Skype Consumer Reviews

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA -- The service I paid for with Skype with a phone number always said invalid account. As mentioned their community never gave answers or even provided a solution to correct this issue. I wrote it up as a loss. My subscription was to be from March 8th; I I8th; I8th; I decided not to update my card date, which was to expire in March 1st. What Skype did was renew the subscription February 26th. Which then puts their payment in the queue prior to the expiration date.

Since then even with Skype claiming you have a refund due to it never transpired nor will they give me proof of a credit. I had to keep going to my bank to have them look for the credit seven times. I even screenshot my statement with their charging me. (Of course, I blacked out the account and other activities on it.) After about 45 tense emails of them and they still will not send me a screen shot of their supposedly credit, and that it went through. They even have the nerve now to tell me to get a letter from my bank to tell them that my account has not received the credit and bank statements from March 23rd forward to show I did not receive the credit.

Obviously under the advice from an attorney, I again ask for their screen shot of the credit and its proof of it. I also responded to them that as of May 01, 2017, I have removed my card from my account so that it cannot be charged inadvertently since I updated the date on it April 14, 2017.

I would like to hear from others with the similar problem of refunds so that a class-action suit can be filed. This will probably take a long time. It will simply send a clear message to Skype no more bull crap. We will get our money back. Nevertheless, this has to be stopped. Just for your information Skype is owned now by Microsoft. However, their financial woe for this division is not the best. They have closed numerous Skype locations around the world.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- I have credit in my Skype account that is activated & will not become inactive for another six months but I cannot transfer this credit to my balance on the page where you put the calls through. I have tried just making a call with the credit I have to a number where I know that the credit is sufficient for the call, but the call will not go through & a page appears asking me to buy more credit.

I have plenty of experience with computers & internet & I just cannot work it out how to fix this problem. After hearing of everyone's else's problems of trying to contact customer support & not finding a result in the Q&A's pages I have decided to count my losses & close my account. Too much time & trouble for me anyhow.

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA -- I just found out that Skype will only refund credits bought within 14 days of purchase. Is this legal? In California gift cards purchased (basically advance credit) can't legally expire, so how does Skype get away with keeping money you paid them for credit which hasn't been used? Regarding another issue, in attempting to reach a Skype representative through their online chat feature, I waited for over 50 minutes as I was informed there was heavy volume, but I was still in line to reach an agent. When an agent finally came online, I was told they could not help me because a system update was in progress. Anybody who knows anything about computer systems realizes they could have generated a message explaining that the system update was in progress and for customers to try again later, but, instead, their failure to implement a simple solution kept dozens of customers waiting, collectively, for hours. What's worse is that in chatting with a supervisor the next day, he didn't know enough to realize this and dismissed my suggestion, saying I didn't understand their system. Terrible customer service!

I have to jump in here and tell of my nerve wracking, excruciating experience with Skype Customer Support. To begin with, I received a notice on February 24th my online number was about to expire on March 2nd. I immediately went to my account because I knew I had a $30 discount/credit off an online number. I tried to use my discount and it kept taking me to payment options. There was no option to use my credit.

I wrote customer service and explained what I was trying to do. Here is their reply: "Hello **. Thank you for contacting Skype Support. We understand your concern. The discount from your subscription will automatically be deducted from the sum for the extension of your online number."

I went back and tried it again; it still would not let me use the "promised" discount stated right in my account. I then wrote the representative back and explained again it would not work. I soon got this reply: "Hello **. Thank you for contacting Skype Support. The reason for that is because you have to pay for this number. This is why you are redirected to Paypal."

(Remember, I already have paid for my online number that is about to expire.) Do you see where he totally changed his story around? The next thing I know, 5 minutes later, I get a notice from my PayPal account that I had sent $7.95 to Skype!? (by the way, my auto pay was disabled, but they took it anyway) What??? Now I am really furious. I write back and get NO answer in 3 days.

I go back and submit another ticket hoping I will get a different representative. I explained I wanted my $7.95 returned unless they can give me my $30 discount for my online number, and I also send copies of all correspondence between me and **.

Now I get a response from another representative who returns my $7.95 and ends my service!? I go back to my account and guess what? They also removed my $30 discount I never got to use and had been trying to use for the last 10 days.

