Penny Arcade exposes awful customer service from Ocean Marketing

@Slag said:

I certainly won't be buying their product.

Oh jesus christ people, it's not the product that was the problem, it was the customer service provided by a third party PR company. Avenger has been unfairly hit ridiculously hard by this; their product's rating on Amazon went from 4 out of 5 stars to 1/2 in the space of a day. All because of one brute's nasty little remarks.

SAY IT LOUDER. IT'S NOT THE PRODUCT. THE PRODUCT WORKS. THE GUY IS THE PROBLEM. ONE MAN. HIS COMPANY HAS BEEN FIRED FROM MARKETING THIS PRODUCT.

I came to accept that this guy is for real and is mentally lacking in some fields.

@Claude said:

@dudeglove said:

@Slag said:

I certainly won't be buying their product.

Oh jesus christ people, it's not the product that was the problem, it was the customer service provided by a third party PR company. Avenger has been unfairly hit ridiculously hard by this; their product's rating on Amazon went from 4 out of 5 stars to 1/2 in the space of a day. All because of one brute's nasty little remarks.

SAY IT LOUDER. IT'S NOT THE PRODUCT. THE PRODUCT WORKS. THE GUY IS THE PROBLEM. ONE MAN. HIS COMPANY HAS BEEN FIRED FROM MARKETING THIS PRODUCT.

@StaticFalconar said:

@dudeglove said:

@Claude said:

@dudeglove said:

@Slag said:

I certainly won't be buying their product.

Oh jesus christ people, it's not the product that was the problem, it was the customer service provided by a third party PR company. Avenger has been unfairly hit ridiculously hard by this; their product's rating on Amazon went from 4 out of 5 stars to 1/2 in the space of a day. All because of one brute's nasty little remarks.

SAY IT LOUDER. IT'S NOT THE PRODUCT. THE PRODUCT WORKS. THE GUY IS THE PROBLEM. ONE MAN. HIS COMPANY HAS BEEN FIRED FROM MARKETING THIS PRODUCT.

SAY IT LOUDER.

Wow this interview is so full of bullshit. They use the least offensive things he said, no "big boy hat", "wweb as on the internet", "sperm in daddy's balls", but MIke's response is totally changed to some vulgar assault. I also like how he basically says: I only treat normal customers like shit, if I knew who Mike was I'd kiss his ass.

The Avenger controller company is also funny - you know our last PR company left cause we hired Paul, they warned us about him, guy was shady and raising red flags left and right, he treated customers bad in the past but we thought it won't go public. SO don't blame us or our product just because we wan'ted more money at the cost of our customers satisfaction.

I love the msnbc interview. just when you think someone can't become any more of an asshole, he somehow manages it.

''But he just came at me and said, indirectly, 'Hey, f*** you, you're banned from PAX.' Is that what you'd call professional? I wouldn't."

I don't remember him saying ''fuck you'', and just the thought of this guy calling someone else unprofessional is ridiculous on so many levels.

EDIT: Read the rest of the interview, and now my remaining 1% of sympathy I have for this moron has vanished.

Regarding the litany of names Christoforo's e-mail called up as potential supporters — a list that included everyone from Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski to the mayor of Boston — he said the tactic was meant to "impress, not to threaten" and didn't come through correctly because "you can't see tone of voice in email."

"I don't know the mayor of Boston," he admitted. "That was taken totally out of context, I was just joking around. I am from Boston, though, and I know a lot of people who own clubs. I know some influential people, like the guy who runs the door at the convention center.

"I'm not depressed at people making fun of me," he said. "It's like a parody of Barack Obama. It's making me more popular. I'm not doing anything to stop it, and it is kind of funny. ... It's not the end of the world, and it'll be old news soon, but it's hot news now, and I do see the lighter side of it."

"[Legal action] is something I'm not interested in doing because the community would be more pissed at me," he said. "Regardless of money [possibly won in a settlement], it would really ruin my name. Am I saying I care more about my reputation than money? Yes."

As though they aren't already pissed...

