Anyone else having MAJOR ISSUES WITH COMICCONNECT? 4 4

[Randall Ries]

6 hours ago, Ride the Tiger said:

I will not buy raw either and its simply because 1 picture of the front cover is not enough to convince me that the book is really the grade its called out to be. Descriptions are also lacking. I was just looking at an Amazing Spider-man #23 that claims its VF- yet you only see the front cover and the description says OW pages. I wouldn't purchase a raw book off ebay or anywhere with suck a lack of information. 

As mentioned earlier, I call and have the sales rep go get the book. I bought a raw Superman 23 that way. Only question he couldn't answer is "Any restoration?" I can't find any resto. All the pages were there. Cover was firmly attached. They called it a 7.5. More like a 7.0-6.5-ish. It's a nice book. It's gone up a lot in value as well.

I guess maybe the old fashioned way is the best way when spending a lot of money.

[SuperBird]

9 hours ago, Randall Ries said:

Just out of curiosity, why? The restoration possibility?

too many bad experiences. I generally don't buy raw at all these days, however. 

[Randall Ries]

2 minutes ago, SuperBird said:

too many bad experiences. I generally don't buy raw at all these days, however. 

Ok. I am buying raw now. Didn't used to. But there are some nice raw books out there. I'm also tired of paying +$200-$300 for graded books in the same basic grade. Feel like I'm paying for the grading process every time I see that.

[SuperBird]

1 hour ago, Randall Ries said:

Ok. I am buying raw now. Didn't used to. But there are some nice raw books out there. I'm also tired of paying +$200-$300 for graded books in the same basic grade. Feel like I'm paying for the grading process every time I see that.

It certainly depends on what kind of books one is buying. The books I generally buy (bought? do I even still collect?) do not get a discount when unslabbed, and I just prefer to know exactly what I'm getting.

[Randall Ries]

1 hour ago, SuperBird said:

It certainly depends on what kind of books one is buying. The books I generally buy (bought? do I even still collect?) do not get a discount when unslabbed, and I just prefer to know exactly what I'm getting.

Fair. I suppose it may depend on a given book.

[mattn792]

12 hours ago, Randall Ries said:

 I have an idea I use that's so crazy that it works.

I have no idea how the OP or the people who have ordered product from Metro/CC placed the order, but I have always used the telephone and not the "Click 'N Pay" method. Yeah! Just pull the ol' Lily Tomlin. One ringy-dingy. Two ringy-dingy.

I get a salesperson on the line and place my order. I ask "Is this a consignment or do you have the book?" Once confident they have the book after I ask them to put their hands on it, I place the order. "When will I receive the book?" I ask. I usually get the book in a week to 10 days.

I don't receive emails somewhat infrequently. Sometimes I send emails that never arrive or they go into a spam folder. Sometimes I receive emails that go into a spam folder. When I let my fingers do the walking, I speak with a sales rep on the phone, get their name, write it down, order the book I am interested in and mainly have refused consigned books. OR if a consigned book, I wait for them to contact the consignor and give a few days, call back and ask if they have heard from them. If yes, I pay for the book if the consignor sent the book. If no, then I choose another book or say "Thanks but no thanks" and move on. Only did that once and when the sales rep said "No, they haven't replied to our email or text message", I scrap the potential order.

So, I don't know. I have decent luck when I use the phone and follow up. It takes more time to do it that way but the results are better. For example, I have placed bids on books on their websites and have never heard a word back. Never actually had an offer accepted that way. I HAVE CALLED using a telephone and had the offers refused. Good. Now I know.

If you haven't, try using a telephone to place an order and remember if it's consigned, you may have to do some of the leg work yourself. Remember you HAVE A SALES REP and work with them. Don't just sit there for 6-8 weeks then have a tantrum when the book doesn't show up and you call and the order is lost in space. You can say all you like "Well, I shouldn't HAVE to." Well? Apparently you do and what you THINK you should or shouldn't have to do is irrelevant that is the fact of the matter because you don't have your order.  

Consigned books are a wild card. We just don't know whether or not they will be able to fill the order.

 

We get it, you and your phone have conquered the comic world.  Meanwhile, ComicConnect still took the man’s money, didn’t deliver, and would still be holding it had he not taken proactive action in the situation.  But maybe that is all part of their clandestine business model - take money and hope the buyers forget that they ordered something.  

