# Stupid effing Skype blacklists an entire country and won't let me call me my mother. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 16, 2013, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-effing-skype-blacklists-an-entire-country-and-wont-let-me-call-me-my-mother/661113 "2013-06-16T08:54:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 8:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-effing-skype-blacklists-an-entire-country-and-wont-let-me-call-me-my-mother/661113/1 "2013-06-16T08:54:41Z")
I’m not sure whether to be annoyed or amused. This is too mellow for a proper Pitting, but I did want to share this utter stupidity. TL;DR version: Skype apparently has a policy where calls to a specific country, Taiwan, is automatically disconnected and results in an account suspension, despite it being listed on their [rates page](http://www.skype.com/en/rates/) like any other country. Full chat log, with names changed to protect the presumably innocent: 1:17:19 AM System Thank you for contacting Skype Customer Support! 1:17:19 AM System NotReallyJohn has joined this session! 1:17:19 AM System Connected with NotReallyJohn 1:17:29 AM NotReallyJohn Hello! Welcome to Skype Live Support! My name is NotReallyJohn. How can I help you? 1:17:32 AM Reply HI NotReallyJohn. 1:17:37 AM Reply My account keeps getting suspended. 1:17:45 AM Reply Could you please make it stop? 1:18:00 AM Reply “For my security” is interrupting my calls to my mother, and I’m not sure why it’s doing that. 1:18:24 AM NotReallyJohn Your concern is being handled by another department. What I can do for you is to transfer you to a specialist who handles this kind of issue. 1:18:37 AM Reply Sure. 1:18:37 AM Reply Thanks. 1:18:46 AM Reply And thanks for being up so late to help us. 1:19:09 AM System You are being transferred to another queue. Please stand by… 1:19:09 AM System NotReallyJohn has left this session! 1:21:44 AM System NotReallyBob has joined this session! 1:21:44 AM System Connected with NotReallyBob 1:21:59 AM NotReallyBob Hello! I’m NotReallyBob. It seems you have been transferred to me for further assistance. I’ll just take a look at your previous conversation and then we can get started. 1:23:31 AM Reply Hi NotReallyBob! 1:23:32 AM Reply Alright, thanks. 1:23:50 AM Reply (To summarize it for you, my account keeps getting suspended for some reason when I try to call my mother.) 1:24:16 AM NotReallyBob Thank you for waiting. 1:24:18 AM NotReallyBob I see. 1:24:26 AM NotReallyBob Can you please tell me the location of your mother? 1:24:35 AM Reply Apparently, having parents who live in another country is a big red flag for Skype… strange for an international VOIP solution. 1:24:47 AM Reply Taiwan, though she travels to China every so often as well. 1:25:24 AM NotReallyBob I see. 1:25:43 AM Reply Do you think that’s what’s causing the suspensions? 1:26:19 AM NotReallyBob That is because Taiwan is one of the countries that has a high volume of fraudulent calls. 1:26:44 AM Reply I see. Well, I’m not exactly trying to defraud my mother. 1:27:14 AM NotReallyBob However that is our system who is blocking you. 1:27:22 AM NotReallyBob We cannot undo this as it is made this way. 1:27:29 AM Reply Apparently she has the misfortune of living amongst those no-good Skype fraudsters, but I assure you she’s quite the innocent old lady. 1:27:36 AM Reply Huh. 1:27:38 AM NotReallyBob To be cautious once those countries were called. 1:28:18 AM Reply So Skype’s official policy is to forbid me from calling my mother because she lives in Taiwan? 1:28:25 AM Reply Don’t you think that’s a bit… draconian? 1:28:42 AM NotReallyBob Not your mother but to that country. 1:29:22 AM Reply Well, do ya think you might be able to convince your boss to help my mom move to America, then? 1:29:28 AM Reply I still have about 8 dollars in Skype credit if that helps. 1:30:09 AM NotReallyBob I apologize for this inconvenience and I truly understand how you feel. 1:30:23 AM Reply I mean, otherwise, I find it bizarre that you’re blacklisting an entire country even while advertising the capability to place calls to that country at [Skype to Phone plans for low cost international calling | Skype](http://www.skype.com/en/rates/) 1:30:27 AM NotReallyBob But as I have mentioned our system was program this way. 1:30:43 AM Reply Right, and you don’t think maybe… the system ought not to be programmed that way in the future? 