Posting here

[mycomicshop]

I had some final thoughts written up for the other thread but it was locked before I posted. I stopped posting in that thread because I felt it wasn't accomplishing anything except creating more fodder to be dissected and debated ad nauseam. That, and the whole thread went bonkers.

 

We sent RMA a wrong printing and refunded him for it. Since he naturally still wanted the issue, he later ordered the same issue through our web site and asked us to remove the shipping charge. From our staff's perspective, it was a new order, so they declined to remove the shipping charge. I agree that it would have been a nice gesture of goodwill had we done so, and would have done that if it landed in my lap--but it didn't, and we didn't. That's my understanding of the salient points. Maybe that's wrong--I'm not here to go into that piece by piece again.

 

Why didn't I just give RMA what he wanted when made aware of his complaint, either when he first contacted me a month ago, or when the thread came up? Issues go to our CS department, and if they have to be elevated they go to Buddy, not me. Once they've reviewed a customer's issue and made an informed decision, it's neither appropriate nor in my power for me to overrule them. If it was something black and white like we said we'd issue a refund but the refund never went through, that's one thing. But if the procedures specified by Buddy were properly followed and the customer just doesn't like our answer, that's not something I can change. What I can do is work to improve our systems to reduce the likelihood of something similar happening in the future; or, if I disagree with a policy, make a persuasive case internally for why and how we should change, and maybe eventually I get it changed. I do these things. Your friendly feedback helps. Comics General horrorshows do not.

 

If you think we're somehow too big to care about customer service or something like that, I wholeheartedly disagree. Why do you think I post here in the first place? We wouldn't be where we are if we didn't place a high priority on providing good customer service. Our business is growing, despite tough economic times, and it's not because we take our customers for granted. All of us here take great pride in what we do and never stop trying to get better. I stand behind both our eBay performance (99.7% positive, 4.9s for all DSRs), and the thousands of successful long-term relationships we have with our buyers and sellers, as evidenced by the feedback we receive and the volume of repeat business we get. But do we have room to improve? Absolutely!

 

I try to be honest, helpful, and reasonable when I post here, but sometimes all the junior high drama and points-scoring that takes place here overwhelms everything else. What I've learned from this experience is that if I'm not able to provide 100% satisfaction myself, it's probably better if I just don't post at all. This isn't an FDQ exit, just saying that I will be more reluctant and careful about wading in here again in the future. Thanks for reading.

[mycomicshop]

And PS, if you ever have an issue that might be considered an unusual request, please contact me directly via PM or 512-240-2802 and I'll check on it for you. I have more flexibility to handle out of the ordinary requests than our regular CS staff do. Maybe I'll just tell you to run things through customer service as usual, but I might be able to help you out.

[Designer Toast]

I'm too lazy to dig through the other thread. What was the book?

[CKB]

I'm too lazy to dig through the other thread. What was the book?

 

If I said it was a Man of Steel 18 5th print would you believe me?

 

[TempusFugitivus]

If you think we're somehow too big to care about customer service or something like that, I wholeheartedly disagree. Why do you think I post here in the first place? We wouldn't be where we are if we didn't place a high priority on providing good customer service.

 

You seem like a nice guy. But the truth is that the company you work for, not the company you own or run, treats its customers like trash.

 

These policies come directly from your father, the person who does own the company. As you have already stated, you have no power to change this.

 

And, considering the business model that "My Comic Shop" follows, the policies that your father established make nothing but sense.

 

Perhaps you should simply refrain from useless posting until you have the power to change things from a policy of abusing and ripping off your customers to one of providing quality service.

 

[Underground44]

If you think we're somehow too big to care about customer service or something like that, I wholeheartedly disagree. Why do you think I post here in the first place? We wouldn't be where we are if we didn't place a high priority on providing good customer service.

 

You seem like a nice guy. But the truth is that the company you work for, not the company you own or run, treats its customers like trash.

 

These policies come directly from your father, the person who does own the company. As you have already stated, you have no power to change this.

 

And, considering the business model that "My Comic Shop" follows, the policies that your father established make nothing but sense.

 

Perhaps you should simply refrain from useless posting until you have the power to change things from a policy of abusing and ripping off your customers to one of providing quality service.

 

Don't speak for everyone else when you say mycomicshop "treats it's customers like trash" I have never had a bad experience with them.... Just sayin'

[mschmidt]

If you think we're somehow too big to care about customer service or something like that, I wholeheartedly disagree. Why do you think I post here in the first place? We wouldn't be where we are if we didn't place a high priority on providing good customer service.

 

You seem like a nice guy. But the truth is that the company you work for, not the company you own or run, treats its customers like trash.

 

These policies come directly from your father, the person who does own the company. As you have already stated, you have no power to change this.

 

And, considering the business model that "My Comic Shop" follows, the policies that your father established make nothing but sense.

 

Perhaps you should simply refrain from useless posting until you have the power to change things from a policy of abusing and ripping off your customers to one of providing quality service.

