The gist is that a customer bought a PS3 controller (adapter?), inquired with company marketing the controllers (not the manufacturer) about his order, and was dealt with poorly. The contact person at Ocean Marketing, one Paul Christoforo, proceeds to troll/flame not only the customer, but also Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade.
Apparently this has gone viral, and the people that Paul name-dropped to seem like he has clout in his industry are disavowing him left and right.
The sad part of all of this is the game controller in question is intended to help those with physical handicaps.
I'm surprised that:
A) This guy is answering email from individual customers given his self-reported level of importance.
B) That anyone wants to deal with him currently, or in the future, if this is how he behaves in a professional setting.
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I read that this afternoon, and I also found it funny. I like how Christoforo thanks everyone for the "free PR". Really? You think this email chain going viral makes you look good?
I agree with you that the guy is answering emails. I suspect he is not as important as he makes himself out to be (as noted by the IGN guy disavowing any friendship with him).
I also think it's funny how Christoforo says "Love Penny Arcade!!". I think that was my favorite part of the whole thing.
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I wonder what was going through his head when he wrote stuff like that while officially representing a company. Not very smart, that one, in addition to being a douchebag.
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"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
In sociology, I studied the phenomenon of companies regulating their workers attitudes in the rise of the "customer is ALWAYS right" 70's-00's.
But now, when everyone has the threat to go "viral" on your ass if you are rude or unbecoming, companies are going to start: a) reigning in the list of appropriate emotions and/or b) destroy the human element completely. I believe the latter is going to be the viable alternative.
It's hard to believe that I was really reading what was posted in those emails. I honestly couldn't tell if this guy is just trolling, has a bad case of Internet Tough Guy Syndrome, or is just stupid. Either way, he just did a fantastic job of ruining his company's name/image.
Also, that white text on a blue background gave me temporary blindness.
If I could get away with just posting that, I would. It expresses all of my emotions in a single smiley. But, seeing as I can't without getting a spam infraction...
I mean, seriously, the guy from ocean marketing is absolutely moronic. He masqueraded as an in house source, but apparently Avenger Controls dismissed him a long time ago: source
edit: though, you have to scroll to the bottom of the Kotaku article, they're making fun of him for 'roid rage in the first half.
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That's pretty funny. I find it hilarious that the "FREE PR" dude is now crying about how things have completely turned into chaos and he's begging for mercy. Haha, and he didn't believe that he owned Penny Arcade...
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I wonder how long Christoforo has been treating people that way? I'd bet just about anything that this has been going on for years now. I normally don't like the idea of private emails being posted for everyone to see, but in this case I think it is necessary. Krahulik was right when he called the guy a bully, and exposing him to the internet is the only thing which can be done.
I read about this on Kotaku. This guy is a big douche and had it coming.
That said, I get the feeling that internet vigilantism is treading in dangerous territory, and not something that should be considered a civil course of action. There are other (albeit less effective) channels that could have resolved this situation which don't introduce a possible moral dilemma.
(I expect to be flamed for this opinion, but I thought it should be said anyway)
Don't people know what goes on the internet stays on the internet.
I don't even make funny jokes about my own sexuality because I don't want it misquoted somewhere when I'm 50.
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Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
This certainly is an interesting modernisation of the old adage 'you live by the sword, you die by the sword'. He live in PR land and bad PR destroyed his career. Because this is going to be all over the internet, he's going to be lucky if he ever gets another job in any industry.
That said, I get the feeling that internet vigilantism is treading in dangerous territory, and not something that should be considered a civil course of action. There are other (albeit less effective) channels that could have resolved this situation which don't introduce a possible moral dilemma.
While the people who are harassing him (to the point where he made facebook account in order to plead them to stop) are in the wrong. But destroying his career through breaking industry connections and giving reports of his poor attitude are perfectly reasonable considering the industry he was in.
But the Facebook account was only made 4 hours ago, so I'm doubtful that it's actually him. Especially considering it uses information available from his old myspace account.
That said, I get the feeling that internet vigilantism is treading in dangerous territory, and not something that should be considered a civil course of action.
Mm, there's a reason "good customer service" means "interacting with the customer as little as possible". The internet vigilantism really is worse than anything that the guy did, and hopefully this gets fully automated customer service to be adopted as the industry standard within the next 10 or so years, where you absolutely cannot be assisted by an actual person.
