CEO update: group video calling is back
I would like to take a moment to thank each of you for your patience, understanding, and support during Skype’s outage. We know how important your Skype conversations are to you and we take any disruption to our service very seriously.
Skype continues to be stable and all of our core services – audio, video and IM – are back to normal. Just in time for the holidays, we’ve been able to re-instate group video calling, which is already available for many of you, and should be fully operational for everyone within the coming hours.
We are excited about this latest development, since it’s important to us that you have the chance to share your holiday moments in a group video call with your family, friends, and loved ones.
Our engineering team and operations teams have worked very hard to bring back our services, and they are very dedicated, working through their holidays, to monitor and ensure Skype is available to you. Some of the outstanding areas our engineers are continuing to work on include bringing back offline IM and adding further robustness to the Skype infrastructure.
I mentioned that a post-mortem with a root cause analysis about Skype’s outage would be provided soon. We will have that ready to share with you early next week from one of Skype’s engineering team members.
I want to thank you again for allowing us at Skype to be a part of your life. Happy Holidays.
obabich2 commented Friday, Dec 24
"Everything that doesn't kill us makes us stronger". Keep up your great work. Merry Christmas and happy New Year for all your staff!
dan-the-pc-man commented Saturday, Dec 25
heres the thing. As one of your "loyal subscribers" your gonna give me a free week. But you already said to me via twitter that if i sign up a new account I can get my first month free... I don't see the 'thanks' to the one week free offer you are giving us "Loyal "... I might a well cancel my Skype out on my main account. take advantage of your "first month free" on a new account then swap back to my main account. I could still dual sign in so my Skype in would still work and I would be 3 weeks better off then the offer you give to your "Loyal subscribers".Shame on you skype for thinking about your new customers more then your "Loyal Subscribers", In the new year (when my next 3 months are due) i think i;'m gonna look for a new SIP Out/In.
simon.stolzenbach commented Saturday, Dec 25
Thanks for your hard work and Happy Holidays to the whole Skype Team!
jashbhai.patel4 commented Sunday, Dec 26
Thank you Skype! You have made a great difference for the better in life - for one and all - in the way you connect us at great distences into the one room!
Thank you and belated Merry Christmas to all the staff . Also a very happy and prosporous New Year to all!
JD Patel
Kelowna, Canada
clubsail commented Tuesday, Dec 28
I got a voucher great , actioned it also great
I got no credit to my account - and the email said it was worth one dollar NOT GREAT as where can you call for 30 mins for ONE DOLLAR??
askarbek88 commented Tuesday, Dec 28
Thank you for the apology and, of course, for the voucher.
However, I never call to "a landline in some of our most popular countries, such as USA, UK, Germany, China, Japan." You could have considered other "more useful" destinations to some other users, not only users "in some of our most popular countries, such as USA, UK, Germany, China, Japan." Or simply, credit more than a dollar.
Cheers
marciap17 commented Tuesday, Dec 28
Thank you for the voucher. I knew it was something exceptional, as we're so used to switch on, or leave Skype on all day, and it always works. We kind of take this service for granted. As technology advances so quickly, there is always home for lessons to be learned. I wish to all the Skype Team, a very happy, prosperous, and successful 2011. Marcia, London, UK
stephen_bucknall commented Tuesday, Dec 28
Just to say thank you for the voucher.
I live in Abu Dhabi now and it's refreshing to be reminded of how a decent company treats it's customers.
Cheers
Steve
markmtubamack commented Wednesday, Dec 29
When I received an email expressing an apology for the down time of skype I was quite impressed and when I saw the voucher for up 30 minutes - I thought that is fair enough as when I was able to get on to skype and a friend was not I was able to use my skype out credit to contact them - when I redeemed the voucher for w "whopping" $1 - I felt that I would rather not have received anything! A case of Hero to Zero in one paragraph!
palagy33 commented Wednesday, Dec 29
hi,
Can you just add the 1/2 hour extra in $ on my account?
Happy New Year to you too
gisktb commented Wednesday, Dec 29
Dear Mr. Bate,
In my view your apology is more than enough and there is no need to pedale any of our (customers) inconvenience. Your regular and routine service is very generous if do not say more: it rather looks like your donation into development and prosperity of worldwide communication means available practically for any person on the Earth. The problem which we all faced at last week is nothing in compare with more serious global challenges which we all should resolve on base of new information systems where Skype is one of very important and productive part. So, thank you very much for your incredible job!!! Happy New Year 2011!
mike.sixsmith commented Wednesday, Dec 29
I think that Skype has responed proactively to mitigate the consequences - I cna't comment on the technical fix, etc but at least you have provided positive information, explaining the situation and defusing adverse reaction by compensating clients, soem of whom may no thave been aware thqt there was a problem. Witht he recent UK 'weather incidents' the most notable aspect has been customers' dissatisfaction with the lack of communication by the provider.
Thanks
nparadise101 commented Thursday, Dec 30
Very classy....never expected to get a voucher for the inconvenience. Too bad more businesses aren't run like this. This is truly one of the most talked about 'tools' among my friends and associates.
robrecord commented Sunday, Jan 2
Thanks for the apology. Tho I found it insulting the voucher turned out to be for $1 - one dollar! How tight. Might as well not have bothered.
Appreciate your hard work in fixing the problem, and for the communication throughout.
edkress commented Sunday, Jan 2
At first glance I appreciated the gesture with the voucher. But for $1, give me a break. Not worth the time to redeem it.
cerinov commented Tuesday, Jan 4
Wow...if i would know that you gave me 1 $, i wouldnt even sign in...i just cant thank enough ti billon dollar comapany who solves everything with 1 dollar...did you maybe concider that some of us dont call to "most popular countries"?
Can i give you back your dollar and you give it to american or german etc client who actually can use it for 30 minutes of conversation...
btw: happy new year