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    The Staff of SOH

  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

Just a parting note

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falcon409

falcon409

SOH-CM-2025
lol, well taking a cue from Wombat, I posted my feeling about Orbx's New 2012 Business Model on the proper forum at Orbx, specifically to note the customer relationship portion. After posting the remarks, it was answered by a "Senior" member, whose response was "Yawn". . . . .then Venema responded simply to inform me that I had spelled the name of his company wrong, after which he locked the thread.

lol, there are a lot of things I could say, but I won't. My respect and admiration for the designers is unwavering, the product is the best that the Flightsim community has ever seen and my decision to no longer support Orbx is only hurting me in the long run, I'm done with them.:salute:
 
Good. Two down.. more to follow I am sure. Great developers, bad business acumen and anti-social behaviour. You were only locked though, not banned !? He must like you :icon_lol::icon_lol:
 
Such is the case, Falcon. My thoughts are with yours. I bought two Orbx products. All I actually needed was PNW. I couldn't care any less to have airports from all over the PNW anyway. I don't spend my time sleeping at them like a tarmac vagrant.

All I ever saw in their company was an enhanced Ultimate Terrain product
 
Im sorry, did I miss some big stink over at OrbX?

Before you reply, please PM me. The mods around here have a pritty strict policy (that I agree with) about trashing the name of dev's on threads.

Overall im really impressed with OrbX's stuff. Loved there products, but I have not had to deal with support or there customer service. I think that if the product works, and you like it, then you wont need to deal with those two aspects of a company. The problem lies in the few that DO need support or CS, do so at there worst times.

I have worked a lot of CS in the past (PC repair) and have had to field off MANY angry phone calls/E-mails. You really REALLY need a thick skin to do that job, since all day you hear the worst of humanity. It can get under your skin and if you dont know how to deal with it properly, you can lash out in un-expected ways against people who do not deserv it. This can lead to some very unpleasent results, and a prime example of that happened last week on Penny Arcade.

Some people here dont know Penny Arcade, but its one of the biggest video game related web pages on the web.

Anyways, LONG story short, a customer asked were his product was, and got a very rude response from a marketing rep. That E-mail was sent to Penny Arcade, and they told the marketing rep to back off. CS Rep dug in even deeper and lashed out at Penny Arcade. Penny Arcade posted this to there MILLIONS of loyal viewers. Result = fired marketing rep.

You can read the exchange HERE ****WARNING!!! NOT SAFE FOR WORK, OR KIDS, OR HUMANS IN FACT!!!****** http://penny-arcade.com/2011/12/27

The lesson learned is simple. Treat every customer with respect, no matter what. You never know who your talking with...
 
Ed's reporting is factual and civil...as long as it stays that way it won't get closed.
 
Whew! When I saw the forum thread title, I thought you you were going tell us all that you were hanging up SOH. I'm glad it's just ORBX you're dumping, lol.
.:icon29:
 
It makes me wonder to how many people this has happened. People who didn't decide to post about their bad experience. To be honest I never believed the stories about people being treated badly. I guess the best way to find out was to learn for myself.

Onwards we go though. There's some awesome scenery out there that isn't Orbx.

Also I fully agree with you Ed. I think the developers are really good at what they do. They really do produce some high quality products.
 
I commend, and respect all of the actual developers who create the scenery that is released by this company. The developers are the ones who make orbx what it is. Not the person/people doing the marketing.
 
After reading your post, I headed over to Orbx to check out what was going on. I agree with your decision to no longer support the company. Though I have never purchased any of their products, I have looked at, and been considering several. After reading their response to customer concerns, I too have decided they will not have my business. Customer service is very important.

Jp
 
i'm sure i've missed something, whats all the hubub about orbx haveing a christmas week discount on everything they've done? :isadizzy:
 
Maybe I will be the odd man out here but I am actually speaking out in support of ORBX. Falcon got the *** YAWN *** not from a senior admin but from a forum member who, like me had grown tired of people constantly starting threads regarding the 2012 policy that ORBX was embarking on. These threads quickly became abusive and were therefore locked. What the Admins did in Falcon's case was to prevent this happening again. While the SOH admins are reasonably tolerant when a thread looks like becoming abusive they lock it. ORBX has a zero tolerance policy to abuse and that is why I enjoy posting there. I may not agree with some things posted on the ORBX forums but it is the same with me here at SOH, but that is life.

