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My worst Skype annoyance was when they seized your purchased credits if your account was left unused for 180 days. As a sporadic user of Skype when I needed to

My worst Skype annoyance was when they seized your purchased credits if your account was left unused for 180 days. As a sporadic user of Skype when I needed to place an international call etc, having purchased credits reset automatically was such a provocation [0]. Every time I have to re-install Skype for some reason, there's always a new regression or dark UX pattern in use. [0] https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/01/14/skype-lawsuit-to-yield-credit-for-customers/ https://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/01/14/skype-lawsuit-to-yie...

dpatrick86 9y ago
It's actually worse than that. They seize your credits if you don't make a call (or text) that uses the credits in six months... it doesn't matter if you've been on skype or not.
- netsharc 9y ago
  It's not really seized, just deactivated, and you can reactivate it any time. I don't know why either, I'm guessing for legal/accounting purposes, like at one point Apple had to charge people for iPod updates: https://arstechnica.com/apple/2009/09/accounting-rules-change-could-end-ipod-touch-update-fee/ https://arstechnica.com/apple/2009/09/accounting-rules-chang...
  - mabey 9y ago
    Wow, I never knew that was the reason why Apple used to charge for the updates. Thanks for the link.
gerardnll 9y ago
It is nonsense. I don't think there's a reason to do that except to scam users. Any UX-UI Dev / Engineer / Person with common sense knows that users would not understand the process. 180 days and my credit is disabled but I can reactivate it again anytime? what the hell? What I'm not sure of is what happens if you buy credit without reactivating the inactive balance... Does it reactivate the inactive balance or not? If not... they are shameless.
- dasil003 9y ago
  My wild guess would be that their finance people do not like a monotonically increasing liability on the books. Since some users will never use their credits, this is their way of satisfying the bean counters.
  - richdougherty 9y ago
    You're absolutely right, of course. It's still weird because it puts off customers buying Skype credits in the first place, and getting credit from your customers is pretty great.
  - jjeaff 9y ago
    That was my thought. But as far as the bean counters are concerned, they would base it on an aging schedule. Unused credits stop being counted at 100% after x number of months. But there isn't really any reason to disable them in the software. Especially since they can be reenabled. Just like if you have fully depreciated an office desk, that doesn't mean you march into that person's office and take it away. Sorry, this desk must be thrown out as it is now fully depreciated! So I think it is an attempt at scraping more money out of their users.
    - njarboe 9y ago
      "Sorry, this desk must be thrown out as it is now fully depreciated!" This gave me a good laugh. With lowering interest rates and quantitative easing not pumping up the economy as expected, any bets on long before this becomes a reality?
      - majewsky 9y ago
        Planned obsolescence is already a thing.
        chris_wot 9y ago
        Wait till they apply this to people.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
mw6621 9y ago
I'm not sure if things have changed since your experience, but the last time I exceeded the 180 days of inactivity, my credits were removed from the Skype client and a link appeared in their place, telling me to "reactivate" my credits on the website. I went to the website and clicked a link and my credits showed in the Skype client again.
- pveierland 9y ago
  As stated in the link, they replaced their expiration policy with a reactivation policy as a result of the class action lawsuit. The last time this happened to my account I was sent a link which allowed me to reactivate the credits.
  - lucaspiller 9y ago
    I just found out mine deactivated in April and I didn't get an email about it. In the iOS app it just showed £0 and suggested I top up. When following the link through this page I was able to reactivate it: https://support.skype.com/en/faq/fa10378/how-do-i-reactivate-skype-credit https://support.skype.com/en/faq/fa10378/how-do-i-reactivate...
dinnouti 9y ago
That's the reason I switch to google hangouts for my international calls. Just open the browser and make the call.
- grecy 9y ago
  It also works in countries where Skype is banned / blocked by the government in my experience.
- cbhl 9y ago
  I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be left behind as the only tech company that didn't release a Snapchat clone. ;)
- herbst 9y ago
  I did this for a while. But the average mobile Internet I have in switzerland is so bad that the quality suffers a lot. As much as I hate it, it still works well with whatsapp
robocat 9y ago
I never used Skype again after they stole my credit (about 9€). No excuse when they could have emailed or otherwise told me it was going to expire, I only found out when I needed to use it...
brandon272 9y ago
I always love going on vacation, unexpectedly having to use my Skype Credits to call somewhere only to discover they've expired.
nailer 9y ago
I had a similar experience: Microsoft deleted all my childhood email because I didn't log into hotmail frequently enough. This included the emails I sent to my first love. And the ones she sent me. All gone. Because Microsoft wanted to save some tiny amount of space. I love Microsoft and an writing this on a Surface device now but Christ, that was awful and would make me think twice about using Microsoft online services. PS. If anyone on HN somehow knows ways to recover the contents on deleted hotmail accounts then please let me know.
- api 9y ago
  You should think twice about storing anything in the cloud, especially if the service is "free." Always make your own backup of anything you care about. Basically if it's local back it up to the cloud, and if it's only in the cloud back it up locally.
  - cyphar 9y ago
    I'm likely channeling Jason Scott here, but this rhetoric is not helping. Yes of course people should back things up, but responding to "I just lost things of sentimental value to me" with "well you should've backed things up" doesn't come off as helpful advice. Really, the problem is that online services (startups that are shutting down are the worst offenders[1]) are allowed to destroy user data with reckless abandon. You may argue "hey, it's their cloud" but it's also your data -- and that's kinda like arguing that a library that accepts book donations and then goes on to shreds book that nobody is borrowing anymore is justified in their actions. [1]: https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/
    - thaumasiotes 9y ago
      > that's kinda like arguing that a library that accepts book donations and then goes on to shreds book that nobody is borrowing anymore is justified in their actions. You mean, all libraries?
      - 9y ago
perseusprime11 9y ago
When can we talk about facetime? They don't even have group chat. I've been waiting for it a long time ago.
njarboe 9y ago
Thanks for the info. I rarely had need of Skype credits and it would make me mad when they disappeared. Now I know how to get them back. It doesn't seem like it would be worth the PR hit to take them from people after only 180 days and, if there was some strange accounting/legal reason they really wanted to inactivate them, they should display a small a link under your $0 balance to go to the re-activate page.
seizethecheese 9y ago
Unused credit is considered abandoned property after 6 months, depending on the state. Each state has different regulations. This is a massive pain to deal with, so most places have to work around it. Source: I used to work at an online bank where we'd close the account after 6 months of inactivity.
TuringNYC 9y ago
You are lucky you could even get in. At some point ~2yrs ago, all my Skype logins stopped working. Resetting them took me into some maze of a process where i'd end up in loops going between legacy Skype logins to Microsoft email based logins and back. No matter what I did, I could not reset the password and just gave up. I redirect all conferences to GChat/Facetime. It was almost like a hiring brain-teaser. I guess I'm not going to be hired at Microsoft.
wodenokoto 9y ago
Don't you just need to send yourself a text whenever the reminder mail arrives? That's what I've been doing for years.

