Angry CGC Calls - Knock it Off! 2 2

[Galen130]

In before the lock…

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

[Chaos_in_Canada]

[Galen130]

[The Lions Den]

On 5/9/2022 at 2:14 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I would say yes Shadroch.

In my experience, it is a recognised default mechanism for a front line employee, or group of employees, to blame their leadership or management once it becomes clear that they have no other course of action open to them when dealing with justified customer complaints. In my experience, if employees think that the company they work for has an indefensible position, or that their management 'don't care', then they start to blame them as they can't find any other way to justify what is going on. They get the customer on side by effectively agreeing with them and then making the customer feel sorry for them.

Some people need their jobs and are poorly paid. The management show no loyalty to them, so they feel justified in not showing it back. It's a hugely destructive pattern, and often manifests in companies who lose sight of their customers, usually because they see themselves as invincible in the marketplace. Banks in the UK are like this, and utility companies - their staff will often agree with you that the service they provide is poor. I even experienced it in my local supermarket this week. The Store Manager was more than happy to blame 'Head Office' for the failings in his store. Passing the buck upwards is a fairly common thing, I think. 

At my current job it's pretty much a universal thing...  

[ashsaytr]

On 5/9/2022 at 3:40 PM, Thunk said:

Phil's.

realized that... then was just too lazy to change it.... 

[Prince Namor]

On 5/9/2022 at 2:37 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I've had experience of some employees who were dissatisfied. Depends who you talk to I suppose.

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. 
 

It probably IS fun to work at CGC. But as TATs grow and pricing goes up and people become more and more frustrated waiting for their precious slabbed books they’ve started taking it out on the customer service. 
And that’s no fun. 

At a certain point - people who’ve been there a while may even understand how the situation can be improved but the upper management or new ownership may just not want to put money into changing anything. 
 

And that becomes frustrating for the employee who is getting the anger venting from the customer vs the owners who can simply ignore it and treat the matter as ‘these suckers will keep on paying us no matter what we do.”

That’s what it sounds like to me. 

[shadroch]

Instead of offering new employee's bonus's, they should offer them to any employee who wants to quit.  It's counter-intuitive but shelling out a few thousand dollars to eliminate potential cancers is money well spent.

[toro]

On 5/9/2022 at 7:23 PM, Prince Namor said:

I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. 
 

It probably IS fun to work at CGC. But as TATs grow and pricing goes up and people become more and more frustrated waiting for their precious slabbed books they’ve started taking it out on the customer service. 
And that’s no fun. 

At a certain point - people who’ve been there a while may even understand how the situation can be improved but the upper management or new ownership may just not want to put money into changing anything. 
 

And that becomes frustrating for the employee who is getting the anger venting from the customer vs the owners who can simply ignore it and treat the matter as ‘these suckers will keep on paying us no matter what we do.”

That’s what it sounds like to me. 

One time I went down to drop off books and had lunch with the former heads of the place after a grader took me to a separate room to go over my books.  He didn't sound like he was having too much fun.  He was happy to see my TOS #48, Strange Tales #135 and the rest of my order.  He was sick to death of seeing Hulk 181s and ASM 300s.  I only wished I had those books to give him. 

Edited May 10, 2022 by toro

[JC25427N]

On 5/9/2022 at 11:36 PM, toro said:

One time I went down to drop off books and had lunch with the former heads of the place after a grader took me in my room to go over my books.  He didn't sound like he was having too much fun.  He was happy to see my TOS #48, Strange Tales #135 and the rest of my order.  He was sick to death of seeing Hulk 181s and ASM 300s.  I only wished I had those books to give him. 

You took a grader back home to your room? 

 

Now that's customer service, hope you didn't yell at him/her

Edited May 10, 2022 by JC25427N

[Get Marwood & I]

On 5/10/2022 at 12:29 AM, shadroch said:

Instead of offering new employee's bonus's, they should offer them to any employee who wants to quit.  It's counter-intuitive but shelling out a few thousand dollars to eliminate potential cancers is money well spent.

From a company perspective, where is that cancer really growing though, Shadroch? In the front line employees who face the daily barrage of angry complaints, or in the back room management team who are responsible for - and apparently incapable of solving - the issues that generated them?

