Dave & Penny Arcade
A Penny Arcade reader by the name of Dave has a similar tale of poor service in dealing with Paul Christoforo in regards to The Avenger controller. Dave eventually CCs Mike Krahulik (Penny Arcade), Kotaku, and other unnamed gaming sites into the email chain. Penny Arcade’s main page has been getting hammered today because of this story, so the full exchanges (and details) follow.
November 3rd: Dave orders two of The Avenger controllers for PS3.
December 16th – December 20th: Dave emails for an update on when the controllers will ship. He mentions that the advertised release date was “Early December” and that full payment was required up front to order the controller. He receives a cryptic response from Christoforo, after which there are more emails trying to make sense of the response. (pictures via Penny Arcade)
December 26th, 9:47 a.m. & 10:14 a.m.: Dave notices an update to The Avenger controller webpage. Namely that any new orders would receive $10 off their purchase; it makes no mention of customers who already ordered one. He emails Ocean Marketing again, and receives a reply in turn.
December 26th, 12:11 p.m. & 2:19 p.m.: Dave brings the other aforementioned parties into the email chain. Things take another turn.
December 26th, 8:45 – 9:08 p.m.: After this email Mike decides to interject. There’s some more back-and-forth, now with Mike involved. Christoforo plainly doesn’t know anything about Krahulik at this point, despite just name-dropping their event (along with others).
December 26th, 9:33 – 9:46 p.m.: Christoforo responds and name-drops some more, still having no clue who Mike is. Mike tries to steer him in the right direction. Christoforo remains oblivious.
December 26th, 9:46:01 – 9:57 p.m.: Paul seems to realize he made a mistake. Mike doesn’t care, he’s said his piece. Paul resumes his unique form of brand awareness.
The one that would never really come. Sorry Mike.
Next Page: Internet Brouhaha, Rebuttals, Apologies
