PR Firm Unwisely Tangles With Penny Arcade 419
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."
Re:Don't kid yourself (Score:5, Informative)
How to live in denial. (Score:5, Informative)
Today, I saw all the posts and reviews at amazon, and canceled my order. I commented that the reviews on amazon had bottomed out, and that I had lost all confidence in the product and company. The reply I got was simply "It's spam". Yeah, 128 1-star reviews from different people, and it's spam. This guy is already living in his own universe.
Re:How to live in denial. (Score:5, Informative)
I hope these kooks come to "SSXW" in Spring of 2012 as promised.
Seth
Here's the response from an email to them (Score:5, Informative)
Thank you for your email. Due to the overwhelming customer feedback we're getting from the situation with Ocean Marketing we are asking those with specific product related concerns to send emails to customerservice@avengercontroller.co Please know that Ocean Marketing is no longer handling any PR or customer service for our company. We apologize to our customers for Ocean Marketing's remark to one of our customers. We at Kotkin Enterprises know that it's our customers are the true arbiters of our products success and we would never intentionally jeopardize what we see as a relationship between us and our customers. We hope that this incident hasn't put you off of purchasing a truly revolutionary controller. Thank you for expressing your concerns and we hope for your continued support in the future. Kotkin Enterprises Avenger Controller Customer Service Team
Re:A classic example... (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, I gotta quit wading around in the Twitter during meetings. Not can I now not find the original hoax-claim, I'm seeing the Kotaku article indicating that it's just so, so, so much better than a hoax [kotaku.com] -- yeah, really at a loss as to how this could get better. But I am willing to wait and see, yeah.
Re:Sounds like a Sociopath (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't pick a fight (Score:2, Informative)
"Don't pick a fight with people whose backlinks beat 5 digits."
That's the one.
Re:the bad side of outsourceing (Score:5, Informative)
Apparently N-Control decided to stick with this guy even when they were told not to:
http://kotaku.com/5871400/cut-paul-oceanmarketting-christoforo-a-breakhe-probably-just-has-roid-rage/ [kotaku.com]
To explain the pre-amble, in the article, Paul pretends he's Brandon in an email earlier on:
Hi Joel,
I have been following this story since this morning when someone notified me about what was going on. I did not write that response to you.
Yes, in the past I received email at brandon@avengercontroller.com but even then we were an outsourced marketing agency for N-Control. I no longer receive email at that address because we fired N-Control as a client about 8 months ago due to constant shipping delays (which we had to deal with) and their association with Paul Cristoforo who is a street thug masquerading as a self proclaimed "Marketing Professional". This guy is a complete fool and somehow strong armed his way into working with the company so we walked away. I am not surprised in the slightest bit by what's going on right now. In fact, we told the owners of the company on many occasions that this would eventually happen.
I wasn't going to chime in but since he is replying as me, I can't resist. I personally can't stand him.
Brandon
Re:Sounds like a Sociopath (Score:4, Informative)
Both of these indicators of Antisocial Personality Disorder [wikipedia.org] (sociopathy).
From Wikipedia [emphasis mine]:
A) There is a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since age 15 years, as indicated by three or more of the following:
1. failure to conform to social norms with respect to lawful behaviors as indicated by repeatedly performing acts that are grounds for arrest;
2. deception, as indicated by repeatedly lying, use of aliases, or conning others for personal profit or pleasure;
3. impulsiveness or failure to plan ahead;
4. irritability and aggressiveness, as indicated by repeated physical fights or assaults;
5. reckless disregard for safety of self or others;
6. consistent irresponsibility, as indicated by repeated failure to sustain consistent work behavior or honor financial obligations;
7. lack of remorse, as indicated by being indifferent to or rationalizing having hurt, mistreated, or stolen from another;
Paul Christoforo's LinkedIn Page (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-christoforo/1/295/835 [linkedin.com]
Feel free to use his LinkedIn page to contact those he knows to bring attention to this situation.
Direct your zeal appropriately (Score:5, Informative)
Don't post negative product reviews to "punish" Paul. It won't (directly, anyhow). It will directly punish the manufacturers of the product, for which Paul is merely a third-party marketing arm. As Dave points out in his emails - the product is great and he truly feels the public should have access to the product. Trying to drive the company which manufactures it into the ground isn't going to help anyone.
Avenger has indicated they'll no longer use OceanMarketing after the events of the past day. This guy should be going down in flames on his own, not taking a great product with him. Sure N-Control, etc, made mistakes working with this guy. Sure, like most companies they saw only the $$$ but this is nothing new or unique to that particular organisation.
Re:A classic example... (Score:3, Informative)
MacHeist was claiming it was their hoax. They were lying, and were called out.
I guess one company's funeral is a good place to meet new clients and score some page views?
What's also important to note, is that the product itself doesn't deserve this. This PR company may need to burn to the ground, but the controller, designed for disabled kids, by a school teacher, should be spared .. don't you guys agree?
Re:Sounds like a Sociopath (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A classic example... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A classic example... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:A classic example... (Score:4, Informative)
Kotaku pegged it to roid rage [kotaku.com]. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe he's just incompetent.
Either way - nightmare for the PR firm, nightmare for the controller company, nobody wins.
