Does anyone else have a problem with Comic Connect? 4 4

[Hudson]

Today, I recieved this email from Comic Connect (regarding my auction "wins" from over 3 weeks ago).

 

Dear Valued Clients,

 

We wanted to take a moment to say Thank You for your continued support and patronage during these trying times. As you most likely know, NYC was hit very hard with the Corona Virus. One of the busiest cities in the world was a veritable ghost town since mid-March. We understand you’re very excited about your purchases/auction wins and we are excited to get them to you as quickly as possible, but also ask for your patience as New York City has just started reopening within the parameters of Phase One. We are cautiously bringing back staff within the guidance outlined by the government and are working diligently to ship your orders. Since we are still unable to have a full staff in the office, shipping times will be slightly delayed. Please bear with us.  Thank you again for your support. It means so much to us. Stay safe and by Thor’s hammer stay well.

 

Cheers,

 

Josh Conley

 

 

I understand that everyone needs to be a little more flexible during this unusual time in our world's history.  I do not, however, understand why I am just hearing about this now.

 

If CC was going to have a problem shipping the items people "won" AND PAID FOR, then I think they should have said that PRIOR to having people bid.

 

It is now more than 3 weeks after the auction ended and customers are just now recieving this email.  In addition, CC is still not letting their "customers / clients" know when they might expect their purchases to arrive.  They simiply say, "shipping times will be slightly delayed."   What is "slightly delayed"?  It has already been over 3 weeks and we are only heearing about this NOW.  It seems like things are already "significantly delayed".

 

Am I just extremely impatient (probably) OR is this incredibly poor customer service OR is it a combination of both???

 

Thoughts???

[comicparadox]

First world problem. I’m not a particular fan of Metro or CC, but New York City has been devastated by quarantine sequelae. I can’t justify their timing or holding your funds, but they are a reliable organization. 

[Hudson]

10 hours ago, comicparadox said:

First world problem. I’m not a particular fan of Metro or CC, but New York City has been devastated by quarantine sequelae. I can’t justify their timing or holding your funds, but they are a reliable organization. 

Thank you, sir.

I agree they are "reliable" (I hope I was not taken to insinuate otherwise).  In other words, I agree that I will eventually receive the books I won.  I just feel their customer service is lacking (in that they should have told people BEFORE they bid, that they would not be receiving their books for (what I consider) a long time).  I think that to wait almost a MONTH after an auction ends (while people like me anxiously await the arrival of the books they have paid for) to then tell the customer that there is going to be a delay, is unacceptable.

Again, perhaps I am inpatient, however, I believe that this information should have been shared at best prior to the auction start and at worst as soon as the auction concluded; not almost a month later.

Just seems like good business to me to do the right thing and provide information to your customers.

[joeypost]

The world needs to be a little more patient. 

[The-Collector]

I understand your frustration. If it were me I would try to be a bit more patient; the situation could be much worse and Rob told me they don't have full access to the office so the delay is reasonable. It's also hard to be much more proactive than they have been given how unusual these circumstances are. I hope you get your books soon. 

[Comics181]

I just bought a book from them today and I'm fine with waiting. Fortunately I got the email this morning so I was prepared for the long wait. Also due to covid-19 I am not going to complain about shipping times, especially since they aren't at full capacity. I do however understand why you are frustrated as they should have sent that email at the start of all of this. Hopefully your books ship quickly and you are satisfied with them.

[blazingbob]

1 hour ago, Hudson said:

Thank you, sir.

I agree they are "reliable" (I hope I was not taken to insinuate otherwise).  In other words, I agree that I will eventually receive the books I won.  I just feel their customer service is lacking (in that they should have told people BEFORE they bid, that they would not be receiving their books for (what I consider) a long time).  I think that to wait almost a MONTH after an auction ends (while people like me anxiously await the arrival of the books they have paid for) to then tell the customer that there is going to be a delay, is unacceptable.

Again, perhaps I am inpatient, however, I believe that this information should have been shared at best prior to the auction start and at worst as soon as the auction concluded; not almost a month later.

