When Skype suffered an outage of several days from 21 September 2015, some wondered how Skype would make it up to users, and now it has responded.

If you’re a regular Skype user, then you’re likely very well aware that on 21 September 2015, there was an Skype outage that lasted for for hours if not days.

As I noted in an article entitled ‘Skype outage being fixed, focus on restoring full service,’ I had actually been experiencing problems before 21 September whereby my status would pop up on friend’s screens, even though I was set to invisible.

In any case, Skype fully acknowledged the problem at the time, with no company able to avoid the issue in the age of Twitter, Facebook, email and social platforms.

Some people wondered at the time whether Skype would do anything to compensate its customers, some of whom were outraged on social media, and today, Skype has made a blanket offer to all of its users.

In an email that someone emailed to see if I could verify its authenticity (as one never knows these days in an age of endless email scams), Skype said ‘Hello’ and then issued the following message:



“Our mission at Skype is to help keep you closer and do more with the people who matter to you most. It's a simple commitment, but one which we hold ourselves highly accountable for.

“On September 21, we experienced an issue that prevented us from delivering on our mission.

“We're sorry for the technical issue we suffered that day. We know how important our service is to you and how frustrating outages like this can be. We also know that sometimes saying sorry just isn't enough.

“To make it up to you, over the next few days we will add 20 minutes of free calls to over 60 landline and 8 mobile destinations around the world*. Make sure you look out for your free calls as they will be available to use for 7 days.

“Once again, we're extremely sorry for any inconvenience caused.

“Skype.”

Now, if you’re wondering what that asterisk means, further down the page you’ll see a statement that says: “*You need an active account to receive and use the free calls. To check included destinations click on the offer in My Account.”

And really, that’s that. Skype users get some free credit to use for seven days.

Whether it’s enough to mollify those who threatened to leave the service or who already have is in question, but it is something and an acknowledgment that, for many at least, Skype is a vital service and downtime is a real downer!

All of that said, it’s good to see Skype making an effort at restoring balance to the force and making good on its troubles, and we praise them for making the effort while sincerely hoping any future instances are as rare as hen’s teeth and smartphones with physical rotary diallers.