I’ve had about 8-9 good TFAW orders in a row, but I think it’s been more luck than by design. My last 5-6 have had zero internal protection. just a Gemini and a bunch of loose books. All it needs is to be dropped on one corner, and it’s shot like that. I feel like we griped a bunch here about packing, and things got better for a while. But, my orders don’t even have that flimsy paper wrapping that they used to have. Nothing now.
Latest Tfaw order…
I was worried with the Thin bubble wrap and The Last Ronin Books at bottom. Slight warp. Luckily all the books arrived safely and in good condition.
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Agreed, my heart sinks a little when I first open my Gemini mailer and see the books are loose. Then those next few seconds of wondering, “Are they okay or did anything take a hit?” It’s typically okay, but not always.
My last few TFAW orders have been packed well, just slow to ship. My latest, however, is a comedy of errors…I live in Virginia - look at the vacation my latest is on:
4/30 - received at DHL in Sumner WA
5/4 - sent from Sumner WA, to Hebron KY
5/10 - sent from Hebron KY to Charleston WV
5/11 - sent from Charleston WV to Clarksburg WV and marked as “Missent”
5/12 - sent from Clarksbug WV back to Charleston WV
5/13 - sent from Charleston WV back to Clarksburg WV a second time and marked “Missent” again
5/14 - sent from Clarksburg WV to Warrendale PA
5/15 - sent from Warrendale, PA to Cincinnatti OH
5/16 - sent from Cincinnatti OH back to Charleston WV
5/17 - sent from Charleston WV to Clarksburg WV and marked “missent” for a THIRD TIME!!!
They put the wrong zip code on the package and I don’t know if I’m ever going to get this
Contact customer service. They may have to have the package intercepted and delivered to a new address.
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I sent an email after the chat guy just blew me off
Not sure what’s worse, getting blown off by them or being told stuff is shipping and then doesn’t ship.
So, just got off chat with TFAW regarding 5/6 orders. Sounds like they are super backed up on these books and no idea when these will get shipped out. If anybody needed a reason to shop elsewhere…there’s mine.
Looks like my $400 order just started the shipping process today.
If you are buying books to flip immediately, goto the local shop. Shouldn’t even bother buying online. If you can wait on your books, TFAW is still a very viable option as when it comes to customer service and other perks from using their ordering system, getting deals on variants, etc.
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Prime example. They filled every copy of my Fortnite Batman #1 pre-order. They came and I have still been selling the crap out of them. I have some high dollar books coming in I will still be able to flip.
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I do both. My issue isn’t with the fact that I need the books to flip, since I rarely do quick flips, it’s more with the fact that its taking forever to process and I’m not experiencing that with other retailers.
I have placed preorders from other companies for large amounts and haven’t had the crazy delays.
I agree that TFAW’s customer service and variant pricing is great. I’ve used them for a long time, but when I can have a better customer experience for regular bulk pre-orders, it simply makes sense to shop somewhere else.
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They’ll catch up. If you’ve read any of their reports here on what’s happened, a lot of it isn’t even their fault. I know that’s not the best excuse but I kind of feel for them as they seem to have way more woes from Diamond and Fedex for shipping than a lot of other retailers.
I recall last summer that Midtown was taking up to 2 months for packages to arrive. I have yet to see that type of delay from TFAW.
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I use TFAW almost exclusively for my online preorders, with a sprinkle of midtown and other randoms sometimes. It just boggles my mind how tfaw is the ONLY retailer having so many many issues with not receiving books on time (when even my tiny little lcs can get everything on time) and with the multiple weeks of “processing”. Even midtown has it down to a science again and they were the ones that had this “processing” for weeks issue a while back.
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Yeah, I’m aware of the bad luck they’ve been having. I’d just rather not have to deal with it as well. I’ll continue to watch to see if it gets better like what happened with Midtown, because they do offer a great service.
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I think it’s kind of like them climbing out of debt, much harder to do after their really big 2 week type delay a month or so back. There was like a week or two where they didn’t get shipments and their building was out without power for like a good week straight with horrid weather. Yes, not the greatest excuse again but they’re climbing out of their backlog debt, had a lot of turnover, etc.
They’ll get back to normal as the summer approaches with less shipping delays, they get some more people on board to pack shipments, etc.
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Got my latest TFAW order, 38 books placed in a large magazine bag. Looks like they no longer use the paper wrapping which use to fall apart. All the books were fine, no damages.
Got my first big order from TFAW that I did NOT include bags/boards (I changed it for a test order), they were packaged great and higher grade books were received than 90%+ of my past TFAW orders. The ratios were bagged/boarded and in great shape. Glad I chose no bags and boards as saved $ and I suspect better condition books as well.
Would love to ditch bag/boards with TFAW, but then will it be just loose books in a gemini?!
My order was big enough it was boxed and not in a gemini. The comics were packed tight and numerous bags so not too many per bag, really great packing. I like all my books to have same size bags/boards so I typically re-bag. After a westfield order and TFAW order without bags/boards I don’t think they are necessary for shipping. I am in TX so they had a long journey to me.