Hastings -- Service with a smile by brooksone

[CSJournals-migration]

Or Not............

 

I thought I would take a minute to tell you about my experience at Hastings today. Wanted to see if anyone else has had the same.

 

I was visiting family in another state today. while I was there I decided to visit the local Hastings as my hometown doesn't have one. I shopped the comic section, made my selections and headed to the checkouts. I picked up several of the Hastings Variants of Walking Dead, Deadpool, Uncanny X-Men, and Savage Wolverine. Mainly had 3 copies of each except the Walking Dead which they had about 30 copies so I grabbed 15, yes hoping to sell them for a little profit to cover my expanses on the ones I wanted to keep. Nothing wrong with that ... right?

As the cashier starts to ring up my comics I notice the Walking Deads were ringing up $4.99 with a cover price of $2.99. Let me insert here that I am not ignorant of the fact that Hastings variants do cost more, as some of the titles I had in my hand were bagged and boarded with a sticker retail price on them for more than cover price. However the WD's, the Uncanny X-Men, and Secret Avengers were not bagged with a sticker to state the increased retail. After the 4th or 5th copy of WD I asked the cashier about the price difference. She said she was not sure and had to ask the Manager. After returning from talking to him she stated that they were indeed $4.99 and the store had a limit of 1 copy per title per customer. This did not set well with me because there was no signs stating a limit in the comic section. I told the cashier this and she apparently did not hear me or was not caring because she proceded to ring up the 1 copy of each. I then called into question the price difference on the comics, which she replied with a shoulder shrug. Now I am really not liking my trip to Hastings. With regards to high blood pressure I calmly asked to speak with the manager myself about the whole situation.

After 5 more minutes of waiting for him to show up I finally got my chance to voice my concerns. His reasoning for not selling me the WD's for the $2.99 which they were clearly displayed at was because he had run out of bags and boards and was waiting on his delivery. Which is not my problem. This is like going to a car dealership and seeing the sticker price and saying OK I want to purchase this one and going back to sign papers and the salesman telling you the price is $5000 more because he run out of paper to print a new window sticker.

While trying to reason with the manager I guess his attention span was at and end because he told me he was refusing to sell me any comics. Apparently the new face of retail is to turn away someone wanting to spend money on products you are trying to sell. Not really amazed at this because while in town I visited 2 other LCS and had the worst customer service, well maybe lack of service.

Anyone else have this type of treatment at their Hastings or LCS? In my opinion the next downward spiral of the comic industry will not be caused by the comic creators but by the Poor service at the retail end. I will not visit the Hastings or the 2 LCS again. If this is happening around the country it will turn people off of comics.

 

Thanks,

Tracy

 

See more journals by brooksone

[Jimmy Linguini]

I think it was a good thing the manager did.

 

You knew Hasting Variants sell for 4.99 in store and still made a big deal out of them not being priced correctly.

[Tnerb]

I'm lucky, my store treats me well. Not only do usually start by walking in and shaking the managers hand his dark sense of humor matches mine. In Philadlphia I have an abundant amount of comic shops I can go to and all of them are closer than the one I frequent. I do also like going into new comic book shops when I am away on vacation.

 

I also like to write about those experiences much like you are doing here. I never heard of Hastings and I'm not much of a store variant guy. To me it's like advertising. I hate buying a car and then having their name on the back for all to see.

 

As well, being a tourist he might have thought he could have gotten more and if you didn't buy it's not like he lost a long term customer. Bottom line, it sucks for you, it sucks for him, and it sucks for the industry.

[HighRadArt]

The Hastings where I live has no problem with how many copies you purchase. I went to look for the WD exclusives and was told a guy had come in earlier and purchased all of them (early bird gets the worm). I don't know you but I get the impression he thought you were being rude and decided he wasn't going to sell the books to you. It's too bad you had a bad experience because they sell some really neat stuff (I spend way too much money there).

[mysterio]

It is bait and switch to list one cover price and charge another, and it is up to the store to mark the product differently with a new price sticker if they plan to charge more than cover. If Hastings wants to charge $4.99 or $24.99 for their variants that is their right, but they shouldn't print a different price on the cover then.

[TheMightyJohn]

Usually they bag the books and add a higher price tag to them than what is on the cover. I had a Green Lantern sketch cover that wasn't bagged and had no store price sticker ring up at $14.99. Hastings sucks in general but I am not surprised by this at all.

[mysterio]

If they bag them and mark them up that's fine. If they take a book with one cover price and charge another that is illegal. Imagine if you went into Wal-Mart and a shirt marked $9.99 rang up at $14.99? If Hastings keeps this as a business strategy this has the makings of a class action suit.

