Skype? Useless bunch of *****, more like

Long story short:

Set up Skype account. Added credit using credit/debit card. Worked just fine and dandt. Great service.

Credit ran low. Went to top it up. Two attempts ended in seeming success… using Bank Transfer (credit card no longer allowed for some reason never adequately explained) but no conformation. Third attempt, payment is “pending” and a 30-minute dig through the FAQ tells me that I have to initiate payment from my bank – they will not take the payment themselves. This is not apparent from the web pages provided.

Next option: set up a PayPal link. Duly done. Then option not provided, so despite all the work done to get that up and going I still can’t use it.

Net result – it takes up to 2 weeks to add credit to my account every time it runs out. Which, frankly, is ******* useless. Especially when the credit’s run out as I’ve had to make several very urgent and very long calls and now need to make more. Waiting 2 weeks to make those called (up to 10 working day) is simply ******* useless.

Letter sent to Skype:

Merje,

I appreciate that Skype has limits as regards overuse of credit cards and so forth, but I find it hard to believe that the card I used to initially put credit on the account cannot be used to top it up after more than a month.

Also, why offer me the facility of PayPal payment if it is not available in the UK? As it stands, setting the account up is very easy leading me to think this will be the case from then on. I have discovered that getting credit onto my Skype account after I have created it is an absolute nightmate and could take up to two weeks. This simply is not good enough.

While I understand you are attempting to prevent fraud, you’re making it utterly useless for people who have a genuine use for the system and I think I’ll find myself ditching Skype as an option and using the Post Office to make long distance calls unless your company can actually figure out what it is trying to do. The whole “top up” system is a complicated mess, lacking instructions and information.

I attempted to set up a bank transfer option and the first *TWO* times I did this, I recieved no email notification of the details. On the third attempt, an email was received, but your bank details were not included, thus making it impossible to start a transfer from my end. In *all* cases, no indication was made that *I* had to initiate the transfer – that was buried in an FAQ somewhere. Completely and wholly inadequate. I waited two days before realising there was absolutely *nothing* happening.

I am in a situation in a foreing country where I *NEED* to get in contact with the UK. I have very quickly realised that I cannot rely on Skype to offer a useful and reliable service for my needs. When I have credit, it’s great. But you seem to be hell bent on making it as hard and tedious as possible to add credit to my account.

I am in a foreign country with no money. I need to phone home. I cannot as I am out of credit. The only option you will give me to add credit is Bank Transfer which takes up to 2 weeks. I don’t understand this as I loaded the account using a credit card within *minutes*. You tell me to set up a PayPal account, which I’ve done, and then don’t let me use it.

Seriously. Do you have *any* idea how utterly, mindbogglingly inept you look as an organisation at a result of this conflicting information and continual supply of dead ends?

Next time I go abroad, I’m investing in two tin cans and a very long length of string. I feel it would be of more use and certainly more reliable than your red-tape enshrouded organisation.

Thanks (ha ha ha – as if)

Mosh

(P.S. This message posted to my blog and several discussion groups to highlight exactly how useless your organisation is. Buck your ideas up and study the term “customer satisfaction” and I may repeal it)

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Save The Gorilla

As part of my World Trip thingy, I’m trying to raise a bit of awareness about other cultures and also about animals – in particular those that are endangered. In NZ, I’ve seen kiwi. In Thailand, I worked with tigers. I hope to get to Indonesia and see the Komodo Dragon. And when I return to NZ I should have a chance to see the very rare Kakapo parrot.

A friend of mine is taking part in a race in London soon, to raise money for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund. These mountain gorillas are dying out. Quickly. They need all the help they can get and this charity has been running for many years and does fantastic work.

As such, I’m putting on my begging hat on behalf of Jess. Please, please check out the links below and if you can afford to then throw a few pennies her way via the sponsorship links.

In her own words:

“Mountain gorillas are almost the closest relatives we have, and they will die if we don’t help them.” – Douglas Adams

Click here http://www.leonardodicaprio.org/getinformed/videos.htm and scroll down to “Douglas Adams for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund” to watch Douglas Adams talking about why we should act to save the gorillas.

I can’t pretend to be able to save them all on my own, but that’s no excuse for not doing what little I can.

To that end, on 24th September this year I will be taking part in The Great Gorilla Run – http://www.gorillas.org/articles/?id=22

Yes, I will be heading to London to run 7km dressed as a gorilla. If anyone would like to join me on the day, either to run as well or to stand and cheer me on, that would be fantastic. It would be even more fantastic if you could also sponsor me. I’ve got a sponsorship web page: http://www.justgiving.com/gorilla_jess and will also happily take sponsorship by post or in person (feel free to email me for my address).

I should be getting my gorilla suit any day now, at which point I will of course be taking silly photos. I even plan to do some of my training wearing the suit, which may well come as a shock to the gym where I work. I’ll keep everyone updated as to how it’s going!

Thanks to anyone who can help Jess… and the gorillas.

Learning from other nations

India-based call centres may well be a sack of ****, but if there’s one thing that Indian people do well, it’s deliver stuff – lunch inparticular.

Stupidly long working days. Physical slog. A strict schedule to keep to. And yet, in six million deliveries they make one mistake. One in six million.

Would someone kindly sack the useless fucktards in charge of the Post Office and give one of these guys the job instead?

Common sense from the lawmakers?

After far too long, an archaic law banning national flags from being displayed is to be lifted. Believe it or not, if you had a flag on display during the World Cup, unless it was on a single flagpole then it was classed as “advertising” and you were breaking the law.

Of course, no councils ever act on these silly rules, do they?

Wrong.

Peterborough City Council threatened one family with prosecution for displaying two flags on angled poles (I assume that’s the photo on the article). They decided to back down and make an exception for “special occasions”. Wouldn’t it make more sense to just not have bothered in the first place? Who on earth thought they’d be able to push a prosecution through without massive public backlash?

All it would take would be one person on the council with an ounce of sense. But… that’s hardly likely to ever be the case in this day and age.

BBC redefine "accuracy"

Or at least they’ve redefined “space” in the article leading with the headline Space tourists given the chance to take one giant leap into thin air.

Simple really – it’s space. There is no air in space. Thin or otherwise. In fact, it’s actually quite famous for this lack of air. One may even go so far as to say that space is famous for its airlessness.