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Penny-Arcade: "Marketers of the Avenger Controller are thieves and liars".

tmarques

Member
I'm a little disturbed at the shitstorm that has provoked, and the glee some people are showing at the ease with which his professional and personal life is being shredded.

By acting the way he did, he was damaging the reputation of his clients, potentially hurting their business and possibly endangering other people's jobs. Why should anyone feel sorry for his own professional life?
 

Moofers

Member
No. He asked for bad PR, this is true, but he also threatened to put his marketing team on a smear campaign on Gabe, his site, and his e-mails.

Come on, man. Read more carefully! :p Didn't you also say that Gabe posted his personal information?

D'oh. See kids, that's what happens when you skim.
 
I'm convinced this guy is a child stuck in a man's body

his correspondence with Dave (with a V) convinced me of that almost immediately.

I was actually hoping for more post internet-beatdown bravado from him, to be honest. Perhaps there will be more to come? "ALL YOU WHINNEY GAMEDORK BABIES TRY TO BRING ME DWON? LOL LOL"
 

thcsquad

Member
and 4chan isn't even involved (yet)...

perhaps this will serve as an example how to not treat your paying customers...

I don't think 4chan needs to get involved. This guy is way too easy of a target, he'll never have a job in any kind of PR capacity again. Maybe his claimed mafia buddies can hook him up witha dishwasher gig at one of their restaurants in the North End.

And he'll live forever in Marketing 101 textbooks as a convenient real-world example of everything not to do.
 

Subitai

Member
An internet lynch mob tearing through every online presence the guy has ever had doesn't seem like 'the right thing', or even a vaguely appropriate response to me.

The guy was an asshole to a customer, and by implication failed at his job.

I'm a little disturbed at the shitstorm that has provoked, and the glee some people are showing at the ease with which his professional and personal life is being shredded.
I don't think I'd be going that far out on a limb to surmise that this isn't the first time this guy has acted this unprofessional with name dropping and all. He had a few chances to really back up and apologize before people started digging. He can still save his career and resuscitate his reputation with an apology to all parties involved along with a pledge to change his behavior. However, being that he's probably gotten away with this behavior multiple times before, he rationally thought that he had no reason to. No, he doesn't deserve it for this incident, but the industry will be a better place now that people know behavior similar to his is intolerable.

I will admit that I have run into more than my fair share of fast talkers and disingenuous sales people and wished there was a better way to call them out completely on their BS. So, on a personal level, there is a part of me that is relishing this probably a little to much in a vindictive way.
 
By acting the way he did, he was damaging the reputation of his clients, potentially hurting their business and possibly endangering other people's jobs. Why should anyone feel sorry for his own professional life?

I've had shitty days at work and acted unprofessionally. Difference being nobody at PA decided to sic the internet on me for the lulz.

The way he acted was entirely unprofessional, and he deserves to lose his clients account. He is absolutely in the wrong to have continued as he did, but hitting up the guys facebook and having mainstream media sites speculating he has roid rage? That's in any degree appropriate?
 

scy

Member
his correspondence with Dave (with a V) convinced me of that almost immediately.

I was actually hoping for more post internet-beatdown bravado from him, to be honest. Perhaps there will be more to come? "ALL YOU WHINNEY GAMEDORK BABIES TRY TO BRING ME DWON? LOL LOL"

I can just picture him going to sleep after the email exchange with thoughts of "lol one little nerd and his bf trying to fuck with me" and then waking up to ... well ... this. That's the kind of reaction face I'd pay good money to see.

I'm okay with my horrible human being status, thank you very much.
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
3eAbn.jpg
 

Tuck

Member
At first, I avoided this thread because I figured it was just gonna be something minor, blown out of proportion.

Stupid me! What a good read. I love seeing stuff like this unfold.
 

Alex

Member
Wasnt there a bit from months ago with this same sort of deal over a bad controller addon order? Sounds unlikely it was made up unless this was a heck of a long term joke.
 
Paul Christoforo said:
Wow , Ill put my marketing team on a smear campaign of you and your site and your emails , I have about 125 dedicated people to run PR , Blogs , Articles , Videos you have no clue who I am .

I guess it's safe to say we know who he is now. :D
 

h3ro

Member
This has to be some sort of "$1 bet between Randolph & Mortimer" type shit.

Imagine if this guy totally had all this planned just to a reclamation project on his name now on Google, etc. What PR firm wouldn't hire him if he was able to turn this mess around. Right?


Right?!
 

Bizazedo

Member
The way he acted was entirely unprofessional, and he deserves to lose his clients account. He is absolutely in the wrong to have continued as he did, but hitting up the guys facebook and having mainstream media sites speculating he has roid rage? That's in any degree appropriate?

I must be a horrible human being since I see no problem with it. Especially as it's been pointed out he's treated others this way.

It's a pretty clear lesson towards not being an asshole and, as such, I'm okay with it.
 
This has to be some sort of "$1 bet between Randolph & Mortimer" type shit.

Imagine if this guy totally had all this planned just to a reclamation project on his name now on Google, etc. What PR firm wouldn't hire him if he was able to turn this mess around. Right?


Right?!

PR firm hire him? He IS the PR firm son.
 

Subitai

Member
I've had shitty days at work and acted unprofessionally. Difference being nobody at PA decided to sic the internet on me for the lulz.

