Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End Video Game Review

From a movie standpoint, Pirates is an incredibly family friendly, and overall fun franchise. It would only make sense for a video game, and it seems that if it wasn’t pressured to be released simultaneously with the film that the lackluster experience that the next gen version of Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End provides could easily have been avoided. Despite its standout points, Pirates 3 is more blunder than plunder.

Your first mission in the Pirates video game takes you behind the scenes of the second film, Dead Man’s Chest. As Jack Sparrow you’ll undergo a painstaking tutorial that holds your hand for too long, and far too often. The tutorial gives you an idea of how repetitious the combat is going to be immediately, and also shows how convoluted and linear the title is. Swordplay consists of tapping “A” (Xbox 360) twice, after which time your enemy will be stunned, and turn his back to you. Hit your single attack button again, and it’s instant death for your fatuously brain dead foe. Waves of enemies come at you, and unfortunately you’ll be pressing the attack button until it gets jammed, or falls off. The only variation of combat you’ll find as you play along is the finishing moves – Pull your trigger, and hit your “B” or “Y” button for a slick little finishing move. Each character has his or her own unique set of finishers, however, a single change in fighting style isn’t enough to mix things up to make the combat satisfying. Using projectiles like knives, or guns is fun and very pirate-esque, however, the lack of a cursor provides little to no aid in taking down your foes. Plenty of knives will zip by your foes, as they remain not even remotely close to being any sort of harmed by your projectile. A reticle would have been a very helpful, and seemingly obvious addition to the mechanics. Boss battles mix up the combat again, but simply consist of flicking the controller’s analog stick up or down to attack or defend. They aren’t particularly difficult, but it’s a nice change of pace. However, by your second duel, you will still find that the tutorial is walking you through, pestering you over and over again after a few hours of play. If you can get passed the gameplay and its brutal monotony, you should be more than satisfied with what is the tip of the Pirates 3 video game experience.

While the game doesn’t necessarily break any barriers with the way it plays, for a film game, it’s surprisingly detailed. In fact, for a next gen game, characters and environments are noticeably quite pretty. Rain effects over recognizable environments make for an immersive experience as you play as a set amount of familiar film characters, from Jack, to Elizabeth to Gibbs. All of these characters are voiced by sound-alike’s who will make you turn your head twice in conviction, it’s just sad how little they speak, as if the developers were curious as to how fans might react to them. The audio and animation in the characters really help capture the source material in a convincing and enjoyable way. Fans won’t only enjoy this, as they’ll likely enjoy more of the ‘off-camera’ scenes, like how Sparrow escaped prison, or how Will Turner sneaks in to Jones’ organ hall. Treasure hunting is abundant and appropriate, and point to the majority of the 360 version’s fun-to-earn-achievements .

However, among all of this, gamers won’t  be satisfied as gamers. Repetition dominates this generally simple game, but it’s a relatively well used license for a video game. The most damaging part of the game is that there is no auto save. I found myself playing for a number of hours and later finding myself playing through it again because the game did not save. That said, the fact that I went back shows how interested I was to play it again, but it was purely out of a fan lust. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End isn’t forced to walk the plank, but it’s really getting on this captain’s last nerve. It’s just enough to stay alive, but the simplicity and constant guiding you along really hurts it overall.

'Dream House' Presents Five Of The Scariest Movie Houses Of All Time!

It’s often wildly underestimated how your living environment impacts the way you feel. Even after doing away with fancy stuff like interior decorators, Feng Shui and “Better Homes And Gardens” it often just comes down to the basics of the space. Some places make you feel at home, other places can make you feel “off”... andother places can drive you a little nuts. And if you don’t believe in any of that stuff, well, there’s still plenty of houses occupied by serial killers, cannibal families and maybe... just maybe ... a few ghosts.

Universal Pictures’ suspense thriller Dream House (official website) hits theaters on September 30th. Directed by Jim Sheridan, the film stars Daniel Craig, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz, Marton Csokas, Elias Koteas and Jane Alexander.

In the film, "Successful publisher Will Atenton (Craig) quit a high power job in Manhattan to relocate his wife, Libby (Weisz), and two girls to a quaint New England town. But as they settle into their new life, they discover their perfect home was the murder scene of a mother and her children. And the entire city believes it was at the hands of the husband who survived.

