Isn't skype an eBay owned company? And you don't believe they'd try to force old customers into new pricing?

Ha. Color me slightly more cynical.

@labeled: (Also: I can't think of any reason why there'd be some PP related explanation - you can add, change and delete cards within the PP interface with no issue. Electing one as your "Primary Funding Source" takes less time than typing this comment did.)

Skype's not the only one. I had a MLB.tv subscription with auto-renewal. I wanted to change the billing from my bank account to my new credit card because I was switching banks and trying to close that account. I changed the billing info on MLB.com and thought everything was fine. Until the next year, when it renewed, took the money out of a now-dormant account, and caused an overdraft. MLB.com said the account on file was my credit card. Yet they were billing my checking account. There was no way to fix it other than cancelling and re-subscribing with the right card. It was an enormous headache.

I never get anything with auto-renew now.

Way too much corporate irresponsibility. I guess that went out the window when they started putting those mandatory arbitration clauses in terms and contracts ... so the would not have to be held accountable.

This just happened to my brother. His credit card was stolen, and so he got a new one, and Skype said to bad here is your new plan that sucks compared to the better deal you had. He was reading even people who had an expired card could not even update the expiration date! Looks like they are planning to kick everyone off the old plans one way or another.

Suggestion if you plan to keep using Skype.

Don't use a credit card, because you will indeed have the problems you noted.

Use a PayPal account. That way, you update your paypal account as needed, not skype.

I did this when I first signed up for Skype, because I remember noting that I couldn't find a way to change billing information.

It is wrong for a company to do what it's doing. I wish I could ditch skype, but...I can't at this juncture. (I've finally trained friends and family to use. Need for travel, etc.)

eBay's corporate culture is soooo cool!

I'd apply, but I hear you have to pass an Awesomeness test consisting of stapling live, happy puppies to the wall, and gang-raping corpses. That is, after all, pretty much the job description.

OK.

When these companies go out an buy billing software, they buy what amounts to a database and a front end connection.

Databases need specific ways to keep records separate. Generally, each record is given a primary key, which can not be changed. (By the people using the program). That key can be any number as long as it is unique and is a number. A number of companies use phone numbers. Others use whatever. A lot use "customer numbers", which is a number the program generates and assigns.

Cheaper software has fewer bells and whistles, so generally companies will purchase that software. A number of companies do not sell packages that include a way to generate account numbers, but do allow you to enter a primary key for that account. Then, some brain will decide to use some number unique to the person's account for the primary key to the database.

Ran into this the first time when I moved a few blocks and my phone number changed, so AT&T @Home decided that I needed a new account with a new user name and ID because my phone number had changed.

Usually, what you want is a primary key as an assigned number, then all other variables (name, billing address, billing, etc, etc) as a variable. But, realistically, a lot of people just take the easy way out.

Could be shady. Could just be cheap. Could be both.

I just ran into this with mail.com. I've been using their service for over 10 years now (or from one of the companies that merged into mail.com), the same email address that I've always had. I have it forward whatever ISP based email account I have at the time.

Anyway, time was up for my annual renewal. However my credit card on file had expired. They would not let me update it. Instead I have to let my existing subscription expire and then purchase a new subscription for 1/3 more money than I've been paying. The new subscription comes with a bunch of "features" I have no need or desire for.

So instead I've decided to abandon the email address I've been using for 10+ years.

I have tried for years to change my billing info with Skype -- and ultimately gave up and stopped using their services. Their loss, not mine.

I purchased a one-year US-Canada subscription in September of last year. The entire subscription was paid for up front. When I renegotiated with BoA and received a new credit card two months ago, I removed my old credit card information. I did not enter new information as I was not making a new purchase. A day later, I received the exact same e-mail. I freaked a little at first because I use this service constantly; however, Skype has continued to work flawlessly even after they said my subscription was "cancelled". If you paid for a subscription, it seems Skype will continue to honor it (as they should) until it expires. No worries (so far)!

It sounds like a good case for an attorney general. Basically if they are using a technical excuse to force people to upgrade to a pricier product, that sounds a lot like fraud.

I had my subscription canceled as well, because I had closed my old bank account and was now using a new one, and my payment failed. There was no trouble, though. All I had to do was re-subscribe with my new bank card. They kept the phone number I was using in reservation for me too, so I had no significant break in service.

@labeled: Ebay in the heat of the boom grew up way too fast. It has made so many mistakes since that I only look to it for decent price comparison. Once they forced PayPal down my throat...(then raised the price for paypal) I was done.

Craigslist (sloppy site, ugly site, full of scammers at the moment) is still a much better alternative to eBay. And eBay own 25% of them I think.

Ditch Skype and buy a MagicJack. I can't say their customer service is any better than Skype's, but after the first year at $40 (which includes the USB phone gizmo), you only pay $20 a year or less for unlimited outgoing and incoming calls in the US and Canada. I've had mine for a couple of years now, and have been very happy with it.

I submitted a similar story (that didn't make it as a post) a few months ago.