I just wrote them back and told them how WRONG they are and how BADLY they have done me. I can not believe they get away with this. I had that $30 discount in my account for 2 months and planned on using to to renew my online number, but not one representative could help me with this issue; not one of them. They all avoided me for 10 days. I just wrote them my last letter before I came here to post this.

I do NOT recommend Skype service to anyone. Aside from the customer support, I lost connection many, many times while in the middle of a conversation. The service all the way around stinks! Is it any surprise as to why they do not have a customer support phone number, or email addresses to the owner?

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA -- After buying some air time, I realized that I'd have to buy/rent yet ANOTHER phone number and I knew that I'd made a BIG mistake. That's when the nightmare began--try to cancel your accountor try to get help doing so-- IMPOSSIBLE. The worst company (even worse than Comcast) that I've ever dealt with!

TACOMA, WASHINGTON -- The service never worked and it's impossible to cancel. I was double charged by a 3rd party, which was reversed. I filed complaints with the State Attorney General's Office and the FCC.

I have been a Skype customer since 2008. Originally purchased credit, then switched to unlimited monthly plan. The call quality was often poor, but the price was cheap. Figured you get what you pay for. Recently, some of my credit went missing. Tried to find somewhere on their site to contact them and find out where my money went, but found no way to do so. I had to search google, and finally found a post on yahoo answers by another frustrated person that had the same problem. Had to go to a third party site to find out how to contact them (the site is only partially encrypted and is not secure).

They had billed me for an SMS to a number I never heard of. I didn't even know what an SMS was, and certainly never sent one. I consider this a fraudulent charge by Skype. Asked for return of my missing money which was only a dime, but it was MY dime and the remainder of my credit.

After spending far too much of my time responding to the obfuscating emails informing me of everything except how to get my money back, they told me that they were refusing to return the monies they were holding. It was 64 cents, but it was MY 64 cents, they didn't work for it.

They lied by billing for a service that was never rendered (fraud) to get part of my money and flat-out stole the remainder by refusing to return any of it. I am forever finished with Skype. Perhaps they think that people will not bother with a missing dime here or 50 cents there. I however, have principles and am ethically minded. I have canceled my account.

After reading from the multitude of complaints about Skype stealing other people's money, I took the precautions of calling my credit card company to cancel card used for Skype purchase and had them re-issue with a new account number. Also made sure to log in to Paypal account where original monies were transferred from and canceled billing agreement to ensure that they did not steal more money from me, as has happened to countless others. You can't be overly careful when dealing with these criminals. Beware, chances are good it is only a matter of time before they get around to you as well.

UNKNOWN -- Skype was great when it was free. I made the mistake of investing in the company. I paid an annual rate up front just this month on January 6, 2008. All was well and good, I averaged about 240 minutes a day on what they described should be included in the premium annual rate.

On January 22, 2008 I started getting a per charge fee. I learned - they don't have a CUSTOMER SERVICE PHONE# or LIVE ASSISTANCE. I had to send a support email. On January 23, 2008 I paid an additional fee to give them an opportunity to resolve the billing issue. I got a response stating the problem had been resolved and asking me to email back if I had any additional problems.

The problem was not resolved and I email daily for 2 days with no response when I found a support forum. Now the moderators refuse to say if they are SKYPE employees or SKYPE volunteers. These folks allegedly have some pull with Skype and have an official looking logo as a MODERATOR. This allows the public to believe they can get answers.

Now this billing problem is system wide. There are a growing number of complaints daily. The moderators dodge all the questions and ask the same clarifying questions over and over, in the forums and many times it appears as if they are intentionally inciting PAYING CUSTOMERS. This got me angry. I hate being treated like I'm stupid by some pretentious ass and this makes me want to fight back not only for the fraud committed on my contract, but the fraud they are committing against folks who are being overbilled (in some cases by hundreds) and for the poor folks who just don't have the money for alternative phone services.

So this UK based firm is blatantly using fraud collecting American dollars, promising a service, and not only failing to honor their end of the contract, but in some cases where folks made the mistake of trusting them by enrolling in the "auto-refill program" for prepaid premium calls - they are being billed for calls under the all inclusive plan. Also note, if you buy credits and don't use it all in 6 months, they steal the money and fail to provide the service. I've experienced a lot of subterfuge, lies, and unprofessionalism.

