Customer Service Wars: Ep 573: Controllers

[Mrbloodworth]

I don't care about any of this.

[rattran]

Then why did you post? 

I think this is not atypical for small businesses, there's just a much larger platform for complaints now. Was it spring or last year when the guy was gloating about bad reviews because it upped his google placement? Which backfired once the internets got hold of it.

If nothing else, it provides a fresh meme to grind into the dirt, until it's as unfunny as every other meme.

[Mrbloodworth]

Because its all over the internet like its a new occurrence.

[Teleku]

/oblig

[Segoris]

I can't look away from this, I tried and went to MSNBC but even they had an interview with him. It's mostly the Paul guy blowing more smoke and being sorry he got caught, my favorite part:

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

So doormen are influential now? Awesome, I know influential people at a number of bars. Be impressed with me people of the internet....be impressed!

[IainC]

"I don't know the mayor of Boston," he admitted. "That was taken totally out of context, I was just joking around.

That word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

[NiX]

Hi people, this is basic business acumen speaking: research the fuck out of anyone you hire.

This guy is either a smooth-as-shit talker in person or this is some friend-of-a-friend reference thing that got this presumably one-man PR firm hired to represent a company that even does a tiny amount of business with established websites. How did this guy even pass the sniff-test when he approached the Avenger people?

It's the latter apparently. There's an article somewhere where the companies ex-PR firm, that cut ties because of Paul, talks about how he got in and how they warned the company about his destructive behaviour.

[luckton]

I can't look away from this, I tried and went to MSNBC but even they had an interview with him. It's mostly the Paul guy blowing more smoke and being sorry he got caught, my favorite part:

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

So doormen are influential now? Awesome, I know influential people at a number of bars. Be impressed with me people of the internet....be impressed!

I'll shamelessly rip the top comment from Kotaku's mirror on the MSNBC article:

"If I had known, I would have treated the situation a little better."

Really? Is that supposed to be an apology? So you only act like a dick to people you don't think are important. Great policy, asshole.

The fact that he proceeds to even talk about Mike being "unprofessional" is laughable. It's disgusting that this man still has any semblance of a job in this industry. Fuck you, good sir.

--

The only valid point is that his wife and child should not be involved. That's the unfortunate reality of pissing off the internet. The anonymous douches who will take it too far.

This guy is enough of an asshole himself. Focus on him, leave his family out of it.

[Paelos]

This guy drew down the wrath of the unwashed internet. Normally I don't laugh at others misfortunes, but this guy just makes me chuckle. Not only is he just sad because he got caught, but I have no doubt that the moment the heat is off, he'd treat people exactly the same way.

People like this don't learn. They just need to be marginalized to the point of obscurity.

EDIT: This quote gets me, ""At the end of the day, I'm a human being, and it feels like the entire world was bullying me," he said. "I want people to like me, I don't want people to think I'm a bad person. ... I made a mistake. ... I hope I can make something positive out of it."

Really, chief? So when it happens to you, you're a human being. But when you lord your power over the anonymous emailer on the other end, he's a fucking child who needs to STFU and sit in the corner with his stupid hat on and no money?

[bhodi]

Apparently I am now an Investigative Journalist or something.

I just got off the phone with Paul, and he had some vaguely interesting stuff to tell me about his relationship with David.

Firstly, they met in January this year, at CES, and they have worked on various things (such as Afternoon Artists, which they incorporated around August 2011), so the story that Paul was hired by David without him having any idea of his competence seems pretty unlikely.

He also said:

* The kid with the disability was the inspiration for the controller, according to David
* His friendship with David is "on the rocks right now but we are friends"
* He wasn't hired by David to deal with the marketing for the controller as much as he was "helping him in a limited capacity taking those customer service calls."
* He has no idea about the Amazon reviews - what they were or who wrote them. "I don't know what he does day-to-day - I'm in California and he's in Miami."

He really has no idea how badly he fucked up here, either. He's got interviews for Spike TV and Forbes lined up, and he's going to tell them the same stuff he told MSNBC, and that he told me - he had a bad day, and he figured that Penny Arcade/PAX wasn't really a big deal, so he felt justified in telling this guy to go fuck himself.

Right now he says he is in damage control mode - I made sure he'd got his girlfriend to set her facebook account to private for the time being - but he really doesn't understand why anybody thinks he's an idiot, and as long as that remains the case he's going to continue hurting himself. In a similar vein he was obviously upset that his criminal record had been posted but seemingly more concerned with it being posted than having people know what he had done: "people are vicious, they'll use anything to make you look evil."

I asked him how he felt about David and the other guys distancing themselves from him, and making him seem like he was just a bad hire. He said that he doesn't exactly feel like he's been hung out to dry, and that he is hopeful that the press release that is going to be put out ("they're going to put out a press release soon; I just got off the phone with them") will put him in a more positive light.

I would imagine that, given how David Kotkin has played it so far, he is completely hanging Paul out to dry, but I guess we'll see, if that press release ever surfaces.

[ghost]

"I don't know the mayor of Boston," he admitted. "That was taken totally out of context, I was just joking around.

That word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

Haha.  He uses it more appropriately than a lot of politicians that get caught saying stupid shit.

[waffel]

 

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

Moisés Chiullan has had a busy day. Since he took over handling N-Control's PR after Roid Rage Nightmare Paul Christoforo, Chiullan has done a pretty masterful job of damage control. He's managed to very publicly disown and denounce Christoforo (going so far as to say that there "isn't a bus big enough for me to throw Paul Christoforo under) and has personally taken to Twitter to answer people's questions about the situation. Tonight, though, Chiullan set up a Reddit AMA to directly respond to all the questions and revealed that his predecessor isn't done making life difficult for N-Control: It turns out the man is trying to extort some serious cash from them

[Yegolev]

Just when you thought the story couldn't about Paul Christoforo couldn't get any more ridiculous,

Indeed, Escapist.

[luckton]

Apparently this guy didn't get pants enough the first time.  Hell hath no fury like an Internet scorned.

[waffel]

Wait, is extortion a crime?! Sorry!

[Segoris]

Obviously they just asked for their passwords back when dickbag was having another bad day

[Azazel]

Late to the party again.. I just found this thread an hour or so ago.. but this wonderful fellow apparently has a history of fine customer service preceding his interactions with "Dave"...

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

[HaemishM]

Wow, that was a fun read. Internet Douchebags love to nail them some bigger Internet Douchebags.

[Samwise]

There's always a bigger douchebag.

[Lakov_Sanite]

There's always a bigger douchebag.

So, I'm in love with an avatar.

[Merusk]

She's cute but I always have had a thing for his 5-gold-rings gal.

[bhodi]

I like the two calling birds.