is it me or is PFB...

[PepperElf]

Is PFB getting a bit unprofessional?

Lately they've been making a point of doing personal call-outs to individual posters (myself included) that seem rather close to insults & digs. In one case, they corrected a poster on his misconceptions... but managed to do it in such a way that seemed to insinuate that he was stupid for not knowing this information (even though the information in question was not available to the general public).

On a personal note, after taking pains with them before to make sure my posts weren't overly insulting it's a bit ... surprising to see that their staff is now blatantly calling employees "stupid" etc, and lobbing insults at other members. Especially since some of the comments might not be tolerated if other members did it.

They haven't directly called posters any names - as they have towards employees - but it seems that they ARE not above calling people out, especially if they feel it can make someone look bad.


Maybe it's me but... regardless of how the commentators are treated, I can only wonder what corporations will see if they go there to investigate a complaint.

If they see the staff starting to insinuate insults against posters - or directly call certain employees "stupid" etc, then... that might just affect whether or not the company choses to acknowledge any letters that PFB forwards to them.


I could be wrong. It just strikes me that they've been a bit less professional than they use to be.

IIRC some of the old staff use to post under 2 accounts - one for their own personal opinions and one for official notices. However these days both seem to be from the same account, making it indistinguishable. If a comment, especially an insulting one coming from their own opinions, or is it their official company notice?

[Ginger Tea]

I googled PFB and the only one that came back as an organization was Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, everything else was a phrase or a technological acronym.

[PepperElf]

I googled PFB and the only one that came back as an organization was Pennsylvania Farm Bureau, everything else was a phrase or a technological acronym.

sorry, it's the main board's nickname for planetfeedback

[Ginger Tea]

yikes that website is a mare to read.
I read one long chatlog (hell I got bored and skimmed to the comments after a while) and saw your's and a "Hey Pepperelf" from the feedback team, what they said was valid, but saying "Hey Pepperelf, if CSR#1 did her job right in the first place ..." does come across as shitty, a reply to your post without the hey Pepperelf part would be much more acceptable.

Perhaps CSR#1 who was not in the chatlog did fuck up, but putting your name in that post achieves what exactly?
apart from this thread

But I do agree, spending another $50 and forgoing food for a week entrapment guilt trip as you and others said.

[PepperElf]

yikes that website is a mare to read.

Perhaps CSR#1 who was not in the chatlog did fuck up, but putting your name in that post achieves what exactly?
apart from this thread

I can only assume they were trying to give me a personal dig because of a disagreement from another thread (the "deceptive pricing" thread).


To be honest it's making me miss "Mr. Helpful" cos... he and I disagreed a LOT, but I don't recall him picking fights with members, or him using personal digs like that - especially not dragging stuff into other threads. Not the way they're doing it now.

[TheHuckster]

I can only assume they were trying to give me a personal dig because of a disagreement from another thread (the "deceptive pricing" thread).

Which thread was that?

I often wonder if PFB and M3C can even take itself seriously at this point. I mean, it seems as though half of the complaints are either not legitimate, or are at best petty. It seems as though many of them are just of some punching bag that posts an inane complaint that either has unreasonable demands, horrible grammar and spelling, or personal insults directed at the staff (i.e. the manager, who could stand to lose a few pounds...) and all that follows are a ton of rebuttals made invalidating the complaint, which may or may not result in a flamewar if the LW notices them and fights back.

The intent of PFB is to allow people to voice their complaints about a retailer publicly, which in many instances are warranted. However, it's simply overrun by EWs and SCs who have no clue what "false advertising", "switch and bait", or "rude" means, and in a way it just takes away the merits of the valid complaints that are posted on that site. If I had a complaint I wanted to voice or rant about that I felt was legitimate and came to PFB to find people asking for freebies because their favorite cheeseburger was out of stock or tried to use an expired coupon, I'd certainly be discouraged from posting.

I know there are "consumerists" who believe any complaint made by a customer is legit, and I'm sure PFB and M3C are sites that lean towards that belief, but there has to be a line drawn where a PFB staffer sees a complaint (such as the one recently where someone believes running out of a chicken sandwich that was advertised on TV constitutes false advertising) and realizes it's too ridiculous to leave online.

[PepperElf]

Interesting.

My comment questioning them on dragging stuff into other threads was removed. However so was their "Hey Pepperelf," dig on the other thread.


So... I'm not sure if they got in trouble for it (do they even have bosses there?) or if they were simply editing their own history to shine up their image.

[HYHYBT]

I haven't read anything on PFB in a *long* time, but I can think of reasons for doing the "hey Soandso" thing other than calling someone stupid, especially if the pages get as long as they sound. It makes it more likely that Soandso will see the response! Often, when a comment thread has gotten too long to wade through but I still want to see if there's been a response specifically to something I've said, I'll search the page for my name and look below that. If the comments are unthreaded, that doesn't work unless the person responding addresses me by name or quotes in a way that includes it.

[PepperElf]

indeed, i don't mind if my name is used in a reply-title. They've done that before when addressing me directly, and that's not a problem.


What annoyed me was that in "thread 1" there was a discussion/argument about paying attention.

In Thread 2, the comment was "Hey pepperelf, so i guess you could say the CSR should have paid better attention then?" (or close as I can remember).

To me that… wasn't really a called-for reply. I hadn't said anything wrong in the second thread… so the sudden comment seemed more like a slap rather than an official notice on behavior etc.

[HYHYBT]

Ah, I see now.

[PepperElf]

small update: on a whim i looked for my deleted post in "my blogs" section. usually deleted posts still show up there - we just can't access them (well PFB can though, cos I've seen them quote people's deleted posts - usually as an attempt to discredit them & say "no you really did say that, see?").

It's not there. Looks like it was *completely* removed from the database.
Looks like their "call out" to me was also completely removed too. It's not there under their "my comments" section.


I can only wonder, as I did above (IIRC) if there is a chain of command at play here, or if they're just trying to edit/clean up their own behavior by removing the evidence.

[PepperElf]

although... i do notice that they still do the same thing from before - snide comments in one letter, based on arguments posted in another.


i can only wonder if it's the same issue as before, or if some of us really hit nerves and it's their way of "striking back".

still it smacks of unprofessionalism

[lordlundar]

Well, there was a reason the PFB section in CS.com was labelled PlanetFleaBag before Raps took over.

[PepperElf]

ROFL.


I think one of my main beefs with them is that... they use to post under 2 accounts. one account was a main PFB account - usually for official site information, etc - and another account was more for staff personal feelings/opinions.

now they just use one, so it's somewhat muddies things up, making it look like their own personal feelings are the same as site policies.

[HYHYBT]

One site I know handles the difference between official posts and mods speaking just for themselves in an especially clever way. Normal posts, no matter who they're from, alternate between white and gray backgrounds, while "mod hat on" posts are pink. If you see a pink post, pay attention.