Comiclink

[jonjesper]

Everyday they pass is more damage to their business, they might not feel it today, but it will be in the mind of many potential buyers and current buyers in the future.

 

Until they have a book you want.

 

 

Been to the site, looked at books, never purchased...never will. But thanks for the smart comment Ron...

 

I'm smart!

 

plus I still love you...so you got that going for you!

[Timulty]

Huuuuurruuuucccchhhheeeeecccchhhh!!!!!!

[Darrell F]

Everyday they pass is more damage to their business, they might not feel it today, but it will be in the mind of many potential buyers and current buyers in the future.

 

Until they have a book you want.

 

Speak for yourself.

 

I am with the rest of these guys. I will never do business with them. The book will come up again.

[jonjesper]

Tim...

[tth2]

I've been waiting for Josh or Tomis to weigh in. I called up there this morning and an old friend and collector answered the phone so, yes, there are others working up there. I spoke with Tomis and urged him to at least explain his side of the story. I've been a customer/consignor with Comiclink for years and have always been 100% satisfied with my dealings. They treated me well when I was buying $100 books and have continued to. I think of all the auction/sale sites, they have their act together the best. No annoying buyers fees like Heritage and their bookkeeping is excellent. Tomis or Josh is always willing to talk with me about anything. Pirate, there's got to be more to this. I find it hard to believe they would treat you badly without some provocation. What's more, it's my understanding they told you they would reimburse the holder fees.

Keith, I`ve only had good transactions with CL and Josh as well. But Pirate`s allegations are disheartening, and if there`s another side to the story, I`ve been waiting for Josh to come on here and defend himself. In the absence of any defense, we can only assume Pirate`s version of the story to be true.

 

Regarding reimbursement of holder fees, the way Pirate related the story was that CL told him they would reimburse him AFTER they had been reimbursed by UPS (which I find inexcusable, as CL`s problems with UPS are not Pirate`s problem). That`s a very different story from CL simply being willing to reimburse him, no? If CL are willing to reimburse him, no strings attached, then what`s stopping them from already having reimbursed him?

[Pirate]

I've been waiting for Josh or Tomis to weigh in. I called up there this morning and an old friend and collector answered the phone so, yes, there are others working up there. I spoke with Tomis and urged him to at least explain his side of the story. I've been a customer/consignor with Comiclink for years and have always been 100% satisfied with my dealings. They treated me well when I was buying $100 books and have continued to. I think of all the auction/sale sites, they have their act together the best. No annoying buyers fees like Heritage and their bookkeeping is excellent. Tomis or Josh is always willing to talk with me about anything. Pirate, there's got to be more to this. I find it hard to believe they would treat you badly without some provocation. What's more, it's my understanding they told you they would reimburse the holder fees.

Keith, I`ve only had good transactions with CL and Josh as well. But Pirate`s allegations are disheartening, and if there`s another side to the story, I`ve been waiting for Josh to come on here and defend himself. In the absence of any defense, we can only assume Pirate`s version of the story to be true.

 

Regarding reimbursement of holder fees, the way Pirate related the story was that CL told him they would reimburse him AFTER they had been reimbursed by UPS (which I find inexcusable, as CL`s problems with UPS are not Pirate`s problem). That`s a very different story from CL simply being willing to reimburse him, no? If CL are willing to reimburse him, no strings attached, then what`s stopping them from already having reimbursed him?

[Pirate]

well no return email in two days on my request for them to settle up now. I closed on my house today so i have a little more free time to press the issue.

[arexcrooke]

well no return email in two days on my request for them to settle up now. I closed on my house today so i have a little more free time to press the issue.

[evilsly]

In case comiclink are lurking and wondering what kind of effect a thread like this has.

 

I've for the past couple of months been contemplating purchases from comiclink in the $500-$1000 range, as a european buyer shipping has always been a big concern of mine having sufferered 'scalping' more than once from US sellers (plenty of good people out there though). The fact that comiclink are aware of the problem in this thread, and don't seem concerned with giving their side of the story or rectifying the problem, means I'm keeping my credit card in my wallet, and spending it elsewhere for now.

