Why we abandoned Scvngr . . . and you should too.

I remember your statement about switching from Foursquare.
Sorry to hear it didn’t work out Paul.

Ouch.

Any yet here we are in Napa, waiting to see if any social media really translates to increased direct sales.

Thanks for posting this.  It’s very useful to have reviews of social media technologies from people who have actually used them.  There’s so much hype and very often the reality doesn’t meet with the hype.

Paul, your honestly and openness is refreshing in an industry where everyone seems afraid to call anybody out on their misdeeds.  I was impressed at the scvngr presentation at Vintank.  I can see why you were enthusiastic in the beginning…but you never really know do you?

Always be weary of those who refer to themselves as “rockstars” and “gurus.” These are titles that are earned over time and given by others. Why don’t they just focus on building a product that people actually want to use before professing themselves as Ninjas, Rockstars, Kings, Guru’s, or whatever. 

Paul, kudos on your transparency! …. Cork

I applaud your courage to post. I was particularly interested in scnvgr for the hospitality industry and appreciate your important heads up. 

Drink beer instead.

I never understood the SCVNGR concept… and why anyone would use it. I laughed at LevelUp – clearly they needed a shift if Google ever wants to see any of their money back. Nice going Ninja Seth! But seriously… its time to step up your game and make sure your customers and users have a “rockstar” experience otherwise give back the money to investors. It’s not too late.

Vintank-another crack pipe idea gone sour. Wine and gaming was a stupid idea in the first place.

[...] that the folks at VinTank have been doing at the intersection of technology and wine. This week Paul Mabray posted about the failure of Scvngr to live up to promises within the Napa wine community. I had high hopes for Scvngr and the wine industry, so the news is [...]

Good post.  You learn more from bad decisions than you do good decisions.

Paul, I appreciate your frustration, but misrepresenting facts and slandering our name is not an appropriate outlet for that angst.

To all members of the wine industry who want an accurate, unbiased (3rd party reported) take on the situation, which I think fairly represents some very real mistakes made by both parties, please read the following article published by Business Insider:http://read.bi/mfXkOi

Seth, we did nothing but state the facts.

Your article, however, is false, slanderous, and potentially libel.  We have responded factually below it.

Seth, Paul lays out a balanced and insightful look at the SCVNGR/VinTank relationship, speaking of his own experience and the disappointment when expectations were not met. Your rebuttal is a juvenile piece of work, only underscoring an already demonstrated inability to appreciate the full weight of a business partnership.  Instead of taking responsibility for a failure to deliver, your arrogance and overdeveloped ego provoked you to lash out with spiteful jabs and misinformation, regardless of how much can be discredited with a quick fact-check? What sort of message does that send to your potential clients? I imagine it won’t be long before the leaders in all industries wise up and give SCVNGR a wide berth when considering new media partners for their own work.

Those are the titles you use when you think more highly of yourself than you really are.

They’re going for the quantity over quality approach. You know, since that always works so well…

Always be wary of a ‘gaming platform’ built by a boy who proudly proclaims to work 24/7 and sleeps in his office.  If you don’t have friends, how can you understand real fun and… games?

False promises are rampant these days it seems. I recently vetted a business and found that there was nothing but smoke and mirrors behind it. Thank God I didn’t go as far as introducing them to my friends/partners.  I’m sorry that you had to go through this and I admire you greatly for publicly warning folks under the circumstances.

I highly recommend this times article (mostly) on the founder of Scvnger http://nyti.ms/bNKP76
Just Manic Enough: Seeking Perfect Entrepreneurs. “I want to build the game layer on top of the world.”

[...] there’s also bits of scvngr hate going around (http://www.vintank.com/2011/06/why-we-abandoned-scvngr-and-you-should-too/), with a little positive attention being thrown at [...]

[...] Why we abandoned Scvngr . . . and you should too. | VinTank (tags: scvngr fail wine community) [...]

[...] the company detailed on its blog how it was working with a startup called [...]

contracts might be better than promises.

Flame wars make for great spectator sport, but the one between VinTank and SCVNGR is now over.

Some business partnerships aren’t meant to be. We both apologize for crossing the line a number of times as we came to this realization.

For example, VinTank made a bad call by posting the initial public blog.

And SCVNGR’s subsequent characterization of VinTank as a bad agency was unfair.

While we won’t be nominating each other for any industry awards, we now understand each other’s position much better. We share a healthy respect for each other’s business. And wish each other the best of luck.

[...] company Vintank has written a scathing review of SCVNGR on its blog; it encourages every small business to stop using the mobile checkin company for their [...]

Check out comments posted in reply to Downy’s most recent post on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/downy.
SVNGR just held an event with Downy yesterday in Las Vegas with a
supposed $20,000 grand prize. I participated, and it turned out to be
the hugest scam ever. The winners were all hired staff/actors. When the
winners were announced, several people called BS immediately right in
the room.

“My sister and I were in line
with our partners before the race started. The couple that ended up
winning was standing RIGHT behind us! Someone with a Downy staff
shirt came up to them and handed the cameraman that was standing with
them a STAFF BADGE. He put it in his pocket. Then the staff guy tried
to hand the male of the couple one and he said he didn’t wanna take it
right at that moment and mumbled something to the guy so the female said

to just give it to her and she would stick it in her purse. The
camera guy that was with them took NUMEROUS pics of them AND stayed in
line with them!! Lo and behold, THEY were the “winning” couple!!! It
was freakin’ FIXED!!!!!!”

Who knows if Downy was really in on the scam or not. Maybe SCVNGR did with Downy what they did with Vintank and offered up their own prizes to give out, which all they did then was award their own staff the prizes so that the money never left their pockets. And apparently, this has happened before with SCVNGR, where people felt cheated and ripped off when the winners were announced.

“Weird, because a similar race
SCVNGR did here a few months ago – Diamond Dash – had a similar
outcome. Lots of shady stuff. Most of us are looking for a fair,
competitive, fun day… so its disappointing when this stuff happens.”Yes, SCVNGR appears to have a winning business model and premise and I’m sure they impress companies with their presentations, but their corruptness and shadiness makes them completely worthless. Apparently, they not only cheat the consumers and participants who play the game, they also cheat the businesses who hire them to promote their company/brand. If Downy had no idea about the scam that SCVNGR pulled, unfortunately, their brand image will now suffer as a result of it, and so will other businesses who hire SCVNGR.

It’s quite disingenuous that you would not provide an update that balances your interpretation of events a little. Business Insider ran the story of the above described events, but then also provided the startup a chance to respond. I was looking up Scvngr for my own purposes and ran across this little squabble, which, I have to admit, turned me off for a moment. But once I read the above and felt like Scvngr was bad news, I read an additional article that Google brought up that provided the said response that can be found http://www.businessinsider.com/scvngrs-response-to-angry-client-vintank-our-sales-person-screwed-up-but-vintank-never-paid-us-a-dime-and-is-using-us-as-a-scapegoat-2011-6 It seems that vintank wanted to get stuff for free and got a little greedy when they didn’t get for free what they surely felt giddy and entitled to getting when some overzealous sales person acted without authority. After reading both sides, I have to say Scvngr’s story sounds far more plausible, even though it might not be the exact course of events.

That being said though, pmabray, have you continued to grow an develop? It’s been a year, is there any movement?

Dan, we will not be updating our perspective per our agreement with Scvngr. That being said we have grown our business 400% since this post and have a strong and meaningful relationship with Foursquare.

Dan, Please see my comment below. We have experienced incredible growth in business, press, and strong business relationships (such as Foursquare and more).