Lone Star Comics (MyComicShop.com) is robbing me! Need advice! 2 2

[Broken Shakespear]

I would like to see a scan of this book that was sent back.

 

Is there one?

 

No, I didn't scan it because I didn't think I needed to scan it. The book had a black back cover with a 2" long color breaking crease in the lower right corner.

 

It also had a ~1.5" color scrape on the front cover, about mid book, near the spine. Further it had multiple non-color breaking spine stresses (I counted them when describing the book to Lone Star, but don't have that e-mail in front of me, at least a half dozen). It also had multiple non-color breaking "thumbnail" creases (small crescent moon shaped creases caused by the cover bending over the readers thumbnail) on the front cover.

 

It was a clear cut and dry misgrade, just like the book with half the comic code authority logo torn out from the subsequent order I received. Had I suspected Lone Star would implode over it, I would have scanned it.

[Silver]

I had a unrelated incident with this seller years ago at a San Diego Comic Con. While there is no point in spilling the details here, I would NEVER do business with this seller again.

 

I think the buyer has every right to be upset based on what he has described.

 

It also sounds a little like what Chuck has done to people who return books from MH. My brother made a single purchase to MH and returned half of the $800 order due to the NM books being more like F and he was banned from that very first incident.

 

 

 

 

[ft88]

And how hard is it to get around a ban? Find an out of state friend and order through them. I can understand wanting to lose bad customers but there are other ways.

 

"all items are non returnable"

"orders must be $1000 or more"

 

etc.

 

 

[JWKyle]

Wow I guess Shakespear got the mileage on this tread. The only thing that kind of bothers me is you could type all those loooonnnnggg slams but couldn't take a 5 minute call? Either you can type 500 words a minute or you really had it out for them. Either way I think people should thank you for your opinion and Lone Star did resolve your problem in a manner that you seemed Ok with you. Let me make a mutt point I bought some Marvel Captain Marvels from a company that starts with a (M) and ends with a (polis) the 4 was advertised as a 9.2 it was a 8.5 9.0 at best but in the same order I got a 9 that was listed at a 9.2 and that book is at least a 9.4 more like a 9.6 should I send the whole order back for over and under grading?hehehe

[nochips]

I have bought from them twice. Both times ended up with a return of all items. I would rather buy from a one eyed blind convict than ever send them one more dollar. I had to ask for my refunds and they just plain stink at grading and mail delivery.

[jools&jim]

they just plain stink at...mail delivery.

 

I use their free shipping option with all my orders, and have never had a problem. It's a little slower now than it was before they stopped offering UPS Ground as one of the free options...but it's still free...

[crslsc-migration]

Hi guys,

 

I'm the lead developer for the mycomicshop.com web site and also Buddy's son. I've been reading through the thread and wanted to reply.

 

First off, I would like to apologize to Broken Shakespeare. I was not involved with the situation and subsequent communication that BS described, but it sounds like we should have handled the situation better. I'm glad that we were eventually able to resolve things at least somewhat to your satisfaction, but sorry that we messed up in the first place.

 

We take your feedback (and those from others in the thread) seriously, and we'll be looking into what we can do in the future to improve the way we handle questions about returns, grading, etc. Formalizing the returns process will help, as would a followup customer satisfaction survey for each return/problem: "Was this problem resolved to your satisfaction? If not, why?" etc.

 

I agree that it does not make any sense to ban a customer who orders a lot of comics from us and occasionally returns a small percentage of them. We are a high-volume retailer and will sometimes make mistakes (though as some of you pointed out, sometimes the mistakes are undergrades as well as overgrades). When we make a grading mistake, a return is the rightful mechanism for dealing with it.

 

The only time a ban might be called for is when a customer finds fault with our grading on a large percentage of the books in his order, or returns a number of books every time he orders. When that happens, it may indicate that the customer's grading expectations are skewed higher than the grading standards that we adhere to. In such cases, ideally the customer would decide for himself to stop ordering from us, but when that doesn't happen a ban from future purchasing may be the best option for both parties.