The way he acted was entirely unprofessional, and he deserves to lose his clients account. He is absolutely in the wrong to have continued as he did, but hitting up the guys facebook and having mainstream media sites speculating he has roid rage? That's in any degree appropriate?
As has been mentioned before, when he threatened to gain space at PAX East against Mike's wishes via Boston's mayor, he basically started begging for this treatment.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
I've had shitty days at work and acted unprofessionally. Difference being nobody at PA decided to sic the internet on me for the lulz.

The way he acted was entirely unprofessional, and he deserves to lose his clients account. He is absolutely in the wrong to have continued as he did, but hitting up the guys facebook and having mainstream media sites speculating he has roid rage? That's in any degree appropriate?

If you acted as unprofessionally as he did in those e-mails (not just unprofessional. Verbally combative and flatout threatening), I'd say that you absolutely deserve to get your professional life completely destroyed by the internet as well. It goes well beyond simple negligence, or having a bad day.

He put his name on this fiasco and he has more accountability than he bargained for. Probably shouldn't have asked for bad PR.
 

scy

Member
This has to be some sort of "$1 bet between Randolph & Mortimer" type shit.

Imagine if this guy totally had all this planned just to a reclamation project on his name now on Google, etc. What PR firm wouldn't hire him if he was able to turn this mess around. Right?


Right?!

I'm pretty sure nothing short of Dave (with a V) turning out to be a baby eating monster will turn this around for the guy. But maybe I'm just shortsighted?
 

h3ro

Member
PR firm hire him? He IS the PR firm son.

Meaning him either starting a new firm or being hired to do PR for another company. I mean, this is such a screw up that it HAS to be intentional... right?

Either way, thanks for the laughs, this was great for a boring day.
 

Mike M

Nick N
http://gamerfront.net/2011/01/childs-play-charity-raised-over-2-million/5336

Apparently he sent Dave with a V an apology.

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.

I am deeply sorry for any disrespect , aggravation or lack of information on the delivery date. We knew when product was leaving china and we were trying to adhere to a strict deadline but due to port issues and air freight issues. The units are domestic now and awaiting pick up at customs . So we missed the 17th deadline and I apologize for that but it was out of my control and besides me no one else was helping me handle the situation so imagine the weight on my shoulders.

I’m not asking for any sympathy just for some understanding and forgiveness , I’m human just like everyone else and made a mistake. I underestimated you and its cost me a lot of trouble thousands of spam emails , a lot of personal bashing , and internet spam and trouble and just overall stress with my wife and newborn. I ask that you please accept my apology as a peace offering I will refund your money and give you your 2 units/Avengers free of charge please help me to get some of this negativity removed or at least my personal name although its already all over the internet and the calls and emails will not stop but any help will be appreciated especially with penny arcade as Mike and edit his own website I owe him an apology too which I will write next.
 

This must have gone all the way around and started coming back around this side of crazy, because I can't tell joke characteroforo and the real guy apart anymore.


Yeah I really can't. Reading this guy's...um..."body of work" should really only be attempted in small doses, folks. I think I damaged my brain with this shit today.
 

thcsquad

Member
Awesome! This guy is a third degree connection on Linked In.

I've had shitty days at work and acted unprofessionally. Difference being nobody at PA decided to sic the internet on me for the lulz.

The way he acted was entirely unprofessional, and he deserves to lose his clients account. He is absolutely in the wrong to have continued as he did, but hitting up the guys facebook and having mainstream media sites speculating he has roid rage? That's in any degree appropriate?

If you act this unprofessionally just because you had a shitty day at work, then no. You should never work in any type of marketing or PR position. His professional career should be shredded to pieces, and anything less would be an insult to people who work in the industry and actually give a shit about customer service.
 

hayejin

Member
I've had shitty days at work and acted unprofessionally. Difference being nobody at PA decided to sic the internet on me for the lulz.

The way he acted was entirely unprofessional, and he deserves to lose his clients account. He is absolutely in the wrong to have continued as he did, but hitting up the guys facebook and having mainstream media sites speculating he has roid rage? That's in any degree appropriate?

My sentiments exactly. The whole mob mentality is frightening.
 

Axion22

Member
The web site text could be marketing boilerplate that everybody got from the same source. Although seop looks like a legitimate company.

Lulz, and now I'm getting ads for seop on GAF.




Unless you are a big guy I think I'd nix the plans on giving him a dictionary. Looks like he has self control issues, I think it could end badly.

Hmmm... not a fast runner, either.
 

I don't know about this. According to the updated steroid article on Kotaku, it looks like Paul here may have pretended to be someone else when Kotaku tried to get a comment from N-Control. (http://kotaku.com/5871400/cut-paul-...toforo-a-breakhe-probably-just-has-roid-rage/) Best not take his apology to heart just yet.

Hi Joel,

I have been following this story since this morning when someone notified me about what was going on. I did not write that response to you.

Yes, in the past I received email at brandon@avengercontroller.com but even then we were an outsourced marketing agency for N-Control. I no longer receive email at that address because we fired N-Control as a client about 8 months ago due to constant shipping delays (which we had to deal with) and their association with Paul Cristoforo who is a street thug masquerading as a self proclaimed "Marketing Professional". This guy is a complete fool and somehow strong armed his way into working with the company so we walked away. I am not surprised in the slightest bit by what's going on right now. In fact, we told the owners of the company on many occasions that this would eventually happen.

I wasn't going to chime in but since he is replying as me, I can't resist. I personally can't stand him.

Brandon

_____________________________________________________________________

Brandon Leidel - CEO, Director of Operations
The HAND Media, Inc.
 
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