Is a year too long for my book to be delivered from Paradise Comics? 7 7

[ComicArtAddict]

10 minutes ago, Turtle said:

I applaud your chutzpah, but why add Stan Lee to the book?  What's the association?  The book is great as-is.  Add more cast sigs to the back, but if it's not too late, consider skipping out on Stan. 

And by all means, keep up the good fight!

Thanks for the compliment on my book. Hopefully I'll see it again one day. I understand the purests point of view... stick with people who worked on the books.... Stan didn't write it he shouldn't sign it. Also understand the point of view that comics shouldn't be signed at all an enjoyed for what they are. I for one see Marvel wouldn't exist without Stan. So any potential high value blank variant I put together I try to add his signature. Certainly doesn't hurt the value. 

[ComicArtAddict]

17 minutes ago, Bomber-Bob said:

  Finally, someone who is stepping up and doing something. I applaud your effort and wish you the best of luck. Don't back down ! 

Thanks Bob I won't be backing down until I have my book back! Not one to shy away from a fight when I know I'm right.

[ComicArtAddict]

49 minutes ago, Spawn1709 said:

I heard the conversation that the girl (I think Kristina is her name, not too sure) and some other person had. She just blabbered on and on about how the system was disorganized, they admit they were wrong, and they get the books when they get them. It's like talking to a brick wall. The person she was talking too must have gotten so frustrated with her. 

Paradise Comics hasn't logged in in over a month. I think they're too scared to respond.

Hey Spawn were you at Toronto Comic Con when you overheard that conversation? If so I think it was you I was talking with after.  Thanks for sticking around, listening and approaching me after. Nice to have an unbiased witness.

[Bomber-Bob]

3 minutes ago, ComicArtAddict said:

Thanks Bob I won't be backing down until I have my book back! Not one to shy away from a fight when I know I'm right.

 You are definitely in the right here !  Your story about the encounter with Paradise at the con was shocking. Unbelievable that they are that much in denial.

[ComicArtAddict]

47 minutes ago, Bomber-Bob said:

 You are definitely in the right here !  Your story about the encounter with Paradise at the con was shocking. Unbelievable that they are that much in denial.

Nothing surprises me anymore since my invoice number isn't registered with CGC. Forgot to mention she also asked who I spoke to at CGC about my invoice. I said I didn't ask for a name. She then went on about well how do I know you even called them then. I then pulled up my phone records and said there you go a 20 min coversation with CGC's phone number. She then went on well CGC can't give you any info because its our account. I told her there's no info to give because my 9 month old invoice doesn't exist. This whole incident really has my blood boiling.

Everyone who currently has CGC submissions with Paradise should be calling CGC and seeing if their invoices even exist. Don't wait patiently. What does everyone think is going to happen with their CGC submissions if Paradise goes under? Highly doubt we'll all be getting our books back since its under Paradise's account.

Edited March 21, 2018 by ComicArtAddict

[Spawn1709]

2 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

The comment about 'they get them when they get them' doesn't make sense. It doesn't take this long for CGC to turn over the books so either they did not submit them or they can't pay their CGC fees. Also, what is the 'system' she is referring to with the 'system is disorganized' ? You should have jumped into the conversation when she was talking to that other person. I really think you should demand your money back. This is beyond getting frustrated and being patient. This is about being taking advantage of. 

Perhaps you are right. 

[Spawn1709]

2 hours ago, ComicArtAddict said:

Hey Spawn were you at Toronto Comic Con when you overheard that conversation? If so I think it was you I was talking with after.  Thanks for sticking around, listening and approaching me after. Nice to have an unbiased witness.

No it wasn't me unfortunately. I was not able to make it. That being said, I fully agree with everything you have done and I will be right behind you in getting to the bottom of this. I am going to call CGC and ask if they have any of my submissions. If we can keep pressuring Paradise Comics, we will (hopefully) get our books back!

[Spawn1709]

@ComicArtAddict

@Bomber-Bob

I just sent an email to CGC (it's 2:15 am, so I can't call) asking if they have any records of receiving my books. Hopefully they will respond tomorrow and we can get to the bottom of this. I agree with both of you, it's time for me to be a bit more aggressive. 

[ExNihilo]

5 hours ago, Bomber-Bob said:

I don't understand why they are so passive about the situation.

It's because they're Canadian.  They're polite to a fault at times. 

Also, I'm glad this thread (or certain affected consumers) has moved on to the point of finally realizing/accepting that Paradise is the one at fault.  The first few pages where people somehow insisted CGC was to blame had me really scratching my head. 

Edited March 21, 2018 by ExNihilo

[dOubleO]

I've been following this thread and I feel bad for those waiting for their books for such a long time.

