Where in the world was the Quality Control at CGC??? 43 43

[grendelbo]

On 5/27/2022 at 7:24 PM, CGC Mike said:

So, I had a really nice meeting with the new quality control manager today.  I started grabbing examples from this thread the first part of December,  (I went back to around July of 2021)  and grabbed more 2 other times from then to the present date.  These were all sent to the new manager, and we discussed them today, along with ways to improve QC in a big way.  I walked away from the conversation with a real good feeling.  We will be keeping in touch with each other to fine tune protocols.  Many changes are already underway, and I expect to see major improvements regarding this soon.  

Thanks. Good news.

[Galen130]

On 5/27/2022 at 7:29 PM, Robert_L said:

um yes... I just received two books that were sitting outside the the plastic sleeve they were placed in before being encapsulated. They are already on their way back to be 'fixed'.

[Aman619]

On 5/27/2022 at 9:44 PM, Robert_L said:

I understand if you are grading them to keep for your own stash, but I do quite a bit of resale and customers will point out any minor flaw that ruins the 'crystal clear' appearance of the case. Practically any tiny flaw does not seem to escape the eye of a customer. I have already had several books returned to me due to minor flaws that I thought were insignificant, but the customer thought otherwise. So, I have to look at the books/cases in the eye of how my customer would see it. Which is how CGC should look at the situation too, as I am one of their customers.

I will say, the CGC customer service has picked up and pretty much accepted most anything I have requested to have re-cased. And from there, still about 10% need to be redone. That is still down from the 90%+ return rate on some of my boxes.

From a selling perspective I can see the problem you face.  Course I’ll be selling some day too. Can’t I just refuse to deal with finicky buyers?  Guess it depends on the books I’m selling right?  Like how scarce they are compared to anything they can pass on and find a week later.

[Robert_L]

Sure you can bypass finicky buyers, but why deal with that problem in the first place? It also leads to a level of accountability a customer may have in the seller. I'd rather have a customer look at me as a dependable seller and have the chance to get a return customer and not burn that bridge by way of presenting defective merchandise.

[Gaard]

On 5/27/2022 at 9:24 PM, CGC Mike said:

So, I had a really nice meeting with the new quality control manager today.  I started grabbing examples from this thread the first part of December,  (I went back to around July of 2021)  and grabbed more 2 other times from then to the present date.  These were all sent to the new manager, and we discussed them today, along with ways to improve QC in a big way.  I walked away from the conversation with a real good feeling.  We will be keeping in touch with each other to fine tune protocols.  Many changes are already underway, and I expect to see major improvements regarding this soon.  

Would I be too out of line if I asked that you share some QC procedures?

Is the statement in the pic accurate?

 

[Artboy99]

On 5/27/2022 at 7:44 PM, Robert_L said:

I understand if you are grading them to keep for your own stash, but I do quite a bit of resale and customers will point out any minor flaw that ruins the 'crystal clear' appearance of the case. Practically any tiny flaw does not seem to escape the eye of a customer. I have already had several books returned to me due to minor flaws that I thought were insignificant, but the customer thought otherwise. So, I have to look at the books/cases in the eye of how my customer would see it. Which is how CGC should look at the situation too, as I am one of their customers.

I will say, the CGC customer service has picked up and pretty much accepted most anything I have requested to have re-cased. And from there, still about 10% need to be redone. That is still down from the 90%+ return rate on some of my boxes.

completely agree, it is baffling what is allowed to leave CGC to their customers.

[Axe Elf]

On 5/27/2022 at 8:44 PM, Robert_L said:

I understand if you are grading them to keep for your own stash, but I do quite a bit of resale and customers will point out any minor flaw that ruins the 'crystal clear' appearance of the case. Practically any tiny flaw does not seem to escape the eye of a customer. I have already had several books returned to me due to minor flaws that I thought were insignificant, but the customer thought otherwise.

This really makes it sound like we're headed down the ridiculous path of grading and encapsulating slabs to prevent them from sustaining any damage.

I mean, that's why we have slabs in the first place, so THEY will take the hits for the books, which we have already sacrificed to unreadability just to keep those minor little scuffs and scratches from appearing on THEM!

But then someone would pay hundreds to buy a slabbed book only to send it back because the $15 plastic case had a little scratch on it?  Dealers now have to worry about protecting their slabs so as not to devalue them?  The obvious answer is Slab Protection™...

Humans are so weird...

Edited May 28, 2022 by Axe Elf

[Ares]

Hiring a QA Head wont mean squat if the people involved in QA are not comic fans

[wombat]

On 5/27/2022 at 9:24 PM, CGC Mike said:

So, I had a really nice meeting with the new quality control manager today.  I started grabbing examples from this thread the first part of December,  (I went back to around July of 2021)  and grabbed more 2 other times from then to the present date.  These were all sent to the new manager, and we discussed them today, along with ways to improve QC in a big way.  I walked away from the conversation with a real good feeling.  We will be keeping in touch with each other to fine tune protocols.  Many changes are already underway, and I expect to see major improvements regarding this soon.  

Curious what his reaction was to some of the glaring issues like upside down books and swapped labels. Was he as horrified as we are?

[THE_BEYONDER]

On 5/28/2022 at 12:25 AM, wombat said:

Curious what his reaction was to some of the glaring issues like upside down books and swapped labels. Was he as horrified as we are?

I assume he shook his head....

As we all did 

 

[Aman619]

On 5/27/2022 at 10:41 PM, Axe Elf said:

This really makes it sound like we're headed down the ridiculous path of grading and encapsulating slabs to prevent them from sustaining any damage.

I mean, that's why we have slabs in the first place, so THEY will take the hits for the books, which we have already sacrificed to unreadability just to keep those minor little scuffs and scratches from appearing on THEM!

