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PR Firm Unwisely Tangles With Penny Arcade
New submitter FSWKU writes "Courtesy of Penny-Arcade, Paul Christoforo of Ocean Marketing provides a perfect example of what not to do when interacting with customers, especially if you are doing so on behalf of another company. There's name dropping, an ego trip worthy of Charlie Sheen, and even what appears to be a promise to commit libel. Other outlets are already picking up the story and running with it, and an examination of Ocean Marketing's website has generated accusations of plagiarism."
Don't pick a fight with someone who has their own convention.
The reply I got was simply "It's spam"
Here's the problem: I'd bet money that at least 1/2 of those *are* spam. Vindictive pricks who bomb the shit out of product review scores are becoming more common. They'll negatively review products they've never seen from companies or people they've never spoken to because of the author/companies political views, PR gaffs, a nerd-o-sphere uproar like this, etc. They'll organize campaigns to bomb the reviews of every single book from an author or every product from an entire corporation for purely political or vengeful reasons. We've discussed this problem on slashdot many times before.
These self-righteous bastards view it as some kind of justice, when in fact they're just polluting the review ecosystem with lies, hearsay, and crappy manifestos. If the product or company is that bad it will become clear, from the legitimate reviews, quite quickly. No need to break out your weird brand of street justice and fuck up the system for everyone.
This time the people at Ocean Marketing are arrogant, mismanaging pricks; most of the time you can't be so certain when you see this kind of event unfolding.
Honestly, when I was reading the Penny-Arcade post I started wondering whether this was really just a vengeful ex-employee, or even corporate espionage from another vendor. It wasn't until I read multiple older reviews and forum posts corroborating this story that I became convinced otherwise.
Beware internet justice: you never really know who's behind the keyboard or just what kind of destructive, ignorant campaign they're running.
Penny Arcade told the guy it was going to be published in an article about the events, and the Ocean Marketing response was, "Great !! Love PR".
He shot himself in the foot, emptied the clip and then reloaded.
"But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it,..." - Nancy Pelosi
Meh, if that's all it is then it's not that bad. It's obvious the guy is some sort of ADHD type guy, which a lot of marketing/business/public relations people are.
Did you even RTFA? I think ADHD is being a little generous; more like fucking retarded. I have never once in my life seen an exchange quite like that between a professional in any industry and a paying customer! They fucking train minimum-wage counter jockies at McDonalds better customer service skills than that idiot displayed. Even the most meaningless marketing double-speak is better than that shit, because at least that's polite...
Then, of course, when he realizes he's talking to Gabe, instead of that adult sense of self-preservation we so often see when someone realizes they seriously fucked up, he starts fucking arguing with him, belittling a customer to a guy with a website seen by millions of people daily.
If this is "not all that bad", I really need to see an example that fits your definition of "that bad". Does the guy have to fuck his mother? Kill his dog? How much worse can a Customer Service/Public Relations scenario get without involving direct bodily harm or, at the very least, multiple felonies?
Man, I wish I worked for this marketing firm, if only to see the shit-storm from the inside. The fact that they even hired someone that responds to a customer in such a fashion is ridiculous. I don't give a shit if you work in an "edgy" field or one that's primary demographic is children and young adults (as if that were even the case with gaming, but supposing it is); obviously the people buying the goddamned things are adults. You're not writing an email to one of your dickhead coworkers. It's not an IM. It's an official communication with a paying customer, an unhappy paying customer at that. Put on your "big boy hat" and write a professional email. Proper grammar and punctuation is not a suggestion...not unless you want to make yourself look like even more of a retard.
Just one more company to add to the "Never Do Business With These Clowns" list.
He does seem like the blowhard/BSer/sales/marketing type, but there's a big difference between being Full of S--t and being a S--thead
And there is also a power-balance issue. The big marketing cahuna should not be a dick to the little customer. Big guys stomping down on little guys is a big no-no according to righteousness 101.
If a little customer would be a dick to a marketing representative of some business it wouldn't matter. They should just reply respectfully and calmly and maybe laugh about it with the coworkers by the watercooler.
Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
THIS. He loses nothing by taking crap from a paying customer. He might well lose this contract with N-Control and rightfully so. A professional PR firm should not communicate with the public like this.
Sand's overrated... it's just tiny little rocks.
That's the thing I can't wrap my mind around; no matter how stupid you think the customer's complaint is, you treat them with respect. There is nothing whatsoever to be gained by being an asshole to a paying customer. There can be no positive outcome...at the very least, you just lost potential sales, and at worst, you just cost yourself a job. No matter what happens, you lose.
This isn't even really a customer service thing necessarily. It's simple logic. Even the most patronizing, insincere apology from a major company without a death wish is at least polite. I've gotten some politely worded 'Go Fuck Yourself' responses in the past, but I have never seen something so outright hostile, nor stupid, on behalf of an employee for a professional marketing firm in my life. Typically you have to get your hands on leaked internal emails to see retarded shit like this as regards a customer.
I've worked in Customer Service for many years, including a stint providing computer tech support to people that, if not for the accent, could have convincingly passed themselves off as recent immigrants from the Brazilian Rain Forest where electricity is wizard shit, and I have never seen or heard an exchange like that. We all think it, but we never say it.
What a fucking idiot this Paul guy is.
Yes, that is the intent. But I am a huge fan of stuff that was originally designed to help people with disabilities. It seems to me that this is the area where most usability improvements come from.
The original X-Box contoller was designed for people with two thumbs on their right hand. Apart from that I'm amazed how sturdy it is. I went through a couple of joy stick on Summer Games alone and yet this beast still keeps going on. Ezio, Batman, The Kid... it helped me see them all through.
I don't trust that new contraption to be as sturdy but they are at least trying to solve that two-thumb problem.
Next step:
-a mouse that has a scroll wheel and a middle button that doesn't interfere with it while aknowledging the fact I have a ring finger and a pinkie that are fully functional
-a game controller which does the above and also aknowledges I've got a middle finger which I'd be quite oblidged to show the fine folks of Razr, Logitech, Saitek, Microsoft and co.
-a self-cleaning litter box for the cat that doesn't scare the litter out of me
A man has gotta dream.
20 minutes into the future
I'm not really finding it funny. One guy isn't getting stuff he needed to give gifts for christmas. Other guy just lost his livelihood to a stupid and unprofessional emotional outburst.
Finally the guy who invented a harness that made playing more accessible to disabled kids is getting smeared all across the sites for things he had little to do with.
I'd say this is mostly a tragedy of how internet rage can fuck up lives of people that don't deserve it, and those who do deserve it get a whole lot more fucking up then they should (guy's wife and child apparently getting hit by internet mob now).
And in the end, the original guy is still not getting the stuff he wanted for christmas. Everyone loses, and I really find that quite tragic rather then funny.
I'm with you on the guy who designed the controller being unfairly caught in this, but how do you see "one guy just lost his livelihood to a stupid and unprofessional emotional outburst" as a tragedy?
That is exactly how one loses their livelihood. That's the process of screwing up so badly you get booted from the profession. That's what it entails. When your job is to work with people, and you screw up politeness as royally as that guy did, if you don't lose your job then something is very very wrong with the world. Read all the emails, to both Dave the customer and Gabe at PA, and Paul's "apologies". It's quite clear this guy doesn't give a crap until he's caught. Also this appears not to be the first time he's been called out on this type of exchange with customers. How many do-overs do you expect him to get in his professional life?
He fucked up his job about as badly as one can fuck up their job, by shitting all over the customer, and then shitting all over one of the major PR outlets in the market for the product he was representing.
In any measure of the situation, he deserves to be fired and ostracized from the market in the future for his failure. That isn't tragedy, that is justice. Let him get in the unemployment line and maybe somebody competent, worthy, and sane can step in to fill the role he obviously is not fit to handle.
Yes, but the real question is, did they sack those responsible for hiring this guy?
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.