Need some advice 0

[rogue14]

Hey folks! I made a preorder purchased for two cgc 9.8 books from an online store (which will remain unnamed for the time being, but i believe is reputable). Books arrived and the cases were damaged. One case was cracked on a corner and the other had a few small chips into the case. The shipping box had minor visible damage. Books were bubble wrapped and had those peanuts.

I contacted the store to let them know, send pictures and everything. Was hoping that the store would suggest taking the books back for reslabbing or offering a small refund for the damage, but no such thing. Instead they basically said the damage to the box does not match the damage to the cases, and then flat out asked me if I had dropped the books upon opening. They also said that they would not of sent books in that condition.

I of course was offended at the fact that they were indirectly accusing me of causing the damage. I responded stating that h books were not dropped and not to worry about it anything being that the store was obviously not going to take responsibility for the damage. 

Should this of been handled differently by either myself or the store to have a different outcome? Any advice on how to get the company to own up to the damage?

If not, I’m just going to send them in to get reslabbed and hope they come back 9.8. Thanks!

Edited April 6, 2018 by rogue14
Spelling

[Bird]

If you are positive that you could not have caused the damage then return the items. If you paid by credit card or paypal then do refute the charge and return the items.

Don't worry about blame, there is no winning there. Focus on the fact that you did not get what you paid for and proceed from there.

 

Edited April 4, 2018 by Bird

[rogue14]

5 minutes ago, Bird said:

If you are positive that you could not have caused the damage then return the items. If you paid by credit card or paypal then do refute the charge and return the items.

Don't worry about blame, there is no winning there. Focus on the fact that you did not get what you paid for and proceed from there.

 

Thanks! They offered a refund, but the book is selling for more now. So I figure I’d be less costly to just send them in myself, right? If I send them back, I’m down two books and just don’t want to spend an extra $100 each on the second hand market. 

[Schmakt]

is the damage so bad that you have to resub instead of just reslab?

[1Cool]

22 hours ago, rogue14 said:

Thanks! They offered a refund, but the book is selling for more now. So I figure I’d be less costly to just send them in myself, right? If I send them back, I’m down two books and just don’t want to spend an extra $100 each on the second hand market. 

Resubs still are expensive when you consider shipping back and forth the CGC.  If they offered you at least the resub fee and maybe one way shipping I'd be content with the partial refund.  You may be out a few dollars but since the books are trending upwards its still better then sending back for a full refund.

[STORMSHADOW_80]

I work a lot with shipping at my job. If a box is dropped flat a lot of times there is no visible damage to the box but the contents inside receive the jolt. Maybe ask if they could do an insurance claim for the shipping and that should cover most of the reholder fee.

Edited April 5, 2018 by STORMSHADOW_80

[Senormac]

you didn't get these from Paradise Comics did you ?   

..........yea yea, ok....  that was pretty snarky

[rogue14]

On 4/5/2018 at 4:35 PM, Schmakt said:

is the damage so bad that you have to resub instead of just reslab?

One just looks to have a small chip. The other definitely needs to be reslabbed. Both books almost look like they shifted in the case that or they weren’t put square in the case to begin with.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2018 by rogue14
Pic edits

[rogue14]

On 4/5/2018 at 4:55 PM, 1Cool said:

Resubs still are expensive when you consider shipping back and forth the CGC.  If they offered you at least the resub fee and maybe one way shipping I'd be content with the partial refund.  You may be out a few dollars but since the books are trending upwards its still better then sending back for a full refund.

Good call! I didn’t even think of this. I’d definitely take a partial refund. The store hasn’t responded to my last message sent last week, so I’m going to try this and see what happens. 

[rogue14]

21 hours ago, Senormac said:

you didn't get these from Paradise Comics did you ?   

..........yea yea, ok....  that was pretty snarky

Sorry, but not them. If the store still doesn’t want to at least offer a partial refund or process a claim, I’ll disclose the name. In fairness, I wouldn’t want anyone else to have this issue.

I’m even debating if I should get books from them again considering.

Edited April 6, 2018 by rogue14
Added text

[Bird]

3 minutes ago, rogue14 said:

Sorry, but not them. If the store still doesn’t want to at least offer a partial refund, I’ll disclose the name.

I thought that you stated they offered a full refund?

I think that the waters get muddied with the "book has increased in value" part. I encourage you to find satisfaction but I do not think that you can "have your cake and eat it too". (That seems ridiculous, why can I have the cake if I cannot eat it as well but I digress...). To me fair is accepting the offer of a refund/return or deciding to keep as is. (Are those chips on the surface or the edges? On the surface would be sketchier to me.) But getting a partial refund AND getting a book that has increased in value as well is further than I myself would take it I think. (Unless of course I felt I was being cheated or lied to and then that is different.)