FTC Mail Order Rule applies (Score:5, Informative)
The Federal Trade Commission's Mail Order Rule [ftc.gov] applies here. It's real simple:
Staples paid a big fine for this. [directmag.com] So did the Beanie Baby [dmnews.com] people. In the early days of the Internet, a lot of companies were hit by this, because they had web sites accepting orders at high speed, but the back end fulfillment operation was manual and couldn't keep up. Now, most serious online merchants have the ordering system tied to the inventory system, so they stop taking orders when the inventory is used up,
Re:A classic example... (Score:5, Informative)
N-Control did end up firing this guy.
Re:Don't kid yourself (Score:4, Informative)
It's not just Slashdot. Reddit, Digg, Kotaku, 1up and a slew of other websites are all linking back to PA. Effectively it's an unintentional DDOS.
Re:Don't kid yourself (Score:2, Informative)
UPDATE:
This person also has a history of bad mouthing customers (link [natesnetwork.com]).
According to www.examiner.com, Paul Christoforo has apologized to the customer and to Penny Arcade, and also asks them to please tell people to stop sending hate male and calling him on the phone. BUT, this guy continues to badmouth Penny Arcade on Twitter, and Reddit and people who play video games.
Some of the latest posts from his twitter account:
OK ENOUGH! Just fuck off already u god damn fucking gaming cunts. Boo Hoo I yelled at a customer big deal. Ge over it
...
I don't need a degree I'm just naturally smart.
...
Domestic violence no, it's called a fucking hug
...
Look at all these gamers. Bunch of fucking losers, everyone in the biz makes fun of you fucks. All the sites you like laugh at yuo.
...
Penny Arcade is for autsitic preteens that can handle good entertianment. I'm suprised you can even read at all.
And the fun continues...
Yes, Charlie Sheen is much better at this sort of stuff.
References:
https://twitter.com/oceanstretagy [twitter.com]
https://imgur.com/t1iiM [imgur.com]
https://www.examiner.com/video-game-industry-in-national/ocean-marketing-gaming-pr-rep-to-avoid-at-all-cost [examiner.com]
Re:lame (Score:4, Informative)
Internet dick-waving contest extraordinaire. I was with Dave until he wrote this:
In my book this puts Dave in the same douchey category as the Ocean Marketing guy.
Yeah, Dave is leaving this huge mess out there on the internet. If he ever is looking to do work that requires any kind of tact or delicacy, a five minute Google search will get him turned down for it.
Re:Don't kid yourself (Score:4, Informative)
https://twitter.com/#!/oceanstretagy
Not?
https://twitter.com/#!/oceanstratagy
Notice the difference between stretagy and stratagy? It's a troll. (And the `autistic' bit gives it away as a member of a certain imageboard, probably).
Re:what about mail order fraud laws here? (Score:4, Informative)
The FTC "Mail Order Rule" (http://business.ftc.gov/documents/bus02-business-guide-mail-and-telephone-order-merchandise-rule [ftc.gov]) does apply to phone and internet sales as well.
If you don't have an implied shipping time ("Most orders ship within 48 hours!"), you get a default period of 30 days. That sounds like forever these days, but remember that it has its roots in mail order.
If you can't meet that deadline, you must notify the customer "reasonably quickly", no later than by the promised ship date. You must tell them a revised shipping date or tell them you don't know when it will ship (including the reason for the unknown delay and a statement that the order can be cancelled at any time before it ships). If the delay is less than 30 days, non-response can be considered consent to the delay (which also must be stated).
If you still can't hit that revised shipment date, you need to notify the customer again. With this notice, you must provide a reason for the delay and a new ship date, or a statement that you don't know when it'll ship. With this notice, you must cancel the order if the customer doesn't respond. If the customer agrees to an indefinite wait on any proper notification, you do not need to notify them further.
At any point before the item actually ships, the customer has the right to cancel the order and receive a full and prompt refund, and the company has the right to cancel the order and issue a full refund. If the company believes it won't be able to ship the item, they are required to cancel and refund the order. Any violation is subject to a fine of up to $16,000 from the FTC, as well as mail fraud charges if the Postal Service is involved, and state consumer protection laws.
I'm not sure how the "early December" ship date that Dave got is handled by this. Regardless, I'd say that the 16th is past the "early" part of the month, so he legally should've been notified. Based on the November 3 order date, "early December" might fall under the default 30 days, meaning he should've been notified by December 3. I'd say the seller is definitely in legal hot water regarding the failure to ship, and it could've been avoided with a simple email about the delay.
I saw in comments elsewhere that the Visa and Mastercard agreements don't allow you to charge for an order before it ships, but I don't have any experience to verify that. I would think that it wouldn't be completely outlawed for the purpose of preorders and minor unexpected delays.
Like a lot of others, I think this product seems kind of cool (even if I wouldn't buy one myself). I actually saw it on Microcenter's site while browsing the 12/26 sales. I couldn't really tell what it was based on the thumbnail pic, so I took a little time to check it out. I'm a fan of David Kotkin's original idea behind this, and it could be nice for ubergamers (I had the NES controller snap-on joystick things back in the day). It seems like a good idea and something that a number of people actually seem to really like, so I'd hate to see it die off just because of one jerk.
Paul Christoforo, on the other hand, sounds like a total tool. As others have pointed out, he seems to be sorry only that he got caught and it's now an inconvenience for him. I wonder how many non-Dave customers had similar email exchanges with him. He's constantly acting like a tough guy and dropping names, until he realizes there's someone bigger and he turns into a pathetic little whiner. I don't wish any physical harm upon him or anything, but I hope this totally destroys any hope of a future in PR. Maybe he could get a job in a call center or something...