Ocean Marketing vs. Penny Arcade

[panzertank83]

That Dave guy was a total dickhead though. Did he have a legitimate complaint? Certainly he did. He was still incredibly rude in his complaint email, and given all the swearwords, posturing and abuse I'm not surprised that the OceanMarketing guy thought it was a sockpuppet "Mike Krahulik" responding to him.

Except that Dave was at NO point dickish until the PR guy was a dick first, the turning point is here:

"From: Dave
To: Ocean Marketing
Dec 26, 2011, at 9:47 AM

I noticed the updated info on the webpage, and I don?t understand why there is absolutely no benefit given to those like me who have already ordered, and paid their money. You?ve had my money interest free for nearly two months, yet now ANY new order will get $10 off?.meaning I should just cancel my order for 2 controllers, get my money back, then re-order.

My other questions is regarding item compatibility. Ocean Marketing seems to be involved with the Xtendplay controller holder, so I was wondering if the Avenger N-Controller can be used in conjunction with the Xtendplay (for both Xbox and PS3)? Thanks

From: Ocean Marketing
To: Dave
Dec 26, 2011 10:14 AM

Yes it can be used with xtend play if you remove the stand and no one is allowed to cancel and re order if we catch anyone doing it we will simply just cancel your order all together and you can buy it retail somewhere else.

Things happen in manufacturing if your unhappy you have 7 days from the day your item ships for a refund. You placed a pre order just like any software title the gets a date moved due to the tweaks and bugs not being worked out and GameStop or any other place holds your cash and im sure you don?t complain to activision or epic games so put on your big boy hat and wait it out like everyone else. The benefit is a token of our appreaciation for everyone no one is special including you or any first time buyer . Feel free to cancel we need the units were back ordered 11,000 units so your 2 will be gone fast. Maybe I?ll put them on eBay for 150.00 myself. Have a good day Dan."

Up to this point, they had already exchanged 6 emails which were fairly civil(if unhelpful on Ocean Marketing's side). Dave's response to this was mildly immature, but he was only responding in kind (and more intelligently at that).

 

[TheMagicLemur]

That Dave guy was a total dickhead though. Did he have a legitimate complaint? Certainly he did. He was still incredibly rude in his complaint email, and given all the swearwords, posturing and abuse I'm not surprised that the OceanMarketing guy thought it was a sockpuppet "Mike Krahulik" responding to him.

He was rude after Paul was repeatedly rude to him. A customer has every right to get pissed at an unhelpful jerk. Doesn't matter if you're tired of hearing the same questions from customers, or you're tired in general, or whatever. Your JOB in the role of customer service is to be polite, friendly, and helpful. The best way to deal with a GENUINELY obnoxious customer is to stay pleasant, as they usually realise they're being dicks when you don't escalate the situation.

That said, Paul was an asshole first, and Dave got understandably pissed.

 

[Makon]

Update: The Twitter account has changed. Instead of OceanMarketting it is now OceanStratagy. Yes, the supposed president of this company, with "about 125 dedicated people to run PR , Blogs , Articles , Videos" who 'runs several businesses' apparently didn't make it past 6th grade spelling.

On the flip-side, a guy snagged up the recently vacated OceanMarketting handle on Twitter and is using it to promote indie devs and charities. I'll call that a 'Win' all around.

 

[Madman123456]

Customer Dave is, in my Opinion, a bit rude. You can set deadlines and threaten to have Lawyers have a look at the Situation if you can't get something helpful from normal, civilized talking. "Ricerocket"? Really? Also, he "looks like a Douche"? Was this in any Way helpful in getting the Product?

The "He was angry because he didn't get the Product he paid for" Explanation is insufficient. He was writing this. They where not really talking. Dave should have been able to figure out that this is the time to have a professional send a Letter with a Deadline and a Threat of legal Consequences if the Deadline isn't met.

As if America didn't have enough Lawyers.

A Formal Letter may have been enough, informing him of his rights in this Scenario, which are rather limited. If this PR Company says that it isn't too blame because the Company who makes the Product doesn't ship at advertised times, one could demand a Statement from that Company.

But no, Customer is always right and is apparently entitled to ramble about the PR-Guys Personal Life.

The PR Guy on the other Hand didn't just "snap" after one too many Customer from Hell like Dave here. He wrote an email. Several emails.

Penny Arcade come riding in as the good Guys to save the Day. Or possibly not because they did nothing to get the Controllers or contact the Company who makes the Controllers.

