Where in the world was the Quality Control at CGC??? 44 44

[CGC Mike]

On 2/7/2023 at 4:30 PM, Barth said:

I am sorry this happened to you @Barth  Please send this back to us as a mechanical error.  If you need instructions on how to do so, send me a PM.

Mike

[Gaard]

This employee must've been on his way out. Absolutely no way this was an accident.

 

BTW - ask yourself this, how many people did this get by?

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Gaard

[Sigur Ros]

On 2/7/2023 at 4:30 PM, Barth said:

Good to see CGC finally realized how ugly that stupid holographic sticker....  oh, never mind.

 

Edited February 8, 2023 by Sigur Ros

[Barth]

On 2/7/2023 at 8:26 PM, CGC Mike said:

I am sorry this happened to you @Barth  Please send this back to us as a mechanical error.  If you need instructions on how to do so, send me a PM.

Mike

Thanks @CGC Mike

I submitted it yesterday and I'll be sending it back today

[StillOnly25Cents]

waited until later today when I could hopefully gain my composure before posting

received my Hulk 340 back today from the TM signing ... the book was submitted with a CCS press 

I have complained before that it is rare that I am ever able to see any before/after improvements done by CCS and many others have echoed the same not knowing if their books ever saw a press or clean 

first the positives .... 

- my book appears to have no newton rings or scratches (a rarity)

- there was some creasing by the Spider-Man image in the DM corner box that actually looks to have been removed by CCS 

- there was a slight indentation above the i in "Incredible" that also looks to have been pressed out

and now the bad/ugly ....

- the cover wrap is now completely misaligned when it was submitted perfectly centered 

- there is a piece of schmutz in the bottom of the slab to the left of Wolverine's claws

- the book graded a 8.0 with off white to white pages .... this book should have come back no less than a 9.0 at worst and while I am no expert on page quality the off white distinction seems highly suspect

- there were no graders notes given

[Tnexus]

On 2/9/2023 at 5:18 PM, StillOnly25Cents said:

waited until later today when I could hopefully gain my composure before posting

received my Hulk 340 back today from the TM signing ... the book was submitted with a CCS press 

I have complained before that it is rare that I am ever able to see any before/after improvements done by CCS and many others have echoed the same not knowing if their books ever saw a press or clean 

first the positives .... 

- my book appears to have no newton rings or scratches (a rarity)

- there was some creasing by the Spider-Man image in the DM corner box that actually looks to have been removed by CCS 

- there was a slight indentation above the i in "Incredible" that also looks to have been pressed out

and now the bad/ugly ....

- the cover wrap is now completely misaligned when it was submitted perfectly centered 

- there is a piece of schmutz in the bottom of the slab to the left of Wolverine's claws

- the book graded a 8.0 with off white to white pages .... this book should have come back no less than a 9.0 at worst and while I am no expert on page quality the off white distinction seems highly suspect

- there were no graders notes given

I wonder if there's a spine roll. I know those ding books pretty heavily.

[StillOnly25Cents]

On 2/10/2023 at 3:19 PM, Tnexus said:

I wonder if there's a spine roll. I know those ding books pretty heavily.

no spine roll at all and even if there was the press would have fixed that

Edited February 10, 2023 by StillOnly25Cents

[Silver_Couch_Surfer]

On 2/4/2023 at 7:47 AM, Gaard said:

@Silver_Couch_Surferanything to report?

I heard back. They corrected the folds. All they can offer is reimbursement of grading fees, free shipping and free reholder. FC is a huge eye sore now. 😞

[Gaard]

On 2/10/2023 at 6:11 PM, Silver_Couch_Surfer said:

I heard back. They corrected the folds. All they can offer is reimbursement of grading fees, free shipping and free reholder. FC is a huge eye sore now. 😞

Let me guess, this is what they said ... "Damn! We f'd up bad."

