Skype's business strategy
Used Skype a fair bit over the years. Recently while on holiday in the UK, decided to try out the Skype "call-in" service where you get a local number people can call you on, so friends and family could call me easily.
Signed up for the minimum 3 months, used the service maybe 2-3 times (basically it didn't work well - knew that was a risk but hey, that's life). Made the assumption that the service would lapse, having signed up for a specific period, but then I got a mail the other day thanking me for "renewing" the service and letting me know that they had helped themselves to another 15 euros from my credit card.
When I tried to cancel this I was told that despite that fact I had not used the service in the period since my "renewal" -
"The mere allocation of an Online Number (also known as a Skype Number) to you means that the product has been used"
Yes I know there was probably a check box somewhere when I signed up that let me opt-out of this, but since when was it OK to base your business strategy on people forcing people opt-out unless they wanted to stay on the service forever?
Simple lesson - Never give your credit card to a company that treats its existing customers like suckers to be milked...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