[Randall Ries]

3 minutes ago, mattn792 said:

We get it, you and your phone have conquered the comic world.  Meanwhile, ComicConnect still took the man’s money, didn’t deliver, and would still be holding it had he not taken proactive action in the situation.  But maybe that is all part of their clandestine business model - take money and hope the buyers forget that they ordered something.  

Yeah. That's probably it. They are taking people's money, then denying they ever received an order.

The "man" put in a $4200 order and didn't follow up. Case closed. As far as my phone is concerned, I get what I order with no hassles. I don't care if you do or not. I bring stuff like that up because I like explaining the obvious to the daft.

[mattn792]

2 minutes ago, Randall Ries said:

Yeah. That's probably it. They are taking people's money, then denying they ever received an order.

The "man" put in a $4200 order and didn't follow up. Case closed. As far as my phone is concerned, I get what I order with no hassles. I don't care if you do or not. I bring stuff like that up because I like explaining the obvious to the daft.

So by your logic, I should bag on the OP for not using his credit card for this purchase like I would have, since it’s relatively easy to dispute a charge for services not rendered.  Very good., here we go:

@Darkseid of the Moon - you’re so dumb for not conducting your life and business exactly like I do!  If only you followed the mattn792 playbook, you’d be happy and healthy and never ever experience any adversity ever in your life.

/sarcasm

[Randall Ries]

11 minutes ago, mattn792 said:

So by your logic, I should bag on the OP for not using his credit card for this purchase like I would have, since it’s relatively easy to dispute a charge for services not rendered.  Very good., here we go:

@Darkseid of the Moon - you’re so dumb for not conducting your life and business exactly like I do!  If only you followed the mattn792 playbook, you’d be happy and healthy and never ever experience any adversity ever in your life.

/sarcasm

You shouldn't be "bagging" on anybody. I'm not. I illustrated how I avoid what the OP went through. If you ENJOY frustration and aggravation, then by all means have at it. Whether any of you get what you order doesn't matter to me. That is my logic. I know how to maneuver my way through a simple order for a comic book. Nah, I wouldn't have written a check. It only extends the wait time.

I wrote all that not for the OP's benefit but for anyone else who might have read it in the spirit it was meant: Trying to give helpful advice. Take it or leave it. I get my books on time.

It happens. Be the Alpha and follow up on your orders. Or don't! The world is half a**ed. Haven't you noticed? Almost everyone is a bumblehump now. So, we have to take customer service by their little hand and walk them through the process so we can get what we want.

[mattn792]

There’s a big difference between offering advice and being a self righteous richard.  

[ttfitz]

20 hours ago, Randall Ries said:

You shouldn't be "bagging" on anybody. I'm not. I illustrated how I avoid what the OP went through. If you ENJOY frustration and aggravation, then by all means have at it. Whether any of you get what you order doesn't matter to me. That is my logic. I know how to maneuver my way through a simple order for a comic book. Nah, I wouldn't have written a check. It only extends the wait time.

I wouldn't go as far as Matt, but your response here DOES veer into a bit of self-righteousness. Yes, in this case your method would have probably worked better. However, if it was somebody else, say MyComicShop, by the time you waited until business hours to call them, get somebody to check and make sure they have the book, give your credit card number and address, my book is already in the shipper's hands, because I ordered online, on my schedule in the middle of the night, and they got it out first thing in the morning.

So, yeah, like most things in life, it all depends. And also, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect if you offer a website and online ordering, with email support, that you deliver on those items and not expect people to have to call in order to get good service.

[Randall Ries]

41 minutes ago, ttfitz said:

I wouldn't go as far as Matt, but your response here DOES veer into a bit of self-righteousness. Yes, in this case your method would have probably worked better. However, if it was somebody else, say MyComicShop, by the time you waited until business hours to call them, get somebody to check and make sure they have the book, give your credit card number and address, my book is already in the shipper's hands, because I ordered online, on my schedule in the middle of the night, and they got it out first thing in the morning.

So, yeah, like most things in life, it all depends. And also, I don't think it's unreasonable to expect if you offer a website and online ordering, with email support, that you deliver on those items and not expect people to have to call in order to get good service.

Eh. It isn't self righteousness. All I was attempting to do was to help out and give an alternate way of ordering. For MYSELF, I don't mind putting in the extra time or effort if I am going to spend thousands on a book. Also, you sorta lost me at "However, if...". You are introducing a hypothetical which really has no bearing here. I'm not in that much of a hurry to get a comic book. Sure. Order it online and your chances are greater the order will get flubbed than my chances of not getting the book after talking to flesh and blood. Just the law of averages.