"Guys, you might want to hire a new PR Company, the one you've got isn't all that good at the Job."

Penny Arcade just presents this Lunatic to the Public and gets a little PR boost for free. Which will leave the PR Guy without a Job, though to be fair he brought this on himself and i do hope that People who are so very bad at what there doing don't get to do it anymore.

There are quite a lot of People who are unemployed who could have done this without a big Drama. Seriously, go to any unemployment Office anywhere; you'd be hard pressed to find someone less competent.

 

[whiffleball]

I wish we could get a video of the moment he calms down and the regret starts to set in.

Considering the other site about a different customer's experience, he has been doing this type of stuff for months now, at least. So, I can't feel bad for anything that happens to him.

I've read a bunch of articles about this story on many websites so the news is spreading and it is spreading fast.

It is sad that the manufacturer hasn't stepped in and distanced themselves from him, but I guess there might be some contractual obligation on their part. Either that, or he has been spending most of his time blocking the news from them.

If you read most of his replies, he infers that the ordering and customs processes had multiple failures. He also insinuates that his customer service group quit. Judging by his responses, I can infer that it all happened because he is an idiot with no people skills. Now, I don't know what all work his company was hired to do, but he obviously ran into problems, and he obviously cant hand it, and he obviously has no business running a business.

As his personal name is attached to this, I doubt that this company or any other company he runs will get much PR business as a simple Google of his name will bring up all this bad press.

 

[panzertank83]

UPDATE!

Paul from Ocean Marketting dishes half-hearted, excuse-ridden, apology:

Hey Dave,

I just wanted to apologize for the way our emails progressed from beginning to end , You caught me on an extremely bad day and I had been dealing with 100?s and hundreds of emails trying to explain the situation to everyone on where the product was and you just pushed me a little too much and I should have just apologized and tried to explain things better. Also I had a really bad day losing a friend to an overdose and the stress of my newborn baby and the Holiday ,missing my family and just stressing on getting product out to everyone and why it was held up in customs wore me out.

I am deeply sorry for any disrespect , aggravation or lack of information on the delivery date. We knew when product was leaving china and we were trying to adhere to a strict deadline but due to port issues and air freight issues. The units are domestic now and awaiting pick up at customs . So we missed the 17th deadline and I apologize for that but it was out of my control and besides me no one else was helping me handle the situation so imagine the weight on my shoulders.

I?m not asking for any sympathy just for some understanding and forgiveness , I?m human just like everyone else and made a mistake. I underestimated you and its cost me a lot of trouble thousands of spam emails , a lot of personal bashing , and internet spam and trouble and just overall stress with my wife and newborn. I ask that you please accept my apology as a peace offering I will refund your money and give you your 2 units/Avengers free of charge please help me to get some of this negativity removed or at least my personal name although its already all over the internet and the calls and emails will not stop but any help will be appreciated especially with penny arcade as Mike and edit his own website I owe him an apology too which I will write next.

source: gamerfront.net/2011/12/ocean-marketing-a-study-on-how-to-destroy-your-reputation-with-just-a-few-emails/15199

 

[Makon]

UPDATE!

Paul from Ocean Marketting dishes half-hearted, excuse-ridden, apology:

source: gamerfront.net/2011/12/ocean-marketing-a-study-on-how-to-destroy-your-reputation-with-just-a-few-emails/15199

What I read: "Holy crap, NERD-RAGE!? Time to lie, misdirect and deceive my way out of the bad rep I have managed to build within 12 hours with some terribly punctuated and grammatically formed emails."

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

Update: The Twitter account has changed. Instead of OceanMarketting it is now OceanStratagy. Yes, the supposed president of this company, with "about 125 dedicated people to run PR , Blogs , Articles , Videos" who 'runs several businesses' apparently didn't make it past 6th grade spelling.

On the flip-side, a guy snagged up the recently vacated OceanMarketting handle on Twitter and is using it to promote indie devs and charities. I'll call that a 'Win' all around.

Well, at least it's now in the hands of someone who (apparently) actually knows how to market something properly.

Can't help wondering what's Paul's 'stratagy' for weathering this internet-wide backlash against anything he's ever touched. If I had to guess, I'd say a combination of tunnel vision, massive denial and threatening people with his 'connections'.

