Dear Skype, [updated with response from Skype]
It is great that we can use your service for free to stay in close contact with those who we love and cherish. And it’s wonderful that companies and freelancers can have a business model that involves reach to international customers via Skype. SkypeIn/Out and on the go, etc are all resources helping generate an income.
In both situations, be it free or not, it’s a huge outage not just to Skype Inc who loses face in the wake of an IPO, but we lose precious contact with our close family, or paying customers. Costs have been made surely by all to find alternative means during the busy holiday season and Christmas times.
Personally I don’t believe that Skype currently is holding up with the claimed 250 million members and 25 million online users, of which 1,5 or 3,0 could come online. Being able to login actually doesn’t mean you can establish a connection, edit your account details, use any services or products.
Good intentions that the company is working hard to address the issue is just that, good intentions. I think it is logical that the engineers ARE working hard, and I am looking forward to hear what Skype Inc. has in mind as a compensation to the 250 million people who couldn’t use the products/services for 24 hours, made costs due to it, or lost income because of it. And how Skype (especially if it is under IPO) is going to address issues like these in the future, in the form of preventive measures.
Nothing can be perfect, some of us use Skype for free and are told we shouldn’t complain. But when you become this big and move from geeks using it to Enterprise customers, tv/mobile devices and what not. You’re offering a public service and that comes with responsibilities.
Thank you for allowing us to provide feedback, our opinion based on our observations and for keeping us informed. I can not even imagine how difficult it must be to handle such amounts of users, how much money is involved to achieve that, and how hard the engineers are working during their Christmas break to keep everybody online.
You surely won’t lose me and my friends / family / customers as a customer. It’s a great service and outages simply are a reality. But it doesn’t mean we’re not disappointed or frustrated that it’s been over 24 hours, especially during the holidays.
Best of luck recovering and keep us posted on Twitter.
Floris Fiedeldij Dop
https://mrfloris.com
[updated]
Skype now has responded publicly with a video and another blog post – mentioning that their focus is to get the service back online, and then how they’re looking at how to prevent issues like these in the future, as well as handling compensation for their loyal customers.
Video & full text here: http://blogs.skype.com/en/2010/12/update_on_downtime_from_ceo.html?cm_mmc=PXTW%7C0700_B6-_-downtime-20101223-3