Like Luis Benavides, I am pissed off, therefore i almost don’t use SkypeOut anymore!Luis is still very angry and raised a VERY INTERESTING issue, click on the next phrase to go to his blog: Skype IS breaking the user agreement! I didn’t think about it, but he is 100% right! They should refund everybody!
Some reasons why you shouldn’t use SkypeOut:
- Connection fee of 0.037 € per call
- Local connection fees are often cheaper with your PSTN* phone company
- Other VoIP solutions are cheaper: VoIPStunt for instance
- With SkypeOut you have to pre-pay your calls (buying credit before consuming, therefore sponsoring Skype), with your local PSTN company you pay after consumption!
- With SkypeOut you can loose your credit and become a Skype Benefactor
- People can’t call you back (from PSTN to Skype!)
- There is no caller identification: people can’t know who is calling, and sometimes refuse to take the call – i experienced this with my own Parents (grin)!
- Call quality is usually not as good as a PSTN to PSTN call
- Calls to mobile phones are often of a quite bad quality
- And most of all: I think Skype betrayed us!
* “Public switched telephone network” or your ordinary old telephone line!
3 comments:
Connection fee of 0.037 € per call
- Why not focus on the total cost of the average call instead of a 0.037 eurocents? Its still way lower than both mobile and fixed line alternatives.
Local connection fees are often cheaper with your PSTN* phone company
- I bet 99% of SkypeOut use is for international calls. Again lets try focusing on the bigger picture.
Other VoIP solutions are cheaper: VoIPStunt for instance
- Sure, and cloth seats are cheaper than leather seats in my new car but you get what you pay for. The features on VoIPStunt are frankly poor.
With SkypeOut you have to pre-pay your calls (buying credit before consuming, therefore sponsoring Skype), with your local PSTN company you pay after consumption!
- You can top up Skype as quickly or slowly as you want. Is being 10 Euro out of pocket at any one point in time even relevant?
With SkypeOut you can loose your credit and become a Skype Benefactor
- This is for sure something that needs to be ironed out. Skype for business is still premature. But how that affects your individual choice of VOIP is beyond me.
People can’t call you back (from PSTN to Skype!)
- Get a Skype-In number and people can call you at Skype anytime.
There is no caller identification: people can’t now who is calling, and sometimes refuse to take the call – i experienced this with my own Parents (grin)!
- True but is that avoidable? I don't personally know.
Call quality is usually not as good as a PSTN to PSTN call
- Its certainly getting there and, in any case, often good enough to trust mostly any conversation to.
Calls to mobile phones are often of a quite bad quality
- And expensive but again, its getting there and often good enough.
And most of all: I think Skype betrayed us!
- OK, so the contractual terms are an interesting point and they should have given proper notice and refund options. But calling it a betrayal is somewhat extreme as it implies an intentional deception. I don't think Skype even realized they were potentially violating the T&Cs.
eh eh ... your are raising some points and defending quite well Skype (perhaps you are Skype Staff?).
I intended to post tomorrow why it is still useful to use SkypeOut. But you answered most of the points. I will still do it anyway
;-)
But i am angry, because i used it often to call inside Belgium, and i don't anymore! Pity for Skype ...
I am a user of skype out. At the begging I was very happy (about 8 months ago) But calls quality was degrading..to the point that I get pissed of.... I am not using it anymore..The company shool wrok on the service they provide.
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