Anyone else having MAJOR ISSUES WITH COMICCONNECT? 4 4

[Darkseid of the Moon]

Just now, mattn792 said:

@Darkseid of the Moon - I’m in your corner that you were wronged in this situation, but I’d recommend using more tact in your future comms.  Dealers obviously talk to each other, and you could be burning bridges without even knowing it.

Thanks Matt.  I get what you are saying.

FYI, I have purchased over 400k worth of books in the past 2 months.

The only place that I have had problems with is ComicConnect.

MyComicShop, Comiclink, Heritage, etc... - have never done me wrong or treated me like this.

I APPLAUD ALL THOSE DEALERS MENTIONED ABOVE FOR THEIR CONTINUED EXCELLENCE.

[Darkseid of the Moon]

I also want to mention more dealers that have given me excellent customer service:

cedarchestcomics, berkbridge, lfraz, dwscw, the-comic-crypt, collectors_comics, gary dolgoff, cloud9comics, flamingcarrot99, reece family, dave and adam's cardworld, worldwide comics, dale roberts, comics to astonish, and many more I forgot to mention!

Thank you for providing me with an excellent customer experience!  Keep up the good work!

In regards to settling this matter and the check, I have yet to receive it in the mail.  I also never received an e-mail from their customer service dept that a check had been sent out.

So how many more weeks/months do I have to wait to get my $4500 back?!?

Edited June 6, 2021 by Darkseid of the Moon

[Randall Ries]

28 minutes ago, Darkseid of the Moon said:

Good for you, man. You sure told them, didn't you? Yeah. I was wrong and REALLY wrong. Randall Dowling was right. You must be a blast at McDonald's if you don't get your game piece.

How many times has this happened to you? Just this once? And you wear yourself out over it? Someday, you will screw the pooch royally if you haven't already and someone will eat your lunch for you. Then, you will see how it feels. But then again. You don't seem like the apologetic type.

You waited way too long and it got to you. Should have checked in at the 2 week mark like I do. I bought COVID books from Metro and had them in hand 7 days later. There's a saying in the restaurant business: "Don't p**s off the people handling your food." If you tweaked on them over the phone or via email, yeah. They might just drag their feet on their way to powdering your butt for you.

Good luck with future purchases. Since you are getting your refund plus tax, go buy from the ebayer kelleyssuperheroes. You'll like him. A lot.

 

[Randall Ries]

32 minutes ago, mattn792 said:

@Darkseid of the Moon - I’m in your corner that you were wronged in this situation, but I’d recommend using more tact in your future comms.  Dealers obviously talk to each other, and you could be burning bridges without even knowing it.

Yeah. It's just business. Sometime we eat the bear and sometimes it eats us. In business, we always have to remember tomorrow. We suck it up today and got to it tomorrow.

[Darkseid of the Moon]

1 minute ago, Randall Ries said:

You waited way too long and it got to you. Should have checked in at the 2 week mark like I do. I bought COVID books from Metro and had them in hand 7 days later.

The bottom of their e-mail specifically says to wait and have patience up to 3 weeks to ship it out. 

 

I have also made 4 previous orders in the past 6 months, and every single order has taken them over 1 month to receive it in the mail...

 

Do you really think I would want to "get anything from ComicConnect after this?  Like someone else stated: Shame on you 1st time, shame on me 2nd time...

 

Well, I gave them 3 chances, 2 of which I shouldn't have, but I will never do business with them again.  I'm pretty sure all the other vendors will be happy to take my money - seeing as I have never had a bad experience in dealing with them.  I always pay on time, and the big vendors always ship on time.  Without any communications or me having to call them 7-10 days after placing an order...

[Randall Dowling]

2 minutes ago, Randall Ries said:

Yeah. It's just business. Sometime we eat the bear and sometimes it eats us. In business, we always have to remember tomorrow. We suck it up today and got to it tomorrow.

Agreed.  

[Randall Ries]

10 minutes ago, Darkseid of the Moon said:

The bottom of their e-mail specifically says to wait and have patience up to 3 weeks to ship it out. 