 

Seriously? Giving a refund whilst letting you keep the item they sent in error is "treating customers like trash"?

 

Just out of curiosity - if CGC screws up a label, they will fix the label for free, but you will have to pay for return shipping yourself. How does that rate on your treating-customers-like-trash-meter?

[Underground44]

Many times I've bought books graded by MCS as 9.4 or 9.6 and they've come back from CGC graded as 9.8's. No-one seems to remember those things. I've been dealing with them for 6 years and I've found them to be the best online bar none. That's my opinion anyway

 

[gcstomp]

Conan you have done a solid job of presenting Lonestar in a good light. There is a ton to love about using your website, your intuitive trading platform that allowed me to turn 8 boxes of books I didnt want into a box of great material I am happy to have, etc.

 

You have done an amazing job in keeping a professional demeanor and your company did not at all deserve the odd bashing that it took from prior thread, and will take from future threads. To think you issued a refund, an apology for the error, had buyer keep book, and spend time posting on this board during your busy season when you have work to get done.

 

Best advice, dont get caught up in the potshots you will suffer from fringe folks who have taken up battle stations on this ship. You cant win on this board, as reason is not an effective tool in a mob setting.

[TempusFugitivus]

Don't speak for everyone else when you say mycomicshop "treats it's customers like trash" I have never had a bad experience with them.... Just sayin'

 

1) I never made any claim that I was speaking for "everyone else." [?????]

 

2) My own personal experiences with this company were overwhelmingly negative and I would never do business with them again.

 

3) Simply use the Search function and you will find many many other people who have a problem with mycomicshop including a recent 110 page thread.

 

4) While I am glad that you have not had a bad experience yet, the chances that you will if you keep doing business with this company are pretty much 100 percent. Basically its inevitable as soon as you have any problem with them.

 

5) It is my right to express my opinion and try to help other people in the hobby avoid the hucksters, con men, and crooks.

 

6) After mycomicshop inevitably screws you over, I will accept your apology and commiserate with you.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Conan -

 

Your response, though I certainly appreciate the effort, is still the same brick wall you have been repeating. "This is our policy, and there's nothing we're willing to do to change it, or be flexible in light of circumstance, and Buddy is the final word." Nobody's asking you to do anything. Once you said you couldn't do anything, I accepted that.

 

You continue to ignore the fact that Lonestar acts in direct contravention of eBay policy, which Lonestar agreed to as a CONDITION of using eBay. And if I were eBay, I'd suspend Lonestar's account...following long established eBay policy...until Lonestar resolved the outstanding issues. eBay USED to do that.

 

Lonestar's feedback IS good...and yet, you've still managed to accrue thousands and thousands of negatives, from hundreds, or thousands, of customers. There are sellers here with 1/10th the feedback you have, with a substantially lower negative/neutral rate than you do. Some even have flawless feedback, while still having feedback in the thousands.

 

I think Lonestar is too big to care. I think Lonestar cares only as part of a business plan, and just enough to keep the business model chugging along. I think your continued posting proves exactly that. Dig in, entrench, and continue to try and convince everyone that that's not what you're doing. And you're growing because you service addicts. Please do not mistake that. These situations, in the real world, would never last. Yet comic book dealers (and coin dealers, and stamp dealers, and baseball card dealers, and hot wheels dealers, etc etc etc) get away with a far, far lower standard of customer service because collectors behave like addicts.

 

You, yourself, alluded to that: "You got all sorts of great comics for as little as $1.10, that you would have to spend more for, from multiple sources, to get elsewhere"..."so why are you complaining?" being the unspoken finish to that sentence.

 

Many, many businesses started out the same way you did, and once they "got big", did the same exact thing. eBay used to be a really nice, really friendly place once, too.

 

Please do not blame the sideshow, or use it to excuse or obscure the real issue.

 

You complain about things being "dissected and debated ad nauseum", yet here you are, stirring up the issue once more, trying to defend Lonestar.

 

:shrug:

 

And the real kicker, here? Lonestar still has the opportunity to make it right with me.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Conan you have done a solid job of presenting Lonestar in a good light. There is a ton to love about using your website, your intuitive trading platform that allowed me to turn 8 boxes of books I didnt want into a box of great material I am happy to have, etc.

 

You have done an amazing job in keeping a professional demeanor and your company did not at all deserve the odd bashing that it took from prior thread, and will take from future threads. To think you issued a refund, an apology for the error, had buyer keep book, and spend time posting on this board during your busy season when you have work to get done.

 

Best advice, dont get caught up in the potshots you will suffer from fringe folks who have taken up battle stations on this ship. You cant win on this board, as reason is not an effective tool in a mob setting.

 

The reasoning you have employed in this post is almost entirely faulty and built on false premises.

[gcstomp]

Themerry go round starts, just 100 pages till lock. Posted this in earlier asylum but thread was locked before non robot eyes read it:

 

Objection: Against ebay policy to list books not available to ship. ebay policy trumps any seller policy. Therefore, seller was wrong in not shipping book ordered.

