FixProgramErrors.com

Skype Errors

Skype released into the public market with free calling over the internet and charged calls to land lines or mobile phones.  Skype fast realized a purchase price of almost two and a half billion dollars and has been written down to just under two billion dollars pending a soon anticipated public offering.  For what once appeared to be a novelty, Skype has certainly presented a tremendous impact on communications.  As such a large marketable software item, where is Skype customer service?

Customer chat on Skype errors seems like friendly discussion with little focus on tremendous troubles.  Most Skype errors appear centered around user error or smaller troubles like speaker volume initiating at a zero level on startup or troublesome self adjusting volumes.  One overwhelming sensation, however, is that there is no customer service department.  So distressed are Skype users over customer service that generous postings in chat forums discuss court actions against Skype referring to severe losses to the user customers.

There is enough traffic generated in chat forums that perhaps the largest Skype errors have occurred in the billing policies or implementation thereof.  Customers complain in mass that their credit cards expired interim of a prepaid subscription of some months or even over one year and because of the card expiration the customer account was cancelled.  Customers complain of having marketed large quantity of numbers at considerable expense only to have these numbers lost in the problematic credit card update process.  Some customers were subjected to increased rates to renew their accounts.  Certainly Skype has issues when dealing with Skype errors but the handling of this incident seems to be of tremendous impact to users.

While there is an apparent overwhelmingly insufficient customer service team within Skype to deal with Skype errors there is a large posting in circulation of what has been called ‘almost every conceivable error code’ and a resolution for such as claimed by users.  With forum discussions at current mass levels and search engine power at their current mass capabilities, there is a lot to be said for clearly posted customer service; yet, there still needs to be a presence that makes customers feel appreciated.  Any company that reaches a value in billions of main line currency has an obligation to put forth a strong presence for customer satisfaction.

In discussion of the other side of the service issue, Skype does have a support web site with easy to discern topics and a functional search tool.  When questioned about credit card billing the site answered basic considerations but did not address the above mentioned issue.  Certainly support should answer more than just Skype errors when there is an acknowledged problem in the consensus of the user base.  There is no mention of the reasoning Skype would cancel, though there are reasonable explanations.  Still, there is a support site and it does answer meaningful issues.  As such, it seems that the overall service of Skype is suitable.  Giving credit to age old adages such as ‘the proof is in the pudding’ the enormous value of Skype says that there is something great behind Skype.

Taking all above into consideration, there could be some explanation why Skype’s new owners had to lower the value of the company by nearly three quarter of a billion dollars.  The ability to, but refusal to comfortably deal with Skype errors to the satisfaction of the customer base gives evidence.  This could have great impact on the public offering expected next year.

Skype presents a warmly welcomed solution to the communications market and an infrastructure capable of handling its exponential expanding base.  If customer service could rise to the demand, then this company could burst boundaries in its public offering planned next year.   This would be a win situation for everyone.