When Will investigates, he’s not sure if he’s starting to see ghosts or if the tragic story is just hitting too close to home. His only clues come from Ann Paterson (Watts), a mysterious neighbor who knew those who were shot. And as Will and Ann piece together the haunting puzzle, they must find out who murdered the family in Will’s dream house before he returns to kill again.”

Hit the jump for our Dream House sponsored look at five of the scariest movie houses of all time!



*Note - This list does NOT include hotels. Just a heads up before you wonder why The Overlook doesn’t make an appearance.

PSYCHO (1960)



This one almost has as much to do with the walkway leading up to the house as it does the events that transpire inside it or down below in the Bates Motel. No, Norman Bates is not incredibly well adjusted. Yes, there’s an awful lot of inappropriate taxidermy happening up there. But the architecture itself just screams, “stay the f*ck away”! It’s not an inviting place, and those stairs almost swagger with menace... just daring you to take that mini-hike to come up and meet “Mother”.

THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979)



When your real estate agent gives full disclosure, please listen. Even if I’d found the house of my dreams, I’d think twice about moving in there if someone had so much as hung themselves from the rafters. So if I’m George Lutz and I’m looking for a place to raise a family, the only thing I would raise in a house where some other dude massacred his whole family would be an eyebrow. Also not cool, houses with windows that could pass for the eyes of a Jack-O-Lantern.

POLTERGEIST (1982)



Indian burial grounds are never a good place to build a home. Especially when all the developers did was move the headstones but leave the bodies underneath. This is something the Freeling family learns the hard way when their daughter Carol Anne disappears into the ether, their son Robbie is attacked by a tree and a clown. To top it off, Mrs. Freeling is forced to take a mud bath with the remains of more than a few people who aren’t pleased to see suburbia itself constructed over their eternal resting place.

THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS (1991)



This house. Oh man. The worst thing about it is how hard it is to get out of, something Fool and Leroy learn the hard way the night they break in. There are some seriously screwed up family dynamics/breeding issues going on here, as Alice and Roach (who have never seen the outside world) can tell you. Actually, Roach can’ttell you anything but he can nod along. It’s not the children living under the stairs you should be afraid of, it’s their ‘parents’. Just ask the multitude of “burglars [who] died. Or salesmen, workmen, other people who saw too much.”

THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)



Here, it’s not so much the house as it is the basement. The house is pretty bad with all the moths and terrible music and all. But the basement. With the well. Empty wells in basements should be illegal, I really can’t see how they could be used for anything but evil. You see that pic above? Imagine if that was the best view your new (very temporary) living arrangement afforded you. Otherwise it’s just the occasional glance at the bloody fingernails of those who were there before you and tried to escape. Then there’s all this stuff with lotion, baskets and annoying dogs. As well as the fact that you’re just waiting to become part of Buffalo Bill’s drag outfit. You are going to be cut and sewn and worn by that dude while he tucks his bits between his legs. No. Not a good house. 

Eduardo Sanchez Updates Return of the 'Blair Witch'

Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick broke onto the scene back in 1999 when Artisan released The Blair Witch Project unto the world. Banking nearly $250 million worldwide boxoffice, a sequel was quickly rushed into production that failed to make it past $50 million across the globe. Since then, rumors of a third film have freely floating out of the director's mouths.

Following the premiere of Lovely Molly, Bloody Disgusting's Fred Topel caught up with Sanchez who revealed new info on the long-gestured sequel that will bring back many of the original film's actors. The real question is: with found footage being the new "cool," why the hell hasn't Lionsgate pushed this guy off the ground? Maybe this is the year...



In Sanchez's ouvre, the 'Blair Witch' creator confirmed he is ready to make a third film to bring the series back from 'Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2.' "It's completely up to Lionsgate," Sanchez said. "Dan and I are ready to do it. We've been toying around with a sequel idea that we really like. It's just a matter of getting our schedules in line and having Lionsgate sign off on the idea. We've been ready to do a 'Blair Witch' movie for a long time. We're as close as we've ever been to making it happen but it's still not a guaranteed thing."

Sanchez and Myrick's idea would basically ignore the Joe Berlinger sequel. "I actually liked the sequel but at the same time it exists in a world outside of the movie. So if we want to do a sequel to 'Blair Witch Project,' we have to stay in that world, which 'Book of Shadows' didn't stay in that world. 'Book of Shadows' created a different world. It's like if the sequel to 'Jaws' started with shots of people lined up to see 'Jaws' in the movie theater. For 'Book of Shadows' it worked in a certain way but to me my biggest gripe with Artisan was you shouldn't have called it 'Blair Witch 2.' It would've been fine to call it Blair Witch Chronicles. It wasn't really a sequel to our movie. so it would be a direct sequel to our film living in that mythology of Burkittsville, being possessed, haunted by something."

