Online Comic Store Report Card

I seriously have had no luck lately ordering online.

Unfulfilled orders from Unknown, BTC, and The Comic Mint. (Refunded from Unknown, waiting on refund from BTC, no response from TCM, which is odd because they are usually really good).

Positives have been Fantom, who get books out quickly, and from the big guys TFAW, Mycomicshop, and Midtown.

Well, what do you expect… this is the second time a shop in our comic shop report topic has used “email issues” as an excuse… probably the worst excuse ever.

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I also did not get a response from the comic mint from a 2 month old order and had to open up a paypal case. Once the case was opened I got a response immediately and the books were sent out in 24 hours.

It’s like when an eBay buyer puts in a best offer and then later tries to get out of it because their “kid did it” and they do not want the comic.

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This is definitely ridiculous, but happens way too often. I have had multiple occasions (all with different stores since I will never use a store again once this happens) where I have emailed them a month or so later asking for a status and they reply with “oh, we are out of ALL of the things you ordered”. It just makes you wonder how many stores hope you forget you bought something so they can pocket the money.

Being a retailer myself, I try to give all shops a chance, but there are many out there that just plain don’t care about their customers (or even ethics for that matter).

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It’s all about professionalism. How are orders tracked, how often are they checked for misses, how do they keep track of available and pending inventory, etc. Some people just get so wrapped up in making sales they forget the logistics part of the equation.

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Yup and rule number one when it comes to customer service, never try to deflect the blame to or on something else. Own it and then fix it… that’s all you have to do. Customers don’t care about your IT issues or problems, just tell’em there was an issue that’s been corrected and then tell’em how you’re gonna fix their current problem at hand.

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I am trying to give them both the benefit of doubt since I have ordered from both before. More Comic Mint than BTC but I may have to just file the PayPal disputes.

Edit, after sending several emails to BTC, I went ahead and filed the dispute with PayPal. I have never seen this before but I opened it and it close straightaway. The refund was processed as soon as I disputed it. Weird.

Nothing like getting their attention the hard way…

They didn’t process it, PayPal sided with me as soon as the dispute came through

Haha… well, then, they learned the definite hard way then.

Wow they actually sent this… ordered this from Midtown the very first preorder window before any date change or pushback. Horrible bag n board only 1 store got the bag n board right so far.

So unfortunately as I expected my first order from TFAW arrived damaged. There’s corresponding damage on the package, bag and board. I had also requested proper packaging in a box but was told the best they could do was a Do Not Bend sticker which wasn’t on the package. I’ve emailed their customer service and an awaiting a response.

I’m guessing most retailers don’t have or carry the stock of bags and boards to really make this irregular sized comic fit snuggly… Most probably have magazine size or currents… Blame IDW, not the retailers.

My 1st order with The Comic Mint. I order 50 books and they came in a massive box. Inside the box the comics were in sets of 10 and placed between cardboard and finally the books were wrapped in bubble wrap and surrounded by peanut. Probably the most Bulletproof packing I have seen from any seller. Books were NM or better condition.

Just got an email from The Comic Mint. The books are packed and waiting to be picked up. Now this rubs me the wrong way because they have been there for over a month and they only ship when I emailed them

I will say that I ordered one of their mystery variant boxes and it came in damaged, they shipped out a second box quickly and free of charge and I got to keep the other box.

This is very true. That is such an oddly sized/shaped book. We carry 5 different sizes of bag and none of them fit this book right. It is too thick and tall for our silver bag and too narrow for our golden age bag.

Aaahhh ok… thought they just didnt order the correct size and was using scraps. Midtown was the worst of the bunch. TFAW and Unknowncomics had the best wraps and the LCS just struggled with a makeshift.

Got an order from TFAW. 7 books in a gemini style mailer, although these are much larger/thicker/nicer than a real gemini. New feature: The 7 books, while all bagged and boarded, were all in a single larger bag that fit the 7 books nicely. This is a BIG upgrade over the thin paper wrapping used previously.

My estimate has 6 of the 7 in either 9.6 or 9.8 condition. One had a spine tic that would probably knock it down to a 9.4. The Batman 102 1:25 is gorgeous, thankfully. Overall, that’s just about as good as hand picking these from an LCS shelf.

Thanks for listening, @RipCityGamer.

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Received my Momoko Punchline variant from Stadium comics today. Packaging was alright, there was no dings to the package or anything, but when I pulled the comic out there is this pretty bad spine tick, breaking color on the DC logo as well. So the book was sent like this, not damaged in transport. Love paying a premium for store variants and then getting partially damaged books. They also tape the only bag that the book is in to the inside of the package with heavy duty packaging tape, so when you pull the tape off it ruins the bag and you need a new bag/board for whatever you bought. Won’t be using Stadium Comics again.