Ocean Marketing's customer service catastrophe

[QualityChimp]

Kotaku have posted an unusual article, where they say that Penny Arcade are the biggest bullies in this story and if they hadn't emailed back it wouldn't be the big story it's become.

However, 100% of the comments posted disagree with what's been written in the article.

[Dogg Thang]

they say that Penny Arcade are the biggest bullies in this story and if they hadn't emailed back it wouldn't be the big story it's become.

Well they're right about the last part here but their article (and how they stretched this view to article size is bizarre) is just an odd stance to take. This guy was dealing with a customer and was a complete ass. Had he not publicly been called out on it, he'd still be doing it. This needed to happen and, if anything, should happen more often. If it weren't Penny Arcade, it should have been someone else. Guy was a dick. All Penny Arcade did was make it public, which the customer involved was attempting to do.

[eastyy]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/114994-Ocean-Marketing-Attempts-To-Extort-Former-Client

[Decider-VT]

This guy was dealing with a customer and was a complete ass. Had he not publicly been called out on it, he'd still be doing it. This needed to happen and, if anything, should happen more often. If it weren't Penny Arcade, it should have been someone else. Guy was a dick. All Penny Arcade did was make it public, which the customer involved was attempting to do.

Dave was a dick too. I'm genuinely puzzled by the complete lack of reaction to his pathetic posturing. One the one hand he claims that one of the controllers he's ordered was urgently needed as a Christmas present, yet on Boxing Day he is transparently trying to get a discount for his existing order, then becomes frustrated when he doesn't get his own way and is openly mocked. Paul's response is incredibly immature but Dave's reaction really isn't any better. His exasperation is understandable to some extent but Kotaku hit the nail on the head when they said:

The [show] really only begins when Dave unloads a pedantic lecture on his consumer rights and Paul's responsibilities (with plenty of all-caps), appends some extraneous insults to let Paul know he looked him up on Facebook, and then puts our tips email (and evidently IGN's and Engadget's) in the cc: field as an implied threat.

I can't believe that Penny Arcade stooped low enough to take the bait and get involved in what should've been confined to some angry venting on a forum at best. It's easy to dismiss the Kotaku article but Krahulik starts throwing his weight around at the first mention of PAX. Why? To impress a random nobody from the Internet? Hardly a sensible or level-headed response. He doesn't even bother establishing whether or not the exchange is genuine.

You show a surprising lack of business polish for someone who?s quite established, AND an lack of awareness of your customer base: Hardcore gamers. We?re a demanding, vocal customer but the flip side is we?re loyal and eager to spend.

So he's whiny and has too much disposable income. Colour me surprised.

[averybluemonkey]

Totally agree with Decider on this. There is no way that PA didn't know some of their readers would overstep the boundary once they posted this. Making private e-mails public is pretty unprofessional behaviour.

[Dogg Thang]

Dave being a dick really doesn't matter. He's not the one dealing with a customer or representing a product. And PA have got where they are right now with blunt honesty and a reputation for not hiding bull**** so, for them, this is professional. Who you are, who you represent and what is expected from you makes a huge difference in how the same action will be perceived. End result here is that customer service just went up a notch. That's a good thing.

[Flabio]

Except every time PA do this, someone is going to bring up the Dickwolves thing and they'll pretend it didn't happen.

[Dogg Thang]

What was the dickwolves thing?

[MisterBubbles]

Whole thing seems like a pi$$ing contest, so who has the biggest weaner?? Dave, Paul or Mike??. BTW i know the man on the moon , Kapow!!! guys beat that, all 3 seem about 12 years old.

[Matt]

Some of you are funny. PA guy was a dick from the start.

Guess the backlash has begun

[mekanor]

I honestly can't see how anyone is taking Paul's side in this. The guy was awful to "Dave" from the outset. What kind of reply is "Dec 17"? Dave's emails are polite and even when he gets unhappy about the $10 discount he is hardly unprofessional yet he gets told to put on his big boy hat, that he isn't special and that Paul will just sell his controllers on ebay (while being called the wrong name). Paul STILL maintains that he did nothing wrong and is only upset that he didn't know who he was talking to and now he is stomping his feet and holding a whole bunch of accounts hostage!

He got a healthy serve of internet justice and we all got a good laugh

[MrMarbles]

Also, in Dave's defense, money for the controllers was taken from his account on November 3rd - well over a month before his first polite email querying their delivery.

I've seen some people's reactions on this forum when they've not received an ordered game a day before release

All three parties in this story can have criticism directed at them for how they've handled it - however, to me, it's pretty obvious that Christoforo deserves the most for being such a complete berk.

[Flabio]

We're not taking Paul's 'side'. We're saying that every side is wrong.

[C']

what should've been confined to some angry venting on a forum at best.

We have another story demonstrating that Paul behaved in an incredibly similar way to this dated June 2011 and this instance the customer on the receiving end did essentially limit it to "angry venting on a forum".

End result? Paul continues to treat his customers extremely poorly.

[Dogg Thang]

And Paul is the only one out of the bunch who is expected to send nice emails as part of his job. This is why it's a problem - Paul can be an asshole down at the pub and nobody would care, just as few people would care that this Dave guy wasn't exactly polite. Penny Arcade do what they do and it's expected. But position makes all the difference. You can have a great web page full of dick jokes and it woudln't be a problem. Stick it on Amazon's home page and it is. You can make a joke about killing a hooker if you're Frankie Boyle, not if you're the chief of police.

It really doesn't matter a damn if Dave and PA were complete tossers (personally, I think PA conducted themselves well here - still doesn't matter). This Paul guy was a customer service nightmare and was called out on it. That's all that happened. It's not Paul vs anyone or about sides. Guy was **** at his job, it went public.