 

[Avulsion]

Another case of Christoforo's assholery:

http://www.notgoodenough.org/viewtopic.php?p=329158

 

[Vivi22]

That Dave guy was a total dickhead though. Did he have a legitimate complaint? Certainly he did. He was still incredibly rude in his complaint email, and given all the swearwords, posturing and abuse I'm not surprised that the OceanMarketing guy thought it was a sockpuppet "Mike Krahulik" responding to him.

I'm not sure what emails you were reading, but I thought he was keeping his cool pretty well until it was clear the guy was being a complete dick and giving him the run around instead of a straight answer. And regardless of how Dave reacted in his later emails, it is never good business to respond in the way this guy did. Not only did he not take the high road and keep his end of the conversation civil, he was blatantly hostile and basically acting like he was the king of the world and too important to answer a paying customers inquiries. They deserve ever bit of bad press they get over this.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

For some reason reading this while having Jamestown menu music playing in a tabbed out window, makes the internet backlash so much more epic.

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

UPDATE!

Paul from Ocean Marketting dishes half-hearted, excuse-ridden, apology:

source: gamerfront.net/2011/12/ocean-marketing-a-study-on-how-to-destroy-your-reputation-with-just-a-few-emails/15199

What I read: "Holy crap, NERD-RAGE!? Time to lie, misdirect and deceive my way out of the bad rep I have managed to build within 12 hours with some terribly punctuated and grammatically formed emails."

I got about the same thing from it. I read: "Crap, the fact that I've repeatedly been a massive **** to my customers is now spreading across the internet like wildfire. Guess stroking my ego by claiming to know everyone in a position of power in the industry doesn't work when they all call me a tosser. I should start making excuses now."

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

He did know he could write one email explaining the situation as he does in that apology and then forward it to all his customers...he didn't have to write every single one by hand. >_>

 

[whiffleball]

Another case of Christoforo's assholery:

http://www.notgoodenough.org/viewtopic.php?p=329158

Holy Balls!

If this is an accurate description of the conversation that happened, he replies to a customer with condescending remarks about the customer and everyone from his country. To brag about doing business with 8 countries and then insult one of them might be the stupidest thing he's done yet.

I hope this link gets passed around with all the others.

 

[whiffleball]

He did know he could write one email explaining the situation as he does in that apology and then forward it to all his customers...he didn't have to write every single one by hand. >_>

I was thinking that the whole time he mentioned having to do everything himself.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

And the douchebaggery continues as the guy from Ocean still doesn't realize that he's a tiny fish in a big pond:

That behavior didn't stop with the e-mail chain either. Rather than taking a lesson from the exchange after it was posted, Christoforo, against all odds, stuck to his guns.

He was called out publicly on Twitter by IGN's Scott Lowe -- name-dropped in the e-mails, you might remember -- who said "Paul Christoforo's claims that he has my and @IGN's support are UNFOUNDED. I worked with him briefly and he was completely unprofessional." Lowe then directed Christoforo to refrain from bragging about having IGN's support. "You do not have it," Scott wrote.

The reply? Christoforo, writing from his @oceanmarketting Twitter account (yes, we can all note the misspelled company name --proceeded to somehow call Scott a "douchebag" AND "the unprofessional one" in the same breath. He's apparently forgotten that denigrating someone's character in a public forum actually DOES qualify as unprofessional.

Quoted from the G4 website (another publication he happened to namedrop a couple of times).

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

He did know he could write one email explaining the situation as he does in that apology and then forward it to all his customers...he didn't have to write every single one by hand. >_>

I was thinking that the whole time he mentioned having to do everything himself.

Funny that he maintains that he's so overwhelmed by having to do everything himself when he claims to have "125 dedicated people to run PR , Blogs , Articles , Videos".

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

He did know he could write one email explaining the situation as he does in that apology and then forward it to all his customers...he didn't have to write every single one by hand. >_>

I was thinking that the whole time he mentioned having to do everything himself.

Funny that he maintains that he's so overwhelmed by having to do everything himself when he claims to have "125 dedicated people to run PR , Blogs , Articles , Videos".

That's a good point. I might have missed it, but it seems like he says he's the President. In the link that Orange was so good to share with us, a guy named David Kotkin created this. Am I misreading? What is this guy Paul doing 'lowering himself to converse with us Nerds'?

 

[Lieju]

How old is that guy?

I have spoken with people online who sounded like that and I always assumed they were kids or teenagers. I find it hard to believe he is 38.