Being confused about "Skype ID" :D

Hello DPers

I am confused as to why a lot of clients here require me to have a Skype account, as we cannot communicate well without using it. I think it's a waste of time because as a non-native writer I certainly difficult to understand the words spoken by the client via video

Let me know your opinions!

thanks

 

I don't like sharing my Skype ID as it usually results in too long speaking to clients that is unpaid for. The only ones I've ever given it to have just wanted to verify I'm British, but I'd still rather talk over the phone if needed.

 

I agree, too much talk and ended in failure when they realized that my English is bad in the case of a direct conversation

 

I'm not a Skype "chatter" and I tend to cut to the chase pretty quick.

If people want to hear my voice to verify that I am female and I speak American English, fine. If they want to discuss a project, send me a file... fine. (I still request an email with the project instructions so I have a hard copy for those who don't text in Skype.) I refuse to be a slave to Skype or emails. When I'm working, I'm working. My full attention, my concentration, is on the task at hand. I'm in contact with my clients daily, but if someone expects me to constantly be available on Skype to respond to messages along the lines of, "Hi. How are you? How's the project going?" 20 times day or needing to chat because someone has time to kill, is not going to happen.

 

This is exactly the way that I see it, and the main reason I hate Skype. If someone needs me, they can email. I've given people my Skype ID before and been constantly pestered for work, to the point where I'm spending more time updating a client on how many words I've written, than writing. Others will send messages like "are you there" rather than emailing and telling me what they need/want. I avoid it, or 'appear away' most of the time now because it's such a huge time sap.

 

Yes, the thing with Skype is that, some people, that are having some kind of offer want to talk a lot, so that they can convince you about a purchase/opinion and etc. But I don't like it as well for a few reasons - you always need to be polite. I mean you will have to listen, keep nodding your head and will not be able to stop the conversation whenever you need. Also yes, some people might not want to talk through Skype because of language barriers or because they feel not having enough of knowledge to discuss on the topic (because when your commenting on forum, you can always google certain things, right?). In any case, these conversations are usually annoying, so I wouldn't suggest anyone sharing his/her Skype ID with a person that you barely know.