dpatrick86 9y ago

It's actually worse than that. They seize your credits if you don't make a call (or text) that uses the credits in six months... it doesn't matter if you've been on skype or not.

netsharc 9y ago
It's not really seized, just deactivated, and you can reactivate it any time. I don't know why either, I'm guessing for legal/accounting purposes, like at one point Apple had to charge people for iPod updates: https://arstechnica.com/apple/2009/09/accounting-rules-change-could-end-ipod-touch-update-fee/ https://arstechnica.com/apple/2009/09/accounting-rules-chang...
- mabey 9y ago
  Wow, I never knew that was the reason why Apple used to charge for the updates. Thanks for the link.

gerardnll 9y ago

It is nonsense. I don't think there's a reason to do that except to scam users. Any UX-UI Dev / Engineer / Person with common sense knows that users would not understand the process. 180 days and my credit is disabled but I can reactivate it again anytime? what the hell? What I'm not sure of is what happens if you buy credit without reactivating the inactive balance... Does it reactivate the inactive balance or not? If not... they are shameless.

dasil003 9y ago
My wild guess would be that their finance people do not like a monotonically increasing liability on the books. Since some users will never use their credits, this is their way of satisfying the bean counters.
- richdougherty 9y ago
  You're absolutely right, of course. It's still weird because it puts off customers buying Skype credits in the first place, and getting credit from your customers is pretty great.
- jjeaff 9y ago
  That was my thought. But as far as the bean counters are concerned, they would base it on an aging schedule. Unused credits stop being counted at 100% after x number of months. But there isn't really any reason to disable them in the software. Especially since they can be reenabled. Just like if you have fully depreciated an office desk, that doesn't mean you march into that person's office and take it away. Sorry, this desk must be thrown out as it is now fully depreciated! So I think it is an attempt at scraping more money out of their users.
  - njarboe 9y ago
    "Sorry, this desk must be thrown out as it is now fully depreciated!" This gave me a good laugh. With lowering interest rates and quantitative easing not pumping up the economy as expected, any bets on long before this becomes a reality?
    - majewsky 9y ago
      Planned obsolescence is already a thing.
      - chris_wot 9y ago
        Wait till they apply this to people.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

mw6621 9y ago

I'm not sure if things have changed since your experience, but the last time I exceeded the 180 days of inactivity, my credits were removed from the Skype client and a link appeared in their place, telling me to "reactivate" my credits on the website. I went to the website and clicked a link and my credits showed in the Skype client again.