 

[Get Marwood & I]

On 5/9/2022 at 10:50 PM, The Lions Den said:

At my current job it's pretty much a universal thing...  

In my experience, good staff can and will cover up for the failings of bad management for a period, and stay loyal. But in the end, if nothing changes, bad management will demoralise and bring them down. Referring to embattled staff as 'a cancer' when they are struggling with management created issues is one way of achieving that. 

To be clear, I'm not necessarily saying that is the case with CGC and the OPs example, just speaking generally on the developing theme. We don't know what is going on there, and can only guess. Maybe CGC managers take turns on the phone to see what it is like, and are very supportive of their front line staff. 

[wardevil0]

On 5/9/2022 at 12:07 PM, Cool Ghoul said:

 

 

Oh, whew, I see the original post has been deleted.  I read it initially as satire because of a few red flags, but most other people began to take it seriously so I started to worry about myself.  So, @Cool Ghoul, I got the joke, if it was a joke, but if it wasn't a joke, I'm a monster.

[Gaard]

On 5/9/2022 at 7:23 PM, Prince Namor said:

. It probably IS fun to work at CGC.

Obviously, you have  a reason to say this. Care to share?

[Prince Namor]

On 5/10/2022 at 4:44 AM, Gaard said:

Obviously, you have  a reason to say this. Care to share?

You're dealing with mostly collectible comic books all day. Seeing some of the high dollar, moderately rare and amazingly cool books come in daily would be awesome. 

[The Lions Den]

On 5/10/2022 at 8:31 AM, Prince Namor said:

You're dealing with mostly collectible comic books all day. Seeing some of the high dollar, moderately rare and amazingly cool books come in daily would be awesome. 

On the other hand, seeing the absolute dreck of the comic world can lead to prolonged bouts of depression, anxiety and heavy drinking...   

[Get Marwood & I]

On 5/10/2022 at 2:05 PM, The Lions Den said:

On the other hand, seeing the absolute dreck of the comic world can lead to prolonged bouts of depression, anxiety and heavy drinking...   

You leave Charlton out of this  

[MAR1979]

On 5/9/2022 at 7:29 PM, shadroch said:

Instead of offering new employee's bonus's, they should offer them to any employee who wants to quit.  It's counter-intuitive but shelling out a few thousand dollars to eliminate potential cancers is money well spent.

Or how about rewarding people still on the job and try to retain some of the under 20 comic graders they have left. Laughable that 2 full years into the deluge and CGC has less graders than before it started.   For those that disagree CGC would be jumping up and down hyping how many new additional graders were on the job if there were any.  Expect the TAT's to increase each day as the few comics graders they do have dwindle further. 

Rather than Comic/magazine graders CGC is now seeking VHS tape graders and soon to come Booger collection Graders think that's absurd; well it snot

Edited May 10, 2022 by MAR1979

[Cat]

On 5/10/2022 at 10:31 PM, Prince Namor said:

You're dealing with mostly collectible comic books all day. Seeing some of the high dollar, moderately rare and amazingly cool books come in daily would be awesome. 

Would it? I think it'd be cool for the first few weeks. But after that I imagine it'd lose its lustre pretty quickly, drowned by all the drek and most common keys you see, day in, day out. I used to get told by people the bank I worked at must be exciting, because I was dealing with such large figures regularly. No, I quickly stopped seeing it as money with value, and it became mere numbers to input and move on, no matter how large the amount. Nothing phased me. It was all just another number. I got interested on two occasions, when I was involved in national/international criminal cases, which I guess is the equivalent of seeing your first Action 1 or Tec 27, but that was it. 

Edited May 10, 2022 by Cat

[chrisco37]

On 5/10/2022 at 8:31 AM, Prince Namor said:

You're dealing with mostly collectible comic books all day. Seeing some of the high dollar, moderately rare and amazingly cool books come in daily would be awesome. 

No.  You're dealing with mostly brand new 9.8 multiples all day long.  And books you've seen 1000x (ASM 300, BA12, Hulk 181, etc...).  And, ever since the market insanity, probably tons and tons of mid-grade, common semi-keys.   

Sure, you'll get some cool stuff mixed in there as well and, if you're really lucky, a hyper-key.   But the majority is common stuff.   And tons of it (as evidenced by TAT's).