But then someone would pay hundreds to buy a slabbed book only to send it back because the $15 plastic case had a little scratch on it?  Dealers now have to worry about protecting their slabs so as not to devalue them?  The obvious answer is Slab Protection™...

Humans are so weird...

not quite.  Slabs exist to first protect the integrity of the CGC grade, second, do no harm to the comic or object inside, and only then protect the comic.  They needed a sturdy encapsulation technique such that when they grade a book, its extremely difficult to tamper with the grade. But as we have seen, dropping a slab, or constant rattling it can cause damage to the comics. The slabs from all grading companies have been designed from this general principal, theres never been a guarantee that once slabbed they are impervious to harm or damage if handled carelessly.

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

On 5/27/2022 at 8:24 PM, CGC Mike said:

So, I had a really nice meeting with the new quality control manager today.  I started grabbing examples from this thread the first part of December,  (I went back to around July of 2021)  and grabbed more 2 other times from then to the present date.  These were all sent to the new manager, and we discussed them today, along with ways to improve QC in a big way.  I walked away from the conversation with a real good feeling.  We will be keeping in touch with each other to fine tune protocols.  Many changes are already underway, and I expect to see major improvements regarding this soon.  

[Sigur Ros]

On 5/27/2022 at 10:09 PM, Gaard said:

Would I be too out of line if I asked that you share some QC procedures?

Is the statement in the pic accurate?

 

When books leave their facility upside down, backwards, mislabeled, and with extra parts in the slabs.... you don't actually think the statement in the picture is accurate, do you?   ;)

Edited May 28, 2022 by Sigur Ros

[CGC Mike]

I am not going to address past procedures.  I will say that all examples that I could find of different problems, including the Spawn #1 were addressed.  Actually, there were 3 examples presented for books upside down in the slab.  QC/encapsulation will attend weekly meetings.  They will be shown all of these examples, and have continual, visual access to them.    At least 2 more specialists that have extensive comic knowledge were recently hired.  I also stressed the fact that customers want a nice looking slab that isn't full of scuffs, newton rings  etc...   The manager is addressing every one of the issues I presented to him.  Furthermore, him and I will keep in touch to fine tune things.  That's all I have for now, and won't be answering any questions.   

[Sauce Dog]

On 5/28/2022 at 7:55 AM, CGC Mike said:

I am not going to address past procedures.  I will say that all examples that I could find of different problems, including the Spawn #1 were addressed.  Actually, there were 3 examples presented for books upside down in the slab.  QC/encapsulation will attend weekly meetings.  They will be shown all of these examples, and have continual, visual access to them.    At least 2 more specialists that have extensive comic knowledge were recently hired.  I also stressed the fact that customers want a nice looking slab that isn't full of scuffs, newton rings  etc...   The manager is addressing every one of the issues I presented to him.  Furthermore, him and I will keep in touch to fine tune things.  That's all I have for now, and won't be answering any questions.   

I have run into another problem during reholdering/grading of books recently. CGC is consistently missing the pedigree status of my books even if they are labeled as such during submission AND the books have a giant glaring mark on them that clearly distinguishes the pedigree on the cover (In fact some literally say FILE COPY in a giant stamp on the front and  on several pages within). 

One such book has been returned to CGC for reholdering and correction (fingers crossed, order #CGC2076366441) but I just received noticed from my LCS who submits books for me that yet another one of my books came back without any label updates (no pedigree and no key label notes corrected, and I supplied post notes attached to the book detailing the issues, as well as talking with CGC prior to this submission to confirm). $80 down the drain for nothing when I was assured it would be fine to submit and get the label corrected.

[zzutak]

On 5/28/2022 at 8:04 AM, Sauce Dog said:

I have run into another problem during reholdering/grading of books recently. CGC is consistently missing the pedigree status of my books even if they are labeled as such during submission AND the books have a giant glaring mark on them that clearly distinguishes the pedigree on the cover (In fact some literally say FILE COPY in a giant stamp on the front and  on several pages within). 

One such book has been returned to CGC for reholdering and correction (fingers crossed, order #CGC2076366441) but I just received noticed from my LCS who submits books for me that yet another one of my books came back without any label updates (no pedigree and no key label notes corrected, and I supplied post notes attached to the book detailing the issues, as well as talking with CGC prior to this submission to confirm). $80 down the drain for nothing when I was assured it would be fine to submit and get the label corrected.

As far as I'm concerned, one or more images should be a REQUIRED component of any QC complaint lodged in this thread.    Everyone and their brother seems to have a smart phone at the ready 24/7.  How difficult is it to snap an image of the alleged QC error? 

[Gaard]

On 5/28/2022 at 11:26 AM, zzutak said:

 Everyone and their brother seems to have a smart phone at the ready 24/7. 

<---- no smartphone here.

[Beastfeast]

On 5/28/2022 at 11:28 AM, Gaard said:

<---- no smartphone here.

Seems like a weird point of pride.  It's like bragging you don't have air conditioning 

[Sauce Dog]

On 5/28/2022 at 11:26 AM, zzutak said:

As far as I'm concerned, one or more images should be a REQUIRED component of any QC complaint lodged in this thread.    Everyone and their brother seems to have a smart phone at the ready 24/7.  How difficult is it to snap an image of the alleged QC error? 

In this case I didn't think it necessary since its already been shown to CGC and posted on these boards, I was just reiterating it being an ongoing problem (no pictures of the latest issues I just got back - the shop literally called me yesterday to say it arrived and that CGC did not do ANY of the changes promised on the book. So I have to go pick it up alongside my other pedigree books that arrived in)

Here is one, which CGC specifically told me would be recognized under the 'file copy' categorization (event through they do offer 'pay copies' as well but apparently don't differentiate checking copies yet as their own category)

[MetalPSI]