pveierland 9y ago
As stated in the link, they replaced their expiration policy with a reactivation policy as a result of the class action lawsuit. The last time this happened to my account I was sent a link which allowed me to reactivate the credits.
- lucaspiller 9y ago
  I just found out mine deactivated in April and I didn't get an email about it. In the iOS app it just showed £0 and suggested I top up. When following the link through this page I was able to reactivate it: https://support.skype.com/en/faq/fa10378/how-do-i-reactivate-skype-credit https://support.skype.com/en/faq/fa10378/how-do-i-reactivate...

dinnouti 9y ago

That's the reason I switch to google hangouts for my international calls. Just open the browser and make the call.

grecy 9y ago
It also works in countries where Skype is banned / blocked by the government in my experience.
cbhl 9y ago
I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be left behind as the only tech company that didn't release a Snapchat clone. ;)
herbst 9y ago
I did this for a while. But the average mobile Internet I have in switzerland is so bad that the quality suffers a lot. As much as I hate it, it still works well with whatsapp

robocat 9y ago

I never used Skype again after they stole my credit (about 9€). No excuse when they could have emailed or otherwise told me it was going to expire, I only found out when I needed to use it...

brandon272 9y ago

I always love going on vacation, unexpectedly having to use my Skype Credits to call somewhere only to discover they've expired.

nailer 9y ago

I had a similar experience: Microsoft deleted all my childhood email because I didn't log into hotmail frequently enough. This included the emails I sent to my first love. And the ones she sent me. All gone. Because Microsoft wanted to save some tiny amount of space. I love Microsoft and an writing this on a Surface device now but Christ, that was awful and would make me think twice about using Microsoft online services. PS. If anyone on HN somehow knows ways to recover the contents on deleted hotmail accounts then please let me know.

api 9y ago
You should think twice about storing anything in the cloud, especially if the service is "free." Always make your own backup of anything you care about. Basically if it's local back it up to the cloud, and if it's only in the cloud back it up locally.
- cyphar 9y ago
  I'm likely channeling Jason Scott here, but this rhetoric is not helping. Yes of course people should back things up, but responding to "I just lost things of sentimental value to me" with "well you should've backed things up" doesn't come off as helpful advice. Really, the problem is that online services (startups that are shutting down are the worst offenders[1]) are allowed to destroy user data with reckless abandon. You may argue "hey, it's their cloud" but it's also your data -- and that's kinda like arguing that a library that accepts book donations and then goes on to shreds book that nobody is borrowing anymore is justified in their actions. [1]: https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/ https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/
  - thaumasiotes 9y ago
    > that's kinda like arguing that a library that accepts book donations and then goes on to shreds book that nobody is borrowing anymore is justified in their actions. You mean, all libraries?
    - 9y ago

perseusprime11 9y ago

When can we talk about facetime? They don't even have group chat. I've been waiting for it a long time ago.

njarboe 9y ago

Thanks for the info. I rarely had need of Skype credits and it would make me mad when they disappeared. Now I know how to get them back. It doesn't seem like it would be worth the PR hit to take them from people after only 180 days and, if there was some strange accounting/legal reason they really wanted to inactivate them, they should display a small a link under your $0 balance to go to the re-activate page.

seizethecheese 9y ago

Unused credit is considered abandoned property after 6 months, depending on the state. Each state has different regulations. This is a massive pain to deal with, so most places have to work around it. Source: I used to work at an online bank where we'd close the account after 6 months of inactivity.

TuringNYC 9y ago

You are lucky you could even get in. At some point ~2yrs ago, all my Skype logins stopped working. Resetting them took me into some maze of a process where i'd end up in loops going between legacy Skype logins to Microsoft email based logins and back. No matter what I did, I could not reset the password and just gave up. I redirect all conferences to GChat/Facetime. It was almost like a hiring brain-teaser. I guess I'm not going to be hired at Microsoft.

wodenokoto 9y ago

Don't you just need to send yourself a text whenever the reminder mail arrives? That's what I've been doing for years.