Skype Update

We’ve been using Skype as our home phone for about 10 months now. It definitely has its advantages, such as the low cost. But there are some quirks to it that would be hard to live with if we didn’t have cell phones as a backup.

One of the oddities is that it doesn’t always recognize entries for automated systems, such as when keying in numbers for extensions or other numeric prompts. This can be frustrating when on a call with computerized recordings. For those calls we tend to use our cell phones.

Another issue that we’ve experienced, (which we can’t determine if it’s our Panasonic VOIP phone or Skype) is that incoming calls get rejected. The caller just hears ringing and the call never goes into voicemail. Occasionally we’ve noticed that our Skype “status” has changed to ‘away’ without us making that change. Sometimes we just don’t know why people can’t leave messages. We started to tell friends and family that when that happens, just to call and leave a message on our cell phones. And we tend to look at the phone for any missed calls, not just for voicemails.

These issues are annoying, but it still has been beneficial for us to have a backup to the cell phones. The biggest advantage for us has been using Skype during online classes, which can run for an hour to three hours long. That’s been a huge savings on our cell phone bills.