[rogue14]

5 minutes ago, Bird said:

I thought that you stated they offered a full refund?

I think that the waters get muddied with the "book has increased in value" part. I encourage you to find satisfaction but I do not think that you can "have your cake and eat it too". (That seems ridiculous, why can I have the cake if I cannot eat it as well but I digress...). To me fair is accepting the offer of a refund/return or deciding to keep as is. (Are those chips on the surface or the edges? On the surface would be sketchier to me.) But getting a partial refund AND getting a book that has increased in value as well is further than I myself would take it I think. (Unless of course I felt I was being cheated or lied to and then that is different.)

Very true and good points. I’m not trying to scam anyone, if anything I think I am. Just want what I payed for. The corner damage is basically shattered and cracked. There where pieces of the plastic in the sleeve as I was removing the bubble wrap. This is what got me to inspect the books more. The other looks to just be the exterior surface. Not too worried about this one.

I don’t agree with having to accept a refund for damage that the store is accusing me of causing.

In either case I’m going to lose out on something that I purchased as a preorder. I was hoping to add to my PC, and learned to buy slabbed first instead of search for them later, which is what I have been doing. It’s a popular cover and artist which is why I stated that it’s increased in value. I haven’t check recently but the last I did it had sold for more than I paid for and this is what I’m trying to avoid. 

Worst case I keep them and send them in for new cases. Which I’m prepared to do if the store refuses to see the problem.

[bababooey]

While the damage is unfortunate I think anyone purchasing these pre-orders should have a fairly clear idea when entering into an agreement what the merchant's policy is in the event of damage during shipping, grade achieved etc...  I would think most of these vendors are set in their ways on how to address this due to their experiences with post-sale price nibbling from buyers - the best way to deal with the "value increased/value decreased" dynamic on pre-orders is to have one way of doing it, that may be an "all or nothing" return policy.

While I can understand not appreciating their accusation on the damages, threatening to "out them" if you aren't satisfied with the resolution isn't a great look either.  By all means you should have gotten what you paid for but if you would have returned it for full credit IF you could replace it cheaper on ebay then the store shouldn't be in a no-win situation either way.

I'm going to assume you haven't done much business with this seller and I bet if you dropped the threat to out them here and asked for a nominal credit on your next order you'd probably have better results. 

Edited April 7, 2018 by bababooey
;)

[OrangeCrush]

On 4/4/2018 at 6:07 PM, Bird said:

If you are positive that you could not have caused the damage then return the items. If you paid by credit card or paypal then do refute the charge and return the items.

Don't worry about blame, there is no winning there. Focus on the fact that you did not get what you paid for and proceed from there.

 

This right here. In the 25+ years I have been using credit cards I have had to refute charges at least 10-15 times over those years and I won each and every case. Just like buyers have the advantage over sellers on eBay, its the same with credit cards. They will side with the credit card holder 99.9% of the time if its a legitimate issue that can't be proven to be caused by the buyer. Your a customer of the credit card company and they want to keep their customers happy and its not like these stores are suddenly going to start refusing to accept credit cards as a result of a credit card company refunding a purchase. 

Just now, bababooey said:

While the damage is unfortunate I think anyone purchasing these pre-orders should have a fairly clear idea when entering into an agreement what the merchant's policy is in the event of damage during shipping, grade achieved etc...  I would think most of these vendors are set in their ways on how to address this due to their experiences with post-sale price nibbling from buyers - the best way to deal with the "value increased/value decreased" dynamic on pre-orders is to have one way of doing it, that may be an "all or nothing" return policy.

While I can understand not appreciating their accusation on the damages, threatening to "out them" if you aren't satisfied with the resolution isn't a great look either.  By all means you should have gotten what you paid for but if you would have returned it for full credit IF you could replace it cheaper on ebay then the store shouldn't be in a no-win situation either way.

I'm going to assume you haven't done much business with this seller and I bet if you dropped the threat to out them here and asked for a nominal credit on your next order you'd probably have better results. 

Gotta disagree on this one. If I have a terrible customer experience, I think passing that info along is just doing a service to fellow collectors. It might make someone think twice about buying from them in the future. Its really no different than the threads on the board that out the bad eBay sellers. I know if I was in the situation and the sellers were unwilling to budge, I would tell the seller that not only am I going to refute the charges (if paid by credit card or Paypal) and that I would post my negative experience on all of the comic forums I visit. 

