In a move that left me very frustrated and disappointed, Skype has "temporarily" abandoned support for Mastercard credit cards, and while there are no "official" times for this service to be restored, it maybe possible that in a week or so this issue becomes a thing of the past.

For now I am left lonely and frustrated, as I use Amex and Mastercard and not VISA and Diner which appear as the two only cards supported by the SkypeOut service.

SkypeOut is a prepaid service which allows users of the Skype software to call any telephone number in the world from their PC, Mac, Linux or PocketPC computer at incredibly low rates.

Though the service is not as reliable as the traditional phone, it does work well in many circustamnces and the costs incurred are really minimal.

SkypeOut has been available for over two months and it counts now more than 200,000 active users.

Unfortunately the decision of dropping, even though temporarily, MasterCard from the already limited range of supported pay mechanisms (Amex and PayPal nto available either), closes off access to paid phone calls for me and the fact that the company didn't bother to inform me and other users of this change (they have on record who the subscribers who have paid with Mastercard before are) makes my customer experience quite unappealing at this point.

The information is not even clearly provided on the site, where, to find about this, you need to have the perseverance of an elephant and ask direct live support from their online chat service (LivePerson-powered).

Only then, an automatic message greets you saying that Mastercard accounts are not supported temporarily without providing any further info. So, either you have VISA or Diners or you will have to wait for Skype to resolve this isse with time.

While issues like these can happen to any new one fast growing company, it is the handling and customer communication strategy that make the true difference in making customers understand and adjust to these issues, or feel abandoned by a company who they thought would have differentiated itself from the traditional players in treating its customers like its true partners.

If it wasn't for us users, where would Skype be otherwise?