A further update on Skype downtime
I’m sure by now many of you have heard about the downtime which has affected Skype around the world. Our priority has been to stabilise the problem, and then to begin to restore access to Skype functionality.
It’s taken some time to do, but we’re making steady progress. To put things in perspective, there are now around 16.5 million people online on Skype around the world. This is about 80% of what we’d normally expect to see at this time of day.
We’ve stabilised Skype’s core functionality – IM, audio and video – but it will take longer for us to restore offline IM and group video calling. It’s been a tough 24 hours for many of you – and I’d like to thank you for your patience as we bring Skype back to normal.
I realise that it’s difficult to compensate you for not being able to talk to or see your friends, family or colleagues, but we’re planning to offer Skype Credit vouchers to all of our loyal paying customers to thank you for your continued support.
Stay tuned for more updates, either on this blog or by following @skype on Twitter.
I don’t think it’s accurate to say that Skype’s core functionality has been restored. I can’t even connect and have been trying since yesterday (it’s now 1.48 local time which is UTC – 4.5). A more accurate statement could be that some % of users have now the service re-established to various degrees of functionality while others are still completely out of service.
Of course it will take time to restore access to all users and even longer for all of them to have full functionality.
Lets hope the software glitch can be fixed (not patched….) and the lesson well learned.
Is there a reason that you’re just now heading to “start communicating on a very regular basis where you’re at”?
This is almost worse than the Tumblr fail as far as lack of communication is concerned.
Is malicious attack the reason for the hush-hush level of communication for yesterdays downtime?
Tony. Thanks for the spin-free straight talk. I know you guys are working like rented mules right now to get this fixed. For those of us coping in the wings, could you mention is forwarding for paying customers is working reliably now?
Thanks for the update.. I, working remotely (rural countryside) had been frantically trying to connect to global voice conferences yesterday and thought my 3 pc’s were bugged.
I appreciate this technology and use it greatly!
thank you again for the sincere video message.
Thank you for all your efforts in fixing these technical issues in such a short amount of time…your team is really doing a great job! Cheers!
Thank you Tony and Skype staff for spending YOUR holiday time to get this working for the rest of us. You’re all very much appreciated.
Blessings,
Resmyrranda
USA
Whomever screens these messages, please convey this to Mr. Bates:
Thank you to you and your team for making sure that you’re getting out regular updates to your subscribers as to what is happening with the Skype Supernode Issues.
I’ve had less than great experiences in the past with communicating with Customer Support, but in this instance I feel that your communication with subscribers and customers has been much improved.
For the most part, most customers like myself want to know what’s going on and that our problems are being addressed in a timely manner, and in this case you’re scoring good points with me in regards to your communication.
Keep up the good work, and thank you for keeping us apprised.
My families and I have enjoyed the benefits of Skype communication while I was in Afghanistan calling on family and friends Stateside; and especially now, utilizing video chat of my newborn with my family in Mongolia. Skype is an excellent medium for worldwide communication and our families it! Please fix the video chat ASAP, so we can continue in sharing our newborn activities with loved ones across the globe. Thank you Skype!!!
We understand you have problems but NOW we have problems and have lost a computer over it! We thought the problem was the computer but found out it was SKYPE….now we have lost that computer! This is my ONLY point of contact to my children, my parents and everyone back home! PLEASE go fast to get me in touch with my children before Christmas! This is horrible!
Thanks for taking responsibility, communicating the issue and looking for ways to keep it from happening in the future. I can’t think of any organization of your size that has not suffered a large downtime, it happens to the best. I’m just thankful for Skype’s quick responce to the issue and the impressive amount of updates (even going so far as updating the skype.com homepage) to let people know that there is an issue happening. What more could we ask from from a service stand point, no one has 100% up time. So thanks Skype Team!
Yes, it has been a hard 24-36 hours for many of us but you have been open about the problems and we have seen progress hour by hour the last 12 hours. I would like to thank you for that and I am sure that you will come out of this situation stronger and wiser.
Having said this I would like to wish the Skype team and all Skype users around the world a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Mr. Bates,
I have rum telecommunications companies for over 20 years. System outages for lack of capacity or planning are not acceptable. You should resign and hand over this operation to someone that can and does understand the requirements of an a mission critical application.
I have been a customer of skype for over 4 years, spent money on your services for which we depend for our business. This is unacceptable and wrong.
I hope you and your company resolve this matter quickly or efficiently. We as customers feel betrayed and defrauded, we want our money back.
Very disappointed and frustrated with your service.
kaska666965
Thank you very much for caring about your customers, and having good customer service. Other providers, which shall remain nameless, starting with a “m”, don’t care so much about customer satisfaction and are not interested in feedback from us…Skype cares about every call sounding good and clear. I appreciate the way skype has kept us informed during this unexpected outage.
Thanks for updating the users on the status of your fix. I love the service and hope you are up and running at full capacity soon. Good luck on the fix and keep us posted!
It would be enormously helpful if your blog had a time stamp in addition to the date stamp. During your outage you were making posts that would say things like “In the last hour” or “over the next four hours” but which were far less valuable than they could have been since the blog simply stated “December 22nd”.
Thank you… For being upfront on the issue, the update and the transparency. I think the leaders of other organizations could learn from this kind of openness and communication.
I used to do tech support for vonage and computers do go down once in a while. And glitches do happen. I use skype for most all my calls and you did not inconvenience me much. I hope you get all users back up and thanks for your service. People need to realize that nothing is perfect and things can happen. Keep up the good work and thanks again.
Whilst I am obviously disappointed I lost my Skype functions for some 24hrs – I much appreciate the information that was posted telling us of the problem and how Skype was working on the problem and keeping us up to date till I had my Skype back on line.
Well done to Tony Bates and all your staff for keeping us informed and fixing the problem as soon as you were able.
We live in Naples, Florida and this our first Christmas away from home and I need to see my mother whom has hospice and my sister whom has cancer. We are not traveling north because we may to travel often according to their medical conditions as those worsen. I hope it is possible to repair the problem and you have a Merry Christmas too.
Although the outage was inconvenient and made me anxious when I could not call my girlfriend in China it was a bit of a blessing in disguise when it forced my girlfriend to call me when I was long overdue in calling to whisper sweet nothings in her ear. When she called it just added strength to our 19 month long relationship which we both hope will end and begin in marriage soon if she can get out of the country and into the USA for a visit. No matter what happens, love conquers all. Thanks for being there for us Skype.