At the risk of taking a potentially unpopular opinion on the subject, I don't think either one of those people come out looking too good.
I'm all for doing the whole "CC your formal complaint letter to several outlets in hopes that someone will take notice" approach; My brother taught me about doing this when I was a little kid. He would write letters (this was before the advent of the internet) and note on the bottom that they had been CCd to various local news outlets, as well as the better business bureau (regardless of whether or not he actually sent those additional letters). And almost always, it worked.
But I would be absolutely embarrassed to have my name attached to his complaint that got sent around. He is understandably, and in some cases justifiably, upset by the companies lack of communication and flippant nature, but this is no time to get into a pissing match. He chose to stoop to the guys level with name calling and taunting: Welcome to the internet bitch? Thats how I roll? It sounds like something you'd see on a meme, not something you want to end a complaint letter with.
That said, the guy on Oceans end is clearly the winner when it comes to idiotic behavior, as he further digs his own grave down the line. I just can't cut the customer any slack on stooping to Oceans level, however. He comes off sounding like almost as big of an idiot as the guy at Ocean.
Just my 2 cents, I'm sure others will see it differently
These aren't just 2 random strangers having a discussion, one of them paid the other money and is a customer of the other, that changes the equation. Even if you happen to have the worst, most annoying customer in the world the responsible course of action is to maintain composure. Worst case scenario you provide a refund and refuse to do business with someone.
In this case the "customer service" is non-existent and devolves into a string of personal insults. Granted, the customer responded poorly to that but should customers be expected to respond well in such situations?
Edit: There really aren't any situations where the correct customer service response involves typo riddled malformed sentences packed with personal insults.
My point wasn't at all to say there was a situation that warranted that kind of treatment; As I mentioned, the guy from Ocean took the cake in terms of idiocy. He was out of line no matter what the customer was saying. He also has a terrible command of the written language, and should be removed from any customer facing position, immediately, for several obvious reasons.
My point was, this customer could have cooled off, collected himself, and written a much more intelligent complaint letter. He came off sounding like a hurt child, and then trumpeted how he was taking this to the internet, as though the internet was his domain, where he would prevail (and he most likely will - and should, considering how much of a shmuck this PR guy is).
I just don't think either one of them came out looking very intelligent, or like they handled themselves like an adult. In this case, his complaint is a legitimate one, and he should be entitled to proper recourse.
All I'm saying is, I'd be embarrassed to let that particular email be my letter to the world.
Totally agree the customer was in the wrong (at least somewhat) but I think this is more about the PR guy. The customer is allowed to be a jerk. The PR guy gets paid to handle people and what does he do? Gets in an argument with an angry customer. Anyone who has worked in customer service knows you always smile through your teeth. Worst comes to worst you can always just not respond, which would have been better than this.
Admittedly, I genuinely try and avoid getting into pissing contents. Nobody wins, and you both get wet.
In this case, though, the guy at Ocean seems to think that he's far more important than anybody else at the table, including his customers.
As a business owner, this is not only a horrible attitude to take, but very dangerous. It's exactly like being the toughest kid in the neighborhood, which is great, until you meet the tougher kid from the next block over.
I'm not letting the PR guy or the company itself off the hook, they're completely the losers in this case.
I just can't excuse either side when it devolves into 2 children kicking sand on each other. Someone needs to be the bigger man, or else you both end up looking like fools; Even if one fool is the bigger fool.
It doesn't matter. There's an old saying, "The customer is always right". It doesn't matter if he is or isn't. You wanna stay in business, best to take that quote to heart.
(not directly linking to actually help those guys, but the company lists 'Reputation Management' as service)
"We help you to displace or remove the negative search engine results and listings about your organization or company. We use an effective lineup of techniques to dilute and eliminate the search engine results about you that are negative."
