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Jaanus

Skype Groups beta available

By My status Jaanus on September 16, 2005 in Skype Beta and new releases.

Last night, we put out the public beta of [Skype Groups](http://www.skype.com/products/skypegroups/). The essence of it is that you can buy Skype services for other people and keep an eye on their usage -- like refill their accounts if they run short of Skype Credit. It supports SkypeOut (Skype Credit), SkypeIn and Voicemail.

For more info, check out the [product page](http://www.skype.com/products/skypegroups/), [FAQ](http://support.skype.com/index.php?_a=knowledgebase&_j=subcat&_i=36) and [Skype Groups (BETA) forum](http://forum.skype.com/viewforum.php?f=32). Give us feedback what you think of it, does it work fine for you or are there any things you don't understand or problems that need to be fixed.

View blog reactions

Comments

I'm not sure the link is correct. It links to something called 'Mobile Phone Tracking' and it's certainly not freeware. Indeed, the only version with a price - the marine tracker - costs £250!

grannybuttons | Wednesday, Sep 14

After login to my Skype Group account I have only 1 payment method - moneybookers.
Credit card or PayPal needed. :)

xtelcz | Friday, Sep 16

This article is very important for us

habibouadam | Friday, Sep 16

Skype Groups is a very interesting service but you really need to work on those payment methods! Credit Card needed!
(y)

dpzero | Friday, Sep 16

Hi Jaanus,

really good service:) my question is that; whats the min. amount for credit allocation for each user ? $1 ? $0,5?
and suggestions, I think also reallocation must be avaliable.

Regards,

Veli Hazar

veli.hazar | Friday, Sep 16

Very nice tool as, now, I can control and place some money on different accounts, all that from one pannel.
Easy way to control the budget of communications.

serge.vbr | Sunday, Sep 18

Great great, this is the way Skype has to go. Skype has to llook at the business world to solve problems for use Skype in the companies.
This service would be perfect if credits could be transfered from a user to another one.
Don't forget to implement call transfer. It is very important in the companies (one skype user can transfer a call to another skype user)

dxdanny | Sunday, Sep 18

I work with a non-profit that does remote tutoring. corporate tutors call the classrooms from their desks and tutor student by sharing the computer and talking via viop phone. currently we use vonage but would love to use skype. we have 30+ classrooms for tutoring. my question is how do i go about setting this up. do i need 30 skype accounts with different user names and credit cards or can we do this with just a few profiles and buy 10 numbers each and assign them to different computers around the city...? help and thanks in advance - cary

cary_zakon | Monday, Sep 19

This is a very important feature!! GREAT!! Please add more payment methods (credit cards, paypal, ... )!!!! I hope you'll implement shortly other features e.g. call transfering and routing.
Ciao

rudydalsanto | Tuesday, Sep 20

Hi Guys

Great product but what would be really nice would be to be able to put contacts into groups e.g. friends, work, etc as you can do for email contacts.

Regards

Russ

gecelterfam | Tuesday, Sep 20

Just tried tgo pay for credits on Skype Groups, used the Moneybookers website to effect the payment by credit card. This is the only option offered by Skype. Moneybookers requested a Cash Advance from from my Credit Card Company to effect the payment which was refused, by my card provider for security reasons.

Spoke to Moneybookers who said they will not process this credit card transaction any other way other than as a "cash adavance", and not as a credit card transactions, as they inform me that they process a large quantity of gambling transactions. Seems like a good way to hamstring Skypes business, by using them

I want to use this service but cannot pay for it from Australia. Beta or no Beta use a better payment provider. Fix it or looose it I say.

parcelnet | Wednesday, Sep 21

You should also be able to have all members work off the same pool of credits, without having to allocate credit to each user. This should be one of the options!

parcelnet | Wednesday, Sep 21

Moneybookers suck indeed! I simply don't see how Skype expects to develop business in the US unless they add c/card or paypal as payment options. I had a very similar experience to that of parcelnet (above), except it went just one step further -- my credit card company accepted the token cash withdrawal request from Moneybookers (which is how Moneybookers verify the credit card account). Of course, since they charge in Euros, I will now have to wait until the paper statement is available from the credit card company (I can only see dollar amounts online). But the worst part of it -- my credit card company charges $10 for every cash withdrawal! It means that every time I'll try to purchase Skypeout credit, it will come with a $10 surcharge. I say that Skype is great for making Pc-to-Pc calls, but until they sort out the payment options, I'm staying away from skyping-in/out (which is where Skype hopes to actually earn money, right?)

