On several ocassions Sype has worked so I know it is possible. Usually the call is broken up, sometimes it is unintelligible, frequently my contacts cannot hear me. Twice I have bought new headphones/microphones. I have to keep going to Control Panel & resetting the microphone settings, which sometimes goes to mute when I make a call. I had to get a phone card for important calls. It has got to be more trouble than it is worth. I checked to see if I could get my credit back & learned that there is an expiration date.

Regardless of what is claimed there is no cost to maintaining an account; it is only a number in a computer program. Prepaying actually means they are earning interest on our money. Expiration dates have only 1 purpose - to screw customers!

I have been advising contacts to sign up for Skype; now I will start warning people about Skype.

Ok then, bye bye!

perhaps before you start blaming software (software that does not do what you say it does on anybody elses computer) you start taking a look at your hardware. maybe you should try gizmoproject and see how that works for you but i'm betting you will get the same thing.

i had a friend that everytime he spoke to me it souded like a helicopter was in his room. he went through many headsets before deciding that it was his sound card and bought a USB headset and voila, problem solved.

[quote=myneid]perhaps before you start blaming software (software that does not do what you say it does on anybody elses computer) you start taking a look at your hardware. maybe you should try gizmoproject and see how that works for you but i'm betting you will get the same thing.

i had a friend that everytime he spoke to me it souded like a helicopter was in his room. he went through many headsets before deciding that it was his sound card and bought a USB headset and voila, problem solved.[/quote]

You're probably right about the S/W. However I still do not know of any valid reason for an honest company to attach expiration dates to prepayments.

[quote=muppetblaster]Ok then, bye bye![/quote]

he didn't say he was leaving skype....just that he'd not encourage ppl to join...there is a difference!

[quote=rogerlockwood]You're probably right about the S/W. However I still do not know of any valid reason for an honest company to attach expiration dates to prepayments.[/quote]

Ha ha ha ha ha, "honest company", ha ha ha ha ha, very funny dude.

It's pretty common in the world of pre-paid mobile phone cards (in central Europe at least!) to have an expiry date beyond which the pre-paid creidts expire. And let's not forget that with SkypeOut all you have to do is make a single one minute call in order to extend your validity by a further six months. Seems to me that's a pretty good deal. But then it's more fun to whinge and complain, I guess. :lol:

hey now, fair is fair, skype is tricky (not always providing the services paid for), evil (having expiration dates), nasty (taking money and providing bad service), but they are certainly not dishonest......look at the T&C and u'll find that, skype, like any other money hungry company has everything covered..... so u have been warned

Personally, anything I've paid for, i.e. both SkypeOut and SkypeIn, have worked perfectly satisfactorily for me. Yes, there's the odd glitch from time to time, but at 2 cents a minute to make a call, am I complaining? And being able to receive calls to my mobile by diverting them to my SkypeIn number instead of paying roaming charges saves me a bundle.

But all you have to do is make one call to extend the expiration date by six months. Evil? I don't think so.

I've never had "bad" service - not always perfect, but never bad.

Excuse me, but why do companies exist? To make a return for their shareholders. Skype is not a charity - it's a business. Of course they want to make money. What's wrong with that?

i'll take one point at a time,

the odd glitch from time to time, ur an individual, so yes it's an odd glitch, but consider skypes 5+million users and odd glitches add up to a hell of a lot of time. furthermore, one needs only to search this forum to know exactly what i meant by not always providing the paid for services, 100 satisfied customers does not justify kicking the 1 unknown customer.

one call to extend expiration date.....do u own a pay as u go mobile? do they ask the same from u....i own a pay as u go mobile.....initially had £10 in it as i dont use it much, 3 years on, the credit that remains was a part of that initial £10. and at times several months have passed without needin to make a single call. ...evil...matter of opinion i say. urs against mine, i prefer mine, im sure u prefer urs, let the ppl decide whch they prefer. lets not tell them what to prefer.

ok so u never had a bad service, click my name and look through my past posts, u'll find theres one discussing a ticket i raised..... never heard back untill four months later when i decided to track down the ticket. found it had been closed..... so i reopened it. then they decided to finally reply.....4 bl**dy months...nah, not at all bad....im sure u can find more serious cases of nasty on this forum with a quick search. and like i said b4, 100 smiles does not justify kicking one person.

yes skype does want to make money, so yes ur excused, but now excuse me, when did i say making money was bad? i merely pointed out skype wants money like ne one else....is that a bad thing? bad service is not bad, but pointing out the obvious is?

happy skypin*

*as long as it's free