Well, maybe not killing, but dragging down into an ocean of mediocracy.
First: confusion. Skype’s payment options are confusing, unclear, and potentially misleading in that (for me at least) it seems entirely possible for the casual purchaser to pay for two or more packages that actually cover the same thing. Skype Pro, SkypeOut, SkypeIn, etc: all with different prices, and different features included and excluded. Confusing.
Second: unhelpfulness. I use Skype call forwarding, which uses up a little of my Skype credit every time someone calls me. When my whole call forwarding package is about to run out, Skype email me (reminders are great), so you’d assume that they’d also email me when my credit was running low? No. So I find myself having to sign in to my account on a regular basis when a simple email could let me know what I need to know.
This is turning into a bit of a rant, but my basic point is this: eBay’s huge edifice of marketing and corporate structure is suffocating the innovation and freshness that made Skype great in the first place. There are too many ‘packages’ and not enough simplicity. For all the talk of revolutionising the telecommunications industry, if they’re not careful it’ll end up just another half-digested corporate buyout used by yeah, maybe a few million people, but without the freedom to actually do anything really wonderful.
It’s a cliche, but big business really can be dangerous. </rant>
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