 

I have also made 4 previous orders in the past 6 months, and every single order has taken them over 1 month to receive it in the mail...

 

Do you really think I would want to "get anything from ComicConnect after this?  Like someone else stated: Shame on you 1st time, shame on me 2nd time...

 

Well, I gave them 3 chances, 2 of which I shouldn't have, but I will never do business with them again.  I'm pretty sure all the other vendors will be happy to take my money - seeing as I have never had a bad experience in dealing with them.  I always pay on time, and the big vendors always ship on time.  Without any communications or me having to call them 7-10 days after placing an order...

It seems to me like it's simply the matter of consignments. I have to wait roughly the same amount of time after winning a CLINK auction. When I put a book up to be auctioned, I send the thing in so they have it on hand to send to the winner. I doubt everyone does that, but I do my part to keep the wheel greased. Someone spends $2k for a book I am auctioning and they win, then they SHOULD get it in a timely fashion. 

Really, man. It's MUCH LESS STRESS to buy something they have in stock. When I ask and they say "It's a consigned book and we don't have it here", I have done one of 2 things: Leave a CC number to be used when/if the consignor sends it in. Or buy an in stock book. I hate stress and I REALLY hate waiting. As much - if not more - than the usual person. And I DESPISE having to call like a schmuck and say "What's up? Did the book get sent or not?" So, I narrow my scope. When doing business, I MUST be able to compromise. And when I run MY business, I must tell clients sometimes I simply am unable to perform the task they want to have done. I apologize when they are disappointed. I get REALLY cheeky when they go spun on me.

And this is just the way it goes. My path of least resistance is to just buy something in stock. There are too many variables when it's a consigned piece. If they say they don't have the room to store consigned books, then that's their dealie. Can't just TELL them "Well, then GET more space." It's infantile. I sympathize with you. Really I do. The only thing I have been saying consistently is I adjust my expectations going in to the deal. I already know Metro has a weak spot when it's a consignment piece. My criteria. Is it a consigned piece? Pass. Then look for it somewhere else where it ISN'T consigned.

Maybe you are just seeing that for the first time just now. To me, I would rather deal with momentary disappointment than frustration, then ultimately rage. Sure. Metro needs to adjust they way they do business when dealing with consignments. As I suggested earlier, provide a cue the consignor has to update weekly. If the seller fails by 11:59 on Sunday night, listing goes poof at 12:00am. EBay expects no less, right? Care for your listings, sellers!

As a business person myself, I try to look for ways to improve as ALL businesses should large or small. And I can say with authority, we DO talk among ourselves even though we compete against each other. And when we compare notes concerning hostile clients for WHATEVER reason, we tend to refer them to other businesses because no one likes a difficult client. I mean DAMN. I got fired by a client for doing EXACTLY WHAT I WAS HIRED TO DO.

I SAID I have gone through the EXACT SAME THING you have been through. It SUCKS. But they have real/no control over consignments other than to notify them they have a sale pending. And when the consignor blows it off? Frankly? They probably aren't even AWARE of it until people like you and I call/email and ask "WT-DIDDLEY-EFF?" Because WE certainly haven't forgotten. But while doing business, it's pretty much useless to become hostile and defensive. I lost out on a really nice 8.0 Bat 227. Yeah, it isn't a $4200 book (Well. WASN'T at the time) but it was a book I really WANTED. I didn't get it. Seller was a weasel and there wasn't anything to be done about it. Case closed. I got 3 other AWESOME books instead. Made lemonade. I didn't have to yell at them. They offered a refund but I said "Nah. Let's look at books you actually have in hand." O prefer phone calling v emailing.

So, here, Micah has been reading the thread as well. And HOPEFULLY, Micah has something to bring to his superiors come Monday. Lots of good advice and ideas have been offered and if Metro is smart, they may implement some of them.

But dude. I have been in your corner as far as recognizing Metro (actually ALL of them) could use some improving. I'm NOT in your corner with the attitude. It's (respectfully) your poor form butting heads with Metro's poor form. It's ugly and unseemly. I'm sorry. I wish you peace and better luck next time.

