Skype Raids its Customer Base
Most of us know what happens when you stir up a hornets' nest. They come after you. The clamor from Skype customers will reach a roar in just a few more weeks. Most of Skype's customers are blissfully unawares that they have just been sprayed with Raid (a bug killer). This dealthy spray may lay waste to Skypeland in just months.
What am I talking about?
I'm talking about the cost of Skype Calls. Effectively without telling you Skype has raised the cost of every Skype Call. They call it a connection fee. So you make a less than 30 second call and leave a quick voicemail. In the good old days of SkypeOut this action cost you 2 cents. You would probably be surprised to learn that today the same call will cost 6 cents. Not much if all your calls are one hour long. A huge amount if the other person isn't there.
That is where Skype screwed up on all their logic. They said.. everyone makes long calls and they will never notice. Well this user has noticed. I've been stirring up a few buddies in the background too. I've spoken to no one that thinks it is really smart. The reasons why stories are just crap. When Gizmo lets me call for 1 cent per minute in the US why even contemplate getting hit for six cents just to find out if they are there.
Come on Skype!
The most popular message on Skype is "can you talk now". What does that tell you. It says that people want to manage their interruptions and be polite. It also says that the most efficient way to connect with someone is send a text message. So what happens. We now penalize the user that wants to call using Skypeout. We increase the risk factor that the failure a voice mail box will be costly. Which now costs three to four times as much.. Crazy! It's the biggest incentive yet found to encourage users not to use Skype. See if your friend isn't there. Resort to mobile plan and SMS them. Skype SMS is just too expensive and not two way.
It's worse... Skype didn't communicate this to me. I am fairly sure about this. They certainly didn't force a note into my client like they do for other services the first time and the second time they tried to charge this. No warnings. Then I do get a lot of emails. Skype one's aren't high on the agenda. So I'm like everyone else in this regard. I really have no idea.... I also have a US address registered with them for SkypeOut. They are sending me $14.95 deals / offers which as I've spent the month in India I could not buy. Plus even if I had, I'd still get the connection fee hits when I'm in places like India, the UK or New Zealand.
This new charging structure is basically an additional tax levied on users. It's a pure profit play. It obviously relates to payouts, revenue, profits and bonuses related to the Ebay payout. A few billion. Get the details elsewhere.
I bet most users never even look at their account and call logs and see how much they were charged. However, they soon will. The new charges mean your balance will go down more quickly. It's also visible on the client. 6 or 8 cents for a call just over a minute to leave a voice mail will quickly be picked up.
I'm not even going to bother linking to the other posts I've seen on a few people trying to figure this out. You can also go and read the comments on Skype's own blogs. The views mimic this sucks.
My observation and advice is simple
Skype screwed with your rates and the basic deal that you thought you had with them. They have done a lousy job communicating it and the impact on you.
I could calculate the impact on my own bill for the last six months or year. Not really worth my time. Simple conclusion. Look for another VoIP provider for calling out. Skype is certainly no longer the best value for money. Connection charges like these are not consumer friendly. They were designed by Telecoms to make more money.
What did I just say? Schemes like this were designed by Telecoms to make more money. What does that mean? It means that Skype has sold it soul and now believes it is a telecom.... Shame really. It wasn't the dream the users had for Skype or the reason they supported Skype. Then they just changed the tagline too. Some bs is flying around the blogs about that too. No need to comment further here.
If my previous post wasn't crazy... Maybe that's just enough reason for Nokia to embrace and try and push forward SIP for the mobile world. In the end the mobile will determine the desktop. We've been through a short period in time where the desktop defined the future of VoIP. Skype was that story. Time for everyone to focus on what next. And it is not really about rates; it is about services.
In the meantime those of you that still watch for and read my blog... Watch your pennies and keep an eye on the Skype fine print; because you now have a company that happily slips it by you.
For me it is a clear strategic mistake. It seems caution and good business sense was also thrown to the winds in this one.
Technorati Tags: skype, SkypeOut, voip, charges, customerrage
Comments
I expected this message from skypejournal before a long time!!! A late message! However I appreciate you for posting it now. Thank you.
Posted by: U. Yogu | February 12, 2007 08:58 PM
Hi Stuart - This is a sad day :(. I have long sang the praises of Skype on our blog, but this is not good news. I am planning on posting about this too. Can you tell me some more information about how you found out about this? Has Skype responded? Please email me if you can.
Thanks :).
Posted by: cctech | February 13, 2007 04:35 AM
Very disapointing...
Posted by: Andrius | February 13, 2007 05:52 AM
One thing that might happen is that such connection charges might backfire and send people back to the telcos. More and more of the telcos (in the UK at least) are now offering "free calls for £X a month" - Virgin Media now offer a combined TV and phone service that offers 800 minutes of call time to any UK landline or mobile number as well International numbers (they even have a "complete" package with all of the above, plus broadband and a mobile phone). If you do sign up with such a package, then the allure of VOIP (other than as an extension of Instant Messaging) starts to disappear.
Posted by: Scot | February 13, 2007 05:55 AM
I am glad that you reported it, even if somewhat late.
It was a really stupid thing for Skype to do. What they obviously thought, was that something like that would pass un-noticed by their customers.
But this obviously didn't happen!
It was the worst move Skype has made since its launch, and if they want to fix it and not lose their loyal SkypeOut customers, they can get rid of the connection fee before everyone abandons them!
I have stopped using SkypeOut from the moment they announced the connection fee, and I advise every SkypeOut user to BOYCOTT this decision, until they realise their mistake and take it back!
Posted by: John | February 13, 2007 12:12 PM
For me, and I think for a lot of other people, it was a "tipping point". I knew there were cheaper alternatives but stayed with skype out of loyalty/inertia. The connection fee sent me straight off to freecall, but I still use skype for the free services. It looks like a massive miscalculation from a business point of view. They will have to come up with something pretty good in "skypepro" to reverse the damage.
Posted by: Michael | February 14, 2007 05:30 PM
Even the oldline telcos here in North America would not dare to try and implement a connection fee even if they could. Skype is either very brave or very stupid to try. You decide which. I've already made my choice with my pocketbook. In my case, they've lost my business by trying to fleece me for a few extra cents per call, and worse for them, my eyes are now open to other alternatives for all my calling.
Posted by: Glen | February 16, 2007 11:58 AM