Ok … I had to take a moment to vent about Skype.  What a great
product … what lousy execution.  Their support?  It sucks
beyond almost any vendor I have ever dealt with.

On my recent Philippines trip, I started to use SkypeOut … or tried
to.  First, I was unable to get them to accept any of my credit
cards … business or personal.  Now these are the same credit
cards that I use for all other on-line purchases … but not with
Skype.  Nope.  They wouldn’t take them.  So no SkypeOut
credit.

Well, then I noticed that they accept PayPal … hmmm … wonder if
that will work.  Yeah!  It worked!  A week ago I was
able to pay Skype $10 for SkypeOut credit.  They even gave me an
extra $1.60 of credit for paying!  I called lots of people … for
one day.  Then … back to ground zero.

Six days ago … the morning after my success paying via PayPal … and
after using Skype to make calls for over an hour … I wen to dail a
number only to see a red bar appear that said:

Skype Account Blocked – Your Skype account has been blocked!  Click here for details

Yeah … right.  Try clicking … it takes you to their home
page.  Uh guys … how about if I log into my account?  I
simply get another message:

You are currently restricted from purchasing services or redeeming vouchers.
Please contact
Customer Support to review your account status.

Ok … great.  No details … I click the link … get taken to a
crappy tech support form.  Fine … I filled it in, posted it, and
was sent to a page with a bunch of unrelated “knowledgebase” articles
… with another button to *really* post my support request.

So six days ago … I sent my support request.  And I have done so
for each and every day since.  No response.  Oh … well this
monring I finally got back a message saying that they have received my
first support request … sent seven days ago!

So Skype has my money … and has blocked my account.  As for the
“free in the US” they claim to be offering?  I can’t call those
numbers either now … my account is blocked.  I can call PC to PC
… I think … but no SkypeOut at all … nada.

So they lie … the whole world CAN NOT talk for free.  And in my
case, I have even paid my $10 and I can not talk … at least not via
Skype.  What a bummer … some people are screwing up a perfectly
good idea.