Wall Street Journal: Vonage Quality Is The Pits

As Vonage prepares for its IPO, possibly as early as next week, it's being hit with even more bad news. A Wall Street Journal article savages the service, quoting one subscriber as saying, "If you have to choose between two cans and a string and Vonage, take the cans and string. You'll be happier with the service." The Journal article cites widespread subscriber unhappiness with Vonage. Subscribers complain of poor voice quality, as well as a wide variety of "bureaucratic hassles and snafus" when dealing with issues with the service.

One subscriber, for example, said that it too him 11 hours, most of it on hold, to try and cancel his subscription and move back to Qwest.

The article also cited complaints of poor voice quality, and phones not ringing for incoming calls.

The article also noted that 77,000 Vonage subscribers abandoned the service in the first quarter of this year, about 2.1% per month. That's compared to a loss of 1.9% per month in the fourth quarter of last year.

This all adds up to bad news for the IPO. I've already written that because of VoIP competition, this IPO might be troubled.Now it looks as if voice quality and customer service may take their toll as well.