[TheMightyJohn]

If they bag them and mark them up that's fine. If they take a book with one cover price and charge another that is illegal. Imagine if you went into Wal-Mart and a shirt marked $9.99 rang up at $14.99? If Hastings keeps this as a business strategy this has the makings of a class action suit.

 

So far they have honored it each time it's happened. Usually the hastings in the smaller towns out here don't bother to bag the variants and the manager just assumes it's a price error

 

BTW if anyone is looking for any hastings variants PM me your list. Most of stores in my state have them going back 6 months and I all over every day with my job. I don't collect them for myself because I don't like the brick and mortar variants advertising a store (looking at you midtown)

[kaholo1256]

Lately Hastings has had some pretty cool exclusive variants. I first took notice with the Avengers vs X-Men ones and had done the same as you. Picked up a few and went to pay for them. Personally since I usually buy variants anyways when I noticed a slight difference in price I simply asked if the girl was sure. She being unknowing said your right there is a difference in price and adjusted for it. I guess I just lucked out. Variants usually go for $9.99 and up and have seen really how far they can really take off especially with the 1:200's and above. So personally you may have wanted to keep silent on the $2 dollar up-charge as I have seen the WD's go for a lot more than $4.99 and in some completed listings as high as $25. Heck the AvX #1 they had for awhile was going for $40 and $50. In some ways you probably got a store where the manager knew that and since they are a hotter than normal commodity maybe wanted to share the wealth for a few weeks.

 

My only issue is when undergoing checkout I always have to ask the lady to be careful. They don't understand the whole 9.8, keep it CGC worthy type of thing as they see them as some magazine that your gonna rip through later.

 

As for my LCS, never had an issue. My guy usually finds ways of giving me a first attempt at buying variants anyways so that's always been a plus. I have gone to a few stores though were I was basicly followed by store owners thinking I may actually pick a book up and read it without paying. Those kinda rub me the wrong way but its there store and I can always go somewhere else and spend my money.

 

My favorite bad LCS had a gentleman that not only followed me but didn't label a price on anything on the wall or in the back issue section. When I would ask he would go to the comicbookpriceguide.com website and look the price up in a 9.4 condition regardless of what the actual condition was. When I picked something up that couldn't have been in any better than 3.0 and asked just to be an individual_without_enough_empathy if he thought this was 9.4 also he asked me to leave. I graciously thanked him for stealing 20 minutes of my life for which I will never again get to use and left.

 

I guess each store has its ups and downs and as Tnerb said I can always move on to the next, or simply go back to my favorite LCS.

 

K

 

 

[brooksone]

Yes this was a case of it was better to shut my mouth and I could have bought all I had and more. And I would not have had a problem paying the higher price on any of them if they were marked the higher price. However they were misleading in having them on the shelf with the lower cover price.

[THB]

Lately Hastings has had some pretty cool exclusive variants. I first took notice with the Avengers vs X-Men ones and had done the same as you. Picked up a few and went to pay for them. Personally since I usually buy variants anyways when I noticed a slight difference in price I simply asked if the girl was sure. She being unknowing said your right there is a difference in price and adjusted for it. I guess I just lucked out. Variants usually go for $9.99 and up and have seen really how far they can really take off especially with the 1:200's and above. So personally you may have wanted to keep silent on the $2 dollar up-charge as I have seen the WD's go for a lot more than $4.99 and in some completed listings as high as $25. Heck the AvX #1 they had for awhile was going for $40 and $50. In some ways you probably got a store where the manager knew that and since they are a hotter than normal commodity maybe wanted to share the wealth for a few weeks.

 

My only issue is when undergoing checkout I always have to ask the lady to be careful. They don't understand the whole 9.8, keep it CGC worthy type of thing as they see them as some magazine that your gonna rip through later.

 

As for my LCS, never had an issue. My guy usually finds ways of giving me a first attempt at buying variants anyways so that's always been a plus. I have gone to a few stores though were I was basicly followed by store owners thinking I may actually pick a book up and read it without paying. Those kinda rub me the wrong way but its there store and I can always go somewhere else and spend my money.

 

My favorite bad LCS had a gentleman that not only followed me but didn't label a price on anything on the wall or in the back issue section. When I would ask he would go to the comicbookpriceguide.com website and look the price up in a 9.4 condition regardless of what the actual condition was. When I picked something up that couldn't have been in any better than 3.0 and asked just to be an individual_without_enough_empathy if he thought this was 9.4 also he asked me to leave. I graciously thanked him for stealing 20 minutes of my life for which I will never again get to use and left.

 

I guess each store has its ups and downs and as Tnerb said I can always move on to the next, or simply go back to my favorite LCS.

 

K

 

 

Take in your own bags and boards and bag them. It helps a little bit.