Just seems like good business to me to do the right thing and provide information to your customers.

I guess I'm wondering if they told you before would you have bid in the auction?  As a New Yorker we are pretty much taking it one day at a time as far as being able to open for business.  And being that I know that Metropolis has an office with multiple employees I'm surprised that they are able to ship as quickly as they can.  I work out of my home,  I have no barrier to shipping.  

[MusterMark]

6 hours ago, joeypost said:

The world needs to be a little more patient. 

I actually nominate this for Post Of The Year.

A short sentence that packs a massive amount of power and sagacity in its few words, as it pertains to such a large number of aspects of current life.  And I mean specifically those areas affected by the virus.

Edited June 16, 2020 by MusterMark

[Sweet Lou 14]

I would humbly point out a few things that might help explain the situation.

First, the vast majority of the books in a ComicConnect auction, and essentially all of the books in a ComicLink or Heritage auction, are owned by third-party consignors.  This means that once the auction is over, you need to wait until those consignors (almost certainly not all the same person) ship their books to the auction house, then for the auction house to process all of the packages they receive and re-assemble their outgoing packages, and finally for the shipment to arrive at your home.  Factor in the sheer volume of books involved in any of these auctions, and it's a pretty significant logistical challenge.  Based on this alone, my experience has generally been that it takes about one month between when I win on ComicConnect or ComicLink and when my books arrive.  If I'm going to be completely honest, I would say that ComicLink is generally a tick faster than ComicConnect, and Heritage is noticeably faster than both.

Now, putting COVID-19 aside for a moment, there are definitely things these guys could improve in their process.  Off the top of my head:

• Heritage sends an online invoice within 24 hours of auction end, and that invoice allows you to pay online with an "electronic check" that comes out of your bank account with no additional payment fees (other than their crazy buyer's premium, but that's for another thread!).  With ComicConnect and ComicLink, on the other hand, you have to remember to log back into their site and check out, then you need to write out and mail a paper check.  Both of them are notoriously slow to actually process payment -- I am often stunned how long it takes them to cash my check.  From a business / financial operations standpoint alone, this is a significant inefficiency.  It also would seem to be part of their longer overall turnaround times.
• I am not 100% sure on this, but I get the feeling that neither ComicConnect nor ComicLink require their consignors to ship their books until the auction is over.  I imagine that the turnaround times for customers would be improved by at least a week, maybe more, if they did all of that gathering and sorting ahead of time.  However, I'm sure there may be storage and other logistical challenges that may have convinced them not to do it this way.  I wouldn't want to speculate on it, but it's clearly a factor.

All of the above applies even in the best of times.  Now, with COVID-19 preventing their employees from even reporting to work, you can imagine the extraordinary difficulty ComicConnect must be experiencing.  They simply haven't had the staff on hand in the office to process all the incoming and outgoing shipments and make sure every shipped order is correct and complete.

So, as someone said above, for now we all just need to be patient.  When things are back to normal, maybe they can work on some of the other issues that have always been around.

Edited June 16, 2020 by Sweet Lou 14

[blazingbob]

43 minutes ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

I would humbly point out a few things that might help explain the situation.

First, the vast majority of the books in a ComicConnect auction, and essentially all of the books in a ComicLink or Heritage auction, are owned by third-party consignors.  This means that once the auction is over, you need to wait until those consignors (almost certainly not all the same person) ship their books to the auction house, then for the auction house to process all of the packages they receive and re-assemble their outgoing packages, and finally for the shipment to arrive at your home.  Factor in the sheer volume of books involved in any of these auctions, and it's a pretty significant logistical challenge.  Based on this alone, my experience has generally been that it takes about one month between when I win on ComicConnect or ComicLink and when my books arrive.  If I'm going to be completely honest, I would say that ComicLink is generally a tick faster than ComicConnect, and Heritage is noticeably faster than both.

