Vonage IPO Site Not Mac Friendly?

May 19, 2006 By Digital Trends Staff

Vonage's upcoming IPO seems to be having another headache as Mac users complain about not being able to register for the offering through a special site unless on a Windows PC.

As VoIP provider Vonage prepares for their IPO and looks to issue shares to select Vonage customers, Mac users trying to register through the IPO Web site are looking to be left out in the cold.

A review of the Vonage IPO Web site states on the front page that the â€œbrowser requirementsâ€ include Microsoft IE Explorer version 5.5 or later and the Windows Operating System, including Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000 and XP. No mention is made of Mac or its Safari browser.

Digital Trends first became aware of this issue with the Vonage IPO Web site via an email from a reader telling us of the problem. Several calls to Vonage’s support number listed on the IPO site independently verified that Macs indeed could not be used to access the site.

This is not the first set of issues to trouble the upcoming IPO. An article which ran in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal detailed continued service problems Vonage has, especially in relation to â€œpoor sound quality, dropped calls and other glitchesâ€. A huge thread at respected tech site Slashdot is flush with user complaints around this topic, as an example.

A call to Vonage press relations regarding this matter was not returned.

Showing 12 comments

Tim Stevens at 7:51am 12th September 2006 Safari just needs to be updated badly. I quit using it and switched to Firefox a while back and have been much happier.
Andrew Arner at 5:08am 9th September 2006 I initially accessed the site with my Mac, and had problems with continuing through the process. I called the technical support line, and they were very helpful. Although I wasn't able to use my Mac, I did use my friend's Mac which had a more up to date OS version and I was fine. I know that there are a lot of blogs complaining by the Mac issue, but I'm happy that Vonage extended this program to all of it's customers.
Ian Bell and Dan Gaul at 1:32pm 23rd May 2006 Ben did you read the story? Let me quote this for you:

"Digital Trends first became aware of this issue with the Vonage IPO Web site via an email from a reader telling us of the problem. Several calls to Vonage’s support number listed on the IPO site independently verified that Macs indeed could not be used to access the site."

We called Vonage and were told they do not support Safari and to use a PC. So yes, it was confirmed.
gary at 1:31pm 23rd May 2006 Well I was not able to sign up with Safari, and when I called Vonage customer support they told me to use my friends PC.

Ben you are a jerk.
Ben at 1:24pm 23rd May 2006 I signed up on a MAC. This article is pointless. Don't write about something that you can't confirm.
Nicole at 5:25am 23rd May 2006 I signed up on a MAC using Safari and have also been able to login to my account using Firefox and Internet Explorer 5.2 for MAC.
Devan at 4:50pm 22nd May 2006 I used Firefox 1.5 on Mac OS 10.4 and had no issues at all- the web site works perfectly; this article is just trying to cash in on the pre-IPO "bash Vonage" party.
Tom Carter at 7:31am 22nd May 2006 Safari has way to many problems outside of the Vonage IPO website to blame Vonage. I would recommend downloading Firefox for Mac OSX or get the old version of IE that is still around. You will have a lot less problems in the long run. I used Firefox to setup my account and I had no problems. The sad part is that Apple is so good at making software that when they let you down (like with Safari) you want to blame someone else, because you can’t believe that an apple product is no good.
Edwing at 9:12pm 21st May 2006 Apple's Safari is constantly ignored by many, many developers, including Yahoo!'s Music and Video services, my employer's website (where I have to use FireFox or Netscape instead to fill out my timesheet!), and even a furniture site where I'm trying to buy a new sofa. I'm as die-hard an Apple/Mac lover as you can be, buying hundreds of them for my organization, but Apple's Safari is quickly falling behind other browsers like FireFox, Netscape and even Opera. I know Microsoft's Internet Explorer stopped supporting Macs ages ago, but it almost seems like Safari is going to face the same fate from its loyal users if it doesn't keep up with innovations, speed, and features quickly being implemented by newbies.
Benji at 10:19am 20th May 2006 Well I have a Mac and I use Safari and this ticked the hell out of me. Very narrow minded on Vonages part.
Dave at 6:26am 20th May 2006 I, too, signed up on a Mac, using 10.4 and Firefox, with no problem. All the way through making, and then subsequently withdrawing a conditional offer.
Justin at 12:33pm 19th May 2006 I registered for the Vonage IPO on my Mac running OS10.4.6 using Firefox 1.5.0.3. I did not have any problems, and I made it all the way through the process of submitting a conditional offer.