Skype credit expiration

[gusl]

=== What are the rules for Skype Credit expiry? ===

1. Skype Credit expires 180 days after your last credit purchase or action that used credit eg calling landlines or cell phones, sending an SMS message.
2. Each purchase, call or SMS message resets the expiry time to 180 days.
3. Unfortunately, if you don't use your remaining credit, it will expire to comply with normal business accounting rules.
4. We don’t want you to lose your credit, so we send reminder emails 30 days, 7 days and 72 hours before your credit expires.

I propose a website to help you get around Skype's credit expiration policy: every 6 months, it logs you in to your account, and makes a 1-second phone call.

"Normal business accounting rules" sounds like BS.

Comments

[nibot.livejournal.com]

"Normal business accounting rules" sounds like BS.

agreed.

[noequal.livejournal.com]

"Normal business accounting rules" sounds like BS.

Nope. They've got to be able to get it off their books.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

but who says it needs to be 6 months?

And why wouldn't they credit my card with that amount?

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

It is bullshit indeed, but it's a standard business accounting practice to nickel and dime the customer who probably won't notice.

won't notice?

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

in this case they sent me 3 warning emails...

[noequal.livejournal.com]

I hate to be the one defending business ...

a) Seriously, this is cross-industry standard. Check out a gift card sometime.

b) Seriously, this is a terrible idea. They don't have your money -- or worse yet, the money of a million customers -- sitting in an account. Its being used.

They aren't just skimming you. They are responsible to, in this case, eBay. And very soon, public investors. Should they not use some standard accounting rules, they can easily be sued by the stockholders.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

(a): I don't see why a company that provides Internet telephony should be in the same league as gift cards.

(b): Banks likewise use my money.

So are you saying that if you start a company that has a policy of returning customers' money (or keeping the credit for 10 years), you better not make it public, as you could be sued by stockholders for not being evil enough?

[noequal.livejournal.com]

(a) Store Credit is in the same league as gift cards. Its the norm to get rid of it after 180 days.

(b) And? The two aren't comparable. I'm not sure what analogy you're attempting to make.

(c) Evil enough? No. You can be sued for violating the trust the stockholders have given you. They expect you to maximize short-term quarterly profits if you're public. And you are required to by government regulation.

The stockholders have let your company exist via their capital. To not honor that commitment would be evil.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

What if your company wants to focus on long-term profits, and wants a good reputation among customers? Are you saying they shouldn't be public?

Btw, I'm not enjoying this argument... so please don't be devil's advocate just for the heck of it.

[noequal.livejournal.com]

>Are you saying they shouldn't be public?

Actually, yes. You go public, and you aren't really allowed to think beyond one quarter. Private is the way to be for long-term profits.

And I'm not being Devil's Advocate. Seriously. There's a common meme that business's are Bad. That may or may not be so, but blaming them for standard accounting practices is a bit silly.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

I mostly think of businesses as good.

But why would being listed in the Stock Exchange cause a company to have a short-term orientation?

If I had a company and wanted to make it public, I'd go for an IPO consisting mostly of Shut-Up Shares... the stockholders share in profits, but get no say... and waive their right to sue.

Is Skype public?

[noequal.livejournal.com]

> I mostly think of businesses as good.

Then why are you upset by standard accounting practices?

> Is Skype public?

According to the wiki search I did 4 hours ago, it will be soon. Currently, it is owned by eBay. eBay is public.

>But why would being listed in the Stock Exchange
> a company to have a short-term orientation?

The legal fiction that is the stock market dictates that companies are responsible for quarterly growth. The companies become bound by law.

[gustavolacerda.livejournal.com]

is this the case for every stock market around the world?

P.S. remarks like your "Then why..." above and "There's a common meme..." really compel me to stop having arguments with you. I've never thought (let alone suggested) that business is a bad thing: I focus on the bad because that's what debugging is like.

[noequal.livejournal.com]

(Double post. Apologies for that.)

> is this the case for every stock market around the world?

So far as I know. There are good theoretical (not to mention practical) reasons for focusing on the short-term.

This hasn't really been an argument. Nor am I entirely sure what your problem with Skype is at this point, other than you *feel* annoyed. Which is fine, normal and expected.

If it was your intention to blow off steam at Skype, then I misinterpreted your post.

But they seem to simply be following some standard practices, and even let you know about it beforehand.

Except for the emotional issue, I fail to see a systematic problem.

[simrob.livejournal.com]

I think this is a reasonable case for reform of standard accounting practices (which is commonly done with legislation, see every piece of legislation titled "X Bill Of Rights" in the last fifty years).

The side effect is that you probably wouldn't be able to buy gift cards anymore. The reason everyone is so eager to sell you gift cards is that they're betting that's going to be money you won't spend in its entirety. I think Skype is actually being good guys here by giving you ample opportunity to save your account (airline miles are a good example, I think, of where organizations usually behave with less regard for consumers). And I actually think your "savemyskype.com" idea makes sense, and it doesn't seem like there's any reason a non-Skype entity couldn't use it; note that it would also eventually result in Skype getting all your money, it would just be a much slower process.

There's a related question of why Skype doesn't offer a bill-me-later option (you have to prepay), but that seems like a fairly reasonable fraud reduction and profit maximization choice for Skype to make, even if it doesn't precisely maximize my utility.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

that irritates me, too.

[combinator.livejournal.com]

Apple has the same kind of bullshit argument for having to charge iPod touch owners for OS upgrades. Yet they also feel that they can give away Safari, Quicktime, Darwin, etc. for free.

[ikeepaleopard]

Disclaimer: I work for apple. Further disclaimer: I know nothing about accounting. Additional disclaimer: I'm not actually convinced apple isn't just gouging you.

That said, from what I understand the difference is that you paid for the ipod in the first place. Further, there's some weird recent rule about how if you add additional features you're required to recognize revenue gradually over the lifetime of the product. Each iPhone has its revenue recognized over two years, but the ipod is a one time transaction. Now why the ipod touch isn't done that way, and why the iphone can get new features after two years is something of a sketchy mystery. That said, I was at a meeting recently where people above me in the food chain were complaining about how hard it was to give certain things away so take that as you will.

[peamasii.livejournal.com]

It just means that skimming you for a nickel is more standard than cooking up their profits some other way.