[Update (7/13/2007): I have been notified by PodTech that they are now trying to find out who still hasn't received a Vloggie award, so they can send them all out.]

There has been a lot of discussion lately about the company PodTech. In the past few months, it was revealed that they: dropped popular online interview show Geek Entertainment TV (who have since been able to secure an independent sponsorship with web host Go Daddy); disregarded the creative commons license of photographer Lan Bui, and; still haven’t delivered Vloggie awards to everyone who won at the ceremony last November.

None of this is a surprise to me.

Last year, Rudy and I were invited to attend the Vloggies. PodTech promised us $1000 ($500/each) to cover our travel expenses. Though we won five awards that night, we were never invited on stage to accept our awards and, therefore, the news media didn’t realize that we won the second most awards that night. During the after party, John Furrier (PodTech CEO) was conducting interviews with the winners and so Rudy went to say hi and make ourselves available for an interview. Just after Rudy introduced himself, John turned his back to him and started talking to someone else.

Later that week, things didn’t get any better. PodTech put out a press release about the event with information stating that Ask A Ninja received 5 awards and we got 4 (the opposite is true). I e-mailed them about the problem but it was too late to fix since it had already been sent out by their public relations team.

Later that month, we were contacted by PodTech because they were interested in getting a sponsor for Galacticast. At this point we were weary of working with them, but since we were still open to new ideas on how to monetize our passion I made an appointment with their representative Paul Sherer at 3pm EST (clearly stating 3pm EST/12pm PST). After waiting all day for the call to no avail, I finally e-mailed Paul to say that “perhaps” he mixed up the time. A few hours later I got an e-mail saying “Oops.”

Angry at his disregard for courtesy, I realized that PodTech still hadn’t sent us the $1000 check for our travel expenses. I had been informed a month before that the check would be sent out and had seen that their Accounting department was carbon copied on the message. I immediately wrote a follow up e-mail again asking them to send the check.

But, it was too late… the straw had already broken the camel’s back.

After lying awake for hours, I finally called my dear friend Eddie Codel (an employee of PodTech at the time) to ask him for his advice. He said that I should write a blog post of my discontent and send it as an e-mail to Robert Scoble. I felt that this was a good idea, and I wrote an e-mail as suggested:

Dear Robert,

I just got off the phone with Eddie, I called him because I am upset with PodTech and I’d like to tell you why because it’s 3am and I just can’t seem to get to sleep:

• Today I had a phone meeting scheduled with Paul Sherer at 3pm EST. He never called so I called him (no answer) and then emailed him at 3:15 telling him I was waiting for his call. I never got a response. By 4:30pm I gave up on him and sent an e-mail suggesting that perhaps he forgot about the time difference and that we could reschedule for tomorrow. He replied saying “oops” and suggested a new time. I did not get an apology for the time wasted by waiting for his call.
• Today I also realized that I still hadn’t got a check from PodTech for our flights to the Vloggies. We got an e-mail from Irina on November 6th saying that we would get a check of $1000 in the mail, but I have yet to see or hear anything. I sent a follow up e-mail to Irina and Maryam this evening to ask them for an update and I truly hope I get a response as soon as possible.
• After the Vloggies, PodTech sent out a press release that contained faulty information saying that Ask a Ninja won 5 and we won 4. I sent an e-mail to PodTech asking them to amend the mistake and although they did make the change on their web site, I never received any e-mail response.
• I told Irina that we were disappointed not to be interviewed by John Furrier at the Vloggies after party and she said it was because we never walked up to him to introduce ourselves. After I gave this explanation to Rudy he told me that he actually approached John to talk with him and he was completely snubbed.
• We are upset that we didn’t get to accept any awards on stage even though we won the second largest number of Vloggies. This is the basis for our episode entitled Five Vloggies, a comedic commentary of our disappointment to finally thank the people who deserved to be thanked.

If PodTech didn’t owe us a check for $1000 I would have blogged about my discontent a long time ago, but I’m a professional and I do not want to cause the company any problems or get a reputation for ragging on someone’s faults. However, we feel like we have been treated like second class citizens and it is rude and unacceptable for any company to do business this way.

I do not blame anyone personally, but if PodTech continues the way they have been going they will end up being disliked far and wide. I like you, and I don’t want to have this hostility towards PodTech, but something needs to be done for the company to treat us – their colleagues – with more respect.

Thank you for reading, I would appreciate hearing from you on this matter.
Casey

–
Casey McKinnon
Executive Producer, Galacticast
http://www.galacticast.com/

Robert responded very quickly and apologetically and told his people to start taking care of this:

Casey,

I’m VERY sorry for how you’ve been treated by PodTech. I expect better.

John, can we get Casey paid ASAP? Thanks!

Robert

I was very pleased with Scoble’s support and professionalism and replied to him saying:

Thank you, Robert. I truly appreciate your taking steps to fix the problem.

Best regards,
Casey

Unfortunately, I later received an e-mail from CEO John Furrier denying his actions:

Casey,

Thanks for sharing with us your concerns. Paul Sherer has been very ill this past week and has been unavailable.

I’ll take care of this situation on the reimbursement with Irina personally. I was very excited about you guys being at the vloggies and I apologize about not interviewing you guys. I actually was looking around for you guy but got kinda burnt out toward the end. I’m sorry if it came across as being snubbed. I know personally that the folks at itunes where impressed as well as others about your work.

I really loved the ‘army of the five vloggies’ piece! I’m really sorry for all the missteps that affected you. We did our best to have a great event and you guys were a big part of that success. Thanks so much for bein involved.

Keep on making media…

John

I immediately responded clarifying his offensive actions:

John,

Thank you for your reply, I’m glad you enjoyed our Five Vloggies episode we had a lot of fun making it.

Unfortunately, regarding the after party, Rudy actually walked up to you and introduced himself. After showing a lack of interest, you turned your back to him and started speaking with someone else. From our perspective, it doesn’t seem like you were looking around for us at all. This was the reason we felt snubbed.

Regards,
Casey

–
Casey McKinnon
Executive Producer, Galacticast
http://www.galacticast.com/

I received no further response from John.

A week later, I received a check in the mail and a kind letter from John’s wife Linda Furrier apologizing for the communication problems at PodTech. I was grateful for her honesty and her ability to humble herself unlike her husband.

For months since this incident I’ve felt disappointed in PodTech, but mainly for two reasons:

1. John Furrier should have admitted his mistake and apologized accordingly
2. Communication with PodTech is difficult since they do not answer their e-mails in a timely or professional fashion.

Though I am no longer in talks with PodTech about organizing a sponsorship, PodTech is still having issues responding promptly to their e-mails. Lan Bui, a photographer friend of mine who is struggling to get paid for a creative commons-licensed photo of his that was used for profit by PodTech at SXSW, is still trying to contact PodTech to speak directly to them about the matter.

I look forward to the day when PodTech contacts Lan Bui about settling and they send out all the Vloggie Awards they promised to send eight months ago. I also hope that PodTech will smarten up and learn more about business courtesy and how to treat people (we, their colleagues) with common respect. That said, I would like to reiterate how professionally Robert Scoble and Linda Furrier handled the situation… I can only hope that they will lead the rest of the pack out of this dark cloud that is settling over the company’s image.

Link: PodTech