If you've got that short of a fuse you've got no business handling any type of PR.
PR is taking shit to your face and smiling while saying "Yes sir".
That's free bad publicity, retarded.
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So... Shopto (UK retailer) cancelled my PS4 preorder for complaining on twitter
- Thread starter Carl
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If you've got that short of a fuse you've got no business handling any type of PR.
PR is taking shit to your face and smiling while saying "Yes sir".
That's free bad publicity, retarded.
SHADES
Member
Not I, the damage is done. I value customer service and quality of service over price, but then again I've always supported my local Indie store rather than the supermarket even if that meant I'd paying £10 more per game purely because of the quality of service.
This is one customer that will never shop at shopto again, regardless of deals,price, availability,speed of delivery, I value a quality service and once thats established I'll use that until the day its no longer a quality service.
Colonel Nasty
Member
What does this have to do with MS?
Attention UK Gaf. If you're looking for a PS4 Shopto will have tons of them.
foobarry81
Member
"They went into detail"... really?
What they said was that one of their competitors (Amazon) doesn't pay UK taxes.
That is not going into detail. It has nothing to do with how they set their own prices. And you know, instead of the route Shopto took now, they could've instead contacted OP saying something along the lines of "We hate to see you go as a customer".
Wat?
He's clearly not doing his job properly.
That being said, ShopTo seems like a shady business in the first place so if he is fired, it won't be because they feel he was wrong.
Impeccable
Member
Exactly. You should go get a job there, you're about as short sighted.
Nothing, just similar point of view... you know, consumers being rather annoying and shouldn't have the right to complain... and your name of course. Ah, forget it.
The One Who Knocks
Member
Would you say you deserve to be blocked from Sony games and services and purchasing items from Gamestop?
You said it on a public forum and "act[ed] like a jackass" by saying it and you actually directed it towards them so surely you concur if you were to be banned it would be deserved?
Of course it wouldn't, it would be completely unprofessional from them, a blatant over-reaction and a terrible, idiotic PR move from those companies.
Phoenician_Viking
Banned
Shopto sounds very horrible. What a bunch of idiots, to not make money is a new new business strategy by Shopto. They should teach this new method at universities.
Others have said this a million times already, but he didn't say that to them. He told a friend he was taking his game purchases to amazon as a 'fuck you' to shopto.
Read this :
https://mobile.twitter.com/PooWithEyes/status/389382472623865857?screen_name=PooWithEyes
Just don't look at them funny or they'll cop a hissy fit and cancel your order. I'd rather order it from someone who isn't going to close my account because I said their mum was fat.
LiquidSolid
Member
You realise how slimy the kind of businesses that do that are, right? They're the ones that no-one likes because they don't know how to create customers properly.
What the OP said doesn't matter a fucking bit, any business that acts that pettily towards a customer deserves any shit they get. It's pathetic customer service.
something fishy
Member
To be fair I haven't had the sense from ms at all in recent times.
stump sock
Member
oh hey, I've been following this nonsense today after seeing it spread around Twitter. Part of my job is to monitor and respond to social media for the company I work for and this is ridiculous. If I pulled a stunt like this, I'd be fired.
LiquidSolid
Member
Colonel Nasty
Member
Yeah, you're not overreacting. Some random Social Media rep treats customer poorly so no one should ever shop there again. They should have said, "we're sorry to see you go" and they acted childishly but not any more so than the OP.
It is someone who has access to the accounts. I ran a forum for a huge retail outlet once, I had zero say in their account system.
Baleoce
Member
I actually wouldn't doubt this.
Impeccable
Member
I'm not over reacting in the slightest. I'm not telling people what to do or where to shop.
You can see the fallout and people never shopping there again based on this incident alone.
Once it spreads so will the fallout. All because some customer service guy got hurt inside over Carl's tweet.
Like I said, customer is always right and this is the reason.
Diablohead
Member
ShopTo I used to like you.
bengraven
Member
This is what pisses me off and seriously scares me.
Pretty sure you can just type in shopto on Twitter and bring up related conversations with the word in them.
hey_it's_that_dog
benevolent sexism
This would be the response of an irrational, emotional individual. Any business entity would prefer (correctly) that a customer buy one thing somewhere else for a lower price than cut all ties to their business forever.