[jkc313]

The books have to be returned in order for there to be a refund. That's standard policy with most evryone. I have a long reply from Josh that he said I could post here if anyone would like to see it. Bottom line is, with this particular customer, Josh wants the books back before refunding money. Had this customer approached Comiclink in a better manner or had this customer been a trusted client, Josh would send the $$ no questions asked. He simply, based on the tone of this dealing, doesn't trust this customer with the books and the money. Would you like me to post the entire reply? Evilsly, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to do business with Comiclink were I you. I have sent them many customers and continue to do business with them regularly.

keith contarino

[Pirate]

The books have to be returned in order for there to be a refund. That's standard policy with most evryone. I have a long reply from Josh that he said I could post here if anyone would like to see it. Bottom line is, with this particular customer, Josh wants the books back before refunding money. Had this customer approached Comiclink in a better manner or had this customer been a trusted client, Josh would send the $$ no questions asked. He simply, based on the tone of this dealing, doesn't trust this customer with the books and the money. Would you like me to post the entire reply? Evilsly, I wouldn't hesitate for a second to do business with Comiclink were I you. I have sent them many customers and continue to do business with them regularly.

keith contarino

 

 

he's the one who has my money. If he didn't like my tone or want my money then he shouldn't have charged my card and sent me cracked slabs. You make absolutely no sense. I would love to see the reply, any further ammunition for my attorney is much appreciated. I'm glad such a big business has you as their rep.

[tth2]

Keith, I'm a little confused now, and maybe all the parties are, which is further exacerbating this situation.

 

My understanding is that Pirate was not asking for a refund of the purchase price, only a refund in the amount of what it will take him to pay CGC's reholdering fees to get the books in new, non-cracked slabs.

 

If we were talking about a full refund, I would agree with you that the books should be returned first. But in the case of reholdering fees, no return is required.

[october]

He simply, based on the tone of this dealing, doesn't trust this customer with the books and the money.

 

After reading this thread, and the lack of a response, Pirate is NOT the person I wouldn't trust with my books or money. If there is another side to the story it should be told....or are we not worth his time?

[Pirate]

I checked my ups claim and it says that it is complete with the inspection waived. I also noticed that I had a buried email this evening from comiclink giving me three choices. They will pay me the reholder fees, give me a full refund after i return the books or pay for me to send the books to cgc. I am choosing the second choice provided they email me a return label to be done with them. This has left such a bad taste in my mouth. They could have just paid the reholder fees from day one but now they can just have all three back and eat them for all I care.

 

I question why this had to take so [embarrassing lack of self control] long to come to a logical conclusion? Hopefully this [embarrassing lack of self control] deal will be over shortly.

[jkrk]

Does bad publicity cost less than good publicity?

 

[jkc313]

I'm not anyone's "rep" but I can tell from your tone with me you can certainly be a pain to deal with. Here's Josh's email to me. Why in God's name would you bother with an attorney for such a small sum of money especially given the fact that Comiclink said you'd get your $$?

 

 

 

I appreciate your feedback, your post and your concern for us. While he has been extremely abrasive from the start, especially to Tomis, we have been dealing with UPS from the start in order to place the claim, and will refund Anthony Carpenter’s (aka “pirate’s”) money as soon as we receive the books back from him. That is standard procedure when something gets damaged. From the initiation of contact with us Mr. Carpenter has been threatening and abrasive and it was unwarranted from the start. This did not instill us with very must trust towards him. I have been reluctant to come on the CGC boards or have Tomis do so, because I do not feel that we need to explain ourselves to a self appointed judge and jury on CGC’s web site. That simply encourages similar posting behavior and we do not have time to monitor the boards and formulate responses for the community because an unreasonable customer feels unwarrantedly slighted. Those customers like yourself that do business with us on a regular basis (no matter how much money they spend) are happy with us and that is why ComicLink is successful. Our return policy is sound and I think we go above and beyond to satisfy reasonable customers (note the word “reasonable”). The vast majority of customers that we have had over our ten year history have been very satisfied, but the fact of the matter is that the most verbal customers on the CGC boards tend to be the ones that are dissatisfied and also, they tend by and large to be the most unreasonable.

 

 

 

Though you cannot satisfy everyone when dealing with the many thousands of clients we have, our reputation is excellent and our customer base is overwhelmingly loyal. We are also very accessible if anyone wants to call us and ask us questions. We are not beholden to answer questions posted to the CGC boards and as I’ve said many times before, if someone has questions or concerns about anything we can be contacted directly. We are very easy to reach and we are here every weekday. Those on the boards that do not use our service, don’t understand common business practices, or those that have some sort of vendetta are the ones that tend to jump on the verbal bandwagon without much first-hand experience with us. They are not our client base and are not interested in what we have to offer. It is unfortunate if their comments influence even one person that may benefit from ComicLink but have never tried our service before, because they would most likely be satisfied. I have always taken a long-term customer service approach to this business and anyone else that comes aboard here is understands how important that is. I want every single person to be satisfied but have learned that no matter how hard you try someone is going to have a problem. The case here with Anthony Carpenter is an unreasonable purchaser first wanting to cancel winning bids he placed in our auctions, then treating us with threats and extreme disrespect and then asking us to change our policy and trust him with our both books and our refund money. That is just not going to happen going about it the way he did. However, Mr. Carpenter will be refunded when it is safe for us to do so, because every client should get what he pays for, despite how rude or unreasonable he is. The claim was initiated (not because of his complaint on the boards, but because it was the proper thing to do in this case) and UPS will pay for the damage. It just does not happen in 24 hours as was expected by this purchaser in this case – as anyone who ever filed a claim with UPS will attest to, they will pay out warranted claims but not lighting fast. The bottom line is that the client is now making a mountain out of a molehill because he is impatient. It is certainly possible that myself or Tomis did not approach him from a place of trust because his first contact with us was one with a demanding, threatening, and disrespectful tone. If he feels like he was not given the courtesy he feels he deserves, there is a lesson to be learned in all of this. Treat people how you expect to be treated. Whether you are a customer that is “always right,” a dealer, or managing a service-oriented business like ComicLink, those are words to live by.