Now, putting COVID-19 aside for a moment, there are definitely things these guys could improve in their process.  Off the top of my head:

• Heritage sends an online invoice within 24 hours of auction end, and that invoice allows you to pay online with an "electronic check" that comes out of your bank account with no additional payment fees (other than their crazy buyer's premium, but that's for another thread!).  With ComicConnect and ComicLink, on the other hand, you have to remember to log back into their site and check out, then you need to write out and mail a paper check.  Both of them are notoriously slow to actually process payment -- I am often stunned how long it takes them to cash my check.  From a business / financial operations standpoint alone, this is a significant inefficiency.  It also would seem to be part of their longer overall turnaround times.
• I am not 100% sure on this, but I get the feeling that neither ComicConnect nor ComicLink require their consignors to ship their books until the auction is over.  I imagine that the turnaround times for customers would be improved by at least a week, maybe more, if they did all of that gathering and sorting ahead of time.  However, I'm sure there may be storage and other logistical challenges that may have convinced them not to do it this way.  I wouldn't want to speculate on it, but it's clearly a factor.

All of the above applies even in the best of times.  Now, with COVID-19 preventing their employees from even reporting to work, you can imagine the extraordinary difficulty ComicConnect must be experiencing.  They simply haven't had the staff on hand in the office to process all the incoming and outgoing shipments and make sure every shipped order is correct and complete.

So, as someone said above, for now we all just need to be patient.  When things are back to normal, maybe they can work on some of the other issues that have always been around.

ComicConnect normally has the books as the auction is running,  I am sure you are minimizing just a bit how much processing there is to large auctions and the number of shipments.  In addition to their regular shipments from their website.  I've been at the office.  It is a LOT of work to run auctions.  

That being said I am not trying to minimize your post or your concerns.  As a business you should always strive to improve the efficiency of the operation.  You should also be on the boards responding to customer concerns because frankly while only a few post,  MANY read. 

Edited June 16, 2020 by blazingbob

[Sweet Lou 14]

Just now, blazingbob said:

ComicConnect normally has the books as the auction is running,  I am sure you are minimizing just a bit how much processing there is to large auctions and the number of shipments.  In addition to their regular shipments from their website.  I've been at the office.  It is a LOT of work to run auctions.  

Yep, I have been to their office several times myself.  It's a lot of work, and it comes in a big spike of activity that is difficult to manage from a staffing standpoint.  Totally agree with what you're saying.

If I'm wrong about the timing of consignor shipments to the auction houses, then I apologize for that,

[piper]

I just wish they would reply to emails.

[jjonahjameson11]

7 minutes ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

Yep, I have been to their office several times myself.  It's a lot of work, and it comes in a big spike of activity that is difficult to manage from a staffing standpoint.  Totally agree with what you're saying.

If I'm wrong about the timing of consignor shipments to the auction houses, then I apologize for that,

I can’t speak to the situation with CC because I never look at their site, but CLINK auctions require the consigned book(s) are in their possession in order for the books to be auctioned.  So, there’s no ‘additional ‘ delay as the books must be with them already.

[october]

 

22 hours ago, Hudson said:

 

 

If CC was going to have a problem shipping the items people "won" AND PAID FOR, then I think they should have said that PRIOR to having people bid.

 

 

It took weeks for them to process my payment, and I am sure it will take weeks for them to ship my purchase. Telling potential customers that before the auction would have cost them bidders/money. Telling them after doesn't. 

[piper]

2 hours ago, october said:

 

It took weeks for them to process my payment, and I am sure it will take weeks for them to ship my purchase. Telling potential customers that before the auction would have cost them bidders/money. Telling them after doesn't. 

Say what you want about the cost of using Heritage, but their turnaround time on shipping your wins in exemplary. 

[Hudson]

11 hours ago, blazingbob said:

I guess I'm wondering if they told you before would you have bid in the auction?

Hey Bob, 

Always good to hear from you.   I value your thoughts and opinions.  
 

To answer your question, I really do not know if I would have bid or not.    Given the stuff I usually bid on is not stuff that comes up for sale every day, I might have bid anyway (on some of the items).  On other stuff, however, I may have just passed (so as not to have to wait).  
 

