Now we are hearing that Vonage customers who took the company up on its offer of IPO shares at $17 each are planning on backing out and not paying after the stock cratered upon issuance. Vonage’s response? They’ll reimburse their underwriters for any shares not paid for by their customers. Wait, what?

I don’t care how desperate you are to keep your customers happy. If they refuse to pay for their stock, you go after them. Now I have not seen the agreement that went along with the IPO offer. I am simply assuming that they had to sign something that bound them to purchase shares. If there is indeed some sort of contract, how can you simply say, “you know what, you were stupid for thinking $17 was a fair price for our stock, so don’t worry about paying us.”

When are individuals going to take responsibility for their actions? Rather than pay consequences for bad decisions (like paying $17 for Vonage), Americans now blame others first, opt for lawsuits, or in this case they simply try and stop payments on their checks. I don’t know what’s worse, Vonage pricing their IPO so ridiculously high, or allowing (and supporting) their customers to act in such an irresponsible way. Either way, I wonder if there are any shares out there to short yet.

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