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Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds

ripoffornot.org

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Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds

#81

Post by microarchitect »

ecaron wrote: post #64
nl wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Mikkel called them Indian cowboys - that was someone else.

Correct, it was @cloudgroupsyd (Christian Marth), who promptly apologized and explained what message it was trying to originally say. Though he should've learned from Michael Richards and never said something that stupid in the first place. He had plenty of characters to phrase it right in his original tweet. But you know what they say about hindsight...

who promptly apologized

Sorry, but that wasn't much of an apology for a racist slur.

Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds

#82

Post by mfjordvald »

shakes wrote: post #57
ecaron wrote: post #50

As much as I'd like to side with the guy getting picked on (Freshdesk), Zendesk is completely right. Ignoring the interface and naming similarities, you can't complain about ZenDesk on Twitter without multiple Freshdesk spammers bombarding you. Sure there's nothing illegal about it, but they're obnoxious with the "a customer of a rival is complaining, I MUST CONVERT THEM!" concept. (I called them a rip-off of Zendesk…

Something about the whole freshdesk attitude really rubs me the wrong way. Not saying zendesk is in the right either. I just feel like I read the whole ripoffornot page and cringe. Definitely doesn't seem like the type of company I would want to give my time or money. A couple people complained about their product on twitter and they built a whole page responding to it? In it, they respond to the criticism by making…

How on earth did you get to freshdesk making personal attacks based on this page? I'm gobsmacked you managed to so severely misread the whole thing. The entire point of the page is to point out personal attacks made against them and then respond to the rip-off comment. Supposedly they did make a decent product already.

Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds

#83

Post by collypops »

I think everyone's still getting caught up in the Steve Jobs-ness of the past couple of months. CEO's are acting cocky, cause that's what Steve would have done. They're calling out people who they think have stolen their ideas, cause that's what Steve would have done.

What they're completely missing is Steve's greatest lesson: If you want to trample your competitors, just build a better product.

Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds

#84

Post by Hates_ »

Legion wrote: post #44
sunir wrote: post #26

Christian Marth (@cloudgroupsyd) has a lot of explaining for that ridiculous and risible "Indian cowboy" dig. Twenty times worse because he doubled down on it while backpeddling.

Is "Indian cowboy" an insult? Makes them sound like Bollywood badasses to me.

Here in the UK it's used to refer to builders/plumbers/etc who do bad work while claiming to be proficient.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowboy#Negative_associations

Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds

#86

Post by nl »

ecaron wrote: post #64
nl wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think Mikkel called them Indian cowboys - that was someone else.

Correct, it was @cloudgroupsyd (Christian Marth), who promptly apologized and explained what message it was trying to originally say. Though he should've learned from Michael Richards and never said something that stupid in the first place. He had plenty of characters to phrase it right in his original tweet. But you know what they say about hindsight...

It wasn't an apology at all. This is what he said:

@mrgirish not attacking your nationality only your lack of innovation for product development, if you were offended in any way sorry

Let's parse that.

@mrgirish not attacking your nationality only your lack of innovation for product development - here he attempts to justify himself, by trying to explain what he meant.

if you were offended in any way sorry - here he says he is sorry if @mrgirish was offended - NOT that he was sorry for offending.

That's like me saying "Please come out and have Thai with me and my friends. Oh - you don't like Thai food? Sorry to hear that - will I see you there anyway?". In both cases there is no acknowledgement of wrongdoing, and in both cases the other person is effectively blamed for either being offended or for not liking Thai.

Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds

#87

Post by diamondhead »

mmaunder wrote: post #78

Regarding the initial dispute over trademark: The "desk" part of the name is 'descriptive' and so isn't the strong part of each trademark. The "zen/fresh" parts are arbitrary so are the strong part of each mark. These are distinct, so I don't think there is a valid claim to trademark infringement here. One could argue that "desk" is 'suggestive' in trademark law which makes it a bit stronger, but I don't think that w…

It's not all about a name. Freshdesk is an embarrassing copy of Zendesk.

Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds

#88

Post by idspispopd »

teyc wrote: post #74

HackerNews readers, watch and learn. I'm about deconstruct what is going on. Anybody who brushes off FreshDesk because of its Indian roots is doing FreshDesk a favour. This is a sharp mind at work and it is lethal. FreshDesk is executing the standard modus operandi of upstart against an incumbent. Jobs is a master at it (I'm Apple I'm Microsoft), Calacanis too (remember the SEO controversy, and then the Angel controv…

Thank you for pointing out this obvious PR campaign.

The whole point of highlighting this exchange, the surrounding publicity, the custom url/etc is to raise the profile and get people to pick sides to generate discussion.

This PR technique is as old as the sex tape and about exhausted as it gets. It's the online equivalent of reading "britney spears vs lindsay lohan".

Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds

#89

Post by omarchowdhury »

jen_h wrote: post #68

If you're on the right track, competitors are going to rip you off. If you're on the right track, competitors are going to try to poach your customers. If you're on the right track, some competitors are going to talk trash about you when they think no one's looking. Or even when everyone's looking! Using profanity in their Twitter feeds, even! But just because you're on the right track doesn't mean you can't derail;…

How is FreshDesk ripping off or poaching the customers of ZenDesk?

Last time I checked, it was people connected to ZenDesk who are the one's talking trash.

Re: Zendesk CEO calls Freshdesk a freaking rip off - Freshdesk responds

#90

Post by kumarm »

If desk part of the name is Zendesk's issue. There exist multi billion companies with desk in their name (Autodesk) much before anyone thought of Zendesk. Freshdesk really did good with their response. I never heard of them before and now anyone talks about Zendesk, I will remember Freshdesk.
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