I don't support what the guy did - he's immature and unprofessional to snap like that. But I don't think we should have people in customer service - it should all be automated, especially when you're trying to help customers who have issues with a product.
Other sources have that twitter account listed as the equally misspelled oceanstratagy, not oceanstretagy.
I'm assuming that link is a fake account.
oceanstratagy was supposedly his twitter account for a while but it has since been abandoned. At this point you really cannot trust any of the twitter stuff since it's being faked all over the place.
Mm, there's a reason "good customer service" means "interacting with the customer as little as possible". The internet vigilantism really is worse than anything that the guy did, and hopefully this gets fully automated customer service to be adopted as the industry standard within the next 10 or so years, where you absolutely cannot be assisted by an actual person.
I don't support what the guy did - he's immature and unprofessional to snap like that. But I don't think we should have people in customer service - it should all be automated, especially when you're trying to help customers who have issues with a product.
The problem here is that the company selling the controllers seemed to have outsourced their customer support to a single guy who apparently had no real training in it. There apparently was another proper marketing company dealing with all this stuff but they quit a while ago because the enterprise was becoming too much of a headache for them. It is still a bit of a mystery how this guy was hired in the first place for something this important.
The problem here is that the company selling the controllers seemed to have outsourced their customer support to a single guy who apparently had no real training in it. There apparently was another proper marketing company dealing with all this stuff but they quit a while ago because the enterprise was becoming too much of a headache for them. It is still a bit of a mystery how this guy was hired in the first place for something this important.
There's a huge difference between "marketing & PR" and "Customer service". Customer service reps are dog meat - you hire them for as little as possible because nobody wants that terrible low skill job at that terrible wage in the first place, then you fire them when they screw up. You don't need any particular skill to read off a canned response or tell them to return their product for a new one.
There's really not a whole lot of difference between this guy and the guy behind the counter at the last store you went to. It's no mystery how he got hired for this "important" job. Companies think it's important, but it's very low skill so you can afford to have an extremely high turnover rate if people don't work out.
There's a huge difference between "marketing & PR" and "Customer service". Customer service reps are dog meat - you hire them for as little as possible because nobody wants that terrible low skill job at that terrible wage in the first place, then you fire them when they screw up. You don't need any particular skill to read off a canned response or tell them to return their product for a new one.
There's really not a whole lot of difference between this guy and the guy behind the counter at the last store you went to. It's no mystery how he got hired for this "important" job. Companies think it's important, but it's very low skill so you can afford to have an extremely high turnover rate if people don't work out.
you haven't read much about the situation, have you? This guy wasn't a random customer service rep that had a bad day. This was the PR person hired to run PR for the company and it's product.
There really is a whole lot of difference between this guy and the guy behind the counter at the last store you went to.
Did he have a degree in marketing? Because at least 1/2 of the folks around where I live who are sales associates have a BA, are taking classes, or are managers.
Did he have a degree in marketing? Because at least 1/2 of the folks around where I live who are sales associates have a BA, are taking classes, or are managers.
Apparently he had a degree from a culinary school though I cannot be 100% sure of the validity of this information.
Apparently he was running a one-man Marketing and PR company and was hired to handle marketing for the launch of the controller. The issue that started this concerned the fact that there were serious delays with the delivery and the controllers would not arrive for Christmas. I would think that any technical support calls would be handled by the company making the controllers but any concerns about late delivery were routed to the PR guy.
So he was the marketing and PR guy, and part of his duties was to handle customer concerns about the delays. Another company might have customer support reps handle this but since he did not have any employees, he handled it all himself.
Some of the reading seems to suggest that he was hired due to his claims of having business relationships with major retailers like Gamestop and thus being able to convince them to sell the controller sold in their stores. After the other marketing company quit the enterprise he took over their responsibilities as well.
What I heard from all that is that a lot of dull people got together and decided to make poor decisions, and then Penny Arcade posted the end result on their website. It's better than when a lot of sharp people get together and decide to make poor decisions, at least. Last time that happened was in 2007 and we still haven't lived it down.