In previous years ORBX had a pre-pay policy where if you had pre-paid for an item they you got access to that scenery item 24 hours before it was released to the general market. A great sales policy so we thought, but because of time differences around the world some customers still missed out. so ORBX then introduced a system where if you prepaid you received a 15% discount. As in past years ORBX (like a lot of companies) had a post Christmas sale with prices between 20% and 50% off their products. This year was 33% off ALL ORBX products.

Because some products in this sale had been released during December one customer started a thread complaining about the newly released products being included as he had prepaid for them several weeks before they were released. This thread quickly became abusive, directing vitriol towards Mr Venema who promptly locked the thread. So, instead of releasing the company's 2012 policy early in the New Year he released it this week. The original posting of the policy included the reference to the "Online dating agency" but he editied the post and removed the offending statement. This lead to a series of threads being started regarding the policy and were allowed to run their course until some of the posts became abusive and were locked.

In Falcon's case I believe that the reaction and the locking of the thread was pre-emptive. I know I am getting tired of people on the ORBX forums constantly starting threads that quickly head south and become abusive and even though John and I have locked horns in the past I admire John and the admins for the action they are taking.

ORBX, like SOH is a well moderated site and that is why I enjoy being there as well as being a member here.

That is my say on this. I will now return to normal programming :)
 
stiz said:
i'm sure i've missed something, whats all the hubub about orbx haveing a christmas week discount on everything they've done? :isadizzy:
Click to expand...

ORBX have a post Christmas sale on ALL of their products each year. In the past discounts have been between 20% and 50%. This year it is 33%. I have taken advantage of these sales each year, this one included and done well out of them.
 
Well,You left out the part where John called his loyal customers who pre-pay for his products 2 months in advance ungrateful and selfish.
 
AussieMan said:
ORBX have a post Christmas sale on ALL of their products each year. In the past discounts have been between 20% and 50%. This year it is 33%. I have taken advantage of these sales each year, this one included and done well out of them.
Click to expand...

It seems to me people who paid full price are not happy that others paid less? Im still having trouble understanding the underline issue. I do understand the pre-emptive locking though, and if those threads in the past got out of hand, I think it was a good call.

Still a little confused over the blow-up... :isadizzy:
 
Gibbage said:
It seems to me people who paid full price are not happy that others paid less? Im still having trouble understanding the underline issue. I do understand the pre-emptive locking though, and if those threads in the past got out of hand, I think it was a good call.

Still a little confused over the blow-up... :isadizzy:
Click to expand...

It's even better than that, Kevin. People who got 15% off are pissed that some others who waited got 33% off. Note that both of these groups got a good deal, so it's hard to see how anyone was ripped off here.

I've been told by mgmt not to come out swinging in Orbx's defense on other forums, so I'll just leave it at this: it's a messed up world we live in when people get all bent out of shape over something as trivial and idiotic as this. I guess we can all be thankful that this is the worst of our problems, huh?

That's all I've got. :running:
 
falcon409 said:
lol, well taking a cue from Wombat, I posted my feeling about Orbx's New 2012 Business Model on the proper forum at Orbx, specifically to note the customer relationship portion. After posting the remarks, it was answered by a "Senior" member, whose response was "Yawn". . . . .then Venema responded simply to inform me that I had spelled the name of his company wrong, after which he locked the thread.

lol, there are a lot of things I could say, but I won't. My respect and admiration for the designers is unwavering, the product is the best that the Flightsim community has ever seen and my decision to no longer support Orbx is only hurting me in the long run, I'm done with them.:salute:
Click to expand...

I was waiting for the January 1 Navy pension check to buy some of the Orbx great scenery. After reading this thread, I won't be buying anything from them. I have always found Falcon's posts to be very helpful in dealing with FltSim problems. He is always calm and reasonable. For Orbx to treat him (or anyone) so poorly, they will never get any of my dollars.
 
Mabye I am off track here, but the issue is customer service and attitude towards costumers? Relating to the sale, I think the issue was aggressive advertisement for the 15% sale, followed by the 33% sale.... Also, the way that mods handled legitimate complaints about the company's new business model was a factor. Contributing to this was the unveiling of a new company motto, around which the business plan was to be centered, something to the effect of "we are here to sell our product, not to have a relationship with the customer". Based on reading other threads in the forum, the Admins/ company members seem to have little respect for their customers, and answer most of the recent threads, especially threads about the refinement of company and consumer interactions, with smart a$$ answers, and then lock them.

Jp
 
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