Click here for the email flurry that got the ball rolling (warning, some language is NSFW). After I read that (thanks to GeeksAreSexy for the redirect) I had to stop for a second. Then I had to read it again. And yet again! I have never, not once, in my life seen a company push a customer through so many hoops to get information. And I thank the universe that I have only once been on the receiving end of a company (the University of Phoenix) being that flat-out rude to me during contact. By the way, UoP completely lost my business, and between me and my word of mouth, they have also lost approximately the same amount of money as the Harry Potter salaries of Rupert, Daniel, and Emma combined in just over five years. If I'm just one person, and I've cost UoP that much money.... imagine how much money Ocean Marketing stands to lose by letting someone handle customers who can't control himself and can't give appropriate information out. Especially when you take into account that said individual is the company's PRESIDENT. I know right now it's a moot point, but here's how Mr. Paul Christoforo should have handled the situation (and I guarantee if it had been handled like this, no one would ever have known about the problem but the company and the customer).
- Mr. Christoforo should have been more detailed than "Dec 17" in his first reply back to Dave. Something along the lines of, "We are hoping to ship on December 17. However, the manufacturing schedule may prevent that. We are trying to make sure that the product will not be defective upon delivery, and it is taking longer than we had projected. We apologize for the delay and will continue to update clients as we receive more information."
- After the ammended email in step 1, the company should have done just that- kept their customers in the loop. They have a website, how hard could it be to just publish an update once a week? A 40-character or less tweet-style blurb would be pretty effective, and would only take about 30 seconds out of the workday. Unless a person's having a heart attack or something, they generally can spare 30 seconds.
Now, Dave brought up something else very important- the $10 coupon for new orders, when pre-orders were not given this financial benefit. That rankles! When you are loyal, you expect the benefits of that loyalty. When you don't get them, you jump ship like a rat on a sinking cargo vessel. The very least the Ocean Marketing could do is offer a $10 refund to all those who preordered.
Let's use Mr. Christoforo's own example of GameStop, for instance. When I preorder at GameStop, I get something SPECIAL. Those who didn't preorder don't get more benefits than I do; I fronted the money before it came out to make sure I was one of the first to get the product, and to get the extra benefits that came with preordering. It isn't fair that some chump walking in off the street three weeks after the release date gets more cool stuff than I do when I put the money up in good faith that I would be among the first to receive the product and that I would get the benefits that came with being a loyal gamer. And even if the game release is put off, I get a notice from GameStop in my email that the game has been delayed. If what happened to Dave happened to me, my chain would be royally yanked too! Quite frankly, Ocean Marketing is lucky it was Dave they screwed over (although he could have been far more mature about it than he was) and not me. Dave screamed at them and released the complaint monkey into the wilds of the Interwebz Jungle.
I don't do that. I release the monkey into the wilds, yes, but I don't scream. Oh no, I smile at them. And then I report companies to the Better Business Bureau and the Attorney General Consumer Complaints Division for both my state and the state the company in offense operates in, and the federal regulatory commision for whatever field the company does business in. Then I post it to FaceBook, Twitter, and spread it around to all my friends and sometimes people I don't even know, if it comes up in general conversation. I'm the grand high ice queen when it comes to companies that piss me off. So yeah- Ocean Marketing got LUCKY. But that doesn't mean they can get away with it.
Dave's immaturity and rudeness (while understandable) was unneeded. However, any customer service agent worth their salt knows better than to respond in kind. You swallow it, smile, keep going in a professional manner, and then draw cartoons of the customer's head being blown up on a Post-It and set the Post-It on fire in the parking lot after work, if you feel you absolutely have to get the frustration out. It's simply unprofessional to act in the manner that Mr. Christoforo did, and it tarnishes the reputation of the company forever. Especially when the person who's screwing up the reputation of the company is one of the most important people at the company.
On the lighter side, in this blog I've included some quotes from Mr. Christoforo's LinkedIn profile and the Ocean Marketing website... because, gosh darn it! I love a good joke as much as the next gal. And there is no bigger joke than seeing a guy be a total douche, yet still try to maintain a polished corporate image for himself and his company. Seriously, I don't even really have to touch these, he did it himself. And, just to prove that I'm not making this up (in case they change a few things in the future) I'm putting the jokes in image form, just for all of you.
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| They might want to change that Allan Jenkins quote on their homepage.... |
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| For verification that this is indeed the LinkedIn profile of Mr. Christoforo. |
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| And THIS is the part that made me break out into gut-busting laughter. A la Harley Quinn, "Good one, Mr. C!" |
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