What I heard from all that is that a lot of dull people got together and decided to make poor decisions, and then Penny Arcade posted the end result on their website. It's better than when a lot of sharp people get together and decide to make poor decisions, at least. Last time that happened was in 2007 and we still haven't lived it down.
The thing really exploded because in an attempt to cover up the initial poor decisions, the guy started making even worse decisions. He name dropped PAX which got the Penny Arcade guys involved. His response was to insult the Penny Arcade people and do more name dropping and name calling. When the thing started going viral he impersonated someone through email and then started insulting people on Twitter. When he finally started apologizing it was done so badly that it was even more insulting. Then the people he was name dropping started to disavow any knowledge of him.
It was the equivalent of the Charlie Sheen story except the guy will not end up with millions of dollars in the end. It's like the guy decided to dive in headfirst into the ****storm and was thinking that he would emerge from it covered in gold.
Mm, there's a reason "good customer service" means "interacting with the customer as little as possible". The internet vigilantism really is worse than anything that the guy did, and hopefully this gets fully automated customer service to be adopted as the industry standard within the next 10 or so years, where you absolutely cannot be assisted by an actual person.
I don't support what the guy did - he's immature and unprofessional to snap like that. But I don't think we should have people in customer service - it should all be automated, especially when you're trying to help customers who have issues with a product.
Wait, are you serious with this? You would like to have to talk to nothing but machines when trying to resolve issues with your cell phone bill, your bank account, or your mortgage?
I didn't think there was anybody left in the PR field who actually still believed "any publicity is good publicity."
Clearly this guy was. Not anymore.
Hilarious.
As I'm at work, I can't click on the link and see what was actually said, but no one has the right to flame or troll people either online or on the internet, so I'm glad this guy's not getting away with it. It's a dick move to treat people like that.
http://penny-arcade.com/resources/just-wow1.html
The gist is that a customer bought a PS3 controller (adapter?), inquired with company marketing the controllers (not the manufacturer) about his order, and was dealt with poorly. The contact person at Ocean Marketing, one Paul Christoforo, proceeds to troll/flame not only the customer, but also Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade.
Apparently this has gone viral, and the people that Paul name-dropped to seem like he has clout in his industry are disavowing him left and right.
The sad part of all of this is the game controller in question is intended to help those with physical handicaps.
I'm surprised that:
A) This guy is answering email from individual customers given his self-reported level of importance.
B) That anyone wants to deal with him currently, or in the future, if this is how he behaves in a professional setting.
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I agree with you that the guy is answering emails. I suspect he is not as important as he makes himself out to be (as noted by the IGN guy disavowing any friendship with him).
I also think it's funny how Christoforo says "Love Penny Arcade!!". I think that was my favorite part of the whole thing.
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I wonder what was going through his head when he wrote stuff like that while officially representing a company. Not very smart, that one, in addition to being a douchebag.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
But now, when everyone has the threat to go "viral" on your ass if you are rude or unbecoming, companies are going to start: a) reigning in the list of appropriate emotions and/or b) destroy the human element completely. I believe the latter is going to be the viable alternative.
Machines don't get upset.
It's hard to believe that I was really reading what was posted in those emails. I honestly couldn't tell if this guy is just trolling, has a bad case of Internet Tough Guy Syndrome, or is just stupid. Either way, he just did a fantastic job of ruining his company's name/image.
Also, that white text on a blue background gave me temporary blindness.
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If I could get away with just posting that, I would. It expresses all of my emotions in a single smiley. But, seeing as I can't without getting a spam infraction...
I mean, seriously, the guy from ocean marketing is absolutely moronic. He masqueraded as an in house source, but apparently Avenger Controls dismissed him a long time ago: source
edit: though, you have to scroll to the bottom of the Kotaku article, they're making fun of him for 'roid rage in the first half.
Whether it's a comedy or a tragedy, if there is cheering, the story will continue on.
Just like the many lives.
For the us who are still in it and still in the journey, send warm blessings.
- We will continue to walk down this path until eternity.
How pathetic... free PR. Yeah, buddy, not the good kind.
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I just love the last few lines of this. Penny-arcade will always be one of my favorite places on the internet and this is why.
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About Frox: for nearly 10 years, Frox has been helping women look good and feel great in easy-fit, mix-and-match, and work-to-weekend with just a few pieces by helping them make the right choices when it comes to clothing and accessories.
