (some how I don't think you do Josh otherwise you would of given this position a very wide berth) my number one priority is to do a lot of listening and learning. With my wife and kids about to begin their adventure in Estonia as well, I have all the support I could ever need. I want to know everything about the technology, the team and the community. And I hope to share some of my observations on this very blog and see what you think too.
Well, let hope he is a very very fast learner because he is only supposed to be staying in Estonia for 12 weeks and in that time he will have so many heads to bang together to get everything working as it should of been something like 2 years ago.
Well Josh. here is your first to do list for when you get there and if you at least manage to get just one of these problems fully sorted out then I am sure you will make a lot of Skype people very very happy.
ITEM 1: Customer Support which is non existent. I mean who ever heard of a VoIP company without customer support via phone, no then try and find one for Skype CS (Customer Support). The only way to contact CS is via a Support request which if you are lucky MIGHT get a reply within 4 WORKING DAYS if you are very lucky but it could and quite often is 4 WORKING WEEKS IF YOU ARE LUCKY.
ITEM 2: The Payment System which they use for the paying customer must of been built in the dark ages when we paid for thing with grouts, crowns or pieces of eight.
Let me give you just one of many examples that are reported every day on the Skype Forum and this is what Skype Call Customer service.
Let me give you another example Josh, I take my laptop to another country or another area in the same country I live in on business so that I can use the cheap calling facility of Skypeout, unfortunately while I am there I run out of Skypeout credit so I use my CC to add more credit and every thing goes fine, my account shows that I have my new credit so I am a happy bunny.
Now this is where my anger starts to rise. I wake up the next morning and find I have to make some calls and quite rightly think that every thing will be Ok as I put credit on my account last night, but OH! no we are now told by Skype when we come to make these calls that YOUR ACCOUNT HAS BEEN BLOCKED why, because Skype's draconian payment system thinks because you have added credit to you account from a different IP address than to your normal one logged with them your are there by committing a fraud in there eyes and SHUT DOWN your Skypeout facility.
So what is your next move, you have to report the problem to CS via a Support request which if you are very very lucky could be answered in 4 DAYS and your problem solver but 9 times out of 10 you could still be waiting 4 MONTHS to get you service unblocked, now that is what I call a total and utter disgrace.
Firstly because Skype have taken you money (which shows on you account) and then they cut off your service, to me that is tantamount to fraud on their part not the customers.
Secondly what right have Skype to suppose that I am a fraud just because I added credit to my account from another IP address. You only have to look here to see the number of people who have been caught in the same trap and Skype do this automatically without giving you any warning at all.
ITEM 3: Stop ALL development and get the current version of Skype 3.6.0.248 working on all platform's first. Why because back in November of 2007 Skype shouted to the world that their new HQ (High Quality) Video was the best thing since sliced bread, now 4 months further on down the road it STILL is not working properly for a very large majority of customers be they paying or just using the free Skype2Skype side of the software. Here is a glaring example of what I mean. Now this person has the required spec that Skype say you must have to run HQ Video but still it does not work.
Another place for you to look at Josh is here and here to see the problems that there are with this so call HQ Video.
I know every company has to develop new thing but please take note Josh that at the moment all the development team seen to want to do is hook every electronic gadget the can find up with Skype, at this current time many people DON'T WANT THIS we want a working product that is as fault free as it can be and then yes by all means move on to developing these other add-on's for gadgets etc.
I personnel don't know Josh but I am sure he is a very sure and capable business man but with a very large mountain to climb to get Skype and it's products back on the right track and, IMHO I think you will be banging your head against a brick wall, having said that I wish you every success and hope you achieve your goals.
PS. Josh some very essential reading when you get to you new office in Estonia.
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Thursday 28 February 2008, 6:57 PM
Skype Customer claims to of had money stolen from his Skype account
A Skype user has claimed to of had money stolen from his account by other Skype useres and Skype seem to be doing very little about it. I will leave you to read his complaint in full which can be found here and let you form your own opinion of the Skype Payment System and how they treat their PAYING customers.