My prediction is that SKYPE crossed a line and this will go class action, especially since they were bought out by eBay/PayPal. There's a lot of bad blood in the on-line community and PayPal was already sued for stealing funds from business owners collecting payments through that system. This is just a further demonstration of the same lack of customer service and fraud that PayPal got slammed for a few years back. Same people - same illegal activities. You think they'd learn.

I somewhat recently had a notice from Skype in Dec. 2009, that my credit card was rejected due to expiration. Bear in mind that I was on auto-pay every three months. The message said that "your credit card has been denied due to expiration and your service will be terminated. This was fine with me because that I had accrued bonus credits for every three month purchase that I had made in the past. So I figured that before I give Skype my new credit card expiration date, I would use up my accrued credits and then buy another three months of the "unlimited U.S. and Canada" calling plan.

Here is the catch… I used the few dollars worth of credit that I had coming to me and no longer needed to make long distance calls. Since I no longer needed to make long distance calls, I would wait until someone out of state wanted to talk with me before I committed to another three months with Skype. My mother called me Jan. 30, 2010. I told my mother that I now would purchase Skype for a three month contract. She told me to use her credit card for the purchase since it would be cheaper for me to call her using Skype.

I then purchased a three month contract with Skype starting 01/30/10. Skype then sent me two e-mails saying thank you for your purchase of Skype in December of 2009. (This is the time the auto-pay was originally denied due to expiration of the credit card which resulted in expiration of unlimited calling.) Another e-mail was sent simultaneously that said, "thank you for your purchase of three months of Skype starting 01/30/2010. So, to sum up, Skype charged me for the time that my credit card was refused and I could no longer make unlimited U.S. and Canada calls back in Dec. 2009 and re-charged me again in Jan 2010.

So, in effect, I was charged $7.95 for 30 days of no-service, and another $8.20 for the new service starting Jan 30th, 2010. Customer service gave me credit for the five dollars and change and said they could not fix the problem because there is no invoice for December. Since I have an "unlimited calling plan" to U.S. and Canada, what good does five dollars worth of world-wide calling do me?

Bottom line is that Skype has no customer service that you can call. They have many customers. If you don't like their service, "screw you!!!" and they are not located in the U.S. so have fun using them! Caution, be very careful giving your credit card number to Skype. They will not be accountable for any charges that you deem as inappropriate. The company has grown so large that they do not care about any one individual. The only recourse you have is to air your complaints to U.S. citizens on multiple forums!!! Everything else falls on deaf ears.

SKYPE CUSTOMER SUPPORT IS LACKING -- APPARENTLY ON MULTIPLE ISSUES FROM THE LOOKS OF THINGS!! Skype provides wonderful products and services, in general; however, they advertise that they provide vouchers for additional products and services (when one signs up for Skype Pro) but they do NOT deliver.

In my experience, and apparently in the experiences of many others, Skype sends an email that indicates that it contains information which will allow one to redeem these vouchers using a unique code. I have seen enough to know that I was far from alone in concluding that the code cannot be found in the email, nor in all the myriad places that customer support sends one to find them.

Now, perhaps this is just seen as good sport by the friendly folks at Skype -- perhaps their version of what we in the southern US call a snipe hunt. For me, however, it created an enormous waste of time. The customer support I got was from emails or forum postings or whatever exchanged between a various support persons and various users. When I tried to send a customer support request via their customer support email system, I was provided a "Continue" button to click on and got a list of help suggestions.

As a result, I'm doubting that the two emails I wrote went anywhere. Now, I will grant that the invoice I received when I made the purchase of Skype Pro service indicated that the cost of the vouchers was $0; however, if the folks in Luxembourg are thinking that should be an indication they are worthless they need to educate themselves a bit about business transactions in other cultures.

In my experience, a listing of a voucher on an invoice that is indicated as costing $0 simply means the voucher is being given free of charge. If they mean something different, they should simply explain it as such and not waste people's time sending them on a snipe hunt. I had not paid much attention to the email with the voucher information when I first received it. It was only after I had gotten pretty excited about the service and had purchased some additional products from Skype and was thinking of ways I might use it with my business -- that I noticed my account kept showing I had earned vouchers.

As a result I started looking for these vouchers and how to redeem them. I just do not know, now. I know I am small potatoes, but this has left a bad taste in my mouth! I am not liking these folks quite as much as I used to.