Empire Avenue Fail 5 post overview: Over 5 posts on my blogs I documented issues with Empire Avenue, from their rogue volunteers, running a “wall of shame” on Brands, attacking Brands reputations online, not answering complaints, having a “goon squad” of endorsed volunteers attacking customers who complained, refusing to discipline internally thereby encouraging more attacks on Brands, etc. What I witnessed was the worst travesty in the annals of customer service I have ever seen. After a month of private discussions with EA to change things, I went public. Only then did they begin to change, but the attacks on me and others grew by their “goon squad.” In the end, I went to EA’s Angel Investor and EA had to shut down its Chat Room and Chat Mod “goons squad.” EA shamelessly has never apologized or produced it damning chat logs as promised by their CEO. This is one of those posts, you can read the rest by Search in the upper right for ‘Empire.’ Don’t play EA or if you do save your REAL money.
If you complained to a customer service department of a store about service would you expect to have the employees come harass you at your work for complaining? That IS what happened to me 2 weeks ago, when I complained to EA’s customer service repeatedly about my feeling abused by some of their Chat Mods. Here is the transcript of the attack comment publicly posted on my blog, sent by an EA Chat Mod after hearing of my complaint. “You’re full of bloated crap, Chris…shameful…you’re throwing your toys out of your pram, like a spoilt kid…A lesson in how NOT to use your social influence to get a message across.”
This is no way to talk to a customer who asks a company to help them. Its intimidation, bullying and abuse of a customer. Its slanderous libel also. EA claims the volunteers Chat Mods arent employees of the system yet it seems they are “endorsed” and “represent” EA in some fashion. On their website it clearly appears the chat rooms are endorsed and present the site. There is no legal notice that the chat rooms are separate entities. Whats even more insulting is that a “representative” of EA can feel so emboldened that they can freely attack customers? This is ethically not right.
Ethics: A conflict of interest is a clash between professional obligations and personal interests arises if the individual tries to perform that duty while at the same time trying to achieve personal gain. Empire Avenue Chat Mods are “endorsed” or “blessed” with EA’s approval to police the system, BUT THEY ARE ALSO stock holders that PLAY AND COMPETE against other players in the game. Therein lies the minefield of ethics and protecting CUSTOMERS. HOW CAN I EXPECT SOMEONE TO HELP ME OR NOT ABUSE ME IF THEY ARE COMPETING WITH ME. Given that EA’s Chat Rooms are an outside volunteer company the issue of protecting customers is a bigger minefield. Yesterday, I downgraded my recommendation of EA after seeing another EA customer publically complaining to Dups, the CEO on Twitter, about being abused by their Chat Mods. I’ve seen and experienced too much of this personally.
Today I am calling upon Empire Avenue and the Chat Mods to hold themselves up to an honest level of integrity that helps defy any chance of abuse by eliminating it. One cannot police the system without bias if they COMPETE with players in the game. I am calling upon them to do the honest thing, to eliminate Chat Mods conflicts of interest. Chat Mods can either give up their stock or remove themselves as Mods. I’m also sure Empire Avenue will follow through on this to eliminate the constant complaints I and others have had about feeling abused at times. THEY WILL DO IT TO PROTECT THEIR CUSTOMERS AND MAKE IT A PRIORITY.
On Empire Avenue the Chat Mods are on there I would assume to police and moderate the system. I’m pretty sure its not to abuse Empire Avenues CUSTOMERS. My problems with EA all rise out of the Chat Mod Conflict. Myself and my blog have been openly verbally attacked by one Mod after I complained to EA multiple times to have them protect me as their CUSTOMER. The more I complained to EA’s customer service the more abuse I’ve gotten. EA is admittedly a small group, it needs to protect its customers internally. I’ve even been called a spammer by a Mod that now brags of gaming EA now with blogs. Its like letting the Police bust people, but allow the Police to break the law. As a customer, I shouldn’t be afraid to enter the chat area on EA and neither should all the other folks who’ve told me they avoid that area.
I publicly call on Empire Avenue and the Chat Mods to act in the best interests of their customers and eliminate this issue. I am going to hold faith that they will do the right thing and this will eliminate the complaints I see about potential abuse.
I would also call upon them to setup as any company would stringent rules against any abuse of EA’s customers and ensure that when customers file complaints with customer service those complaints are NOT lashed out at publicly by EA’s representatives, employees or volunteers. That would have eliminated many of my early problems. Customers should be protected and free to complain. I sure they will abolish this representative that intimidated and bullied me and make a sincere apology to people who might have felt abused by their chat rooms.
I applaud Empire Avenue for changing the term of “Losers” to “Sliders” AFTER my post yesterday.
I hope everyone will call upon Empire Avenue to regulate this obvious need to change. You can petition at @Dups or @EmpireAvenue and also at Empire Avenue at Click Link. *NO CUSTOMER SHOULD HAVE TO BE AFRAID TO GO INTO EA’S CHAT ROOMS OR BEING ATTACKED.
As you can see by numbers I succeed on EA by investing well at 52% of my score.
UPDATE: After this post went public EA setup an email for Chat Abuse and they claim they will look into it. I’m saddened that after a month of privately complaining to EA, this had to be made public and now they are dealing with this issue. You can email complaints to: abuse@empireavenue.com
Chris – please submit any evidence and detailed information about chat moderator abuse to us as we’ve requested. Mods have to abide by certain rules, and if those rules were broken, they will be dealt with as required.
Is this the company that oversees EA’s chat system? If so, how come after
private discussions trying to get EA to resolve this issue for 2 weeks am I
hearing about your company now?
Understand I’ve never heard of you folks and need to validate your request?
I work for Empire Avenue, not Envolve. We’re finalizing some additional documentation regarding reporting of abuse in chat, but in the meantime, as requested, we will deal with any issues of abuse through abuse@empireavenue.com and those individuals you’ve been asked to include on such correspondences. We definitely take accusations of abuse seriously, and if we have evidence (we have access to chat logs) we can deal with these issues appropriately.
Great then, for 2 weeks I have been lobbying Dups privately and its great
you guys are finally taking this seriously albeit now that I took it public.
I will forward the data to the abuse email.
Chris,
Thank you so much for your efforts to fix issues with Empire Avenue. It is great that you are using your voice and your social media presence to protect people who do not have your reach.
Very impressive!
Laurie
Thank you Laurie you are blessed.
This is great Chis! Have no words! Just amaizing like your others articles!
As with many great startup companies who rely on volunteers “superusers” or mods, it is unfortunate to know that there are a few out there who simply mess it up for the rest of the network users. Some let the power and responsibility go to their head while others take the extra time to help other users. For every great volunteer, there are a few bad apples there to sour the day. I look forward to reading updates about your Empire Avenue experience!