[Darkseid of the Moon]

3 minutes ago, Randall Ries said:

But dude. I have been in your corner as far as recognizing Metro (actually ALL of them) could use some improving. I'm NOT in your corner with the attitude. It's (respectfully) your poor form butting heads with Metro's poor form. It's ugly and unseemly. I'm sorry.

As you can see, from the e-mails back and forth.  I remained calmed and civil up until May 28th.  Almost 2 full months of them recieving $4500 payment!

 

Would You be able to remain calm after 7 weeks of giving them $4500? 

After them giving me the run around and taking 1 week to give me the same excuses week after week, I had had it with them, - as you can see from my May 28th reply

You also stated to find another book. 

There were literally no other FF#45 CGC 9.2 for sale at the time!

[shadroch]

2 minutes ago, Randall Ries said:

It seems to me like it's simply the matter of consignments. I have to wait roughly the same amount of time after winning a CLINK auction. When I put a book up to be auctioned, I send the thing in so they have it on hand to send to the winner. I doubt everyone does that, but I do my part to keep the wheel greased. Someone spends $2k for a book I am auctioning and they win, then they SHOULD get it in a timely fashion. 

Really, man. It's MUCH LESS STRESS to buy something they have in stock. When I ask and they say "It's a consigned book and we don't have it here", I have done one of 2 things: Leave a CC number to be used when/if the consignor sends it in. Or buy an in stock book. I hate stress and I REALLY hate waiting. As much - if not more - than the usual person. And I DESPISE having to call like a schmuck and say "What's up? Did the book get sent or not?" So, I narrow my scope. When doing business, I MUST be able to compromise. And when I run MY business, I must tell clients sometimes I simply am unable to perform the task they want to have done. I apologize when they are disappointed. I get REALLY cheeky when they go spun on me.

And this is just the way it goes. My path of least resistance is to just buy something in stock. There are too many variables when it's a consigned piece. If they say they don't have the room to store consigned books, then that's their dealie. Can't just TELL them "Well, then GET more space." It's infantile. I sympathize with you. Really I do. The only thing I have been saying consistently is I adjust my expectations going in to the deal. I already know Metro has a weak spot when it's a consignment piece. My criteria. Is it a consigned piece? Pass. Then look for it somewhere else where it ISN'T consigned.

Maybe you are just seeing that for the first time just now. To me, I would rather deal with momentary disappointment than frustration, then ultimately rage. Sure. Metro needs to adjust they way they do business when dealing with consignments. As I suggested earlier, provide a cue the consignor has to update weekly. If the seller fails by 11:59 on Sunday night, listing goes poof at 12:00am. EBay expects no less, right? Care for your listings, sellers!

As a business person myself, I try to look for ways to improve as ALL businesses should large or small. And I can say with authority, we DO talk among ourselves even though we compete against each other. And when we compare notes concerning hostile clients for WHATEVER reason, we tend to refer them to other businesses because no one likes a difficult client. I mean DAMN. I got fired by a client for doing EXACTLY WHAT I WAS HIRED TO DO.

I SAID I have gone through the EXACT SAME THING you have been through. It SUCKS. But they have real/no control over consignments other than to notify them they have a sale pending. And when the consignor blows it off? Frankly? They probably aren't even AWARE of it until people like you and I call/email and ask "WT-DIDDLEY-EFF?" Because WE certainly haven't forgotten. But while doing business, it's pretty much useless to become hostile and defensive. I lost out on a really nice 8.0 Bat 227. Yeah, it isn't a $4200 book (Well. WASN'T at the time) but it was a book I really WANTED. I didn't get it. Seller was a weasel and there wasn't anything to be done about it. Case closed. I got 3 other AWESOME books instead. Made lemonade. I didn't have to yell at them. They offered a refund but I said "Nah. Let's look at books you actually have in hand." O prefer phone calling v emailing.

So, here, Micah has been reading the thread as well. And HOPEFULLY, Micah has something to bring to his superiors come Monday. Lots of good advice and ideas have been offered and if Metro is smart, they may implement some of them.