Either way, I would not be so anxious IF I had the information in advance.   
 

Thank you for weighing in on this.   I appreciate it.   Hope you are doing well and staying safe.  

[Hudson]

3 hours ago, piper said:

I just wish they would reply to emails.

This was another issue that I had when the auction first closed, however, I did not want to go down that road and complicate the issue.   
 

 

[Hudson]

13 minutes ago, piper said:

Say what you want about the cost of using Heritage, but their turnaround time on shipping your wins in exemplary. 

I agree 100 percent.   
 

I think I received my last auction “win” in less than a week.  I was amazed.  Maybe that is why I am not more understanding.   IDK. 

[Hudson]

4 hours ago, Sweet Lou 14 said:

I would humbly point out a few things that might help explain the situation.

First, the vast majority of the books in a ComicConnect auction, and essentially all of the books in a ComicLink or Heritage auction, are owned by third-party consignors.  This means that once the auction is over, you need to wait until those consignors (almost certainly not all the same person) ship their books to the auction house, then for the auction house to process all of the packages they receive and re-assemble their outgoing packages, and finally for the shipment to arrive at your home.  Factor in the sheer volume of books involved in any of these auctions, and it's a pretty significant logistical challenge.  Based on this alone, my experience has generally been that it takes about one month between when I win on ComicConnect or ComicLink and when my books arrive.  If I'm going to be completely honest, I would say that ComicLink is generally a tick faster than ComicConnect, and Heritage is noticeably faster than both.

Now, putting COVID-19 aside for a moment, there are definitely things these guys could improve in their process.  Off the top of my head:

• Heritage sends an online invoice within 24 hours of auction end, and that invoice allows you to pay online with an "electronic check" that comes out of your bank account with no additional payment fees (other than their crazy buyer's premium, but that's for another thread!).  With ComicConnect and ComicLink, on the other hand, you have to remember to log back into their site and check out, then you need to write out and mail a paper check.  Both of them are notoriously slow to actually process payment -- I am often stunned how long it takes them to cash my check.  From a business / financial operations standpoint alone, this is a significant inefficiency.  It also would seem to be part of their longer overall turnaround times.
• I am not 100% sure on this, but I get the feeling that neither ComicConnect nor ComicLink require their consignors to ship their books until the auction is over.  I imagine that the turnaround times for customers would be improved by at least a week, maybe more, if they did all of that gathering and sorting ahead of time.  However, I'm sure there may be storage and other logistical challenges that may have convinced them not to do it this way.  I wouldn't want to speculate on it, but it's clearly a factor.

All of the above applies even in the best of times.  Now, with COVID-19 preventing their employees from even reporting to work, you can imagine the extraordinary difficulty ComicConnect must be experiencing.  They simply haven't had the staff on hand in the office to process all the incoming and outgoing shipments and make sure every shipped order is correct and complete.

So, as someone said above, for now we all just need to be patient.  When things are back to normal, maybe they can work on some of the other issues that have always been around.

Thank you for taking the time to write such a detailed response.  This is very much appreciated.    
 

I have never sold through CC, but I was told that they require people to send on the books prior to the auction.  I cannot personally attest to this, however, I believe it to be true.  
 

I am totally in agreement with you that the Heritage electronic check system is the best thing ever.   It allows for quick, easy payment and books arrive shortly thereafter.   I used this and wish all the other auction sites would adopt this.  
 

Thanks again.   I appreciate you taking time to write such a detailed post.  

[lou_fine]

14 hours ago, joeypost said:

The world needs to be a little more patient. 

Yes, and as our superstar Provincial Health Officier, Dr. Bonnie Henry, who has guided our province down from the low triple digits into the mid-20's before reopening the economy into Phase 2 and now down into the single digits for new daily cases, during these unique extraordinary times would say......................we all need to "Be Kind, Be Calm, and Be Safe".  

Edited June 16, 2020 by lou_fine