Now that found footage is passé, a 'Blair Witch 3' would update the storytelling by evolving from the "film student in the woods" style of the original. "Right now, the idea has no first person in it at all, but we'll see," Sanchez said. "There's always room for new ideas to come in."

Expect Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard and Michael C. Williams to make a comeback too, though not as the leads. "The plan is to have them [back]," Sanchez revealed. "They're probably not going to be the main characters but they're definitely characters in the sequel."

That means the sequel may answer questions about the original's ambiguous ending. It certainly can't be a flashback if the actors are all 10 years older now. "No, it's not."

Killer quake hits India, Nepal

Kathmandu: On Sunday evening, at least five people were killed, three in Kathmandu alone, dozens injured and houses collapsed as a major earthquake hit Nepal, triggering panic and chaos nationwide.

Measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale, the quake hit Nepal at 6.25 pm, lasting for around two minutes. Power supply and telephone lines have been disrupted since the quake hit.

The British Embassy building in Kathmandu, located in the Lainchaur area, close to the Indian Embassy, collapsed after the quake, smashing a car and killing three persons who were in the car.

Two more people were said to have been killed in the congested Kalanki area of the capital city, but there was no immediate official confirmation.

There was no immediate official confirmation of a large number of deaths in the tea garden district of Jhapa in eastern Nepal, contrary to reports in the Indian media.

The army personnel and police battled to remove the debris of the British Embassy and rescue the people trapped under it. Three of the injured died in Manmohan Memorial Hospital during treatment and at least two more were receiving treatment.

The dead were identified as Sajan Shrestha of Gorkha district, his daughter Ashima and Bir Bahadur Majhi.

Four others were said to be badly injured and were under treatment at the hospital.

There were angry outbursts from locals and passersby who blamed the embassy authorities for the mishap.

In Sunsari, eastern Nepal, two men were killed, the police said. They were identified as Santosh Pariyar and his nephew Bimal Pariyar.

In Sankhuwasabha in eastern Nepal, at least 16 buildings were affected, including a police camp, a bank and a school.

Nepal's Parliament was in session when the quake struck, causing alarmed lawmakers to scream and run out for safety, causing Chairman Subash Nembang to adjourn the house for sometime.

The epicentre of the quake in Nepal was Taplejung and Sankhuwasabha, initial reports said.

Hundreds of people rushed out of their houses on to the streets in the cramped capital with little open space, crying and taking the names of gods as the tremors started.

It was the biggest tremor to hit the quake-prone nation after 1990 when thousands of people were killed in Nepal and Bihar in India.

The chaos was compounded by heavy rains and blackout. Telephone lines were disrupted and the dark roads were filled with the blare of ambulances.

There have been a series of warnings by international organisations that Nepal will be hit harder than Haiti -- struck by a 7-point Richter scale temblor in 2010 -- if another killer quake struck, because of the hill nation's lack of readiness to cope with disaster.

Kathmandu especially is chock-a-block with old decrepit buildings, which are endangered and liable to collapse, adding to the crisis.

The disaster comes ahead of the former Hindu kingdom gearing up to celebrate its biggest festivals Dashain and Tihar starting next month.

Suddenly It’s Clear: 10 Transparent Screen Trick Shots [PICS]

Here at Mashable we’re big fans of photos that make you look twice. The “transparent screen” trick shot does just that, offering your eyes a delicious dose of unreality.

To celebrate such cunning creations, we’ve collected 10 of our favorite “see-through display” images into a gallery for yourviewing pleasure.

SEE ALSO: 10 Ingenious iPad Self-Portraits [PICS]

Suspend disbelief and take a look through the photo gallery below. Link in the comments to any transparent screen shots you’ve created and, if you don’t know how — stayed tuned for a tutorial coming soon.

Facebook’s Navigation Bar Becomes Omnipresent

Many Facebook users (us included) noticed that the top navigation bar is now locked on top of the screen even if you scroll the page down. This behavior is new: Before, the top navigation bar would scroll up with the page, and now it’s visible all the time.

This subtle change lets users always access some of the most important features on Facebook: friend requests, messages, notifications and search on the left side, as well as home and profile anchor buttons and account settings on the right.