TGO
Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
arrested, banned, etc yes that can happen, not to sure sued part
I'm a AM at a large corporate company store and any offensive or abusive behaviour will not be tolerated and retailers reserve the right to refuse their business.
I've escorted customers out the store because of their shitty attitude over pricing( why is this only 1 pound in Pound Land and you charge 3.29, I want it for 1 pound ) or refunds without recipes, lack of stock, etc
biggest mistake people make is assuming employees will take shit from them, they don't have to.
the customer is always right policy goes straight out the window if they behave inappropriate.
John Rabbit
Banned
companies will have customized feeds based on keyword searches for things like this.
I have a hard time seeing this point. It's not some random social media guy, it is the person representing them on twitter, a site with millions of users. Social Media is huge, some companies put a huge chunk of their marketing campaigns through social media, you would have a hard time finding someone with no twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc. I'm sure they exist, even among people in this thread, but anyone who works at just about any company should realize the importance of behaving a certain way while you represent them.
It is wierd this thread popped up as I was talking with a friend about ShopTo only yesterday.
Basically I used to sing their praised from the rooftops and managed to get a pretty significant number of my gaming friends to start using them and I used them exclusively for several years.
The past few months however I've started getting a little bit miffed.
It started with them sending me a PC copy of Dead Island Riptide which had no activation code and got the usual crappy response that there was nothing they could do until I returned the box (which makes no sense whatsoever if you think about it).
When I started Tweeting about the fact I was a tad upset (no real details just a bit of a sarcy comment) I ended up in direct communication with Igor Cipolletta (not sure if this was because I have quite a large Twitter account) and low and behold within about an hour I'd got a code sent through (actually a photo Cipolletta sent me from his phone).
At this point I was singing their praises like their was no tomorrow as you can imagine - I really felt like they were offering an amazing service and although their prices were no longer as competitive I still tended to get games as much as 2 days before release.
Just recently though things have not been quite so good.
My The Last of Us Joel Special Edition came through the post absolutely wrecked (it had literally been put in a bog standard ShopTo envelope) and they basically were not interested in the slightest. My issue was not so much that I had to muck around downloading and printing return forms but the simple fact that the packaging used in the first place was completely inappropriate.
The same thing has happened since then - just really inappropriate packaging for very large items.
I think ShopTo built their entire reputation on getting games to folks early and at a good price. At the moment though their prices are far from good and of course they keep getting far too "personal" in their online communications (they did this with the COD and later on with the GTAV release.)
In the past 6 months I've probably used GAME and Amazon as much as I have used ShopTo because I no longer have as much faith in their ability to properly package up my items and their prices are just no longer as competitive as they were. If you had asked me who I used this time last year every game I bought was from them.
Basically I used to sing their praised from the rooftops and managed to get a pretty significant number of my gaming friends to start using them and I used them exclusively for several years.
The past few months however I've started getting a little bit miffed.
It started with them sending me a PC copy of Dead Island Riptide which had no activation code and got the usual crappy response that there was nothing they could do until I returned the box (which makes no sense whatsoever if you think about it).
When I started Tweeting about the fact I was a tad upset (no real details just a bit of a sarcy comment) I ended up in direct communication with Igor Cipolletta (not sure if this was because I have quite a large Twitter account) and low and behold within about an hour I'd got a code sent through (actually a photo Cipolletta sent me from his phone).
At this point I was singing their praises like their was no tomorrow as you can imagine - I really felt like they were offering an amazing service and although their prices were no longer as competitive I still tended to get games as much as 2 days before release.
Just recently though things have not been quite so good.
My The Last of Us Joel Special Edition came through the post absolutely wrecked (it had literally been put in a bog standard ShopTo envelope) and they basically were not interested in the slightest. My issue was not so much that I had to muck around downloading and printing return forms but the simple fact that the packaging used in the first place was completely inappropriate.
The same thing has happened since then - just really inappropriate packaging for very large items.
I think ShopTo built their entire reputation on getting games to folks early and at a good price. At the moment though their prices are far from good and of course they keep getting far too "personal" in their online communications (they did this with the COD and later on with the GTAV release.)
