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Avenger controller company pisses off gaming community with bad customer support

penny-arcade.com

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Re: Avenger controller company pisses off gaming community with bad customer support

#51

Post by lambda »

Samuel_Michon wrote: post #43
scotty79 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if anyone at Ocean Marketing and among the people who make Avengers had any idea how Paul Christoforo rolls. Another point towards "trust but check" policy towards your employees.

From the looks of it, Paul Christoforo = Ocean Marketing. The website [1] lists "Paul@OceanMarketingInc.com" as the only email address, and the bio for the Twitter account "oceanmarketting" has his name and picture as avatar. [1] http://oceanmarketinginc.com/Contact-Us.php

Yeah, and I like that despite it being (apparently) a one-man job, he decides to threaten "I have about 125 dedicated people to run PR , Blogs , Articles , Videos you have no clue who I am."

Re: Avenger controller company pisses off gaming community with bad customer support

#53

Post by jschuur »

jschuur wrote: post #19

Note the guy's Twitter account: @OceanMarketting (with two Ts!).

...and now someone else has the Twitter account, because Paul renamed it to @OceanStrategy and didn't realize someone else could swoop in and get the old one:

https://twitter.com/#!/oceanmarketting

Re: Avenger controller company pisses off gaming community with bad customer support

#54

Post by jonhendry »

mikeash wrote: post #35
eli wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean you endorse it.

I think this is a case where it's justified to consider them guilty until proven innocent. Interacting with customers is what they paid these guys to do . It's not like he's doing this in his spare time or anything. Yeah, they probably don't endorse it, but as has been pointed out elsethread, this isn't the first time this awful marketing company pissed people off. When it comes to Googling for due diligence, surely…

Given Christoforo's spelling issues, it might not be easy to google.

Re: Avenger controller company pisses off gaming community with bad customer support

#55

Post by manuscreationis »

InclinedPlane wrote: post #45
manuscreationis wrote: post #4

At the risk of taking a potentially unpopular opinion on the subject, I don't think either one of those people come out looking too good. I'm all for doing the whole "CC your formal complaint letter to several outlets in hopes that someone will take notice" approach; My brother taught me about doing this when I was a little kid. He would write letters (this was before the advent of the internet) and note on the botto…

These aren't just 2 random strangers having a discussion, one of them paid the other money and is a customer of the other, that changes the equation. Even if you happen to have the worst, most annoying customer in the world the responsible course of action is to maintain composure. Worst case scenario you provide a refund and refuse to do business with someone. In this case the "customer service" is non-existent and…

My point wasn't at all to say there was a situation that warranted that kind of treatment; As I mentioned, the guy from Ocean took the cake in terms of idiocy. He was out of line no matter what the customer was saying. He also has a terrible command of the written language, and should be removed from any customer facing position, immediately, for several obvious reasons.

My point was, this customer could have cooled off, collected himself, and written a much more intelligent complaint letter. He came off sounding like a hurt child, and then trumpeted how he was taking this to the internet, as though the internet was his domain, where he would prevail (and he most likely will - and should, considering how much of a shmuck this PR guy is).

I just don't think either one of them came out looking very intelligent, or like they handled themselves like an adult. In this case, his complaint is a legitimate one, and he should be entitled to proper recourse.

All I'm saying is, I'd be embarrassed to let that particular email be my letter to the world.

Re: Avenger controller company pisses off gaming community with bad customer support

#56

Post by jschuur »

jschuur wrote: post #19

Note the guy's Twitter account: @OceanMarketting (with two Ts!).

Actually, wait... he renamed it to @OceanStratagy! Yup, that last A is no typo!

http://twitter.com/OceanStratagy

And then someone else registered @OceanStrategy with the correct spelling:

https://twitter.com/#!/OceanStrategy

Re: Avenger controller company pisses off gaming community with bad customer support

#57

Post by mkr-hn »

fjarlq wrote: post #50
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the looks of it, Paul Christoforo = Ocean Marketing. The website [1] lists "Paul@OceanMarketingInc.com" as the only email address, and the bio for the Twitter account "oceanmarketting" has his name and picture as avatar. [1] http://oceanmarketinginc.com/Contact-Us.php

I think that's all correct, except for the Twitter account, which I believe was created by another disgruntled customer (Nathan Stansell) a few months ago, following a similar exchange with Paul Christoforo. It looks like Stansell is now retweeting messages related to the new controversy. http://www.natesnetwork.com/Poor-customer-service "2:45 am. Created a Twitter account just so i could Tweet a comment and link to…

That was the right account, but it changed. Someone registered the old name and started tweeting stuff. The website was still pulling tweets from the original account a few minutes ago.

The new account for the original is https://twitter.com/#!/oceanstratagy

Re: Avenger controller company pisses off gaming community with bad customer support

#59

Post by desigooner »

obiterdictum wrote: post #47
frou_dh wrote: post #3

The takeaway seems to be don't let a raging idiot near customers in the first place. There's a second documented encounter with the guy from 6 months ago: http://www.natesnetwork.com/Poor-customer-service

This remnids me of a story last year about an online retailer who was deliberately rude to his customers to get bad press, because it improved his search engine ratings. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/business/28borker.html?pag...

Borker was also arrested later by NYPD.

Re: Avenger controller company pisses off gaming community with bad customer support

#60

Post by ycomb »

I am not pissed off at Ocean Marketing. In fact I love the put downs in their emails. Of course it was awful customer support. But damn. Mike K of Penny Arcade tries to flex his muscle saying he runs Pax. The Ocean Marketing rep did not give a damn, and took the piss out of him too. LMAO!
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