[Silver_Couch_Surfer]

On 2/10/2023 at 6:12 PM, Gaard said:

Let me guess, this is what they said ... "Damn! We f'd up bad."

Right? If only..

[Stefan_W]

I got my latest shipment back from CGC and it was all packed up beautifully. I checked the books carefully one at a time and no cracks or newton rings anywhere. I got to the last book and thought it was ok until I noticed something at the bottom of the slab. Looks like they got some packing material caught in there. So close, and everyone did such a great job, but at the end of the day I still have to do an ME

 

Edited February 12, 2023 by Stefan_W

[ChrispyC66]

Warning - This is a long post! However, please read.
I’m posting this for a friend. He doesn’t frequent these boards but he asked me to tell his story so here goes…

My friend John (not his real name) recently submitted a very nice double cover copy of Batman 55 to CGC for grading and encapsulation. He was disappointed with the resulting grade and follow-up actions from CGC. 

First problem; The book was submitted as a walkthrough submission and John used $6,000 for the FMV on the submission form but he said the system changed it to $10k. 

I asked him about this and he said he was unable to change it back. He finished the order because he needed to send the form to the presser.  He figured he could change it manually on the form after the cleaning and pressing was completed.  After the book was dry cleaned and pressed he had the book sent to CGC with the FMV updated to $6k.

1/25 - Batman 55 is delivered to CGC.

1/26 - CGC receives the book into their system at SFG

2/02 (Thur.) - CGC posted the grade, the status changed to shipped. 

Second problem; The grade didn’t match the grader notes. The notes stated the first cover was 7.0 and the interior cover was 9.0 BUT the book grade was 8.0. What? 

At 12:00 John called and spoke to CS for almost 15 minutes.  He asked the CS rep. to pull the book from shipping before it leaves the building.  He wanted to discuss the difference between the grader notes and the label and would rather CGC hold it until this was figured out. The CS rep. told hi. it was too late and that the book already shipped. 

John asked for clarification concerning the different cover grades shown in the grader notes versus the posted grade in the census. The rep. said someone would call him back by the end of this day (Thurs.) No one called.

2/03 (Fri.) John called at 11:30 and spoke to a different CS rep. for over 13 minutes explaining everything over again.  This CS rep. said someone would get back to him by the end of the day (Fri.) but if they didn’t, then they would contact him first thing Monday morning.  No one called back on Friday. 

2/04 (Sat.) The book arrives with 8.0 grade and first cover grade 7.5 and inner cover grade 8.0.

2/06 (Mon.) After not receiving a phone call as promised on Thursday, Friday or “first thing” Monday morning, John called CS again at 12:20 and was put on hold for a few minutes before selecting the call-back option. At 12:33, a CS rep. called John back, pulled up his account, said everything looks fine, and asked what was the problem. He logged into his account and saw that the first grader note had been changed from 7.0/9.0 to 7.5/8.0.  John explained that the grader note had been changed after his repeated calls and among all the other questions he had asked about in his customer complaint and hadn’t received one answer he wanted to know who changed the grader notes and why?

Several hours later, he received an email, not a phone call response:

Name removed (Certified Collectibles Group) <support@collectiblesgroupsupport.zendesk.com>

To: John

Mon, Feb 6 at 5:01 PM

Hello John,

Thank you for your patience will I investigated your submission order with our CGC Verification department. I was advised that grades are not final until the finalizer signs off on it.  We have multiple graders who review the book and each grader might give it a different grade based on their personal opinion.  It is the finalizer's job to review those grades and the book and then make a determination on the final grade. We do apologize for any inconvenience as the note was left in error and should not have been visible on the customer facing side. The grade is correct as it is and it has been updated in the system.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

--

Customer Service

Certified Collectibles Group

p. 800-642-2646 | f. 941-360-2553

collectiblesgroup.com

It was nice of CS to ask if John had any questions.  He does, Many.  

