Article shows 12 recent examples of Vonage indirectly funding spyware |
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Class action lawsuits, a grossly underperforming IPO (debut at $17/share, $6.95 as of this writing) and being #1 at the wrong things like overspending on internet advertising. Just give us something positive to write about, Vonage. I have gone from slight concern, to worry to outright disturbed over a company that has provided a service our family and business have enjoyed for over two years now.
The most recent black eye for Vonage is this article that jumped out at me with the headline: How Vonage Funds Spyware. Ouch. Who didn’t figure with all the money they were spending online that some advertising wouldn’t be from legitimate sources?
This article drags out a bunch of soiled laundry with screenshots and then contradicts the title with (emphasis mine):
As best I can tell, Vonage does not specifically intend to have its ads shown in spyware. Instead, the advertising chains shown above reveal that these are generally indirect relationships, not direct spyware ad buys. (In comparison, see my September 2005 report of Expedia directly and intentionally buying spyware-delivered advertising from numerous notorious spyware vendors — a practice that, to its credit, Expedia subsequently stopped.) Yet by failing to take appropriate precautions and failing to diligently supervising its ads, Vonage makes payments to spyware vendors — funding spyware that is known to harm users’ PCs.
This is the side of broker ad buying that I dislike. It’s too easy to end up buying advertising in places you don’t want. With all the money Vonage is spending (over $20 million per month) they could have their own ad department that actively pursues relevant sites and buy direct advertising. Yes, they have an affiilate program but that thing sucked in our tests here, so throw a million at that and make something a lot more attractive. Our company was sending them business at one time and we never made a dime when I know people were signing up through those ads, but instead they are out buying ads through broker that end up indirectly funding spyware vendors. Amazing.
Where should we move our Vonage business too? It’s time for me to stop bitching about them and yet continuing to do business with them. It’s wallet voting time. We’ll consider any other VoIP provider than AT&T. We are looking at Comcast Digital Voice (good/bad?). I’m serious. Suggestions, please?
Related Posts- Vonage pops the 250 million dollar IPO question
- Vonage dials up $250 million more of VC funding
- How many of the top 50 internet advertisers are you doing business with currently?
- Buying Vonage stock?
- Tickle and Vonage top internet advertisers in April 2005
- Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for Vonage, it does
Can things get any worse for Vonage? They’ve become the poster child for f***ing things up.
Sorry, can’t provide any advice — believe it or not, I haven’t ventured into VOIPland yet. Let us know what you choose, though.
Comment by Sterling Camden — July 18, 2006 @ 3:09 pm PST
The worst part is Vonage service for the most part has been good. It’s mostly all this external BS. This has all the signs of wheels coming off the cart. Got to get out before that happens. We’ve started looking around.
Comment by TDavid — July 18, 2006 @ 3:35 pm PST
Frankly, I’ve never understood the whole Vonage thing. So you pay $20 a month so you don’t have to pay AT&T $15? I’m all for helping out innovative businesses, but it seems to me that taking the company was being pruned to go public from the get go and given the fairly low barriers to entry, that the founders were looking for an exit strategy. Personally, I’ve been pretty thrilled with Skype and would much rather pay .02 a minute to Skype out then $20 per month to have unlimited calling. Between Skype and a prepaid cell phone, it’s gotten pretty cheap for telephone service. Now if we could only figure out a way to use the internet to fuel my car . . .
Comment by Davis Freeberg — July 18, 2006 @ 5:18 pm PST
We saved a ton of money switching 75% of our business lines and all of our residential lines to Vonage, Davis. In our area 2+ years ago there was no such thing as unlimited long distance (a local phone company has a monopoly and they weren’t offering in our area), we were paying around 11 cents per minute on average which adds up when a large percentage of clientele is long distance. Our typical long distance bills for our all our phone lines for both our businesses (six of them at the time) ran anywhere from $750-1,000 USD+ per month. The switch to Vonage completely eliminated the long distance fees and eliminated a huge amount of line charge taxes.
I’ve not been as impressed with the call quality overall of Skype compared to Vonage. When Skype has a good connection it’s great but when it’s bad it’s chop-chop-choppy.
Comment by TDavid — July 18, 2006 @ 8:25 pm PST
[…] As mentioned last week, we’ve had it with Vonage and decided to cancel our account. It wasn’t from bad customer service or shoddy call quality, it was because of the negativity that has swirled around the company since they went public. The numerous class action lawsuits, the floundering stock price, the overspending on internet advertising some of which is indirectly funding spyware/adware. Add all that up and it can drive away customers who have been happy for over two years. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » Vonage out, Skype back IN/OUT — July 24, 2006 @ 10:16 am PST
There are frequent pblms in the calls ultimately i got frustated and I cancelled my account and was told that I could keep their device because I was with them for a year. Now I am being charged 95.99. Oh, and I can’t get over the disconnection fees. Hello, where the hell did I agree to a contract?
They are so quick with the billing but when it comes to service, they suck. VONAGE IS HORRIBLE
Comment by ananymous — March 17, 2007 @ 12:43 am PST