 

 

 

A few board members like yourself and Timothy Hui, who are good customers and who I respect, are wondering why we don’t come on the CGC boards to discuss this. I hope this email clarifies that. Feel free to forward it to anyone you think needs to see it or even post a copy of it to the boards if you think it would be appreciated. It just might.

[jonjesper]

I know some are sick of hearing about these guys but i need advice. I received three cracked slabs from them. I sent them scans and they are saying after I wait a month of the ups claim they will give me resub fees for one of them as they say the other two books have minor cracks which are consistent with CGC's slabs. They say there policy is not to pay for slabs that are damaged. Anyone else get cracked slabs that they have paid for or accepted returns on with no fuss or am i being singled out by this tomis guy.

 

Thought this would be a good place to post what they said after the fact in the form of an 'e-mail' that looks like a 'press release'.

Why on earth, would someone start a thread and say what was said in the aforementioned if that person was going to receive their money back? After the fact it is easy to claim they don't want to start any wars on the message boards, they are reasonable etc. But from what you can see, they were NOT going to do anything more than replace the cost of a resubmission for 1 book.

Now they are going to do everything possible...I think the bottom line is that this thread helped to force issues.

Just a thought?

[uclapeterg]

Why in God's name would you bother with an attorney for such a small sum of money especially given the fact that Comiclink said you'd get your $$?

 

You OBVIOUSLY haven't read the whole thread.

[Flaming_Telepath]

In case comiclink are lurking and wondering what kind of effect a thread like this has.

 

I've for the past couple of months been contemplating purchases from comiclink in the $500-$1000 range, as a european buyer shipping has always been a big concern of mine having sufferered 'scalping' more than once from US sellers (plenty of good people out there though). The fact that comiclink are aware of the problem in this thread, and don't seem concerned with giving their side of the story or rectifying the problem, means I'm keeping my credit card in my wallet, and spending it elsewhere for now.

 

That and a number of other reasons, I would suggest...

[jkrk]

I was not a customer of CL before their last GA auction. I finally decided to give them a go and bid on a few books in their auction. I won one and pushed the price of a couple books which I failed to win.

 

Recently, I read the Pirate post and I was considering not bidding on their next auction to protest their lack of response in handling a customers claim. I read Pirate's last post and I was happy to see CL offered a solution which clearly resolved the problem. I thought that in the end CL redeemed themselves and all will be forgotten. Good job CL.

 

Why was CL's e-mail released to this board? Was this CL"s intention or bad judgenment? Why reopen old wounds? They should have posted directly or asked that their explanation not be posted.

 

CL explains that they:

have been reluctant to come on the CGC boards or have Tomis do so, because I do not feel that we need to explain ourselves to a self appointed judge and jury on CGC’s web site. That simply encourages similar posting behavior and we do not have time to monitor the boards and formulate responses for the community because an unreasonable customer feels unwarrantedly slighted.

 

Yet the response comes through a third party?

 

The response should have included the facts only. Here is our policy and here is what we did, etc. Every other point plays to the emotional side and strays off the topic.

 

As I've said before I have no respect for any dealer who can't come on this board to defend their decisions and take the heat. Customers are sometimes difficult. Posters can be a pain. Anyone who has dealt with the public has experienced unreasonable requests. It comes with the territory. I have found it better to solve the problem first then explain to the customer that they are no longer welcome. Hey, but that's me.

 

I will not be bidding on their next GA auction and will simply skip to the next Heritage auction.

 

I am a reasonably difficult customer. I want what I buy and no more. I buy a book, pay promptly, expect a book in an uncracked case shipped in a timely manner.

 

I don't believe I have a vendetta but I wish to see CL as I wish to see any dealers post directly on these boards. If I read that posters have a problem with Heritage's

service and Heritage fails to reply directly to explain their side they will be next.

My allegiance is to the posters until the seller points out that the buyer was unreasonable.