 

Over ruled: Yes, seller was wrong. Seller made error, this seller, the largest comic seller on ebay, was not breaking ebay seller policy, but made an error. This error is well within allowable ebay policy, as set by detailed seller ratings, policy compliance, and power seller standards. In other words, very large sellers will make mistakes, like this one who has had over 50000 listings end since the start of this thread. Ebay, being a reasonable profit driven entity, allows unusually large sellers a tiny margin of error, no matter what the error, while still remaining completely compliant to ebay terms of service.

[TempusFugitivus]

Many times I've bought books graded by MCS as 9.4 or 9.6 and they've come back from CGC graded as 9.8's. No-one seems to remember those things. I've been dealing with them for 6 years and I've found them to be the best online bar none. That's my opinion anyway

 

And you have never received a book that was overgraded or restored or simply garbage???

 

The business model of this company is to sell you some decent books and many many more that are not. In the end, because of this, you will pay far in excess for the decent books. In other words, you were ripped off.

 

Evidently, you are OK with this. More power to you. However, you will never truly know how a company treats its customers until you have a complaint.

 

Perhaps you have actually complained. Maybe they bent over backwards for you. If so, you will be the first one that I've ever heard of.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Themerry go round starts, just 100 pages till lock. Posted this in earlier asylum but thread was locked before non robot eyes read it:

 

Objection: Against ebay policy to list books not available to ship. ebay policy trumps any seller policy. Therefore, seller was wrong in not shipping book ordered.

 

Over ruled: Yes, seller was wrong. Seller made error, this seller, the largest comic seller on ebay, was not breaking ebay seller policy, but made an error. This error is well within allowable ebay policy, as set by detailed seller ratings, policy compliance, and power seller standards. In other words, very large sellers will make mistakes, like this one who has had over 50000 listings end since the start of this thread. Ebay, being a reasonable profit driven entity, allows unusually large sellers a tiny margin of error, no matter what the error, while still remaining completely compliant to ebay terms of service.

 

The reasoning you have employed in this post is faulty and built on a false premise.

[TempusFugitivus]

Seriously? Giving a refund whilst letting you keep the item they sent in error is "treating customers like trash"?

 

Just out of curiosity - if CGC screws up a label, they will fix the label for free, but you will have to pay for return shipping yourself. How does that rate on your treating-customers-like-trash-meter?

 

From personal experience and years of reading posts about this company, it is very obvious that mycomicshop's policy, when faced with any complaint by any customer, is to simply tell the customer to get lost.

 

This constitutes, in my view, as 'treating your customers like trash.'

 

If you have a experience that runs counter to this, please speak up.

 

As for CGC's policy of not paying for the shipping when they screw up a label, I think it is completely and totally wrong. I do wonder if that policy would stand if they had any effective competition. Ain't monopoly grand?

 

However, there is a major difference between the 2 companies.

 

Although that single policy is wrong, most of the employees at CGC are fair people who will go out of their way to help you. That would be against the company-wide policy at mycomicshop.

[mycomicshop]

I haven't responded to the "eBay policy" thing you've mentioned because I don't think eBay views it the way you're looking at it, but I have no desire to debate it.

 

I acknowledge that I'm not giving you what you're looking for, and I'm sorry I can't do more for you. I've said all I wanted to say, and am now withdrawing from this thread and the boards for a while. Peace.

[Chespirito]

If you think we're somehow too big to care about customer service or something like that, I wholeheartedly disagree. Why do you think I post here in the first place? We wouldn't be where we are if we didn't place a high priority on providing good customer service.

 

You seem like a nice guy. But the truth is that the company you work for, not the company you own or run, treats its customers like trash.

 

 

 

Don't speak for everyone else when you say mycomicshop "treats it's customers like trash" I have never had a bad experience with them.... Just sayin'

I have never had a problem with them, all transactions have gone as they should have.. Also, just saying

[gaz973]

If you think we're somehow too big to care about customer service or something like that, I wholeheartedly disagree. Why do you think I post here in the first place? We wouldn't be where we are if we didn't place a high priority on providing good customer service.

 

You seem like a nice guy. But the truth is that the company you work for, not the company you own or run, treats its customers like trash.

 

 

 

Don't speak for everyone else when you say mycomicshop "treats it's customers like trash" I have never had a bad experience with them.... Just sayin'

I have never had a problem with them, all transactions have gone as they should have.. Also, just saying

+1

[Prince Namor]

I've used Lone Star's service for a while now, and I've had any problem's taken care of to my satisfaction.

Then again, I'm lazy, my standards are low, and more in line with the typical addicts that collect.

 

The crack heads in the neighborhood by where I work probably get ripped off all the time, they just have to live with it.

 

Having said that...

If I had an inventory with as much drek as Lone Star has available...

And a customer like RMA who spends a considerable amount of money of said drek...

It just seems like a no-brainer to cover the $1.50.

 

This has been a lesson in bizarre business practices.