For comparison, Twitter uses a similar floating design for its navigation bar, which is also always visible on top.

Inside Facebook thinks this may be the first stage in a much bigger redesign, which is to be unveiled at Facebook’s F8 conference. If they’re right, Facebook is looking to lock the ads on the right side of the screen to be always visible, too, which would surely increase the click-through rates but would also make the page a bit more crowded.

Has the new, locked top navigation bar gone live for you? How do you like it? Please, share your opinions in the comments.

Emptiness :'(

Emptiness :'(

Official website of Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

http://www.rio2016.org/

New 'Wrong Turn 4'

Wow, are we at Wrong Turn 4 already? Three Finger, Saw-Tooth and One-Eye are at it again (in the dead of winter this time). Who would have guessed that when the original Wrong Turn came out over eight years ago that these mutants would have had franchise potential?

Last month we got a look at the trailer and cover art for the DVD. Now there's another bloody glance at the film.

"At an isolated hospital deep in the West Virginia wilderness, three hideously deformed mutants go on a merciless killing spree. Now, decades later, this family of blood-thirsty cannibals is stalking new prey: a group of young skiers trapped by a blizzard. The abandoned medical wards soon become killing fields as the panicked victims come face to face with a chilling choice: fight back or die. With bonus footage too graphic for theaters, WRONG TURN 4 takes you to the most terrifying place of all...the beginning"

Hit the jump for the pic. Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings is out on Blu-ray and DVD October 25th. 

Shun Your Fake Facebook Friends with This New Feature

Finally, Facebook is helping users create a list of real friends inside their official friends list. There's no need to share everything with everyone, after all. But watch out, because people will know when they're downgraded to your D-list. (Update below.)

Throughout the next week, Facebook will create empty lists of "close friends," "acquaintances" and "restricted" buddies for everyone, according to the Facebook blog. As you add friends to these lists, their posts will be specially weighted in your news feed, and you'll be able to target status updates and photos at them. Facebook will also generate, and magically pre-populate, "smart lists" of work, school and family friends at whom you can also target content.

It's a great feature, turning Facebook relationships from binary, weirdly robotic Friend vs Not Friend associations into something more nuanced and more reflective of the gray areas of real world social interaction. There's one big downside though: Facebook lists are, by default, public -everyone can see who is on your "close friends" list and who has been relegated to "acquaintance," unless Facebook has quietly made some change to its system (none has been mentioned). The lists even show up right on your profile. Instructions for fixing this are here; you'll basically need to make a "Custom" group of people who can see your friend lists ("close friends" would be a good choice).

This feature is also long overdue. Many of Facebook's recent privacy scandals came because the company pushed content like status updates, profile photos, friends lists, and likes and interests into public view, when people in fact wanted more, not less, control over their privacy. With this feature, Facebook is taking another step in the direction of what users seem to want.

It took long enough, though. Facebook was quite obviously spurred to action by intense competition from Google Plus. But then the company's founder and CEO is not exactly known as an expert on the subtleties of human to human interaction. In the spirit of building bridges between normal people and Facebook cyborgs, BEGIN COMMUNICATION: 010001110110111101101111011001000010000001101010
011011110110001000100001

Update: Facebook will change its defaults when this feature launches, such that your friend lists are no longer visible from your profile, by default. This reverses the old behavior, described in the links we used above. A Facebook spokesman contacted us to say that this should keep your lists well hidden from your friends, so people won't know where they've been slotted. Very encouraging.

Dead Island Review: It's Time For A Vacation

My trip to Banoi taught me a few things. It taught me to know when to stay and fight and when I should haul ass in the opposite direction. It also taught me the importance of teamwork, because surviving in this zombie infested hellhole will definitely require a little help. And lastly, it showed me just how crucial it is to be mindful of my surroundings. You'll need to be alert every second you spend in this island city, because every sound and every shadow can give you important information about just what the fuck that thing is that's waiting for you around that next corner.

As gamers, most of us have experienced our fair share of zombie games. From Resident Evil to Dead Rising, Left 4 Dead to Call of Duty's Zombie mode, there's a very good chance you're familiar with what it takes to slay a being of the undead persuasion. Dead Island knows this, in fact, it's more than aware that you know that conserving ammo is crucial to survival and aiming for the head is the best way to take these bastards out. The game doesn't mess with this tried and true formula, so instead it builds a gorgeous world around it, throws in an engaging story, and sprinkles on a few RPG elements. How does all this work together? Let's find out.

