Following on from my Skype account being hacked I found out just how useless Skype customer support was. They have canned scripts, they have no authority to do anything and only contactable by live chat. They are clearly using canned response buttons and dealing with probably many customers at the same time. I reported my Skype account being hacked here on my blog. There is also a great thread ranking high on Skype’s own community forum here Skype account hacked – Useless and unhelpful Skype customer service.
However this less than satisfactory experience led me to thing about alternatives. And I feel like a real fool not doing that earlier, as there is a completely viable alternative to Skype, there is a whole industry of Voice over IP ( VOIP ) providers.
I talked to a real human being at one of those providers ( Voipfone ) and in a few minutes I realised I could get everything I needed for my ‘virtual telephony’ and more, without using Skype and at a slightly lower cost.
Within the hour, I’d signed up and installed the free Zoiper software that turns my PC into an internet phone. No special hardware, no cost and I get a free 056 number which in the UK means anyone can call me at the standard non-geographic rates, but better still, is they are with a voip provider they can call me for free (I am not sure if viop from abroad will connect free to a UK voip number or visa versa, but I’ll find out one day, in which case this will be fantastic).
So if you are looking for VOIP in the UK I’d recomend it, and I would not recommend using Skype numbers, I can’t see any reason too.
My experience with Voipfone so far has been great, and I whole heartedly recommend them. If you click on the advert below you can get a free 30 day trial [and if you do pay for a line the following month, I would get 50% of the first month as a referral fee , however as a line cost £2/month I don’t think the £1 will make me rich 🙂 ]