> I'm all for doing the whole "CC your formal complaint letter to several outlets in hopes that someone will take notice" approach;
I recognise that many people working in customer support roles have lousy jobs with lousy wages and are treated like dirt by customers and by bosses.
So my first approach is a nice, short, letter explaining the problem and asking for help. People like to help, and they like to help nice people. If I get help I always follow up with thanks to them, and if possible I find a manager to write to saying how pleased I am that a problem was sorted out by $NAME.
I agree that having your name attached to some childish ranting is not a good approach at all.
The CC approach was something he taught me to use under 2 scenarios:
The initial interactions with customer service directly (which was to always be polite and professional) had failed, and you felt you were still in the right
or
They had been rude or dismissive toward your complaints, or offered no feedback whatsoever.
You never open with that, as you then have nothing to escalate to when things don't turn out well
The other tip I heard (which has worked for me) is to say something like "I need help to ask the right question, because I don't know how the process works. Here's what I want; what do I need to do to make that happen?". This is more for bureaucracy but also works for some customer service stuff.
As someone else who worked in customer service, this is very true. There is a lot of stuff we're not allowed to offer, but if you specifically ask for it we can give it to you. So please, ask questions, and be polite. No one calls customer service to say "everything I bought works perfectly and I'm happy with you and your company. Have an awesome day!"
I dealt with angry people just about every second of every day. The job has huge turnover for a reason. Please remember you're dealing with your fellow man, and even if you're angry, it's not (yet) his or her fault that you are.
I see it mostly your way, only the customer has a right to be pissed off and the PR guy does not - though, he should have cooled off before sending that e-mail.
I've done stupid things when angry as well, so I shouldn't judge.
Edit: the link didn't work for me, had to go to the main Penny Arcade site.
Worst part, penny-arcade is now joining the race to the bottom.
"When these assholes threaten me or Penny Arcade I just laugh. I will personally burn everything I’ve made to the fucking ground if I think I can catch them in the flames."
Sigh. This whole thing is depressing in its entirety. Yes, Ocean Marketing is the main culprit there - but nobody in that fiasco comes out smelling roses.
The thing is, this isn't a case of a customer getting bent out of shape over some imagined flaw in the product they received, or because the product doesn't do something it never claimed to do ("this floor wax you sold me makes a terrible dessert topping! ONE STAR!"), or because the customer heard some rumor that the vendor is doing something incompatible with the customer's ideology ("Now that you serve panda meat in your cafeteria, my iPad is the worst product ever. Derp.").
You know, the usual internet complaints.
Instead, the customer made his order, was charged for the product, and then received nothing. The customer at this point is rightfully wondering if the vendor is legit, or if it's a criminal scam.
The marketer's responses are more characteristic of a criminal scam than a legit vendor, so it's not surprising that the customer gets bent out of shape. That kind of attitude is what I'd expect from a guy selling bootleg DVDs on the sidewalk, when a customer gets upset when their new DVD's case turns out to be devoid of any DVD.
I'm all for doing the whole "CC your formal complaint letter to several outlets in hopes that someone will take notice" approach; My brother taught me about doing this when I was a little kid. He would write letters (this was before the advent of the internet) and note on the bottom that they had been CCd to various local news outlets, as well as the better business bureau (regardless of whether or not he actually sent those additional letters). And almost always, it worked.
But I would be absolutely embarrassed to have my name attached to his complaint that got sent around. He is understandably, and in some cases justifiably, upset by the companies lack of communication and flippant nature, but this is no time to get into a pissing match. He chose to stoop to the guys level with name calling and taunting: Welcome to the internet bitch? Thats how I roll? It sounds like something you'd see on a meme, not something you want to end a complaint letter with.
That said, the guy on Oceans end is clearly the winner when it comes to idiotic behavior, as he further digs his own grave down the line. I just can't cut the customer any slack on stooping to Oceans level, however. He comes off sounding like almost as big of an idiot as the guy at Ocean.
Just my 2 cents, I'm sure others will see it differently