evgeniy.gorkov | Thursday, Sep 22

As the World-Tracker.com Presence Server is a free product, we haven't listed it on our online shop. Simply create your own account at http://www.world-tracker.com/signup.asp - and once logged in, click on Skype Presence Server - add your details link on the news page. Hope this helps!

world-tracker.com | Friday, Sep 23

I can find the my way to moneybookers on my account and put the ammount you debit me to verify my credit card! Please help me, sending email... Urgent!

dripenim | Friday, Sep 23

The tool is a really good step in the right direction for business users however, it is imperative that you afford alternative payment schemes if this process is to be of value. Additionally, having the ability to download reporting data from the tool into an Excel spreadsheet or CSV would be a great feature for businesses.

dfaith | Monday, Sep 26

Yes there is a need for credit card and paypal on skype groups.Very frustrating when you sign up for it expceting to have same payment methods when you buy skypeout credits and are faced with only 2 options. Please add paypal and credit card facilities. Most companies have a credit card!Also can the contacts be organised. can skypeout contacts be listed on the right hand side. say spilt screen??
BTW- great product, loving using it and telling people about it

woody1001 | Tuesday, Sep 27

Cool. Might I suggest that calls are only forward to my land line or mobile for some specific callers that I explicitly authorize. (Right now you can only change the settings to allow calls from everyone, only my contacts or only people I authorized)... It would be great to have forwared only the calls that interest me... for instance MyMother, MyGirlfriend or VIPClient... anyways I would be paying for this calls and I wouldn't like to pay for AnnoyingPeople to call every evening...

carlosparrapocaterra | Thursday, Sep 29

Very nice feature as I can now put money into my son's skype acct as he doesn't have a credit card, but now I have 7.25eu left in moneybookers acct and I can't put it into my group acct as there are only set amounts I can send. Any suggestions from anyone out there?

beehive172 | Friday, Sep 30

Even though the idea is excellent, I can't say the same about its usage and or support and customer service. The help section is completely worthless and the interface and account tools lack even simple logic. To give you an example, you have to go through a hidden 3 levels down help question to find out how to manage Skype Groups, only to find out, after searching for an hour, that you have to give your credit card information to another company to make this work. In addition to that, there is no option to unsubscribe or cancel a service. I bought another number today. I wanted to use it as a different user (I have two numbers now and I was hoping to use one for close friends only and the other as a regular number). There is no way to do that. No instructions, no help, no option!!!!! How do I set up another user for the second number I bought? How do I set up another voicemail? There is NO INFORMATION AT ALL. They just list the two numbers in my account page and NO OPTIONS as to what to do with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! MY FRUSTRATION WITH THIS IS OVER THE TOP!!!!!! I am requesting a refund and I am hoping to get my money back.

patmav | Wednesday, Oct 5

HELPPPP!!! I am in California and having MULTIPLE problems getting my office set up with Skype. There is no customer service whatsoever available and their support replies are all scripted.

Is there anyone who has successfully navigated getting a business control panel set up via sending 'invites'?

Also, has anyone had the experience of buying one item and having them send you another and then not refunding your full amount???

Any help or feedback would be fabulous.

Mari Shine
925-937-0660 x.104 June 4 08

mmargarita02 | Wednesday, Jun 4

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TrackBack

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Skype Groups beta available:

» Corporate Communications with Skype from Oliver Thylmann\\\'s Blog
Skype today announced something they call Skype Groups. What this means is that a corporation can fill up the Skype balance of their employees from one spot and keep and eye on who is using how much of their time. [Read More]

Tracked on September 16, 2005 7:22 AM

» Skype for small and medium sized businesses - SkypeGroups from Anders Jacobsen\\\'s blog
Skype has just released \\\'Skype Groups\\\' - a way for a small businesses, NGOs, families etc to administer their Skype costs: [...] [Read More]

Tracked on September 16, 2005 7:28 AM

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