 

A couple other comments:

 

- Somewhere in the thread somebody asked whether we're stricter on grading when we're buying comics through our online buying system (http://www.mycomicshop.com/webuytrade) than when we're selling them. The answer is absolutely no. We ALWAYS sell a comic at the same grade assigned when we bought it from the seller.

 

- Thank you to those in the thread who have dealt with us in the past and vouched for Buddy or at least gave us the benefit of the doubt. We will sometimes make mistakes, but when that happens it is due to error, not any intent to deceive or cheat. You will not find anyone more honest than Buddy Saunders.

 

- One of our goals as a retailer is to fix problems when they do occur and and always work to improve our operation rather than using "high-volume retailer" as a crutch to justify poor service. Other than some problems that have come to light in this thread, I think we're doing very well. Feedback from hundreds of customers and sellers who have dealt with us can be found here: http://www.mycomicshop.com/feedback

 

Thanks for the opportunity to speak. If any of you have feedback for me on this issue, or on anything else about our web site, grading, or anything else, you can reach me at webmaster@mycomicshop.com. I'd be happy to hear from you and answer any further questions you may have.

 

Thanks,

Conan

[sckao]

 

Hi Conan,

 

Welcome to the boards. Nice work on the technical aspects of the buying system. It's the best online system I've come across. (thumbs u

 

 

[crslsc-migration]

Welcome to the boards. Nice work on the technical aspects of the buying system. It's the best online system I've come across. (thumbs u

 

Thanks! If you like it now, you'll like it even better pretty soon--a new and considerably improved version will be up within the next week or two.

[dopy02]

Hi guys,

 

I'm the lead developer for the mycomicshop.com web site and also Buddy's son. I've been reading through the thread and wanted to reply.

 

 

 

Thanks,

Conan

 

Broken Shakespeare

banned or not banned?

[moonlite]

welcome conan,

 

since dealing with you guys, I have made a lot of customers happy. I like the system and the way I have received books in a timely manner and packed extremely well. Even the silver age books I have gotten have been right on gradewise. THe only downside is the time lag in sending, receiving, checking in, ordering, shipping, etc. but I realize you guys are a huge operation so I am ok with non-amazon like service .

[Broken Shakespear]

Hi guys,

 

I'm the lead developer for the mycomicshop.com web site and also Buddy's son. I've been reading through the thread and wanted to reply.

 

 

 

Thanks,

Conan

 

Broken Shakespeare

banned or not banned?

 

As far as I know, banned. I will say that whenever I have had a problem with something not working on the site, or just providing feedback on features I would like to see, like the ability to search for CGC books, the web team has always been very responsive in fixing the site, or letting me know that my feedback is being taken into consideration.

 

I never had any problems from that end of the business.

 

I had zero problems with Lone Star before Beth came along. After Beth took over, I had one problem initially ( a couple years ago), and Buddy called me to apologize and explain that Beth was new to the job, etc, which was no big deal and it was handled.

 

Lately though, most of my problems with Lone Star have been communications issues with Beth. Since March/April, I routinely had to send 2-3 e-mails to Beth (send an e-mail, wait a week, send an e-mail, wait a week, send an e-mail and then finally get a response) to get any response. This wasn't just once, but 4-5 times this happened. And then I would get mixed communication, like Beth telling me Buddy looked at a book and decided it wasn't misgraded, and then Buddy telling me I didn't need to return the book (which was already returned and supposedly looked at by Buddy). So I don't know if Beth was mistaken, Buddy was mistaken, or if Beth was intentionally trying to blow smoke in hopes I would just go away by playing the "Buddy looked" card.

 

If you want some feedback for the site, one of the things I recommend is allowing users to see a credit history. Beth sometimes acted like I shouldn't be writing to see if a credit had been issued (LS used to e-mail me to let me know it had been issued, but again lately, I have had to e-mail LS 2-3 times to find out) and I should be able to tell by looking at my total balance. With with trades going in and orders going out, it was sometimes impossible to tell if a $4 credit had been posted to my account, so I had to e-mail to ask. If a user could just look at their credit history, that would be handy for them.