The Baby Factor: If Fallout 3, Borderlands, and Dead Rising decided to get together for a Ménage à trios, Dead Island would be their beautiful, bloody baby.

I really don't want to bury the lead here, because Dead Island is a truly fantastic game. Sure, it's a little rough around the edges and could use a little polish in a few areas, but for an open-world zombie RPG with somewhere between 20-30 hours worth of content, this is a damn fine experience, and a surprisingly bug-free one at that.

No, it's not completely bug free, but when you compare it to other similarly lengthed games it's not bad at all. Occasionally, I'd have textures that would take their sweet time loading in, character models that would glide right through objects, or audio synching issues, but nothing that ever hurt the experience. I did see zombies teleport through walls only to start wailing on me. That was scary because I thought I was safe, then all of sudden I'm being raped very intimately by an elderly woman. Sometimes, no does mean no.



You're probably wondering aloud to yourself, possibly even in a Elizabethan accent, that a game of this length can't possibly maintain an intense pace throughout the entire game. To that I proclaim, in an equally as unfittingly chosen accent that it does in fact, keep up the pace. I dare say it improves over time. Dare I? Yes, I think I shall. Despite being in the 20-30 hour range (assuming you do the side quests, and you really should), it's an incredible frantic game the entire way through.

Dead Island manages to pull from a variety of sources while making everything it borrows its own. It takes a few pages out of Fallout 3's book, the weapon crafting of Dead Rising, the loot-whorishness/4-player co-op of Borderlands, and maybe a little combat from Condemned. Some of these things work well in the world that's been created, others do not. The characters look and act as strange and robotic as the ones in Fallout, but scavenging for items and completing quests for items/EXP/cash rewards is incredibly satisfying.

This game is definitely going to get compared to Dead Rising, but the comparisons end past your ability to craft weapons. This is one thing Dead Island managed to take and actually improve, because instead of your weapons breaking and vanishing after they're used up, you can just repair them. This means if you get a weapon you really like, you don't have to worry about losing it. There also aren't any time limits, so fuck you Dead Rising.



Did I mention this game has loot? It does, and while it might not be the greatest game for a loot whore such as myself, it's still insanely addicting getting as many cool weapons as you can. I was always immediately excited when I came across a random purple or orange weapon in the world, but sadly, that excitement almost always vanished when I realized the unique item I just found actually wasn't very good. This is rarely an issue because for the most part you're going to be using modded weapons you created yourself using one of the game's many recipes.

Then there's the 4-player co-op, which is obviously the game's biggest selling point, and it's been done incredibly well here. Playing online has been made as intuitive as possible; say you're playing the game alone and someone that's also playing in a joinable game comes near, all you have to do is press a button and voilà! You're in. I suggest playing with other people because this game is painfully difficult alone. I can't tell you how many times I died in the second area you make it to (there are three total), but thankfully, the punishment for dying isn't severe. You lose a little money and go back a few paces, leaving all the damage you dealt against the nearby enemies in tact.

As for the RPG elements, you can choose from four characters that are each experts in a certain field, including sharp weapons, but weapons, throwing, and guns. I chose the sharp weapons expert because I can appreciate a woman who knows how to wield a knife. Sharp weapons can sever limbs, blunt ones can break them (side note: it's never not funny watching a big walker zombie shuffling about, flailing his shattered limbs while he tries to headbutt you), and the guns shoot bullets. Adding to the customization are the skill trees, so you can tailor your character to suit how you play. This also means that even if you have multiple characters of the same type, there's a very good chance that you still won't be exactly like the other players in the game.



Dead Island isn't a perfect game, but it does manage to do everything that's important incredibly well. The loot is solid, the weapons are satisfying, the combat is surprisingly good, and the gore is top-notch. For a game that takes place primarily in the daylight, it's also really fucking terrifying. This is an unforgettable experience that's as addicting as it is well-paced. If you're a fan of RPG's, zombies, or sandbox games, or simply want a game to play with your friends.

The Final Word: Dead Island is a place you should definitely consider visiting. Just bring sunscreen, because sunburns suck so hard.

7 Tips for Dealing With Upset Facebook Fans

By Jim Belosic
Published August 30, 2011 

What do you do when you’ve just received a less-than-complimentary Facebook wall post from someone who likes your business (or used to, so it seems)?

