By Eric Zuesse
Eric's Substack
March 26, 2025
Today, I spent hours on the phone and on the website of Microsoft and its subsidiary Skype trying to close my $2.99 monthly subscription to Skype which is automatically charged to my credit card account, but there is no human (only an automated) chatbox at their website, and no human available on any of the three listed phone numbers for Microsoft Customer Service (1-855-270-0615, 1-800-865-9408, 1-800-642-7676), all of which are fully automated and ultimately hang up on the caller ("Goodbye.") if the caller has said to their robot something like: I've tried each one of your recommended pathways for help, but all are fully automated and none succeeded, none addressed my problem - none enable me to cancel my subscription - and so I need now to speak to a person, a real human, to deal with my need to stop being on auto-pay to Microsoft - simply to cancel my "subscription." I then (being left with no alternative) phoned my credit card's customer service, and they said that the only way that they would be able to block Microsoft from charging my account would be after they have already billed me the $2.99, at which point I could "dispute" the charge and MAYBE block further such charges from Microsoft/Skype.