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Title: Microsoft is Killing Skype - and Refusing Refunds for Prepaid
International Calls

Link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/04/12/027252/mi...

Skype is shutting down after two decades on May 5th, notes the Washington
Post. But the bigger problem for retired attorney Karen Griffin is that
Microsoft won't refund the money they paid into a Skype account for cheap
international phone calls: "They're no longer offering this service that I
prepaid for, and now they're not giving me my money back," Griffin said.
"There's a lot of people out there who are going to lose money...." To its
credit, Microsoft gave Skype users a couple months' warning about the
shutdown coming May 5. People can transfer Skype contacts and chat history to
the company's Microsoft Teams chat-and-calling app or to other companies'
services. (While Microsoft sells Teams to organizations, there's a free
version for personal use.) But Microsoft didn't explain well what will happen
to money that people like Griffin have parked in Skype accounts, in some
cases for years.... Unless you bought Skype credits very recently, Microsoft
said it won't refund money in Skype accounts. The company says it will add an
option for Skype account holders to keep using their funds for phone calls
online or in Teams. Griffin doesn't love what Microsoft is doing. She prefers
a cash refund or a credit applied to her Microsoft Office subscription, for
which she pays about $110 a year. Amit Fulay, vice president of product for
Skype and Teams, said it's not possible to shift funds from a Skype account
to Office subscriptions. And he nixed refunds because Microsoft will still
offer basic call services for former Skype customers. "Refunds make more
sense if you took away something," Fulay said. "We're not." Microsoft
declined to say how much money Skype users collectively have sitting in
accounts that they might never use. Stacey Higginbotham, a policy specialist
with Consumer Reports' technology advocacy team, said Griffin is making a
reasonable request for a rich company like Microsoft that's shutting down an
internet service. "The best way: Give people their money back. The second-
best way, give people a credit to all of your services," Higginbotham said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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