The customer could have a simple complaint, or be so upset he’s gone on the offensive, making sure you and the rest of your community knows he’s angry.

Your next steps are key to retaining not only the business of the angry customer, but the business of other fans who like your page as well.

#1: Respond no matter what

It’s vitally important that the complaints and issues your fans pose on your wall are addressed. Inactivity on your part will appear as though you’re trying to ignore the issue and sweep it under the rug. Being unresponsive does nothing more than incite more anger and increase the chance the user will come back with even more angry wall posts.

Moreover, your community can see that angry post. If you don’t reply, it appears as though you are unconcerned with customer support, which can be detrimental to your reputation.

A response that illustrates respect and understanding for customers’ concerns willindicate your intention to rectify any problems. By addressing this upset fan,Newegg is demonstrating that they value their fans’ opinions—even the negative ones.

An upset fan who promises to shop Newegg less frequently still receives prompt, respectful customer service.

#2: Be patient and understanding

In dealing with upset fans, you must remember that you are closer to your industry, products and services than they are. What may seem like basic, common knowledge to you is often foreign to the end user.

Take a step back and put yourself in your customer’s shoes. This can go a long way in understanding why he or she is frustrated. It may not be your company’s fault that the customer is upset.

Whether or not the fault lies on your end, a simple apology will go a long way in keeping the customer’s business. Instead of trying to figure out where the blame lies,turn upset fans into loyal customers by making their experience better.

#3: Contact the Customer Privately

Sending a private message or email to the customer opens up more options for you to address his or her complaints. The goal here is to extend some sort of token letting the customer know you’re sorry he or she is dissatisfied with your company, and you’re willing to make it right. Whether that’s offering the number of the manager’s direct phone line or a discount off the next purchase, moving the conversation from public to private allows you to give the customer a personal touch that signals you care.

However, offering things like direct lines and special discounts publicly can lead to other people creating problems just to get that special treatment, so it’s best to keep these practices off the wall.

While Hayneedle’s customer shown below isn’t visibly upset about the damaged order, Hayneedle handles the situation perfectly, and contacts the customer privately to resolve the issue.

Hayneedle moves conversation with a customer from the Facebook wall to private messages to better help the customer.

#4: Consider asking the fan to remove the post

Say you’ve discussed the issue privately, any problems have been straightened out, and the faultfinder is, once again, your happy customer.

While your wall is an integral part of your web presence, the customer may be unaware of how important it really is to your reputation. If he or she is satisfied with the resolution you’ve reached and grateful for the time you’ve spent making things right,there’s nothing wrong with privately asking the person to remove the post.Most of the time, he or she will remove the angry wall post.

#5: Respond back to the original post

As a general rule, you, the Facebook page admin, should not remove negative posts.Not everyone is going to have a glowing review of your product or company. Social media users know this, and if they see nothing but positive comments, they’ll assume your company is deleting the bad comments.

If you don’t feel comfortable asking your customer to remove the post, you do have the option of publicly responding back to that post. Express happiness in the resolution you’ve reached and thankfulness for her business. Even a negative post can be a good thing, as long as the last comment is positive. Your reputation among your community will soar when they see how well you take care of your customers.

Zappos is shown below addressing a negative comment. The helpful attitude effectively nullifies any poor reflection on Zappos or their services.

Zappos responds quickly with understanding and a desire to create a better experience for their upset fan.

#6: Let your community respond

Letting your community respond for you is really the end result of all the earlier steps. It requires copious time, energy and patience with your fans, and a fantastic product. After you’ve engaged with your fans for a period of time by answering questions and offering support, you’ll notice that your fans will be more active on your page, even to the point of assisting each other.

What’s great about getting this community support is that there’s a genuine credibility when fans endorse your business for you. They become your eager virtual support agents, answering questions and solving problems before you have a chance to. But this is a level you can only achieve if you’ve nurtured and supported your community.

The Pampered Chef has built a fantastic online community of users who love the product so much, and who have been given such great support themselves, peers will answer each other’s questions before The Pampered Chef has to respond.

An outpouring of community support is the direct result of The Pampered Chef's top-notch customer service.

#7: The Last Resort

If the offended party is unreceptive to your customer service attempts, blatantly hostile and only active in your community to start arguments, banning the individual is a last-resort option. And anyone leveling expletives or racial slurs against your staff or fans should be banned. Your staff and your fans don’t deserve to be subjected to the abuse, and in the end, they will respect you more because you took the initiative.