The unofficial alternative to customer support
So you’re huffin’ and you’re puffin’. Your blood pressure has risen to 140. Your dog is shivering under the couch. You’re angry. Because you didn’t do anything and then everything froze and now the webcam doesn’t work and ten euros worth of Skype credit you bought still hasn’t shown up. Arrggghh.
There are a few things you can do.
- Head to the Skype help pages and search the Knowledgebase
- Submit a support request and get an email response within a day or two (this may not sound incredibly impressive if you expect live help, but Skype has over 220 million registered users. Even if a teeny-weeny fraction sends a question to customer support, it’s quite a load).
Bonus factoid: Skype’s customer support crew is officially fluent in seven languages — English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Japanese, and Spanish. Plus three unofficial tongues which I won’t share with you. Ok, I’ll give you a hint on one: Skype’s largest office is in Tallinn.
But there’s more. Savvy Skype users have also discovered a little gem known as Skype Forums. Once you know what it can and cannot do for you, plunge right in. There’s an enormous amount of searchable knowledge there, courtesy of your fellow Skype (super)users. If you can’t find an answer, you can post a new question. When that’s done, look around. Perhaps you have a solution to someone else’s conundrum. Posting this will brighten her day and help keep the forum community alive and kicking.
Skype Forums are not an official support channel, but believe you me: they’re officially useful.
Great post, thanks Villu. I used to run the Skype forums for a few years. They’re a great place to hang out and meet both Skype staff and fellow users. Many forum users (especially those with the “Super User” or “Moderator” badge) have been involved with Skype for a very long time and know a lot about everything around it, probably even more than some of the staff
I’d emphasize the role of forums as a place for learning — both for users and Skype staff. You are likely to get an answer to your question from fellow users fairly quickly. And even if you don’t see the staff hanging around around the clock and answering all the questions, I know that they take notice of what’s happening in the forums, and use it as input in designing future Skype products and services.
While forum is simply a must IMHO…the one Skype has often can’t help or even comment in case of issues that aren’t typical…
(for example my problem http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=82944 , but it’s not limited to it…there’s lots of topics without replies or with insufficient ones; sometimes even wrong ones)
Bonus factoid: Skype’s customer support crew is officially fluent in seven languages — English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Japanese, and Spanish. Plus three unofficial tongues which I won’t share with you. Ok, I’ll give you a hint on one: Skype’s largest office is in Tallinn.
too bad THIS IS A BUNCH OF BULLSHIT. SUBMIT A REQUEST NEEDING HELP, and THEY’LL RESPOND WITH A FORM LETTER THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOUR REQUEST. LIKE THEY DIDNT EVEN READ IT. HA THEIR SUPPORT IS A GOD-DAMNED JOKE
hello terminuz!
my frustration is getting the better of me – please help!
for the 2nd time i’ve downloaded skype onto my laptop in an attempt to get beyond the final point of creating a display name with password
each time (probably 20x’s by now) i cannot go further, the connection breaks and i start again…
i don’t see anything in the FAQ’s or any other route i’ve tried, to help me
should you be able to respond, please drop me a mail per:- campogirl@googlemail.com
if not with any clues (maybe this is not permitted?) but to say ‘log-in for my response’, which i hope i may anticipate?
many thanks – c
That’s terrific advise except for those who cannot successfully download. No download, no ability to sign in…you see? I downloaded for my laptop, no problemo. Was able to sign in. But, had to get a new computer for my wife. HP Windows 7×64 with quad processors. Sweet!! But can I download Skype 4.1? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Why? Error message: “SkypeSetup.exe is not a valid Win32 application.” How do I fix that and get the thing downloaded? I would appreciate any quickfix advice you can give me!! Thanks so much!!
Hi, I use to have blackberry and iSkoot there which was great. Now I have an iPhone and it is nice either, but in the blackberry I could keep skype signed in while using other things on the device. I’m not getting it done on the skype for iphone. Is that possible?