1. How many graders agreed with the 9.0 cover grade before The Finalizer made their determination on the final book grade?
2. Why is the public led to believe that the policy at CGC is to have an agreed upon concensus to determine the grade of a book when in actuality, The Finalizer determines the final grade?
3. He was told It is CGC policy that differing opinions to be noted by different graders.  Those notes are not for the general public to see.  Those notes are for internal use and future reference.  Because John asked for clarification, someone at CGC changed the original cover grades in the grader notes.  Now, if John wants to dispute this further there is no public record of any graders considering this book’s inner cover to be a 9.0.  AND if there was more than one grader who agreed before the Finalizer stepped in, then presumably, those records have been eliminated from their system. John’s opinion is that the grades shown in the original notes was the graders consensus for the cover grades and was changed by the Finalizer. If it’s CGC policy to hide certain grader notes (cover grades), but not others (details concerning condition); he pointed out that he could see the cover grades in the notes; so why were they changed after the book shipped and why are they still showing?  
4. He explained this to two different customer service people.  Why would CGC change the cover grades in the system and then call him back and ask what the problem is? Did nobody record his complaints?
5. Is it the Finalizer’s honest opinion that the outer cover and the inner cover are only a half point different from each other and a full point lower than one of the graders? 
6. Why was John charged 3% of $10k to grade the book? That value is closer to the 9.0 grade than the 8.0 grade. 
7. Did CGC determine the value to charge him before The Finalizer changed the grade from 9.0 to 8.0?

It would have been nice if a CGC representative would have called John  back when they originally said they would, and explain what was going on, instead of leaving him hanging with a bunch of unanswered questions. 

Edited February 13, 2023 by ChrispyC66
Clarification of grades

[ChrispyC66]

On 2/12/2023 at 11:00 PM, Doomed said:

This is not uncommon for double cover books with interior/hidden damage. Basically the book would've graded 9.0 but you have to grade the entire book and this caused the 9.0 to drop to an 8.0. 

They're not, you just weren't aware of it. 

I understand that the book could have interior flaws that potentially drops the grade, but why the subterfuge, just say that’s the reason the book grade changed.
Also, why did CGC change the cover grades listed in the grader notes after the book was delivered? Just explain that to the owner with a return phone call and remove the grade reference in the notes.
This is also about optics, and it’s another example of terrible handling of a simple mistake.

Edited February 13, 2023 by ChrispyC66
editing

[THE_BEYONDER]

That’s a really cool Bat book.
 

I’d be thankful it returned home undamaged. 

[Gaard]

On 2/12/2023 at 11:15 PM, ChrispyC66 said:

I understand that the book could have interior flaws that potentially drops the grade, but why the subterfuge, just say that’s the reason the grade changed.
Also, why did CGC change the grade listed in the grader notes after the book was delivered? Just explain that to the owner with a return phone call and remove the grade reference in the notes.
This is also about optics, and it’s another example of terrible handling of a simple mistake.

This sounds like a CYA mentality by CGC.

[Sigur Ros]

On 2/12/2023 at 11:15 PM, ChrispyC66 said:

Also, why did CGC change the grade listed in the grader notes after the book was delivered? 

Because he called, and it was easier for CGC to do that than have to figure out what's actually going on.  

Congratulate him on the nice book...and for the opportunity to pay based on the 9.0 value instead of the 8.0 value.

Lol @ CGC

[Tnexus]

Only to play devil's advocate here, it's probably likely the grader's note was supposed to be 8.0, not 9.0.

[Sigur Ros]

On 2/13/2023 at 1:04 PM, Tnexus said:

Only to play devil's advocate here, it's probably likely the grader's note was supposed to be 8.0, not 9.0.

You'd hope so.  But then you'd wonder why he paid based on the 9.0 value instead of 8.0.

[Tnexus]

On 2/13/2023 at 10:21 AM, Sigur Ros said:

You'd hope so.  But then you'd wonder why he paid based on the 9.0 value instead of 8.0.

The question is, what was the final charge amount.

[Gaard]

"likely"