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=557874
That said, I get the feeling that internet vigilantism is treading in dangerous territory, and not something that should be considered a civil course of action. There are other (albeit less effective) channels that could have resolved this situation which don't introduce a possible moral dilemma.
(I expect to be flamed for this opinion, but I thought it should be said anyway)
I don't even make funny jokes about my own sexuality because I don't want it misquoted somewhere when I'm 50.
While the people who are harassing him (to the point where he made facebook account in order to plead them to stop) are in the wrong. But destroying his career through breaking industry connections and giving reports of his poor attitude are perfectly reasonable considering the industry he was in.
But the Facebook account was only made 4 hours ago, so I'm doubtful that it's actually him. Especially considering it uses information available from his old myspace account.
Nah, I think he deserves everything coming to him, and more.
"Sometimes, the situation is outracing a threat, sometimes it's ignoring it, and sometimes it involves sideboarding in 4x Hope//Pray." --Doug Linn
I'm assuming that link is a fake account.
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I don't support what the guy did - he's immature and unprofessional to snap like that. But I don't think we should have people in customer service - it should all be automated, especially when you're trying to help customers who have issues with a product.
oceanstratagy was supposedly his twitter account for a while but it has since been abandoned. At this point you really cannot trust any of the twitter stuff since it's being faked all over the place.
The problem here is that the company selling the controllers seemed to have outsourced their customer support to a single guy who apparently had no real training in it. There apparently was another proper marketing company dealing with all this stuff but they quit a while ago because the enterprise was becoming too much of a headache for them. It is still a bit of a mystery how this guy was hired in the first place for something this important.
There's a huge difference between "marketing & PR" and "Customer service". Customer service reps are dog meat - you hire them for as little as possible because nobody wants that terrible low skill job at that terrible wage in the first place, then you fire them when they screw up. You don't need any particular skill to read off a canned response or tell them to return their product for a new one.
There's really not a whole lot of difference between this guy and the guy behind the counter at the last store you went to. It's no mystery how he got hired for this "important" job. Companies think it's important, but it's very low skill so you can afford to have an extremely high turnover rate if people don't work out.
you haven't read much about the situation, have you? This guy wasn't a random customer service rep that had a bad day. This was the PR person hired to run PR for the company and it's product.
There really is a whole lot of difference between this guy and the guy behind the counter at the last store you went to.
Apparently he had a degree from a culinary school though I cannot be 100% sure of the validity of this information.
Apparently he was running a one-man Marketing and PR company and was hired to handle marketing for the launch of the controller. The issue that started this concerned the fact that there were serious delays with the delivery and the controllers would not arrive for Christmas. I would think that any technical support calls would be handled by the company making the controllers but any concerns about late delivery were routed to the PR guy.
So he was the marketing and PR guy, and part of his duties was to handle customer concerns about the delays. Another company might have customer support reps handle this but since he did not have any employees, he handled it all himself.
Some of the reading seems to suggest that he was hired due to his claims of having business relationships with major retailers like Gamestop and thus being able to convince them to sell the controller sold in their stores. After the other marketing company quit the enterprise he took over their responsibilities as well.
The thing really exploded because in an attempt to cover up the initial poor decisions, the guy started making even worse decisions. He name dropped PAX which got the Penny Arcade guys involved. His response was to insult the Penny Arcade people and do more name dropping and name calling. When the thing started going viral he impersonated someone through email and then started insulting people on Twitter. When he finally started apologizing it was done so badly that it was even more insulting. Then the people he was name dropping started to disavow any knowledge of him.
It was the equivalent of the Charlie Sheen story except the guy will not end up with millions of dollars in the end. It's like the guy decided to dive in headfirst into the ****storm and was thinking that he would emerge from it covered in gold.
Clearly this guy was. Not anymore.
Wait, are you serious with this? You would like to have to talk to nothing but machines when trying to resolve issues with your cell phone bill, your bank account, or your mortgage?
Out of curiosity, how old are you?
Hilarious.
As I'm at work, I can't click on the link and see what was actually said, but no one has the right to flame or troll people either online or on the internet, so I'm glad this guy's not getting away with it. It's a dick move to treat people like that.
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