While for other people this might not come as a surprise I'm very disappointed to see this behavior from one of the PMDG employee or beta testers.

 

A while ago they had Kyle, if not mistaken either employee or part of the beta testers who was very disrespectful and fought with the customers just because they couldn't accept that there might be some bugs involved with the software or just because was an disagreement related to the product.

 

Now they have another individual  Marc Ehnle aka "Ephedrin" that is representing PMDG and is using foul language against the customer "It‘s hard to like your attitude. I don‘t know anything about yourself but it‘s the BS you leave here that causes the reaction/s"   ,  and this is just because the customer pointed out some issues related to the software.

 

As a paying customer I'm very offended by this, no matter what is the disagreement this is unacceptable and very unprofessional.

 

I'm looking at the other forums (Avsim, P3D, MSFS etc) and didn't see anything like this even there are heated discussions.

 

With this kind of behavior tolerated by PMDG over a disagreement with a customer I think that is better off spending the money somewhere else where we are valued and inputs are appreciated.

This. They may be skilled coders, but they're not exactly professionals at handling customer relations.

PMDG staff have signatures that fairly clearly identify them in their forums--Marc Ehnle may be a beta tester, but even if he is, that does not make him a company representative.  I don't see any evidence at all that he speaks for PMDG.  Their beta testers function as "super users" that tend to be very helpful to the other users, and Marc is no exception.  But that said, they are still users, not employees.

Frankly, I think the poster in question had it coming, and in fact was begging for a spanking by someone over there.

 

Bob,

I totally disagree, this individual if is a beta tester chosen by PMDG, is representing PMDG, it's not by himself. From signature is part of Global flight ops (PMDG).

Sorry, the poster in question had very good valid points and was not disrespectful at all, he just pointed out some issues and for some reason, they can't or unwilling to accept that something it might be wrong. This is not the first time where people are jumped on by 

beta tester or RSR because they point to some problems with the software.

Unfortunately, the programmer's skills are shadowed by some individuals. 

I will repeat myself, here at AVSIM, MSFS, P3D and other forums I noticed heated discussions without the need of spanking or foul language. 

To be very honest I don't believe that the customer is always right, but the customer is not expecting to be "spanked" (this is not kindergarten) or disrespected.

If I'm not mistaken, even here insulting or foul language is not accepted and is banned. 

I might be wrong, who knows, but for sure visiting some forums it's not productive anymore.

Just because *you* say he represents PMDG does not make it so. 

Sorry, but no, beta testing a product does not make anyone a spokesman for the company.  In that role a tester is nothing more than an unpaid adviser.  Only the company can designate who speaks on its behalf--not you, and not me. 

 

Not having read the thread yet, I would hardly rate the use of the term "BS" as foul language. 

In think this is an attempt to generate another "bash PMDG" event.

The customer may not always be right, but if you are an employee, or an associate in even the remotest sense, you should be careful about how you personally are perceived because the customer, in sometimes not being right, might view you as being more than a mere associate. Rightly or wrongly, that can reflect on the company.

With that in mind, if I were a PMDG staffer, I'd be inclined to tell someone in that position to reel it in a bit if they were appearing a bit rude simply because of the way things can be perceived, especially since it's not the first time PMDG people have come under fire for being a bit aggressive with customers on their forums. It doesn't take much to perpetuate such perception, as this thread illustrates. Being quite prominent as a company, there's no shortage of people who might want to have a pop at PMDG, so giving them any ammo to do so, even not especially great ammo, is probably not a great idea.

Beta tester, Moderator, company rep  or wanna be is irrelevant. We should all be courteous to our fellow enthusiast and treat each other with mutual consideration. I for one enjoy lively debate and have learned a good bit from them but I hate to see it degenerate to a personal level. This indicates a measure of immaturity and usually directs my sympathies away from those belittling another.   

Even the title is misleading. Seems more of an attention-getter. PMDG made some valid points along with Dan and Marc, I never had an issue with Kyle at any level.

 

Should the beta tester have resorted to an ad hominem line of response? No.
Should that person have flagged the original comment for moderation? Yes.
Is this an example of poor customer relations? Yes.

Is this thread highlighting what amounts to a storm in a teacup? Yes.

Remember, just because someone is personally 'offended' by something, doesn't confer to them any rights.

Quote

It's now very common to hear people say, "I'm rather offended by that", as if that gives them certain rights. It's no more than a whine. It has no meaning, it has no purpose, it has no reason to be respected as a phrase.

"I'm offended by that"

Well, so ******* what?

- Stephen Fry

If you don't like what you see with PMDG, you have the choice to not purchase their future products.
 

Edited February 1, 20215 yr by F737NG

The world has become  a bunch of woke snowflakes. Thats the real BS.

This is the flight sim world today "your product is not working on my PC what are YOU going to do about it" and I don`t give a ( word not allowed ) that others are not having this problem.

From my dealings, lets just say I'm not very interested in PMDG's products any more.

They have some nice products but they also are not faultless.

13 hours ago, w6kd said:

Just because *you* say he represents PMDG does not make it so. 

Sorry, but no, beta testing a product does not make anyone a spokesman for the company.  In that role a tester is nothing more than an unpaid adviser.  Only the company can designate who speaks on its behalf--not you, and not me. 

Sorry, but "unofficial" spokespeople can absolutely determine any company's image -- often to a greater extent than official spokespeople. We're talking about perceptions here, so if customers perceive them as linked, they ARE linked. (By the way, even in a legal sense, reasonable perceptions that a person has authority to speak on behalf of a company, even if they don't, can confer legal obligations on that company. Look up "apparent authority." But I digress).

If someone is standing in your store wearing a t-shirt with your logo on it and beating up customers, would a persuasive response to complaints be to say "well, he's not actually our employee, so don't look at us"?

Unless I'm mistaken, Kyle was originally merely one of these self-appointed "superfans" before PMDG put him on payroll (and then later took him off payroll...). Even at that time he was probably the most visible face of PMDG other than RSR. Did his attitude and approach to "customer service" have an impact on how people perceived PMDG? Of course they did. People are still talking about it, years later.

PMDG doesn't have to rein in these folks if they don't want to. But they'd better believe customers judge their brand partly based on them.

James

11 hours ago, CapnOz said:

The world has become  a bunch of woke snowflakes. Thats the real BS.

Correct.