I wanted to change the credit card, but wanted to keep the same plan. I emailed. After about a half dozen confusing things, THEY CANCELED THE PLAN AND THE OLD CARD!!! I then tried to get it back but couldn't.

THEY CANCELED THE PLAN, NOT I.

THEY WOULDN'T RESTORE IT (saying they couldn't).

They gave me a coupon for some small number of Euros (although I'm in the US), but that was less than a few months on the old plan.

Skype is evil.

I don't get it. The exact same thing happened to me with a citibank breach. It was no trouble at all to go in and change my account.

Apparently, I'm a genius and every one else is a moron. Go me!

Easy peazy.

eBay is and always will be the "fuck you" company.

It's just their nature.

@rijrunner: Ive never seen a piece of accountsoftware that uses a credit card as the Unique Identifier for a client, the primary reason for that is that CC info is confidential, while the UI needs to be accessable to all tables within the Database in order to join the information.

To me, this sounds like they just want the old plans gone. Unless you have a contract for your price plan, then they have no obligation to let you keep it.

@sleze69: its not fraud as there is no obligation to keep that price unless they are still advertising it or you have an active contract with them.

I'm sorry that Ian's had problems changing his billing information - and his description of the current situation is, unfortunately, accurate.

We're working on a fix at the moment, which will let Skype users change their billing details without changing their subscription.

In the meantime, however, users who have been inconvenienced like Ian should get in touch with our customer support team who will be able to issue them with compensation for any changes to their subscriptions.

We'll get in touch with Ian to sort things out, too.

Here's how to switch your billing information easily.

1. Goto your account overview page
2. Click "Subscription Settings" in the main page
3. Click "Switch" below 'Your subscription is active on the left
4. Choose the same subscription package (if it exists)

It will say that you are already signed up for that package,

5. Click the "Continue" button
6. On the right side, click "Change" under the "Paying with" section
7. Choose a new card to pay with. or paypal.

This will work if you just want to change your billing information, but not if you want to keep an old plan.

I, uh, was able to do this exact operation earlier this year, though for different reasons. (my bank card expired)

I didn't have any problems at all, though I was irritated that I had to go to the skype website instead of just doing it all "through" the skype interface.

I've had the same exact issue with CableOne. Not only can you not change the credit card on your own account via their online customer utilities, the local sales reps can't either.

The only way to change the credit card on the account is to cancel and sign up with a new account.

@labeled:

Pretty soon you will only be able to pay your Skype bill via Paypal.
This is of course for your safety and convenience.

@yevarechecha: This also happened to me with MLB.tv!

I've had MLB.tv for three years - the price was raised in the second year, but I was supposed to be "locked in" at the first year's price. Only, my CC had expired (as those rascally things do), so Customer Service told me to sign-up for a new account - at the new price, natch - and they would give a note to their Accouting Department to refund the difference.

Two years and many follow-up emails later, I am still waiting for that $10 refund. Unfortunately, it wasn't worth investing more time in pursuing at a certain point.

@rijrunner: DB Security 101: Never EVER use a CC# or SSN as the primary key. It's especially tempting to use SSNs, but that's just asking for trouble. Much better (and not that hard) to auto-generate some random customer number.

@Peter Parkes (Skype Blogger): Interesting. So the ppl in this thread that are saying it's "easy" to change (thus handily implying the OP is a moron of some epic fail measure) may be mistaken. Or may've "upgraded" their services w/out realizing they did so.

Coolness. I was thinking they're just fanboys. (No iPhone posts today, so I'm just itching to say "fanboy.")

Unfortunately Skype is famously unresponsive. Canadians asking when and why about SkypeIn for their country have been getting the runaround for years now, complete with mostly no response at all, and when a response comes it turns out to be untrue.

Too bad as they're got a nice product in many ways.

I tried asking a fairly simple question about billing last September and it was nearly 3 weeks before I got a reply, a reply which didn't even try to answer the question.

@labeled: Been there, done that. It was "pending" for almost three months while they still repeatedly tried to take money from my old primary funding source, which was closed and of course I couldn't remove because it was "pending". My Paypal account soon closed thereafter. I will never use Paypal again, so I guess that means I'll never use eBay again. Oh well. I'll survive.

Same thing happened to my brother due to the same WAMU to Chase change. Because he was out of the country, he thought you had to be in the U.S. to change it, so he asked me to do it. I could not find how to change the card information.

It gets better though.... I decided to sign him up for a new subscription. The 3-month rate had gone up but figured it was better than none. So I signed him up. They charged his card. He still was not subscribed!! He had however the option of canceling the subscription with the unused portion going back into his regular Skype account. He did so. No credit!

So he ended up paying the higher rate for the following 3 months, did not receive the subscription, and when he cancelled he got no credit. In the meantime his card was charged the subscription rate.

the same thing happened to me, same day. when you do figure out how to renew with a different card, they don't offer all the features anymore for unlimited country (e.g. now you have to pay $12 for an unlimited country number)