1:31:05 AM Reply Like, maybe having more accurate heuristics would be a better service to your paying customers? 1:31:29 AM NotReallyBob We will take note of this and I will forward it to our development team. 1:31:31 AM Reply I don’t know, maybe that’s just me living in an overidealized world where corporate decisions actually make sense. 1:32:44 AM Reply Do you truly think that is the best way to handle this? To just make it disappear into the great void of generic customer complaints, never to be dealt with again? 1:32:51 AM Reply You don’t find it at all odd that an entire country is blacklisted? 1:33:22 AM Reply I mean, surely, even in the current disastrous economy there must be important CEOs and such making calls to Taiwan. They do conduct a modicum of legitimate business, you know. 1:33:29 AM NotReallyBob I understand. 1:33:39 AM NotReallyBob However there is nothing I can do right now. 1:33:47 AM NotReallyBob We are doing updates every now and then. 1:34:52 AM Reply Well, NotReallyBob, I am sorry that you are so hamstrung by your company. My mother will be very sad to hear of this, but I will tell her you at least tried to understand and were very apologetic. 1:35:06 AM Reply Do you think I might be able to speak to your supervisor about this issue, please? 1:35:44 AM Reply Just so, you know, my mother will know I at least tried. I’m sure you understand. 1:36:09 AM NotReallyBob I’m sincerely sorry if I wasn’t able to help, but hopefully you understand that I really tried by best. I’ll ask my supervisor to join the chat shortly. 1:36:23 AM NotReallyBob Before I do that can you please provide me the number that your mother is using? 1:36:32 AM Reply I appreciate, NotReallyBob. It’s not your fault that you’re bound by such inanity. I doubt you set the rules yourself. 1:36:33 AM Reply Sure. 1:36:40 AM Reply The number I tried to call is +8869##########. 1:37:24 AM Reply You yourself seem like a very reasonable, empathetic individual. If it were up to you, I’d certainly be allowed to call my poor mother, even if she does live in that terrible, fraudulent country. 1:38:40 AM NotReallyBob Thank you for providing me the number. 1:38:52 AM Reply Thank you for letting me speak to a supervisor. 1:40:10 AM NotReallyBob No worries. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-effing-skype-blacklists-an-entire-country-and-wont-let-me-call-me-my-mother/661113/2 "2013-06-16T17:08:52Z")
That is very odd. And good to know! Did the supervisor ever join the chat? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-effing-skype-blacklists-an-entire-country-and-wont-let-me-call-me-my-mother/661113/3 "2013-06-16T18:14:07Z")
Man, your screen name made that transcript really confusing at first. ---
**Author:** ![Zenja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/47e85d/32.png) [@Zenja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenja)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-effing-skype-blacklists-an-entire-country-and-wont-let-me-call-me-my-mother/661113/4 "2013-06-16T18:35:22Z")
I’m not sure if they still do this, but years ago, if you had a debugging program installed on your computer (as many programmers/computer enthusiasts do), Skype would refuse to run because they thought you were going to hack it or something. This, among other reasons (such as making it trivial to get your IP address as long as someone knows your id), makes me strictly avoid it. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-effing-skype-blacklists-an-entire-country-and-wont-let-me-call-me-my-mother/661113/5 "2013-06-16T18:58:40Z")
Oops, sorry, it was late and I didn’t post the supervisor’s response. Yes, she eventually came online and was very helpful. She fixed the issue within a few minutes and apologized for the trainee and said she’d coach him on it for next time. She recognized the ridiculousness of suggesting that the entire country was blacklisted. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-effing-skype-blacklists-an-entire-country-and-wont-let-me-call-me-my-mother/661113/6 "2013-06-16T19:18:53Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Man, your screen name made that transcript really confusing at first. :smack: Hah, oops.