Skype’s goodwill gesture not likely to generate much goodwill

Last week Skype, the massively popular VOIP company, stopped working for a couple of days.

This morning I got my first email from Skype about the outage:

You may or may not know but last week Skype wasn’t available for a couple of days. There were a number of reasons for this and I am delighted to say that the problem is now well and truly sorted and everything is back to normal…As a goodwill gesture to all you faithful Skype Pro, Skype Unlimited, SkypeIn or Skype Voicemail customers, we’re adding an additional seven days to your current subscription, free of charge.

7 days of free service!?

A product that millions of people pay for and use everyday stops working for 2 days. Do they really think 7 days of free service will generate any goodwill? Keep in mind some of Skype’s customers use a Skype-in number as their main phone line.

My cynical conclusion (based on no facts at all!) is that eBay, Skype’s owners, might have applied the pressure. I can imagine a tense boardroom scene with a Skype exec wanting to do something for their customers and someone from eBay pointing to the revenue targets and frowning.

Photo: iloveacomputer