It probably all depends on the pinging service. The indexing service that I use has never gave me any problems with Google or any penalized sites.
It doesnt matter what pinging services you use pinging too many backlinks at once can have a really negative effect because so many links pop up pointing back to your site at the same time then nothing for few days/weeks then loads more pop up next time you ping, its backlinking 101!! All with the same ip too probably.