I've never dealt with Paradise so I'm not aware of the "invoice" used when someone submits. Is it the same as the invoice you get from CGC when you submit in person at Cons or is it a company invoice of Paradise.

If it's not the same at the Cons then I'm not sure how CGC will be able to trace the comic submitted when the invoice is not in their system.

If it is the same at the Cons, then would someone be able to inquire a submission from someone else's CGC account. Because I assume that all these submissions are Paradise's account

[ComicArtAddict]

5 minutes ago, dOubleO said:

I've been following this thread and I feel bad for those waiting for their books for such a long time.

I've never dealt with Paradise so I'm not aware of the "invoice" used when someone submits. Is it the same as the invoice you get from CGC when you submit in person at Cons or is it a company invoice of Paradise.

If it's not the same at the Cons then I'm not sure how CGC will be able to trace the comic submitted when the invoice is not in their system.

If it is the same at the Cons, then would someone be able to inquire a submission from someone else's CGC account. Because I assume that all these submissions are Paradise's account

It's the same green carbon copy CGC Signature Series form used for all CGC submissions.

[ComicArtAddict]

30 minutes ago, LoveThemSigs said:

FYI, I don't think Stan is signing blanks anymore since Peter Carbonara took advantage of him. The sketch was drawn around the sig.

Thanks for sharing that! I had heard recently he wouldn't sign blanks anymore. Was curious what drawing caused. I figured it would be something overly sexual not violent. Who ever the artist was did a great job. Never seen this artists signature before.  Guessing Stan isn't a Walking Dead fan or else he likely wouldn't have taken such offence to it.

If Stan wouldn't sign the back they could have just flipped the book to the front and hoped back in line. Not like Stan or Max are checking both sides of books with thousands being signed at Cons.

Edited March 21, 2018 by ComicArtAddict

[ComicArtAddict]

5 hours ago, Spawn1709 said:

No it wasn't me unfortunately. I was not able to make it. That being said, I fully agree with everything you have done and I will be right behind you in getting to the bottom of this. I am going to call CGC and ask if they have any of my submissions. If we can keep pressuring Paradise Comics, we will (hopefully) get our books back!

Hope CGC has you're invoice number! Good luck

[badback83]

I feel for everyone that has books in the wind by the hands of these fools.  I'd be willing to bet the farm that a lot of these books are still in their possession.  

[ComicArtAddict]

10 hours ago, ComicArtAddict said:

Hey CGC fans! I'm from the Toronto area and I'm in the same boat as others here. Dropped off my Star Wars #1 blank signed by Carrie Fisher & David Prowse with a Darth Vader sketch by Nick Bradshaw. Paid Paradise Comics $275 upfront to have the graded book cracked open and Stan Lee's signature added. That was July of 2017 and now its the end of March 2017.

With all the cons Stan Lee was cancelling I thought I'd check what was happening with my book at Paradise. Never had a problem before so I assumed it has to be an issue like wrong email or phone number on file. Contacted Paradise via email and Peter's wife Kristina replied. I couldn't find my invoice so she said she'd look for it and get back to me. 3 weeks later nothing but hey I found my invoice!!!  Sent the invoice number to Kristina and she said she'd let me know as soon as CGC replies. Stopped by the shop a week later and the guy at the counter said Peter and Kristina were out.  They live above the store so I'm not sure how much of that was a line.  Decided to call CGC myself since I wasn't thrilled with the customer service I got the past month.  Surprise Surprise!!! CGC said they had ZERO record of my invoice. CGC said my book (according to their records) was never sent in!!! F'ing fantastic!!

Since I had never previously had an issue with Paradise I called asking for Peter who of course was not available. I told the employee Peter had 24 hours to call me before the bad reviews started. He assured me after I got off the phome with him he would call Peter immediately. 30 hours passed with no call and I reached out again. I told the same story to another employee and of course Peter wasn't around. I told this person Peter had until the evening to call me back or expect bad reviews.  Trying to gice Peter a chance because over the past 7-10 years never a problem. No phone call surprise surprise!!!  I had no idea how much manager Doug who quit Paradise actually ran the store.  I then changed my 5 star facebook review (left several years ago) to a very harsh 1 star warning fellow CGC collectors of my story above.

