Foxstab
2921
Ocean Marketing dimwit gonna have to start using his huge name-dropping list to shop for new customers. I’m going to imagine that once the owner of this product finds out about the mess of PR this guy brew he’s gonna sack his ass for a new marketing company.
I doubt the PA exchange did much to hurt them ultimately in terms of sales, but if I were relying on them for marketing my product I’d instantly drop them for fear that they’d have the same exchange with someone like a buyer for a major chain. Or even a buyer’s friend or family.
Foxstab
2923
Nah, with a major chain or anyone of importance you can bet he’d lick their boots…assuming they announced themselves/employer proper.
It’s evident from his exchange with the customer that he’s a snob who consider his type of people above us mundanes.
IDK how much it hurt them in sales, though. The Internet has proven that it does hold certain amount of power, at least in the Internet range. And with facebook/twitter social networks, the word now spreads outside the Internet/gamer/IT circles too.
Paul Christophoro of Ocean Marketing says it will all blow over and he’s already getting more business from people who like the way he handled the situation!
Over at N-Control (actual makers of the Avenger hardware) their business manager says that he’s aware of the situation and has no official comment just yet.
I assumed Paul C was actually in charge over at Avenger just because of what he said in the other e-mail exchange linked earlier. I’m also a little surprised that what’s basically a marketing company is so involved with customer service, inventory management, shipping schedules and discounts.
Looks like Ocean Marketing’s the choice. Good move by N-Control.
Foxstab
2925
It’s both Marketing and Distribution.
Oh, get a load of this:
Update: We have gotten a copy of the apology email sent to Dave, from Paul at Ocean Marketing. As you can see, it has a very different tone from the originals, and better grammar and spelling (for the most part):
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.
Between calling him a bad liar (I obviously believe nothing this man says), I’d like to point out that this is what is called a “non apology”.
He doesn’t admit he has acted poorly, he doesn’t apologize for how he behaved, he’s apologizing for how things were construed by the other party.
It’s like me punching you in the nose and then saying “I apologize that your nose got hurt”.
Yeah the amazon thing is so transparent, there’s like 40 5 star reviews for a product that isn’t available, and all the reviewers have just 1 review under their belt.
Online marketing indeed.
Heh. From the company’s website…
And of course…
Looks like being an ass-hat is Christoforo’s thing.
Buddy your asking for free stuff and I am trying to help you , You have no idea what happened to our ordering system or our old customer service reps that told you they were going to send you a 100% COUPON AND FREE CONTROLLER but never did . So calm yourself down , be respectful and do as I say or ask to get your free controller. I DEAD SERIOUS ! Be a little more humble we can refuse the right to ship out anything to anyone we want , I’m trying to help you. Small claims court for 49 dollars haha … that’s cute . I’m the President of my company not The Avengers so keep your punk smite ignorant comments to yourself. If I wasn’t trying to help you I wouldn’t have emailed you back. Customer service of old is gone were in a new generation now. Sorry for any inconvenience , this will ship tomorrow I’m putting in the order now .
No need to beg a simple reply to the email with your address would have been sufficient, and according to you your order already shipped how do we know you never received it ?
Anyway Ill make sure its made good and you get The New Avenger learn to be more understanding when you don’t know whats going on behind the scenes.
Your order will ship tomorrow thanks for your email have a good one.
Update from the above site
Edit - please read this email i just received: Paul has been fired, but lets support the orignal inventor! :-)
I want to start off by saying that I have absolutely no affiliation with the Avenger Controllers, Oceanside Marketing, or anybody else involved with today’s fiasco. I’m just a longtime PA reader and member of the forums who had nothing better to do today.
I managed to get hold of the personal phone number for David Kotkin, the guy who invented the Avenger controller. I want to point out that he is a teacher and originally came up with it to help a boy in his class. (source: http://miami.cbslocal.com/2011/04/15/inventive-teacher-gives-disabled-student-control/)
When I called, David was genuinely apologetic and had already let Paul Chrisoforos/Oceanside Marketing go. He said he was in the process of contacting Penny Arcade, trying to get the contact info for Dave, and release a statement. He seemed so overwhelmed and out of his depth and distressed (who wouldn’t be if they woke up one day and had this dumped on them) that I wanted to put in a word on his behalf as well.
He did give me an email to reach him directly at removed for privacy as well as a phone number: removed for privacy
I realize this probably does you, personally, no good this late. But with the new situation, I was hoping you could put up an update.
Again, beyond talking to Kotkin for a few minutes on the phone, I have no affiliation. I just want to do the right thing.
Thanks,
Name removed
Wild. Now Kotaku is running (pretty irresponsibly IMO) a story about how one of his e-mail addresses was used on a steroid use forum.
Oh, man, a closer reading of that Kotaku piece shows that Christoforo impersonated the Director of Marketing for the Avenger Controller company in a reply to Kotaku in which he said that things were being blown out of proportion. I guess he had control of the @avengercontroller.com e-mail address for some reason. But the real Director of Marketing saw it and let Kotaku know what he had done.
I’m fascinated as to how someone like this could get to even where he is (or was).
The interwebs comic fairy just keeps on delivering
edit: jinx!
Sounds like a happy ending: jerk PR gets fired, controller maker gets great publicity. I’m sure he’ll sell a boatload of these now. If they’re really designed for people with disabilities, Gabe should buy a crate of them for Child’s Play.
I don’t know if it’s really a happy ending for the controller company. It seems like their Amazon rating for their product got bombed all to hell over this.
Do they have any recourse? How hard is it to get Amazon to reset the ratings?
They were trying to game the rating (40+ 5 star ratings on a product that isn’t out yet). Unless this was another genius move by Christoroidrage its the old petard hoist.
Right, I think the PA mob did determine it was the Christofo person in question that did at least a few of the 5-star reviews. There are a ton of 1-star “reviews” that are lambasting the product over this fiasco. From following the Twitter of the actual Avenger guy, it sounds like they were blindsided by the internet witch hunt for this PR stooge.
I understand that they get partial blame for not vetting the guy, but this seems like the opposite of justice.
I realize the PR guy acted pretty terribly, but Gabe seems to be reacting a bit excessively.
Eh, he’s always been the one with unfiltered nerd hyperbole like that.