@dudeglove said:

I am from Boston, though, and I know a lot of people who own clubs. I know some influential people, like the guy who runs the door at the convention center.

That's pretty much perfect.

Indeed. Pure gold.

And I love how this guy somehow still thinks he is on his way up because he's all "popular" now.

What the hell are you people still discussing here? 
 
He's a douchebag guido who did not respect a customer and acted like a child in his customer support emails, so the conclusion here is that he's a dick and his employing company should fire him. Why are you celebrating the backlash and why is there a backlash to begin with? 
Shit like this shows that you're just primitive and can't wait to get a chance to gang up on a prey and keep at it, jesus.

Wow, Influential people like the guy at the door of the convention centre?... After all of this, He STILL insists he's top stuff. Pathetic.

@AhmadMetallic said:

What the hell are you people still discussing here?

The continuing saga of Paul Christoforo.

If it wasn't for the new interview on msnbc and Paul's new ridiculous remarks, we wouldn't be discussing anything here now.

@AhmadMetallic said:

What the hell are you people still discussing here?

This train just a'keeps on truck'n.

@AhmadMetallic said:

Shit like this shows that you're just primitive and can't wait to get a chance to gang up on a prey and keep at it, jesus.

You are a very serious fellow. You know that?

Guy keeps on giving... he apparently linked to this site somewhere to deflect attention from his actual site:

http://www.oceanmarketinggroup.com/

This is like the videogame equivalent of Kim Kardashian drama I swear I can litraly feel m bran rottng awaw wz swxujfws

What the hell are you people still discussing here?  He's a douchebag guido who did not respect a customer and acted like a child in his customer support emails, so the conclusion here is that he's a dick and his employing company should fire him. Why are you celebrating the backlash and why is there a backlash to begin with? Shit like this shows that you're just primitive and can't wait to get a chance to gang up on a prey and keep at it, jesus.

But what does the Mayor of Boston think about all this? :P

Seriously though, someone needs to make "I'm Paul Christoforo" shirts and start selling them to all the PAX goes. Fill PAX East with people with that shirt on, would be epic.

But what does the Mayor of Boston think about all this? :P

@ZeForgotten said:

@Twisted_Scot said:

But what does the Mayor of Boston think about all this? :P

I don't know, and the guy at the door of the convention center didn't wanna talk to me :(

You need better connections bud. The guy dressed as the Burger King was appalled at this entire situation and he was IN video games.

You know, I thought I had heard all I had to hear about this situation already, but then I spent an hour today reading up on some of the other developments. I love how N-Controllers press release so thoroughly cut ties with Christoforo. It's kinda nice to see a piece of shit finally getting what he deserves.

@ZeForgotten said:

@Twisted_Scot said:

But what does the Mayor of Boston think about all this? :P

I don't know, and the guy at the door of the convention center didn't wanna talk to me :(

You need better connections bud. The guy dressed as the Burger King was appalled at this entire situation and he was IN video games.

I talked to a person once who said he knew Jesus!

Once? I talk to them almost every day :P

@ZeForgotten said:

@Twisted_Scot said:

@ZeForgotten said:

@Twisted_Scot said:

But what does the Mayor of Boston think about all this? :P

I don't know, and the guy at the door of the convention center didn't wanna talk to me :(

You need better connections bud. The guy dressed as the Burger King was appalled at this entire situation and he was IN video games.

But I said Hi to the Queen of Denmark once and talked with her for 3 minutes! Then again, she's worth nothing, she's a tourist attraction... I talked to a person once who said he knew Jesus!

You should totally hit up that Jesus guy on Twitter and get this sorted once and for all.

Forget T-shirts with this guy, I want Big Boy Hats/

@AhmadMetallic said:

What the hell are you people still discussing here? He's a douchebag guido who did not respect a customer and acted like a child in his customer support emails, so the conclusion here is that he's a dick and his employing company should fire him. Why are you celebrating the backlash and why is there a backlash to begin with? Shit like this shows that you're just primitive and can't wait to get a chance to gang up on a prey and keep at it, jesus.