Edited April 7, 2018 by OrangeCrush

[bababooey]

4 minutes ago, OrangeCrush said:

Gotta disagree on this one. If I have a terrible customer experience, I think passing that info along is just doing a service to fellow collectors. It might make someone think twice about buying from them in the future. Its really no different than the threads on the board that out the bad eBay sellers. 

If informing other collectors of poor behaviour is the goal then do it AFTER you're dissatisfied, the buyer is not there yet he's negotiating and witholding the name from us now    I see that as using a thread on the boards as leverage to persuade the seller to meet your expectations/demands, it doesn't look good.  I'm not even sure if the buyer realizes how it looks, he doesn't seem unreasonable that's why I two cented it 

[OrangeCrush]

Just now, bababooey said:

If informing other collectors of poor behaviour is the goal then do it AFTER you're dissatisfied, the buyer is not there yet he's negotiating and witholding the name from us now    I see that as using a thread on the boards as leverage to persuade the seller to meet your expectations/demands, it doesn't look good.  I'm not even sure if the buyer realizes how it looks, he doesn't seem unreasonable that's why I two cented it 

Thats exactly what I was suggesting. If you wind up having a bad purchasing experience and in the end the sellers wind up refusing to correct the situation, than using the internet to let people know about that issue is a good move in my book as not only does it warn potential customers of the integrity of that particular establishment, but it also shows the establishment that not rectifying a simply problem that likely would only amount to a small amount of money could impact both thier overall reputation and overall sales. Is denying a retrun really worth that risk? Its not in my opinion. As I have stated many times on many different forums like this, I deem the most important aspect of any company to be thier customer service. Its why companies like Apple and Amazon are at the top of my list of favorite companies as they have OUTSTANDING customer service. And I also see no problem in warning the establishment before hand that you intend to take such actions if the problem isn't properly resolved. 

Edited April 7, 2018 by OrangeCrush

[rogue14]

1 hour ago, bababooey said:

While the damage is unfortunate I think anyone purchasing these pre-orders should have a fairly clear idea when entering into an agreement what the merchant's policy is in the event of damage during shipping, grade achieved etc...  I would think most of these vendors are set in their ways on how to address this due to their experiences with post-sale price nibbling from buyers - the best way to deal with the "value increased/value decreased" dynamic on pre-orders is to have one way of doing it, that may be an "all or nothing" return policy.

While I can understand not appreciating their accusation on the damages, threatening to "out them" if you aren't satisfied with the resolution isn't a great look either.  By all means you should have gotten what you paid for but if you would have returned it for full credit IF you could replace it cheaper on ebay then the store shouldn't be in a no-win situation either way.

I'm going to assume you haven't done much business with this seller and I bet if you dropped the threat to out them here and asked for a nominal credit on your next order you'd probably have better results. 

I was not aware that I was creating a look by appearing to threaten the store as a result of omitting the name. I’m simply gathering advice as I have fortunately not encountered this situation before until now.

I have not mentioned the name yet as this situation is ongoing. I would think the name is more relevant if things go bad versus good. 

If things work, fantastic. If not, then I’ll stick with my original plan of reslabbing on my own and pay out of pocket. And, I’ll let folks know the name for future reference.

[rogue14]

I appreciate everyone’s input. I must admit that I need to think outside of the box and use a little more common sense when dealing with buyers. I’ll keep these suggestions in mind for future reference and know that there are definite preorder risks. Technically I guess there’s alsways risk when books are shipped raw or slabbed.

I’ll update once I hear back. 

[lizards2]

6 hours ago, rogue14 said:

One just looks to have a small chip. The other definitely needs to be reslabbed. Both books almost look like they shifted in the case that or they weren’t put square in the case to begin with.

 

 

After inserting, take two ibuprofens, and call me in the morning.

[James J Johnson]

You paid a certain amount for a specific product in a certain state (condition), and in this case, the slab is part of that condition. It's any seller's responsibility to deliver the merchandise to their buyer as advertised and the buyer has every reason to expect it. The onus here is on the seller to effectively remedy this at no further expense to the buyer. Whether the post office played soccer with the package or not, it's up to the seller to pack the contents securely enough that even in the event of an impromptu USPS soccer match, using the package instead of a ball, the contents will remain unscathed. This could be easily accomplished by isolating a box within a box and using foam between or bubble wrap between slabs. This way, if the corner of the box takes a hit or a crush, the contents are safe, isolated within. Seller should make good, the buyer should get what he paid for or be remedied appropriately. Re-slabbing or new slab and book altogether, and at no added expense, or a return for refund..

The customer is always right and any business without that philosophy doesn't stay in business, operating in the black, for that long.

Edited April 7, 2018 by James J Johnson