Was at Toronto Comic Con this weekend and bumped into Peter's wife Kristina the project manager who still hasn't gotten an update from CGC in a month.  I confronted her with a scan of my missing CGC book on my phone and asked where it was. I informed her I left a bad review since my calls were ignored.  She went on to blame CGC turn around times (she can't make them send the books out faster), also blaming previous manager Doug who quit along with their high staff turn over the past year.  Saying they were working tirelessly to turn this around and then switchrd it up by dishing out some attitude for leaving a bad review. Since it could possibly affect her livelihood. I informed her Peter recieved several warnings over 24 hrs. I told her I would take down the bad review once I received confirmation from CGC that they had my book. Told her I didn't even need the book in hand.  Just want to know someone has it.  She went on to tell me what do you think we still have your book? We aren't insured enough to keep all these books people want sent to CGC in our home (they own the shop & place above). She assured me they send every book away immediately upon receiving them. All the while getting more agitated with me slowly raising her voice. She proceeded to tell me I'm not going to contact you if I have nothing to tell you.  We are not friends!  She told me I'm texting Peter right now to have you CC'd on an email to CGC to sort this whole thing out Monday.

Ok aince it's now Tues you can probably guess what happened  yesterday..... Wait for it.... Wait for it.... you guessed right NO EMAIL! Fool me once... fool me twice.... fool me 3 times.... heck think I've been fooled 4 times now.

Anyways unbeknownst to me there was a CGC board member watching the entire confrontation at Toronto Comic Con.  After I finished talking with her he approached me and said he couldn't believe how that conversation went and the nerve.  He told me all about this ongoing  CGC thread regarding Paradise. Said that he'd been waiting about a year for his books.

So today I spoke to Cynthia at CGC and asked her to check my invoice #.  Somehow hoping my luck changed. Once again it is not found.  Told her I wanted to submit a complaint to CGC and she provided her email address.  Fired it off to her pleading for CGC to do something with Paradise.  Informed them of my situation and sent screen shots of the 3 other similar negative reviews on Paradise's facebook from 2018. Also told them of this forum regarding CGC issues with Paradise.  Told CGC if they can tell me within 48 hours this is a misunderstanding I won't proceed to the Better Business Bureau against Paradise Comics. We'll see what CGC says in the next 48 hours.  I'm fully willing to take this further. Anyone else wants to hop on board I welcome it.  I'll be leaving more negative reviews soon.  If I have to I'll protest outside their in store events and go to the media.  This is purely ridiculous and unacceptable!!!!  Let's work to uncover the truth of what's happening people.

Thankfully I got a prompt response this morning from Cynthia at CGC.  Management is looking into my submission along with my complaint against Paradise.  My email was very detailed and similar to my post above.

[Buzzetta]

I would like to know how many screw ups it takes per submissions before CGC drops a facilitator?  

[Spawn1709]

2 hours ago, ComicArtAddict said:

Hope CGC has you're invoice number! Good luck

Thanks! 

[mattn792]

10 hours ago, ComicArtAddict said:

Nothing surprises me anymore since my invoice number isn't registered with CGC. Forgot to mention she also asked who I spoke to at CGC about my invoice. I said I didn't ask for a name. She then went on about well how do I know you even called them then. I then pulled up my phone records and said there you go a 20 min coversation with CGC's phone number. She then went on well CGC can't give you any info because its our account. I told her there's no info to give because my 9 month old invoice doesn't exist. This whole incident really has my blood boiling.

Everyone who currently has CGC submissions with Paradise should be calling CGC and seeing if their invoices even exist. Don't wait patiently. What does everyone think is going to happen with their CGC submissions if Paradise goes under? Highly doubt we'll all be getting our books back since its under Paradise's account.

How can they possibly keep sticking to this line?  I have to two trusted facilitators that I submit all my books through, and if I happen to get curious on their status, all it takes is a quick "hey man, can I get the invoice number?" and then a call to CGC customer service to get a real time status.  Never once has CGC told me "Sorry Matt, not your account, there will be no information disseminated to you!  BWAHAHA!"

Paradise seems to know they're in a bad way right now, and they've chosen to run from the truth instead of doing their best to remedy the situation.  @ComicArtAddict situation with the invoice number not even being in CGC's system is all sorts of alarming, I really hope everyone affected gets their books returned.

Edited March 21, 2018 by mattn792
Grammar rodeo

[Number 6]

This is indeed an alarming situation, particularly because Paradise Comics has made the deliberate and repeated choice of giving their customers false excuses in an effort to take the pressure off themselves. 

I get the very distinct impression they could very well have been using their customer’s submission fees to make ends meet during their remodel, figuring they could kick the can down the road and fix it later. 

The remark that ‘if you leave bad reviews you’ll hurt our livelihood’ is a big red flag to me; it tells me that they’re already in financial straights. 

If things are going so bad that they’ve resorted to robbing Peter to pay Paul, and feel justified in feeding their customers bs excuses, at what point do they resort to just selling customers books and then coming up with another lame excuse (it got lost in the mail, CGC destroyed your book, etc.)?

I hope to heck that doesn’t happen - or hasn’t happened already. 

[rat chew]

They need to change their name to Paradise Lost Comics.