There is a discussion going on Skype’s Forum about misleading advertising of SkypePro.
Although users try hard to convince me of the misleading part, to me the ad is very clear.
I will quote some of the users:
“I just upgraded my skype to skype pro. And on the add it said that I could call national
landlines (within these countries Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland , France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Uk) and here's the deal; I live in Denmark and when I called national landlines here i had to pay and when I made a call to France, yes, another landline number, I had to pay again. Now did I misunderstand something here? Or is it not supposed to be free? Cuz then I got ripped off! I wanted skype pro only for that feature!!!!”“A 'Detail' missing, intentionally or otherwise. No detail. False and misleading advertising.”
“welcome to the club mate. I feel ripped off to as I was mislead down the 'free international calls' lie to.”
“but is also sounds like you can call all national land lines from which ever of the countries you are in and get it for free. (I am not the only one to think this) when actually it means you have to be in the country and only call that countries national landline to make it free.I assume I made this mistake, because the beauty of skype is that you can call any national line from anywhere in the world for a small fee(it's borderless), so I assumed it sounded like this is another useful and cheaper step in this direction. 'Pay nothing per minute to national landlines' then in my eyes is misleading”
It shows to me that people are confused with National and International and in my eyes Skype’s ad is not lying. I think I am back here about “people don’t read”, I blogged about this before.
User: “How would a one extra line of terms and conditions make it less understandable? maybe 'free to national lines (i.e not international) included' might make it clearer? I would have immediately understood that?”
Once I took part in a discussion about making a computer program Dummy Proof. Everybody (IT and basic users) had their say. You can go and on discussing what Dummy Proof is. And you can design a program that becomes unable to read and understand.
Maybe the user is right but for me what is so difficult to understand about National and International?
If I ask them to sing the National Anthem, will they sing the Anthem of another country to me??? I doubt very much………
OK, SkypePro: you can make free calls (apart from the connection fee) to landlines within the country you are at that very moment if that country is listed for SkypePro. Calling within the country you are is called National calling. As soon as you call from the country you are to another country, even though it is listed for SkypePro, it is called an International call and yes, you will be charged per minute.
Happy calling
Happy calling
Maybe the user is right but for me what is so difficult to understand about National and International?
ReplyDeleteIf I ask them to sing the National Anthem, will they sing the Anthem of another country to me??? I doubt very much………
I'm an english man living in sweden, if you ask me to sing 'the national anthem' I'd sing you the english one. Why would I asume you mean the anthem of the counry I'm in? Same goes for national international, unless you mention both words in the same sentence I asumed it ment my uk national call.
Skypejon
I am an American currently living in France. Under "My Skype Account," my country is listed as the United States and my language is listed as English. I pay for Skype Credit with an American credit card in dollars. I am a careful reader and understand the difference between "national" and "international." However, I bought SkypePro in order to make free unlimited calls to landlines in the United States. I do not see anything specifying "the country you are in." I never call landlines in France, so I've just wasted $7.50 due to unclear terms and conditions.
ReplyDeleteTo me, Skype has always been something that defies the concepts of "national" or "international" in telecommunication.
ReplyDeleteIt would be hard for me to believe that there are customers who regularly use skype-out to make national landline calls. No, all people I know use it to call international, to friends in other countries or back home when they live abroad.
My understanding, while reading the offer was that I will get the calls to landlines within the country that I have defined in my settings or even to all SkypePro countries. I guess this makes me a dumb person in the eyes of skype marketeers. Only after reading the forum I understood that I will get only calls to the country where my skype phone is connected to the internet.
There is not much use in this offer for me and I was able to avoid it. If I have taken it based on my initial understanding, I understand that the only response from skype would have been a grinning "you are stupid and you will not get the money back, feel free to make calls in the country you live and think abut the concept of national calls."
Customers have actually right to be stupid. The company should try better to explain the contents of the offer to the slower-minded customers also, if they want to be in business for longer period.
The sentence "you can make free calls (apart from the connection fee) to landlines within the country you are at that very moment if that country is listed for SkypePro" could be quite easily added to the offer page.
National means in between te borders of the country you are. As soon as you cross the borders, it becomes International. And if you cross the borders from Europe to the US it is even Intercontinental.
ReplyDeleteBesides that, the US is not a SkpePro country either.
I don't think Skype has the power to change the conceptions "National", "International", "Intercontinental"
Ike