And? If a community rep can't handle backlash, they shouldn't be a community rep. Simple as that. Reminds me of the Apex Legends Debacle last week. Ridiculous.
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They should've handled it the same way their CEO handled it.
You don't step to the trolls level to handle a situation. You simply do not condone it firmly but professionally.
On-topic: Staff should've just simply issued an apology and moved on. If the recipient of the apology at that point kept going at it, then that's the recipient's problem and they're all within rights to just straight up ignore. Acting like they did no wrong was not the proper way of handling this. Most people, you'll find that they can be reasoned with when you own up to mistakes. Even moreso if the mistake was beyond your control.
I'm coming to this with no prior knowledge of the context but here's my 5cents having been there, done that.
As a community rep or GM you should be professional and respectful at all times in client facing exchanges regardless of what they are. There is no excuse not to be. There are other channels for you do deal with "inappropriate" (company/law defined) behaviors. Death threats, predatorial behavior, etc? Contact authority. Racist/Bigoted and depending on companies, abusive interaction, you're allowed to respectfully terminate communications and go through the appropriate backchannel for your case (ban/warn/nothing depending on company policy).
"Angry mob" customers? That's part of your job and if you can't take it, to the point that it's apparent to the customer, then maybe you aren't cut out for it and should find something else to do. It's normal to be frustrated with people at times but it should never show publicly.
I suspect, as you started early, they were interested in keeping to (or ahead of) schedule. Get to the end, and they want to fill in time. But yes, if they can change rules as they go along to better fill their schedule they should say so, and they certainly shouldn't be pretending none of it happened.
This quote is particularly unforgivable:
I guess it's like community, like devs. To me it is extremely passive-aggressive, and unprofessional.
Devs and consumers are not a one-sided relationship, and consumers shouldn't be "grateful" for everything. We pay for a product, in that case I assume people may have paid for tickets, hotel, etc... Devs nowadays seem to have forgotten WE, as consumers, are the reason they have a job. If we decided to stop buying their products, they would learn very quickly.
Then you are assuming that professional behavior doesn't apply to the average dev? It does. They represent the company whether they like it or not, whether they have a blue checkmark or not.
So now you are talking about community reps?
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