In the past 6 months I've probably used GAME and Amazon as much as I have used ShopTo because I no longer have as much faith in their ability to properly package up my items and their prices are just no longer as competitive as they were. If you had asked me who I used this time last year every game I bought was from them.
Ravensmash
Member
I wish more people would understand this (outside of extreme scenarios such as threats).
So there's been a lot of comments saying the same thing as the underlined (sorry to single you out supaflyryguy). Quite frankly, this has no basis in reality whatsoever. Whole lot of people equating this situation to "a wrong on one side, a wrong on the other, cancels each other out." Again, this interpretation of the situation couldn't be further from the truth. There's a reason why laws exist and there's also a reason why one's personal subjective morals have absolutely no effect on the law whatsoever. I know NeoGAF is a place where people try and be as fair/impartial as possible but seeing things in the above way is simply NOT how things work. Free speech in a public forum is almost always allowed. Going back on a legally-binding contract is almost never allowed. Anyone thinking that these two are the same issues need to give their heads a shake.
OP, did you give ShopTo any money on your preorder already? If so, you've provided consideration on your agreement to purchase the console when it comes out and the law would almost surely recognize this as a legally binding contract. Their term of "we can cancel whenever we want on whoever we want" is almost surely not legally binding, as it in effect states, "we do not intend to be legally bound to a contract which would be recognized as being legally binding". This is not how contracts work and this is not how a retailer gets out of a contract.
This in no way should be considered legal advice but if you gave ShopTo any money at all (and this really is key here, if you didn't give them money, you're likely fucked), there's a good chance you'd have a case in small claims court. Whether that's worth your time or money, and whether you'd actually win or not is completely up to you/UK law. The fact of this matter is, what OP did in no way shape or form provides any legal justification for cancellation of his preorder.
OriginalThinking
Member
I think one anecdotal example of poor service and awful PR from one business does not a trend make. You have nothing to worry about.
If you post something on a non private Twitter account what reasonable expectation do you have of privacy? ShopTo have been shitty here no question but don't go looking for privacy on Twitter.
That detail sounds like nonsense. The idea behind the Mega Bundle was that it'd be retailing at the price of an Xbox One. They set the price themselves, and dropping it has nothing to do with what they're saying.
Wow. Slain.
It was a public conversation that could be accessed by anyone with an internet connection, if I'm reading this right.
Read my above post. Again, what you describe has nothing to do with the OPs situation. Your store being titled "One Pound Land" does not act as a legally-binding contract in which "One Pound Land" is legally bound to sell things for only one pound.
In OPs case, if he provided consideration and if he didn't violate any terms of the contact that would be upheld in a court (i.e. not the "we can cancel on anyone/any time"), he likely could sue for breach of contract. OP also voiced his concerns in a public forum, not private property. Totally different situation... the phrase "you're way out of your element" comes to mind here (where's the Dude when you need him??).
Katana_Strikes
Member
Well it's not if you're posting it on the internets and most certainly Twitter.
I have been using ShopTo for years now and they are the best online retailer I have ever used, sure this looks worrisome and I am concerned about what goes on in the PR/ management department but I will not stop using them.
I have had multiple dealings with Customer Services in my time on the site, wanting to return games etc and I do not have a negative word to say against them.
I hope they do not suffer too much from this.
I have had multiple dealings with Customer Services in my time on the site, wanting to return games etc and I do not have a negative word to say against them.
I hope they do not suffer too much from this.
Um no? If I was in Currys and said to my friend "fuck them I'm going to Game" and within earshot of a lot of people, I would not expect to be refused service.
Personally if I were Shopto I'd be more worried about their remark about Amazon going public...
Kun Aguero
Member
I wouldn't have given them my account number (even though I don't have a ShopTo account) but you know what I mean. Maybe I'm just a cynical old fucker, but the moment my account details had been asked for, I would be thinking to myself, how are they going to try and fuck me over, rather than ooohhh, I might get something for nothing.
I don't disagree that the twitter cs rep behaved irrationally, but some faceless people hiding behind keyboards can be unpredictable, and vindictive. I just wouldn't have taken the chance with such a big purchase as a launch day PS4.
#justiceforcarl
Ravensmash
Member
SHADES
Member
I ditched Facebook 2 years ago because of privacy and up until today preferred twitter because it was "less personal" oh the irony.
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