Skype is one of those tech horror stories that you don't really believe until you have tried to use it yourself. Having used it for nearly 8 years, I have seen it go from a promising online communications platform to a platform that has nearly every conceivable problem one could possibly face when using it. The quality of video and audio is all over the place with some cases being a completely pleasant experience while a call with the same person can have major problems causing the call to drop.
The platform is ripe for abuse by spam bots interested in spreading their malicious links to any and all users they are able to find. The number of spam contact requests I get is increasing month after month, making it an unpleasant experience. I dislike getting a ton of requests from users that have images that minors should definitely not be seeing on a platform that doesn't require you to be 18 to use.
The customer service or lack thereof ensures that if you have an issue with billing that you'll be more likely just dealing with it at your bank rather than with their support since their support doesn't actually speak English as the primary language. I understand why companies would outsource a lot of their customer service, but when the agents that you're communicating with actually have no clue what you're talking about despite the fact that you're using their own terminology as found on the Skype website, it creates an incredibly unpleasant experience where you're pretty much guaranteed to not get what you need.
Skype has quite factually sold me a Skype phone number that they did not have the rights to sell me given that it was enabled in my account and I was able to make calls with that as my call back number, but when my aunt tried to call me back from her cell phone, she reached some Todd who had the number for two years through T-Mobile. Skype didn't even know which phone numbers they actually had access to and which ones they didn't.
Ever since Microsoft took over the Skype platform it has been getting worse and worse in almost every single conceivable way whether it be through the Skype application on Windows (I prefer to use the actual program rather than the hilariously unfocused and disorganized Windows app on Windows 10) or the Android application. Even the web-browser version when used on Chrome OS is just terrible in every single way. Adding contacts and not being able to actually explain to them who you are just makes for awkward additions if someone cannot remember who you are from the picture you used which is now low resolution because adding it in the web interface downgrades it for some reason.
Microsoft makes every single effort to make this an unpleasant experience. I wouldn't be surprised if they rebrand the entire thing over the next two years or so because performing even a small amount of research online will show you two things:
1) They are bleeding users as many of their long-term users are switching to competing platforms like Discord
2) No one is having a positive experience.
Very useful...
In the past three months I have lost just under $100 from spammers on Skype.
My account was used as a spammer's delivery tool in Sweden. Over one-thousand SMS texts were sent from my account - half in September and half early November.
In September, a hacker gained access to my account and began to spam people in Sweden with texts. I promptly went to Skype customer service - attempted to resolve the issue, be refunded and move on. We took all the necessary steps to recover my account and make sure that nobody gained access to it again. Customer service agreed to refund me for the "Auto-recharge" cycles that occurred 5 times during the hacker's shenanigans and cost me $14 each time.
Since then I have cancelled auto-recharge.
However, I have still not been refunded.
If that isn't enough - in the past few days THE EXACT SAME THING has happened to me.
I followed the same steps, talked to Skype customer service. Did all of the security measures to ensure that it didn't happen again. I explained to them that even though my "auto-recharge" was turned off - it WAS STILL HAPPENING. They promptly continued on with the same security measures that did not protect me the first time... or the second time.
Upon me asking for a refund due to their inability to secure my account, the customer service rep then told me that it's not their responsibility.
Allow me to make that clear to anyone willing to give Skype their personal information and/or money - IT IS NOT SKYPES' RESPONSIBILITY TO KEEP YOUR ACCOUNT SECURED.
After spending 1.5hrs on the live chat with a customer service rep dodging my requests for a refund, he told me that they needed to "convert this communication to email so we could further investigate the said issue". On my approval of this "conversion" the chat was ended by the rep.
Full transcript available on request.
A great site
Well worth the price-FREE!
I like their video calls service