We have become spoiled with the internets and electronic purchasing in that we EXPECT things will go correctly. Normally they do. But if there are outlier situations that we hadn't considered, sometimes they go south. And when they go south, we have to put in more effort than we would have if we just manually placed an order. Tech is only as good as the person operating it.

And you are correct: It ISN'T unreasonable to expect if they offer a website and online ordering, with email support, that they deliver on those items and not expect people to have to call in order to get good service. Sadly, the world doesn't operate like that sometimes. Things go WRONG.

The problem here seemed to be the fact it was a consigned book and the OP didn't know that. I imagine if/when the owner sent in the book, Metro/ComicConnect would have looked up the reference number and contacted the buyer. That didn't happen so what would their prompt be to contact the buyer? How many open ended orders do we imagine Metro/ComicConnect has at any given time? The thread has already discussed different ways Metro/ComicConnect could improve. Hopefully those suggestions are given and taken.

It isn't self righteous to look around in the world in which I live and extrapolate that customer service in a good deal of segments sucks bags. I expect a disconnect and so I manually do stuff. Maybe....MAYBE it's arrogance to foo-foo someone else's suggestions that actually work. So what if it takes more time? I get the results I want plus I know where I stand on a given potential purchase right then and there. Not 8 weeks from now when I have boiled over and hate the world for it.

Bet the next time the OP purchases something expensive, he/she will be more hands on in the future instead of assuming everything was going to go perfectly. Meanwhile, castigating Metro/ComicConnect does zero to rectify the problem. They are too big for "Well, I will NEVER buy from them AGAIN!"
What are we supposed to do? Stand in solidarity with this buyer? I'm not going to. I'll just do what I have always done: Chase the VooDoo down and walk through the process with a salesperson.

[ttfitz]

4 hours ago, Randall Ries said:

Eh. It isn't self righteousness. All I was attempting to do was to help out and give an alternate way of ordering. For MYSELF, I don't mind putting in the extra time or effort if I am going to spend thousands on a book. Also, you sorta lost me at "However, if...". You are introducing a hypothetical which really has no bearing here. I'm not in that much of a hurry to get a comic book. Sure. Order it online and your chances are greater the order will get flubbed than my chances of not getting the book after talking to flesh and blood. Just the law of averages.

Haha, you apparently have had a much different experience with "flesh and blood" than I have. There is a reason why "get it in writing" is an expression.

[Randall Ries]

2 minutes ago, ttfitz said:

Haha, you apparently have had a much different experience with "flesh and blood" than I have. There is a reason why "get it in writing" is an expression.

I guess I have, then. On top of working with a salesperson at Metro, I got email confirmations saying I ordered xxx book for xxx dollars and it's being shipped out on xxx date. And it was. In fact I got an email confirmation with a tracking number the next day. "Your order has shipped!" Sweet. What every buyer wants to see. Is that what you mean "Get it in writing"?

It's ALMOST as if that's the method they prefer as sales people. No misunderstandings or miscommunication.

All it really WAS is communication and going over the order twice. You seem mad I have had decent experiences with them. Maybe you would have been happy if they botched my order? That isn't cool. Why do you do people like that? Do you dance in front of wheelchair people?

Huh. Here's a story of utter incompetence.

The Grateful Dead released their entire Europe 1972 tour on CD. It was numbered, limited and came on a smart steamer trunk as a container. They are by far the most incompetent merchandise sellers on the face of the planet. It was expensive but I wanted one and ordered it. Via the internet.

Release day comes and they start shipping them out. It became apparent very quickly people weren't getting their orders and the people who did were reporting damage. Damage not done by the post office. Know where mine ended up?

Freaking Botswana, dude. Bots-frickin'-Wana. I called and the sales guy tracked it and went "Oh my." Great. So, they got Botswana to send it back to THEM, then they sent it to me. It showed up 3 weeks later at 8:30 pm in a thunder and lightning storm with heavy rain. The shipping box was soaked as was the mailman. I cut that box away and sweet relief rushed in as the steamer trunk was dry.

After ALL that, the thing that bothered me the most? The little tag that gave the number of my box (xxx/2,000) was missing. After all that, the little tag missing threw me into fits. I have Schroedingers Steamer Trunk. Could be 1/2,000. Could be 2,000/2,000. I'll never know.

[ttfitz]

21 minutes ago, Randall Ries said:

You seem mad I have had decent experiences with them.

Man, what are you smoking? How can you get "mad" out of anything I said?

I'm out.