Julho, 27 2005
Quarta-feira

Beware! Skype steals your money.

I not an active Skype user, i confess. I some times use it to chat, and rarely make VoIP calls to "landline numbers".
On January, i decided to try out the service. Bought a €10.00 credit. That was the minimum. Tried it out, great quality and that was it. Spent about €3.00.

Today, some months later, and having used it in this past months only to "chat", i decided to make a VoIP call to a landline number.

SkypeOut is Inactive
Buy credit to activate SkypeOut.

UH?!!?
It must be a mistake, let's login on the site.
Browse through the call list... it checked, but where were the remaining €7.00 ?

Lets send an email complaining...
Your support request was not submitted as there are some possible answers in our knowledgebase.

Nice, lets see it.

Credit in your SkypeOut balance remains active for 180 days after your last succesfully connected PSTN phone call. ? Credit balances on accounts with no activity during a 180 day period will be lost.

What the fuck ?!?! I pre-pay a service that requires a minimum ammount and i have to spend it on a certain timeframe or else ?!?! Is this even legal ? No courtesy warning email ?

Lesson learned. No "Skyping" in the near future.

ps: Your blog sucks bigtime!

 27 Julho 2005 - 00:29   4 Comentário(s)   Technorati links   Linking posts

Comentários - Comentar ?

About SkypeOut Credit Expiry

Sorry pal - the information that SkypeOut credit expires in 180 days was clearly stated to you when buying SkypeOut credit. We require users to make just one call every 6 months to maintain the credit (which is much more friendly than the usual standard with telecom/mobile prepayments where you have to make a PAYMENT every 6 months or less).
por Jaanus Kase a 27 Julho 2005 - 20:13

Maintain credit ? We're talking about money!

Yes, it was so "clearly stated" that i didn't noticied it, neither some of my friends that were suprised when i told them what happened.
In the "usual standard with telecom/mobile prepayments", yes in *some* they make you pay every x months, but they won't zero your credit. They block your account, you then make the payment and all comes back to normal.
It's ok that when you pay for something and you don't use it for some time they block your account and make you to re-activate it. It's not normal that they rip off all of your credit(it was €7.00, it could have been €500) just because you don't use the credit that you payed for and didn't make use of. This is not a perishable product. It doesn't rotten with time.
I can't think of another service that works like that. Some charge x for month, some charge x if you don't use, never heard of one that would take all of your credit... and worst, without warning.

But hey, i was the sitting duck here, lesson learned. The terms were "clearly stated" even if hey are plain stupid.
por Carlos Jorge Andrade a 28 Julho 2005 - 11:02

Everyone does that

So what about minute packs from telecoms where the minutes HAVE to be used within 3 or 6 months? And what about ISPs bandwith. Some don't even transfer the bandwidth you don't use for the next months. The diference is that in these cases you have to pay a monthly fee so you don't know when they take minutes out of your account.
por João Lúcio a 31 Julho 2005 - 20:45

Skype’s dishonest money grabbing policy

Since Skype stole my credit over two years ago, I’ve not bee able to bring myself to purchase any more credit. I disagree with the public relations commentator above who’s trying to justify their dishonest business practices by saying “We’re not as greedy as our competition” and “you should have read the fine print”. When I had my money stolen by Skype, I received an absurdly cute letter which basically said “we’re taking your money” and tried to justify it on the basis of an inactive account; the cute wording was designed to mitigate the expected customer indignation. If inactivity, or data cleansing was the issue, then why didn’t Skype delete my user name, password and full account? Also, why didn’t I receive a warning? And why did the company not respond to my complaint letter? Their policy is rooted in money grabbing practices, so buyer beware.
por Brian Cugelman a 24 Fevereiro 2008 - 19:55

Blogmaster

Tem 32 anos, é natural de Vila Nova de Famalicão mas mora no Porto desde que veio para a universidade... bem, morou. Agora já casado, está pela Maia. Anda pela internet há já uns 12 anos tendo trabalhado em vários projectos como foram o caso do Mail.pt ou no Sapo. Nos tempos livres vai tendo tempo para fazer umas brincadeiras, entre as quais o ITJobs o Lusocast o Hispanocast ou o Destakes
De resto já bloga há uns 7 anos apesar de ter perdido parte da "vida" numa mudança de hosting provider. Algumas restias ainda por aí andam... ah, e o email de contacto está no footer.
Btw... job offers are welcome!

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