Vonage Communications and PR VP Karen Cleeve is probably kicking in-house flack Charlie Sahner under the table right now. In yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle, Sahner was soundbited in the following gem:
Sahner said SunRocket failed because it couldn't meet its customer's needs for better features and strong customer support.
"We were the leader from the very beginning and we have that critical mass and the scale," Sahner said. "We helped put (SunRocket) out of business. They had a cheap product and they couldn't compete."
Given all the woes that Vonage has experienced over the last 12 months, this is a pretty hollow boast.
Alec Saunders is the Vice President of Developer Relations for BlackBerry make Research in Motion. This is his personal blog, with his personal viewpoints. Prior to this Alec was the CEO and co-founder of Calliflower — the easiest way to hold a meeting, online, on a conference call, or on the go. A double-decade veteran of product management and marketing, he spent nine years at Microsoft where he helped launch Windows 95, the first two versions of Internet Explorer, the Universal Plug and Play initiative, the push into home markets, opt-in email marketing and what might well go down in history as the very first direct email list ever.
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What's wrong with the quote? It's a tough business and if Vonage gets a little press off of it so what? Any PR is good PR, especially if you're Vonage these days.
One of the first things I was taught about PR, Marc, was to take the high road when dealing with situations like this. Stupid boasts, publicly stated forecasts and the like have a way of coming back to haunt you later. I would never have made the statement he did — not even implied it, either. Better to focus on what makes your own product great than to claim credit for someone elses' misfortune.
Vonage is just plain stupid. Stupid.
They are desperate to rally support from an already skeptical customer base over Verizon's blatant attempt to put them out of business. Their only hope is that their customers rally to their cause.
Then the come right out and say "Actually, we're just as big an a-hole as Verizon, and we do the same evil things."
Such a sad story.
Lingo is much better than the expensive VoIP providers like Vonage. They are actually more reliable and prices are always reasonable.