[Broken Shakespear]

Wow I guess Shakespear got the mileage on this tread. The only thing that kind of bothers me is you could type all those loooonnnnggg slams but couldn't take a 5 minute call? Either you can type 500 words a minute or you really had it out for them. Either way I think people should thank you for your opinion and Lone Star did resolve your problem in a manner that you seemed Ok with you. Let me make a mutt point I bought some Marvel Captain Marvels from a company that starts with a (M) and ends with a (polis) the 4 was advertised as a 9.2 it was a 8.5 9.0 at best but in the same order I got a 9 that was listed at a 9.2 and that book is at least a 9.4 more like a 9.6 should I send the whole order back for over and under grading?hehehe

 

No, I only type about 100 wpm usually, which does lend to allowing me to type lengthy posts. And I didn't have it out for them until the told me they were taking 100 for me. Then yes, that made it personal.

 

Had they said they didn't want to do business and were cutting a check for the full amount of credit on file, or to spend my credit and then don't do business there any more, then fine. While it still wouldn't make business sense to me, that is their decision, and I'm not being harmed in any way. But to say they won't do business with me anymore, and then to say that because of their decision, they want to also take $100 worth of my comic books from me to boot, then yes, it becomes personal and I do have it out for someone who tries to steal from me. Lone Star may not view it as stealing, but I certainly do. I certainly wouldn't go into their store, take $200 worth of books and only leave $100 at the register, and then justify it by saying it is fair because I know they only paid $100 for them.

 

Anyway, my final order shipped yesterday, so hopefully I will be getting it soon...

[Point Five]

No, I only type about 100 wpm usually, which does lend to allowing me to type lengthy posts. And I didn't have it out for them until the told me they were taking 100 for me. Then yes, that made it personal.

 

Had they said they didn't want to do business and were cutting a check for the full amount of credit on file, or to spend my credit and then don't do business there any more, then fine. While it still wouldn't make business sense to me, that is their decision, and I'm not being harmed in any way. But to say they won't do business with me anymore, and then to say that because of their decision, they want to also take $100 worth of my comic books from me to boot, then yes, it becomes personal and I do have it out for someone who tries to steal from me. Lone Star may not view it as stealing, but I certainly do.

Seems reasonable to me.

[Broken Shakespear]

Hi guys,

 

I'm the lead developer for the mycomicshop.com web site and also Buddy's son. I've been reading through the thread and wanted to reply.

 

First off, I would like to apologize to Broken Shakespeare. I was not involved with the situation and subsequent communication that BS described, but it sounds like we should have handled the situation better. I'm glad that we were eventually able to resolve things at least somewhat to your satisfaction, but sorry that we messed up in the first place.

 

We take your feedback (and those from others in the thread) seriously, and we'll be looking into what we can do in the future to improve the way we handle questions about returns, grading, etc. Formalizing the returns process will help, as would a followup customer satisfaction survey for each return/problem: "Was this problem resolved to your satisfaction? If not, why?" etc.

 

I agree that it does not make any sense to ban a customer who orders a lot of comics from us and occasionally returns a small percentage of them. We are a high-volume retailer and will sometimes make mistakes (though as some of you pointed out, sometimes the mistakes are undergrades as well as overgrades). When we make a grading mistake, a return is the rightful mechanism for dealing with it.

 

The only time a ban might be called for is when a customer finds fault with our grading on a large percentage of the books in his order, or returns a number of books every time he orders. When that happens, it may indicate that the customer's grading expectations are skewed higher than the grading standards that we adhere to. In such cases, ideally the customer would decide for himself to stop ordering from us, but when that doesn't happen a ban from future purchasing may be the best option for both parties.

