erikdj79

In the most stunning turn of events ever, I received my book back today...signed by Kevin Eastman on 11/20/23. Which means they were completely incorrect when they told me it never got signed. They had it signed and then lost it somewhere. I got exactly what I had wanted in the first place, albeit taking a long time to do so. Unbelievable.

Although I am appreciative for CGC Mike sending a note, it still remains to be seen what may come of it.

ThothAmon why is that? Clearly CGC Mike cares, but it doesn't change the atrocious customer service I've experienced so far.

@GaryHanson yeah, you didn't read the whole post. That was a very tiny portion of it where I was using that to illustrate a difference in the way my wife and I handle things.

Thank you, it is greatly appreciated. Also, I should mention that the $20 I was re-charged for pressing has been refunded as of this morning.

@CGC Mike - Yes, it is currently at CCS. Submission #4374466.

Yeah, I've sent plenty of books back for poor QC "Mechanical Errors," and I've learned to photograph each and every book before I send it in, but this is by far the worst experience I've had with them. In a lot of cases, they seem to acknowledge that they mishandled a book by giving it a clearly higher grade than it SHOULD get...I had a Grim #1 2nd print that I sent in, it came back a 9.8 but with a very obvious tear right in the center of the front cover. White paper on the overall dark cover. And I hadn't taken a pic before hand, because, why would I? Why would I have sent it in that way? But they excuse it with, "Well, sometimes, even though a book has obvious damage, it can still be a 9.8." Really? So you damaged my book, but gave it a 9.8 anyway, so thanks, now I have a book no one wants.