This is not just a one off case, there is never a day goes by without a Skype customer complaining about the Skype Payment System you only have to look at the this section of the forum to see what I am talking about. It is not only the Payment side of Skype but the whole Customer Service side in general.
Skype users are totally frustrated at first not being able to speak to a real person about their problem. They are advised my the helpers/volunteers on the forum to send in a support request which if you are lucky might get replied to within 4 working days.
I implore anybody who is thinking of using Skype to look and read some of the many thousands of complaints about all aspects of Skype by starting at the forum front page.
Technorati ProfileWednesday 27 February 2008, 7:04 PM
Skype HQ Video and 4 months on what has changed ?.
Well it will soon be a month since I wrote my last Blog about Skype’s HQ Video and almost 3 monthe since Skype shouted to the world about how we can now have HQ Video and what at the time seemed to be a great innovation is still a total disaster. You only have to look at the Skype Forum and in particular the video section to see the same problems keep coming up time after time even with people who are running the spec machine that Skype say you need for HQ video.
Take a look at these two links https://developer.skype.com/jira/browse/SCW-583 http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=406a1b4147808d953f28a905dfd14f21&showforum=36 to see how many people are still having very similar if not the same problems and what are Skype doing about it, well looking at the bug report or the forum it would seem very little, or if they are they are not telling us. Their favourite saying of the day at the moment seem to be try Splitcam and see if you can get your video working in the mean time even though it will not be HQ.
Well my favourite saying would be, Skype forget about seeing how many other third party products you can get your program to work with and get the current product working as you claim it does, because at the moment it does not for a very large majority of people, who by the way have paid YOU money for sections of your product.
Again it would seem that Skype have shot themselves in the foot with HQ video by introducing it to the public far to soon. IMHO there has not been anything like enough development and testing to try and get as many bug as possible removed. I know no software can or will ever be bug free but their HQ Video seems to be a total bug in itself. Reading the various articles on the web and Blog sites it seem to me that all Skype are interested in seeing how many electronic gadgets they can get Skype to work with. Skype listen carefully, we DON’T want Skype to work with our washing machine or our vacuum cleaner WE want the basic Skype to work trouble free on our laptops/PC’s or Skype phones, then you can think about continuing with the development.
It would be interesting to know either via this Blog or the Skype Forum video section which can be found here, http://forum.skype.com/index.php?s=406a1b4147808d953f28a905dfd14f21&showforum=36 just how many people are using Skype and sending/receiving genuine HQ Video without any problems and what setup they use. Unfortunately like many forums and Skype is no exception very few people post saying for example I have been using Skype almost from day one done all the updates and I am also happily running HQ Video without any trouble, because when everything is running right nobody has anything to complain about.
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Monday 4 February 2008, 11:01 PM
Skype HQ (High Quality Video)....... so what happened
Some time in November of 2007 Skype shouted out to the world that we now have HQ (High Quality) Video and did nothing but rave about it, so what went wrong.
Now almost 4 month on it still is not working right for many people who have the requires spec equipment. You only have to look at the Skype Forum video section http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showforum=36 to see that there are multitude of problems and very little being done about it by the Skype development team except blame Logitech for the problem.
Why blame Logitech alone, Skype jumped into bed with them to develop this so called HQ Video so both parties must be held responsible for sorting it out but neither seems to be bothering, all people are being told in the forum is use Splitcam and see if that solves your problem. Splitcam must be laughing all the way to the bank.
Yet again Skype have put something onto the market without making sure it works for a very large majority of people but instead only works for a small amount of people but the majority have nothing but problems after problems. It would seem that the heads at Skype have not learnt there lesion from previous bad releases and still insist on pumping out fully working software.
What more can I add that to say it you just want IM chat and Skype to Skype talking the use it for that and that only because it is very good at performing those requirements, but if you want to use any other of it’s services forget about it because you will more than likely have nothing but trouble.
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