 

A couple other comments:

 

- Somewhere in the thread somebody asked whether we're stricter on grading when we're buying comics through our online buying system (http://www.mycomicshop.com/webuytrade) than when we're selling them. The answer is absolutely no. We ALWAYS sell a comic at the same grade assigned when we bought it from the seller.

 

- Thank you to those in the thread who have dealt with us in the past and vouched for Buddy or at least gave us the benefit of the doubt. We will sometimes make mistakes, but when that happens it is due to error, not any intent to deceive or cheat. You will not find anyone more honest than Buddy Saunders.

 

- One of our goals as a retailer is to fix problems when they do occur and and always work to improve our operation rather than using "high-volume retailer" as a crutch to justify poor service. Other than some problems that have come to light in this thread, I think we're doing very well. Feedback from hundreds of customers and sellers who have dealt with us can be found here: http://www.mycomicshop.com/feedback

 

Thanks for the opportunity to speak. If any of you have feedback for me on this issue, or on anything else about our web site, grading, or anything else, you can reach me at webmaster@mycomicshop.com. I'd be happy to hear from you and answer any further questions you may have.

 

Thanks,

Conan

 

I would also just like to add this. On the books I returned, it wasn't a matter of my grading standards being higher than Lone Stars. I've read Lone Star's grading standards several times. I know exactly what it is. I realize that it states any book that is a 9.0 and up can be used to fill an order for a NM book.

 

The problem that I have is that of the books I returned, they were almost all clear cut misgrades, using Lone Star's published grading standards. For example, half of the "NM" books that I returned had a tear in the front or back cover, ranging from 1/4" tear to a 1" tear.

 

Lone Star's published standards clearly state:

http://www.mycomicshop.com/help/grading

 

"Tears: None. "

 

Then I also get a "NM" book with a pea sized piece of the cover torn out (half the comic code logo is gone). Again, the grading guide states:

 

"Pieces Missing: No pieces missing except for tips of pages nicked during the production process. Note that we include "Marvel chipping" under this definition, a phenomenon well known to the collectors of early 1960's Marvel comics."

 

So it isn't like my standard is so much higher than Lone Star's standard. It's that the books I needed to return don't even follow Lone Star's standard.

 

So I order 80+ books and I need to return 15% of them because they are misgraded. Then BAM, I'm banned from shopping there because I returned too large a percent of one order (out of hundreds of orders I've placed over the years). Never mind that for 2007, I returned much less than 1% of what I ordered. And it isn't because my standards are too high. It is because somewhere, a grader checked a book in at too high a grade, or the order puller grabbed a FN or VF copy instead of a NM copy, or a NM book gets stored, suffers storage damage, and gets shipped anyway as a NM book.

 

Basically, someone screwed up at Lone Star and filled 15% of my order with books that don't even measure up to Lone Stars published standards, and when I need to return those books, I get banned. So a LS employee(s) messes up somewhere and the customer gets banned. Then to add injury to insult, LS tries to take half of my comics without paying me for them.

 

I think any reasonable person would be seriously miffed by that point...

 

I just want to be clear that this is in no way a problem with my expectations, but entirely with the product LS choose to fill my order and the break down in customer service handling returns.

 

Sincerely,

 

Will Norris

Edited June 24, 2008 by Broken Shakespear

[DiceX]

[Silver Surfer]

Conan nice post and welcome to the boards.

[gcstomp]

Conan,

Impressed with your professional response. Your site looks great too. Plus with a name like Conan you have to be good. I just sent out a large lot for trade credit to Lone Star, look forward to dealing with you.

[crslsc-migration]

If you want some feedback for the site, one of the things I recommend is allowing users to see a credit history. With with trades going in and orders going out, it was sometimes impossible to tell if a $4 credit had been posted to my account, so I had to e-mail to ask. If a user could just look at their credit history, that would be handy for them.

 

Good suggestion and easy to do. I'll get that added pretty soon. Thanks.

 

---

 

Silver Surfer and gcstomp, thanks for the welcome and the feedback.

[Forbush-Man]