Ocean Marketing vs. Penny Arcade

[wildeep]

Thanks for the Hookers and Blackjack. Thought you folks might enjoy this too:

http://penny-arcade.com/2011/12/26/an-update1

Read Mike's update in Rorschach voice.

[edit - fuck that, Mike is now Rorschach. Shine on, you dark fucking diamond]

Controller reviews on Amazon this morning, 2 stars trending lower. The bully is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The gaming sites are extended gutters and the gutters are full of rants and when the drains finally clear for a new loser, the bully will drown. The accumulated asshatery of their roid filled life will foam up about their waists and all the brodweebs and douchebags will look up and shout "You have all the power, please make it stop!" . . . and I'll look down and whisper, "No. I will burn everything I?ve made to the fucking ground if I think I can catch you in the flames."

They had a choice, all of them. They could have followed in the footsteps of good men like Gabe or Tycho. Decent men who believed in giving sick kids better Tuesdays. Instead they followed the droppings of fistbumping trolls and didn't realize that the trail led over a precipice until it was too late. Don't tell me they didnt have a choice.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

Honestly, some of the people defending him act like the internet is physically beating him up. It's a roast, that's all. He'll have his couple days, or even a week of internet fame. Fickle as it is, attention will pass.

Unfortunately, it won't, because the internet doesn't forget. When none of you lot even remember this or give a crap, he'll still be applying for jobs and this crap will still be coming up on Google.

The thing is though that by being a terrible PR guy he is ruining someone else's reputation not just his own. You want him to continue on doing that to other peoples businesses? That controller he was so 'expertly' representing? It was made by a teacher for disabled kids as a side business ...

As far as I'm concerned he's like one of those cowboy builders you see on TV only with PR, the guy shouldn't be allowed to go around ripping people off.

 

[Orange Lazarus]

UPDATE

Spread the word he has changed his twitter again to @oceandeepsea

Ah look at that, it's spelled right... and makes it sound like he started a crab fishing company.

 

[Orange Lazarus]

double

 

[meowface]

The Amazon-bombs are pretty awesome.

Honestly that is the worst thing about all of this. See this guy runs a marketing firm, his company does not actually make the controller. But the company who hired him is getting some of the hate for him being bad at his job. And they do not deserve that. Will they use a different firm from now on? No doubt. But they do not deserve to lose sales because this guy was an ass.

The company that makes the controller made a calculated risk in hiring this guy, they deserve everything they get. Spend peanuts, get monkeys.

No, it was not a calculated risk. That implies there was a good chance (even 1% is good in this instance) of something bad happening. They hired a "Professional" Firm to do marketing for them. Now the original manufacturer has to go to court and sue this PR firm. Much time trouble and expense.

When you run a business, every decision you make involves measuring up the risk of taking that action (spending nothing on a sole operator for. your PR) compared to taking another action (spending money on a real company). This is called calculated risk, I stand by my previous words

 

[bona36]

wow...im glad Paul is now out of business as a "free-lance marketer" because he seriously deserves it after I read those emails

 

[chiefohara]

Please read what you wrote again. He deserves to have his "life ruined" for that? Youve NEVER run your mouth ever? Youve never got mad and said stupid shit? Youve never had to apoligise? If the answer to any of these is no go ruin your own life. Its only fair. Or provide me with personal details so i can fairly ruin your life please. Id like telephone numbers, emails and addresses please. Can you post them? Thanks in advance, im sure B will happily ruin your life for you. Justice can be restored! It will also help if you describe the time you once accidently were a douche. That would be great.

Normally i'd agree with you but then this guy actually twittered "yeah keep shitting on me kids, remember i have your CC info from orders, lets see how tough you are after some nigerians get them"

Im not very computer savy, but the images down near the bottom of this meme page show them.

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ocean-marketing-paul-christoforo

I have no sympathy for this individual, because it wasn't a heat of the moment thing. He's behaves atrociously most of the time.

 

[JenSeven]

For the people defending this guy, here's something to think about.

He represented a company that made a product designed for people and children with disabilities.
What if he treated those people with the same kind of attitude that he treated Dave with?
What if he said the same sort of things to people, children and parents of those children that he said to Dave?
What if Dave was a person that suffered from a disability like that? That he needed that controller in order to game?

Would you defend that sort of person?

 

[Frankster]

I know way too many guys like him :\

The type that thinks of himself as a "bigshot" and is into the most superficial aspects of our consumerist society (that a person is defined by their wealth) and has had his views reinforced over the years by being the head of his own company, having hanged out with "big" names and judging by his comments, having an expensive house and still playing the rich mans property market game , etc...

Course i could just be projecting past biases onto this guy, but the way he speaks and his reasoning reminds me of far too many people i have the displeasure of knowing.

Shame about the teacher who actually made the product btw, he is being represented by this guy.

 

[michiehoward]

Wowza!

That is some serious shit! Total bullshit, yet serous at the same time.

"I do run Pax, but I also run a website called penny arcade. It?s kinda popular."

LMFAO

and to everyone saying this customer service guy doesn't deserve to have his life ruined

He brought this on himself by:

A: Running he mouth, like he's a tough guy.

B: When proven that he was actually a little weakling, he ran his mouth off to the site owner and the person who runs PAX

C: Realizing what a moron on he was being, he backed out. When he should have done that in the first place.

