Theory11 Exposed... Again!

[Albert]

There have been previous discussions on the kind of unethical and other bad things Theory11 has done in the past, but that was coupled together with Andrei Jikh here and in a news update thread here.

Now, I want to discuss purely on Theory11, in this forum section because the current Theory11 conditions are much worse than I thought. A discussion was born on the Facebook page of Theory11 on a picture of Vertigo, their upcoming new product on October 14th, 2011 here.

During the discussion, a topic was brought up to the members of Theory11 that they shouldn't delete/ignore all negative comments about their teasers, as can be seen at this video here, the teaser for Vertigo.

Here's a screenshot below of Vertigo on YouTube with the likes to dislikes ratio, as well as the all comments as of October 12th/2011 @ 6:22PM EST:

So... 1,047 views, 92 votes [21 Likes : 71 Dislikes => 21/92 = 22.83% likes] ... 11 comments by 9 different people including themselves - none of the comments are negative... although Zronxziq's "-.-" actually looks negative to me and one of the comments was posted for the sake of being "First" saying it's an awesome effect while there is no effect to be seen in the teaser, so that leaves 7 actual supporters in the comment section, 6 without Theory11 (whatistheory11) themselves.

I think you can do the math, but let me clarify:

How could all of the comments be positive or non-negative while 77.17% of the votes are negative? This shows the rate at which rate they deleted comments to Vertigo. There should have been at least 30 negative or non-positive (and possibly some constructive) comments to the video.

So, what's wrong with this you may ask? Well, let me tell you what's wrong:

Theory11 claims that they welcome all feedbacks and comments, yet they don't show all of the comments and most are positive comments (if not all on their products). Really? I highly doubt that every single person who sees the product would like it, unless it's some ultimate trick where you only need to wear a pair of boxers and can still make a whole helicopter disappear with a click of the fingers, live. <= Even that would probably get dislikes due to many reasons, such as the dislike for a half-naked guy, the-apparently-know-it-all expert claiming it's fake, jealousy, etc.

If you also see the last comment Theory11 made, between the 2 Theory11 comments there used to be a comment of me saying they lied to their customers, since they never approved of my comment on Scribble. Guess what, my Facebook comment is gone as well, in which they deleted it and then put that last comment about anything not related to Vertigo will be deleted.

The point of this thread is to tell you that Theory11 isn't being very honest with themselves and with us, the customers. Honestly, watch out for the things you buy from there; the comments and the product description may not be all that reliable; not as much as you think it is.

Theory11, if that isn't censorship, especially with my facebook comment deletion, then what do you call it?

:: EDIT ::

I also want to include something else now, after a bit of thinking. Another thing Theory11 successfully does properly (and very much so) is ignoring or turning a blind eye on the suggestions people make that would benefit them oh-so-much. Now, what I'm about to say has nothing to do with them being unethical. What they are doing is fine, but they are being just really stupid, in my opinion.

Here's a screenshot for MiRAGE's so-called 'short-teaser' video; not even a teaser, found here.

Really? A teaser for a magic trick. This isn't some kind of a Hollywood movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. If this isn't overly-commercial, I don't know what is...

Also, Theory11 thinks that their marketing tactics/strategies are gold... well at least it seems like the marketing/communications team does... On a side note, very disappointed with the tone of voice I can interpret from the comment below on Vertigo's facebook comments section - it's implying that we are retards for not understanding what a teaser is. Nothing that is directed to a customer should ever be worded so that they interpret it offensively. That's the basic rule of thumb when communicating with customers, even if you are frustrated with them. They failed at that here too.

Dear staff of Theory11, when you read this, and I know you do, I hope you realize that it's not just one or two people who are unimpressed or simply disgusted at your marketing tactic. There may be some emotional bias in this post, in which I admit. But the level of ignorance towards your customers' suggestions + censoring objective and fair negative comments + misleading product information + poor marketing tactics (which I think is killing the art as well, which hopefully you can make the connection) = Theory11 going down, down, down, down, down... Oh, and did I mention, you are killing the art, not keeping it alive?

If you are smart enough, you should understand what I'm trying to say. Customers surprisingly know well what a business's problem is, so the least you could do is at least attempt to fix your errors instead of saying you welcome all feedback but already threw everything in the garbage can next to your desk. This is not a matter of killing your pride as a business. It's knowing how to fix your errors, admitting your mistakes, and knowing how to apologize to the customers. Just because magicians can get away with lying in performances, doesn't mean you can get away lying to your customers, especially fellow magicians.