Priyanka Tiwari
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It has come to Microsoft's attention that its once-popular video and voice calling service, Skype, will be officially shut down on May 5 of 2024. While the platform has certainly lost its elegance and popularity over the years, its abrupt discontinuation alongside its refund policy has infuriated long term users, especially those with prepaid balances meant for international calls.
Prepaid Long Term Users are Angered over Refund Policies
One of the hardest hits is being faced by Griffin Karen, a former attorney turned into a pensioner, who used Skype regularly on a weekly basis ever since 2009 to communicate with friends and family who lived abroad. Griffin, like countless others, possessed calling cards with lots of prepaid credits on her Skype account primarily meant for cost-effective calls to landlines and mobile phones internationally.
“We’re dealing with people who would pay more money than us, are being ripped off without ever buying a service that they could expect,” she continued. “There’s a lot of people out there who are going to lose money.”
Purchasing for $8.5 billion in the year of 2011, Microsoft is now left steering many of their users over to using Microsoft teams, an alternative service with offshore versions being offered free of charge. Such services tear through the older competitive angles of skype which is ultimately making it difficult for customers to fondly rely on the service that they once loved.
Most ordinary people make use of software purchasing for FaceTime and WhatsApp, which skype could be seen as competing against. Subsequently, that's what leads Microsoft to diminish services for Teams.
But, users such as Griffin believe Teams is not as user friendly as Skype. Already, she and her friend have shifted their weekly calls to Google Meet.
Most Users Skype Prepaid Balance Refunds Denied
Microsoft emphasized only newly purchased credits are eligible for refund. Others can use their balances with calling options on Teams, although the company has not issued step by step instructions on how this is going to work.
“Refunds make more sense if you took away something” argued Microsoft’s VP of Product for Skype and Teams Amit Fulay. “We’re not.”
He summarized while other services still use Microsoft’s Teams, consumers do not consider it to be an equivalent substitute.
Consumer advocates claim Microsoft’s strategy does not offer justice. Stacey Higginbotham, in her supervision, called out the issue and said, “The second best, offer users credit to all of your services.”
These statements depict a strong contrast to Microsoft’s strategy. Microsoft, unlike Amazon, hasn’t publicly stated how much prepaid credit sits dormant on Skype accounts.
Best Skype Alternatives in 2024
With Skype phasing out its services, there several alternatives available for both voice and video calling:
WhatsApp – Voice and video calls alongside group texts for no charge.
Signal – Almost identical to WhatsApp, but has enhanced privacy policies.
Google Meet – Supports multi device access and has excellent video conferencing.
Zoom – Popular, but severely restricted unless you pay.
FaceTime – Best option for Apple users.
Google Voice – International calling for low rates, but needs a virtual number.
Microsoft Teams – Suggested by Microsoft, steep learning curve though.
Traditional carriers – Still exist, but are more expensive.
Shutting Services Down More Responsibly
Karen Griffin continues to have her weekly conversations just not via Skype. She's wishing Microsoft learned how to manage the shutdown better and that other tech companies learned from it too.
“They could earn a lot of goodwill if they were just a little more generous,” she said.
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