I have to get this off my chest, because my wife is tired of hearing about it and I'm hoping maybe someone at CGC will see this and realize how poorly the entire situation has been handled. I sent in New Age Comics #1 to be signed by Kevin Eastman late last year. When it showed up on the tracking site at CGC, it showed up as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2 2nd printing. I immediately contacted CGC customer service by text; this was on December 11th. I explained that the book showed as TMNT #2, but was not the one I sent in. She acknowledged that, yes, that was correct, my packing slip showed New Age Comics #1. She said she would notify the processing team and have to follow up more because she didn't know exactly what was going on at that point. I got an email back the following day, December 12th, stating the processing team is adding a note to my submission so it could be checked at the next scan, and they will correct the issue before it is sent back out to me. Shortly after, the book changed to grading status, and STILL showed as TMNT #2. I texted again on December 15th. He said he reviewed the ticket, and could see that it was graded that day but still shows as having the incorrect information. He said he followed up with the leadership team that was working on it, and that since it was still in the grading room they should be able to locate it ASAP and resolve it. I expressed that my biggest concern is that it is not a labeling issue, but that my book was switched with someone else's. I made it very clear that I was trying to get this caught/resolved before my book was shipped to someone else. I got no email follow up from that exchange. On December 19th, I messaged again (I later expressed that it was probably a mistake on my part to think that this could be resolved by text or email rather than a good old-fashioned phone call, but I also later found that calling doesn't seem to help either). I asked for a status update, as nothing had changed and I had not received any follow-up information. I was told the operations team confirmed that they were going to review it before it shipped out, and that it may be an "internal software issue," so they will have someone review and make corrections when it goes to "quality control/finalization." I asked if it was the correct book, and again said that my concern was not a mislabeling issue, but rather that my book was switched with someone else's. She said there was no way to know that until the order is physically handed to a manager, which will take place in quality control. I expressed that I was not really happy with the prospect that my book could be sent to someone else, and that I had contacted them as soon as I saw the error to prevent it getting to that stage. She told me it had just gone to encapsulation about 2 hours ago, and should be moved to quality control shortly, so an update would be coming soon. On December 21st, I again messaged, asking for an update since we were going into the long holiday weekend. The book had been in "grading/quality control" since the 19th. I was told that the order was currently preparing for shipping. My exact response was, "But it's still showing as the wrong book!" I got, "I don't think it will be shipping out today, but should be shipping out next week when we are back in the office." "It hasn't been corrected!" She said that she could see that the team was working on getting it updated properly for me, and once that was completed it would ship. I asked again for confirmation that it was the correct book and just a labeling issue, which they had been telling me was the problem all along. I got, "Yes, I can confirm that it is the correct book and it will be updated properly on both the label and the order." December 26th. The book showed as shipped. Still with the incorrect information, and actually had the scans of TMNT #2, which was NOT MY BOOK. This time I called. I told her I was extremely unhappy that I had been calling about this error since December 11th, and now we're at the point where someone else's book was being shipped to me. She contacted the shipping team, who assured her there was only a label created at this point, and she requested that it be sent back to the head grader to verify again that it was the correct book. December 29th, the book showed as shipped and was currently located at a processing center in Phoenix, the last step before being out for delivery to my house. The wrong book! I messaged again. I was told from what she could tell in the case status, there were attempts to pull the book before shipping to correct the issue, but nothing confirmed the correction so they requested that FedEx return the package to them. I asked to have a supervisor call me, and received a call within a reasonable amount of time, I believe later that day. Here's where I went off a little bit. I told him that this was unacceptable, that I had been in contact with CGC about this error since I discovered it on December 11th, and I had been following up to make sure it was fixed, expressing each time that I did not want my book to be shipping to someone else. It seemed like no one had taken my concerns seriously, because it had reached the point where someone else's book was about to be delivered to my house, and I had given them more than enough time to prevent it from getting that far. Not to mention, at this time, no one knows were MY book actually is. He did seem genuinely concerned, and actually frustrated that his people had allowed it to get to this point, and told me he would be taking point and following up. I have never heard back from him again. So the incorrect book was returned to CGC. I continued to follow up, this time through e-mail. On January 8th, I got a message stating that my book had been located and was in hand, and they are currently in the process of getting it resent to me. On January 9th, I got an email from another customer service rep that said she saw I was informed they had found my book. She told me it as now being graded and encapsulated, but unfortunately was not signed. They would be crediting all submission fees and processing the book so that it could be returned to me as soon as possible. I responded with asking if it was being pressed as well, since that was originally asked for, even though I didn't really want the book graded since it wasn't signed. I also mentioned that I knew it was not a huge part of things, but I had paid $5 to ship it to them in the first place, and asked for that back. I didn't think that was a big ask, given everything I had been doing to deal with this problem that was only brought to their attention when I discovered it, and that the book had not been signed, which was the only reason I had sent it in in the first place. She replied that she would have to confirm that it was being pressed, and did not respond at all to my request for my $5 back. January 15th I emailed with a different customer service rep, asking if there was any information or explanation for how any of this happened in the first place. I also mentioned again that I would like them to figure out how to refund that $5 shipping to me, so that I can be made whole for my book. I was told there really wasn't any information on how it happened, and the request for the $5 was completely ignored. About an hour later, I emailed again, because I had realized that the terminology previously used was "crediting all submission fees." I stated I was not ok with a credit, and expected a full refund. Honestly, I think that should have been done in the first place rather than just "crediting" it to my account. She replied that she had asked the accounting team to process a full refund for the fees rather than a credit. So here's where my wife and I differ. She would have been contacting CGC demanding stock in the company for their screw up. As frustrating as this whole thing was, that's not me. I look at it as more of a practical matter. In the end, I don't think a refund of the fees and a book being graded without the signature is adequate compensation for everything I went through with this. Really, I think the appropriate response would be for CGC to reach out to Kevin Eastman and arrange to get it signed, press it, grade it, and send it back to me. But....given the fact that they aren't even willing to send me the $5 that I paid to ship it to them in the first place, I understand this is not going to happen. Ultimately, I don't think they have done enough to fix their monumental screw-up here, but I don't really know what else I would ask for. After losing my book for however long, finding it and not getting it signed, ALL AT MY PROMPTING, I really don't think just crediting the fees back to me is enough. I really do want my $5 back, but quite frankly, I'm tired of calling them. Oh, and this isn't over. On January 18th, CGC created a new submission number for my book, and sent it to pressing. AND CHARGED MY CARD $20 FOR THE PRESSING. I hadn't even gotten the refund of the original fees yet! So I called again. I was assured that my refund had been processed, which was good, but told him I expected the new $20 charge to be cleared/refunded by end of day. And, of course, it wasn't. So, January 19th, I called again. The original fees refund had shown up, but I was still waiting for the new $20 pressing charge to be refunded. She contacted accounting to make sure that was being processed. While I had her on the phone, I told her that foreseeing when it went to grading, they would also likely charge me again for that, I would like her to make sure that doesn't happen. She told me she put in the request, but there really is no way to make sure they don't charge me for grading, and that if they do, I can call back to have it refunded. Ok....so you're telling me....that after ALL that went on here, ALL of this...it was not possible for some kind of note or documentation to be put somewhere that says, "Hey, we screwed up on this one, make sure we don't charge him anything." Really? Not possible? Realistically, I'm a little frustrated too that they didn't prioritize getting my book back to me. After all this, really, you're just going to send it through processing and grading at normal speed? No "Hey, this has been an ongoing problem that we created, let's get this done right away and back to him?" I called today, because the $20 refund still had not been processed. I was given an excuse about accounting taking over refunds, etc, etc. She hoped that by trying to process the refund in a different way, it would get done sooner. We'll see. In the end, though, I really feel like CGC just doesn't give a . They know I'm not going to send my books anywhere else, so why make any effort at all to fix this? Agree with me or don't, I just needed to get this out there somewhere.

I can't even get it to show up in pics. It's very faintly visible in person.

I don't send in books that I don't think are 9.8's or at least higher-grade quality, but I find myself constantly surprised when some come back with lower grades. In regard to pressing, I sent this book in for signing and had it pressed because of a bend on the back cover. Rather than pressing the bend out, it apparently BECAME a crease, resulting in an 8.5 grade. Is that common from pressing? I took a pic before I sent it (which I ALWAYS do now after some experiences), how did this bend that I thought could be pressed out get worse?

I can't get my scanner to work anymore. I was just hoping for a general idea of what a barcode sticker does to a grade.

I have a Sandman #8 with a barcode sticker that was placed on the lower left front cover. What's the highest grade I could possibly get with a sticker like that on it? Thanks in advance for any help.

There are two decent tears up from the bottom on the back cover, and the front bottom corner is missing, as well as several pages into the book.

Yes, small tears

No, now that I check, the cover is detached.