Please read what you wrote again. He deserves to have his "life ruined" for that? Youve NEVER run your mouth ever? Youve never got mad and said stupid shit? Youve never had to apoligise? If the answer to any of these is no go ruin your own life. Its only fair. Or provide me with personal details so i can fairly ruin your life please. Id like telephone numbers, emails and addresses please. Can you post them? Thanks in advance, im sure B will happily ruin your life for you. Justice can be restored! It will also help if you describe the time you once accidently were a douche. That would be great.

This guy was an asshole. He deserves to be fired. But this is too far. We have become the bullies. Christ people can be dicks, but this is far worse than what he did. People trying to ruin him should be ashamed. Ashamed. You are worse than him by a fair margin. What he did was heat of the moment assholery. What you are doing is sadistic and unneccessary. The inernet and nerds in general are bad at this, me included. We pounce on a single person and RUIN them totally out of proprortion. Its sick. Its wrong, and its fucking disgustingly hypocritical. You just want petty revenge because assholes like this guy have been dicks to you (not you mr quotee just everyone) and this is NOT the way to maturely deal with it.

Grow up internet. Logde complaints to the company. Dont ruin his life. Dont ruin the product. How OLD are you people? Christ. Im fucking sickened by this. Sickened. Everyone trying to ruin him should be ashamed. He deserves to lose his job as hes evidently crap at it. But he doesnt deserve other shit. Nor does the company.


"LoganWestbrook Logan Westbrook
@vmearl [Because] he knows how many fans PA has and he knows how they will react when properly motivated."

"LoganWestbrook Logan Westbrook
RT @aegies we should definitely try to ruin someone's life because of bad customer service. totally."

"LoganWestbrook Logan Westbrook
@vmearl So do I, but it's the company's job to discipline him, not the internet's."

"LoganWestbrook Logan Westbrook
@devilherdue Geeks have a real issue with bullying and being bullies. It's a shame we aren't more aware of how we interact with others."

No one can ruin his life, he did that all on his own. If he loses his job it will (hopefully) be because of the shit job he did addressing a customer's complaints.

Its called Customer Service, not Disservice.

And no, I never run my mouth at work. Its my workplace! I represent a company bigger then myself.

Meanwhile this only occurred because this guy thought he was the shit because a computer screen separated him from his customer.

I've had people end complaints with spitting at my feet, people come around my desk and scream in my face, I've been called every foul name created, and still took it, without becoming a snarky douche bag.

Just so yall know he has changed his twitter account a third time.
it is now
@OceanDeepSea

also it appears that he has beaten his wife before too
link:
http://courtindex.sdcourt.ca.gov/CISPublic/casedetail?casenum=DVN14325&casesite=NC&applcode=D

not sure if any of this was posted but I thought i'd share

Though finding out every personal thing about someone because they upset you, is kinda fucked.
And internet gang beats are wrong.

 

[Mekado]

For the people defending this guy, here's something to think about.

He represented a company that made a product designed for people and children with disabilities.
What if he treated those people with the same kind of attitude that he treated Dave with?
What if he said the same sort of things to people, children and parents of those children that he said to Dave?
What if Dave was a person that suffered from a disability like that? That he needed that controller in order to game?

Would you defend that sort of person?

Heh, just so i'm clear, being an asshole to a person is somewhat better than being an asshole to a handicap person ?

How's so ? people are people...

 

[everythingbeeps]

Oh man, that Geico tweet was priceless.

 

[ResonanceSD]

I agree with Gabe, being sorry you got caught is not the same as being sorry. I hope this company fails.

 

[ResonanceSD]

http://penny-arcade.com/2011/12/26/just-wow1 So check it out this is an email dialogue between an attempted customer of an Avenger controller and the Ocean Marketing people, big surprise the Ocean Marketing people are massive douches and when the people from PAX and Penny Arcade got involved big surprise the people form Ocean were still douches

Check out the NBC interview with Christoforos http://ingame.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/28/9770514-chastened-gaming-rep-responds-to-internet-infamy He gets painted mildly as a victim, but still, his stupidity shines through.

 

[Something Amyss]

He represented a company that made a product designed for people and children with disabilities.
What if he treated those people with the same kind of attitude that he treated Dave with?

Do we know Dave isn't one such person?

If we do, my bad, but it seems we're assuming he didn't do just that.

 

[michiehoward]

freedom of information pal. Just because it isn't nice and warm feeling doesn't mean people don't have a right to know who they are dealing with. And just because it so happens that "this" Christoforo may have been in a domestic violence dispute only adds substance to the type of character that this man has. So it shouldn't really come as a surprise now should it.

WWebsite

Thanks friend. Really, so when you call up Xbox Customer service you demand First and Surnames, DOB, home address and Social Security number. Do you run background and criminal checks on customer service agents? That would come as a surprise to me.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

snip

Do you wade in and defend cowboy builders too? Because this it what this guy is. He is ruining N Controls reputation with his poor quality customer service, his website is completely copied from somewhere else. He hasn't got the employees he claims to have. He is a con artist.

If you can't have sympathy with Dave have sympathy with the people who are paying him to provide quality customer service and REPRESENT THEM in the marketplace.

If anything it shows PR firms that they better be careful how they treat customers because these days word of mouth is a damn sight quicker.

 

[XMark]

Wow... worst PR guy ever!

That said, I think he's been hit hard enough by the internet backlash already, no need to keep on rubbing it in.