But dude. I have been in your corner as far as recognizing Metro (actually ALL of them) could use some improving. I'm NOT in your corner with the attitude. It's (respectfully) your poor form butting heads with Metro's poor form. It's ugly and unseemly. I'm sorry. I wish you peace and better luck next time.

What a utter pile of .

Please, Sir. I know I sent you $4200 for a book I really really wanted but if you can't get me what I want,  I'Il happily take store credit and find something. I'll happily settle for books lower on my want list because asking for a refund is too much work.

I've done a fair amount of buying from Metro and knew Vincent before he joined them.  None of that matters here. 

They are wrong. Their business model has a flaw in it, and they are aware of it but don't see the need to fix it. 

 

 

[Darkseid of the Moon]

I think I will just stop posting in this thread. 

Thank you Everyone who can slightly understand the issues that I'm currently dealing with!

I will post a reply if I get my check in the mail.

Until then, have fun and stay safe Friends!

Have a good weekend Everyone!

[thehumantorch]

7 hours ago, Darkseid of the Moon said:

Thank You for defending me!

 

I can literally take screenshots of all the e-mails back and forth that I have saved.  If anyone would like to see them.

 

Except for Randall.  They are that type of person that will never see something in a different way.  Even if physical proof is presented to them. 

 

FYI, Randall, like Others have stated as well, e-mail is an acceptable form of communication as well as being able to document every sing word between the 2 parties.  How are you going to document the conversations on your old Batman rotary phone?

thanks for posting the emails.

Edited June 6, 2021 by thehumantorch

[thehumantorch]

4 hours ago, shadroch said:

What a utter pile of .

Please, Sir. I know I sent you $4200 for a book I really really wanted but if you can't get me what I want,  I'Il happily take store credit and find something. I'll happily settle for books lower on my want list because asking for a refund is too much work.

I've done a fair amount of buying from Metro and knew Vincent before he joined them.  None of that matters here. 

They are wrong. Their business model has a flaw in it, and they are aware of it but don't see the need to fix it. 

 

 

Absolutely.  Comic Connect has failed this customer.  Selling something that you can't supply is bad business and indicates a problem with their business model.  Failing to inform a customer of problems with an order is a serious problem.

If Comic Connect is gonna continue to sell consignment books they don't have in their possession they should indicate that in the listing, something like

'this is a consignment item and isn't at our facility.  If the owner decides he can more money elsewhere you're out of luck.  In that event anticipate months of waiting and poor communication unless you have a very valuable book you'd like to sell'

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

57 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

Absolutely.  Comic Connect has failed this customer.  Selling something that you can't supply is bad business and indicates a problem with their business model.  Failing to inform a customer of problems with an order is a serious problem.

If Comic Connect is gonna continue to sell consignment books they don't have in their possession they should indicate that in the listing, something like

'this is a consignment item and isn't at our facility.  If the owner decides he can more money elsewhere you're out of luck.  In that event anticipate months of waiting and poor communication unless you have a very valuable book you'd like to sell'

Let’s not forget there’s a lazy or entitled seller who put CC in this position. When I consign to them, they ask me to please send em in, don’t put them in a potentially compromised position, so I always do promptly. It’s to avoid this exact silly s**t from happening. Not all consignors feel the same sort of community spirit. 
 

You say “CC fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”. maybe another POV is it should be CC saying to their entitled and/or lazy consignors “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me”.

and no, I am not Vincent 

[HotKey]

Thanks for posting the emails to give the full picture.

It is confusing to me why there is such a clear discrimination against buyers in the auction world. Buyers are legally bound by their bids, sellers should be legally bound by their listings.

On the one hand I see people saying nothing can be done because that's the way it is.

On the other hand I see people saying to be careful because all these people and places talk.

Which is it? If all these people and places do indeed communicate about bad apples, then why are sellers continually allowed to pull listings at what looks like their discretion?

As to the auction house not being accountable to letting that go for 6 weeks, well if CC can't keep up with past sales at least every week, then they need to hire someone to exclusively do that. Letting a $4,500 sale go 6 weeks is ridiculous and if there isn't already a system in place in the company to prevent that from happening, they need to add one. It shouldn't be too hard to have a program written that pulls all sales that aren't closed yet every week for someone to follow up on. We have the technology.