People like you are why stuff like this happens. People just forgive and forget far too easily. You'd probably sit there and take it if you were "Dave" rather than do something about it.

If this has done anything for me, it's reminded me that Penny Arcade hasn't been funny for a long time.

@dudeglove said:

@Slag said:

I certainly won't be buying their product.

Oh jesus christ people, it's not the product that was the problem, it was the customer service provided by a third party PR company. Avenger has been unfairly hit ridiculously hard by this; their product's rating on Amazon went from 4 out of 5 stars to 1/2 in the space of a day. All because of one brute's nasty little remarks.

I agree the product is not the problem, It's the company who makes the product and who hired OceanMarketting is the problem. I figured the same as you did at first , but then more has come out. e.g. this

http://www.natesnetwork.com/Poor-customer-service

These guys were stiffing customers before this Ocean Marketting, Stratagy,Spa, whatever guy came on board.

the reason this doofus was involved at all is because the company was not coming to close to meeting its' promised ship date and sitting on customer's money, and they have been apparently doing this since last February if you believe that Nate's network story. That's not the PR guy's fault, no matter how much a jerk he may be, that these guys can't get the product to people and seem fine with taking your money anyway. Or that these guys keep promising ship dates they know they won't meet.

And you know what, if they don't pay attention to how their 3rd party guys handle customer service or check into a business partner's reputation that is 100% their fault. Especially when they know they aren't coming close to meeting their promises to their customers and will likely need good representation to handle it. This isn't new behavior for this Christoforo guy, (Hopefully he learns from this and redeems himself somewhere, he may be a jerk but his life shouldn't be over for this) and he has been partnered with them long enough that this can't be the first warning sign they've had.

That is the Avenger people's fault. It's good they are finally doing something about it, but it's not like they are blameless victims here.

I wasn't planning on buying their controller anyway before this blew up, but if this how they conduct their business (take payment upfront in full and then take several months to ship it) I wouldn't buy from them no matter how nice their customer service dept is or how sweet the controller might be.

Mike Krahulik exposed himself as a dick as well.

@AhmadMetallic said:

What the hell are you people still discussing here?  He's a douchebag guido who did not respect a customer and acted like a child in his customer support emails, so the conclusion here is that he's a dick and his employing company should fire him. Why are you celebrating the backlash and why is there a backlash to begin with? Shit like this shows that you're just primitive and can't wait to get a chance to gang up on a prey and keep at it, jesus.

Haha, as if anyone here is going to believe this bullshit "i'm so high and mighty and I won't do the same thing, I have found jesus"-image you suddenly decided to put up :P

@AhmadMetallic said:

What the hell are you people still discussing here? He's a douchebag guido who did not respect a customer and acted like a child in his customer support emails, so the conclusion here is that he's a dick and his employing company should fire him. Why are you celebrating the backlash and why is there a backlash to begin with? Shit like this shows that you're just primitive and can't wait to get a chance to gang up on a prey and keep at it, jesus.

People like you are why stuff like this happens. People just forgive and forget far too easily. You'd probably sit there and take it if you were "Dave" rather than do something about it.

Hilarious! This made my day. I love it when the internet rages.

I feel bad for the company that hired these clowns to market their product and even worse for the inventor. It sucks that their product will only be remembered by the stunningly deft PR of Paul Christoforo.

Love that youtube video!

I can't believe how this story has become the gift that keeps on giving. Allegations of him trying to extort N-Controller now, too?! Fuck me.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.336397-Ocean-Marketing-Attempts-To-Extort-Former-Client

Does he have anything left to lose?

http://www.deadpixellive.com/interviews/1298-ocean-marketing-paul-christoforo

A horrible interview with a horrible person

Been so busy I must have missed this one when it first hit the news. Just came across this whole incident this morning, before heading off to my finals in college. Needless to say I laughed all the way :D.

It's so absurd it feels like some parody out of a Rockstar game, too bizarre to be real.