Can I Breathe Now?

We use a lot of long distance around here so when I got an offer from Skype for their unlimited US/Canada Internet phone service for $29.95 a year we decided to give it a try. We really like Skype's IM function: V and I, though our desks are just a few steps from each other, still often prefer to use IM to avoid inappropriate interruptions in each other's work.

That was two days ago. Although my charge was processed moments after clicking submit I am still Skype-phone-free.

V pointed out "The Skype logo on their homepage says 'take a deep breath.' How long am I supposed to hold this?"

I wandered into the Skype forum and found an insurrection in process. The closest thing I found to a calming voice was a post with a link to the following email:

"We have been experiencing longer than usual delays with payments made by credit cards. These payments stay listed as Pending in our system as we are processing them. Normally, credit card payments should be processed within 15 minutes but in some cases it has taken a lot longer.

You can view the status of your orders here:
https://secure.skype.com/store/myaccount/orders.html

We are working hard to process all the orders quickly and apologise for the inconvenience that this has caused

Kind regards,

Skype Customer Support"

Can't you just smell the condescension?

I have no idea where the person got this email, though she seems to keep reposting it time after time. (She apparently runs a "Skype Based Business" and calls herself a "skype hugger".) All I have received is an autoresponse saying, in effect, got your money, sit on your hands which is supposed to make it OK that the word "pending" on my account status page is starting take on a decidedly stale and moldy appearance.

Here was my response to the above post:

I signed up for Skype a couple of days ago and after experiencing the same mixture of aggravation, confusion, and finally anger people have been venting on this forum I started poking around in here.

Ma'am, I know you are a Skype based business. I am certain you have had wonderful experiences with them or you wouldn't be betting the farm on them. But what is going on here reminds me of the recent debacle with Jet Blue. You have terminals full of tired and hungry travelers and no one is really in control enough to manage the apparent melt-down Skype seems to be going through. But there is one BIG difference. Jet Blue's CEO Tom Neeleman had the backbone to go on the record in public that they had screwed up and he fell on his sword over the debacle.

The people behind Skype are conveniently hiding behind autoresponders. Seems pretty spineless to me. At the very least, stupid.

Wherever you are, stop cowering and show some cajones. Tell people straight up what is going on, what you are doing to fix it or offer immediate and unconditional refunds. You have screwed up so step up and take your medicine.

For me, I expect to treat the $29.95 as if I lost it on a ball game. I will also sniff around forums like this a bit in the future before I get involved.

OTOH, I've got some GREAT material for my blog - this has the potential of turning into one of the big customer service SNAFUs of 2007.

Now, I really do like Skype, But REALLY!

(Vicki, you can breath now.)