[Randall Ries]

9 hours ago, shadroch said:

What a utter pile of .

Please, Sir. I know I sent you $4200 for a book I really really wanted but if you can't get me what I want,  I'Il happily take store credit and find something. I'll happily settle for books lower on my want list because asking for a refund is too much work.

I've done a fair amount of buying from Metro and knew Vincent before he joined them.  None of that matters here. 

They are wrong. Their business model has a flaw in it, and they are aware of it but don't see the need to fix it. 

 

 

No duh. I said that as well. It's called "assessing the situation". Don't put words in my mouth. Read or learn how to read with comprehension.

[jimjum12]

58 minutes ago, HotKey said:

Thanks for posting the emails to give the full picture.

It is confusing to me why there is such a clear discrimination against buyers in the auction world. Buyers are legally bound by their bids, sellers should be legally bound by their listings.

On the one hand I see people saying nothing can be done because that's the way it is.

On the other hand I see people saying to be careful because all these people and places talk.

Which is it? If all these people and places do indeed communicate about bad apples, then why are sellers continually allowed to pull listings at what looks like their discretion?

As to the auction house not being accountable to letting that go for 6 weeks, well if CC can't keep up with past sales at least every week, then they need to hire someone to exclusively do that. Letting a $4,500 sale go 6 weeks is ridiculous and if there isn't already a system in place in the company to prevent that from happening, they need to add one. It shouldn't be too hard to have a program written that pulls all sales that aren't closed yet every week for someone to follow up on. We have the technology.

They're trying to hire someone right now. GOD BLESS ...

-jimbo (a friend of Jesus)

[BigLeagueCHEW]

On 6/3/2021 at 4:32 PM, Silver said:

When I saw this thread I though "oh, someone else is going to complain about how all those stupid timers on every single auction book are slowing their screen loads too!" Little did I know... 

You mean the timers that say auction starts in +1,000 days 

[BigLeagueCHEW]

On 6/4/2021 at 11:42 AM, comicdonna said:

I have never had a problem.  The secret to my success is, I have never purchased from ComicConnect.  

[shadroch]

1 hour ago, Randall Ries said:

No duh. I said that as well. It's called "assessing the situation". Don't put words in my mouth. Read or learn how to read with comprehension.

Please,Sir. May I have another. 

This is no longer the 1970s. It is not acceptable to have to send  alternates in with your order in case a book is sold out.  I honestly can't believe many people will send Metro a check and if a book isn't in stock, they simply pick out other books and call that good customer service. 

If it were my customer, I'd be on the phone with them and offer an IMMEDIATE refund thru paypal. even if it cost me a few dollars. 

If your business plan requires the cooperation of untold numbers of strangers to follow thru on something for you to succeed, it's a pretty weak plan to begin with. 

 

Edited June 6, 2021 by shadroch

[MattTheDuck]

So this thread and a couple of posts in the Silver Age - Doctor Strange Collecting thread - inspired me to contact CL regarding books being offered on the Exchange and then not being available when a purchase was made.  My core point was that some collectors were losing confidence in the various platforms to deliver what they say they have for sale, due to consignment sellers listing books they couldn't actually produce and that this hurts the site's reputation.  Here's the response I received today (bolding mine):

I appreciate you taking time to write this email and reach out.

We are taking and continue to take steps to ensure that the books on the site are stil [sic] available for sale and that sellers are responsive to offers and buy orders. We are dependent on our sellers to a certain extent to keep their listings updated, and we can not obligate sellers to accept offers under their asking prices but we are implementing some additional steps that will make this process more streamlined. Note that one of the things that we have done in the past and will continue to do is warn and potentially strip users of selling privileges if they display a pattern of unaccepted buy orders or "inactive" listings.

The Exchange has been an active marketplace since ComicLink's launch in 1996 and our staff will continue to work to make it a great marketplace for both buyers and sellers.

 

Best,
Douglas Gillock, Vice President and Senior Consignment Director