You’re a very very bad man.
3 Likes
Search works for me. Try deleting your TFAW related cookies, restart browser and try again.
1 Like
I’m new to preordering from TFAW. I got my first notification of order processing but it was only for two books. Joker 10 and Spawn 325. However I have about a dozen other books preordered that are already out. After reading some sounds like this happens? So I can still expect to get my other books it will just be with my next shipment in 4 weeks? Thanks for any insight. Just kind of confused with what is going on. I guess it’s not a huge deal as long as I get my books and I’m not charged for a boatload more shipping.
I posted these rules elsewhere, feel free to add/subtract:
I just accept that for TFAW
- its going to take forever to process and ship,
- there is no order on how the items are processed,
- it may be packaged well or not,
- the shipping charge is going to be terrible
- no guarantee that you will get the book
On the positive side, TFAW is still the best for variants and prices IF you land them. And the FOC rule allows you to hold books until the day before FOC (gives you a shot at unseen covers, etc.). And their customer service is decent IF you chat not email.
2 Likes
Marvel stuff from 12/8 is still largely just missing. FedEx lost all of our pallets from PRH for that week, PRH was only able to replace roughly half the titles, and THAT shipment got lost for a couple of weeks. I believe as of the last processing it included most releases through 12/15 that were in house. In the next two weeks or so things should be caught up to the current week after the warehouse closure and then the various shipment delays in December, since there were some light weeks at the holidays.
3 Likes
-
That hopefully will be fixed soon-ish, and hopefully this time we won’t have some major wrench thrown in the works when we finally catch up… Multiple times… We JUST got the entire warehouse to ourself and re-organized it to increase the space for receiving and pulling pre-order shipments, and then had to shut down for the emergency repairs, and then we had to catch up from those and deal with multiple missing shipments. Along with staff being out because of the holidays or because they were sick and we asked them to not come in.
-
In normal operations things should process based on the release week. If they haven’t in the past, then that means something on the order was shorted or damaged and there weren’t enough copies to fulfill it yet. I’m working on having a blog module installed so we can post a weekly list of shortages/damages (at least which titles are impacted) so people have some transparency into just how many comics aren’t sent to us or aren’t sellable each week, as a ton of people are shocked when they ask CS about it and hear how many titles are just totally forgotten to be packed by distributors.
-
That I can’t say anything about. I know the warehouse leads try to make everything packed well and take steps to train folks, but there’s a lot of new hires and people in the last few weeks/months and always new people coming in. In the past we had a smaller warehouse crew that was largely people who had been here for a long time and had been through the ropes.
-
That’s dependent on your settings, mostly. Cheapest is obviously going to be the cheapest price. But we lose money on shipping each month by not charging the full actual charge on most orders unless people are using expedited FedEx/UPS (overnight, 2 day, etc.). Those are charged at the postage rate. Orders of 2 or less regular priced comics lose us money for every sale between the very low profit margin on comics plus the cost of shipping materials, and the fact we subsidize shipping charges for any place outside of the west coast to keep the rate cheaper.
-
That’s unfortunately just part of comics sometimes. We don’t order super heavy for in stock (because having huge backstocks of modern single issue comics is a good way to throw away money) so when things are damaged or shorted by distributors it’s more obvious. And that goes back to the blog sharing what’s missing each week. For example in the most recent report I can see for our Diamond shortages/damages, we got shorted most of our HIgh Republic Adventures Annual exclusive quantities that we were having sent for our brick and mortar stores, and there are two individual covers that had all 300+ copies of that issue just missing. In the past we’ve had cases where every copy of something with 1,000+ orders was just not in the shipment, and never replaced. Lunar is actually the best usually at sending replacements for stuff missed. PRH statistically for us is the worst mainly because of that lost FedEx shipment, but if you take that out of the equation they’re not far behind Lunar. And Diamond is Diamond.
5 Likes
Thanks for your explanations. I wasnt trying to be a smart-ass about my experiences, but it is what I have been experiencing most of last year, and currently. I still order from TFAW, just scaled down my expectations.
I order from Midtown too (mostly and some other retailers sometimes) and while they have some issues, I think I have missed one issue in the several years I have shopped with them, and their packaging while not 100% great, is adequate. Their shipping charges are IMO very reasonable. For the shipping that I get charged by TFAW, the books could have been sent Flat Priority Mail (70lbs. weight limit and insured).
I am just surprised by the string of bad luck over such a long time, that TFAW seems to have with Diamond, PRH, etc. and the packaging and shipping issues, while other retailers seem to be doing alright (for me Midtown).
Again, I hope TFAW sees my comments as a learning experience and improves. I have benefited from the pricing and the variants, and feel that the customer service is quite responsive.
As far as issues with damages/shortages, Midtown is a lot closer to where the comics are distributed from, so they likely also do get their shipments on time more often, and they travel through less hubs. So part of it for us is definitely being on the west coast and most shipments making a cross country journey.
Flat rate priority and media mail are things our warehouse leads are looking into for this year I know.
2 Likes
This would be nice. DHL sits on packages for a week and then hands it off to the USPS anyway.
And, thanks for taking time to share your TFAW knowledge here, repeatedly, when you’re just trying to participate as your own self and not as an employee.
3 Likes
Complaining about the shipping cost is ridiculous. I’ve never ever felt overcharged in shipping from TFAW and I’ve had some big orders. Expecting to be charged exactly what the post office charges is also unrealistic. They have people to pay to pack those orders & have supplies to buy as well that you seem to be forgetting about.
2 Likes
Marvel books on FOC are only coming up with a 20% discount. Did I miss this change?
2 Likes
I agree with this 100%. Most likely everyone on this forum knows how much it costs to ship a comic, or a bunch of comics, via ebay or some other selling platform. If you ship how I see most people ship, you take other people’s supplies that you get when they send you a comic, repackage the comics you are selling, and send it out. From an environmental point of view, this is great! Reusing shipping supplies probably has a huge impact there.
However, a company has to have the exact supplies ready and on hand when orders come in. Which means ordering supplies, storing them (cost of space), preparing orders, packaging (labor costs), and then a variable cost of when packages are damaged in transit (cost to replenish / customer service / more of those previous mentioned costs). Oh, and we didn’t talk about the cost to even manage all of this…some sort of internal system that everyone uses.
So, when we say, ‘hey, you could have shipped that flat rate priority’, well, that just isn’t the case when dealing with thousands of orders. They have to prepare for every type of order, whether it be 1 book, or 100, and can’t possibly predict what’s going to happen. Sure, they will have an idea via statistics, forecasting, peak seasons, etc., but for giant shifts in the market its difficult to predict those occurrences.
$8 flat rate quickly becomes $15 when you factor all those items in…and the only thing you can do as a company to bring that cost down is work out deals with the FedEx’s and UPS’s…who are seeing a demand unlike anything they’ve seen before…who have their own increased costs to deal with. So, telling them hey I want reduced rates, you better have some serious volume to back that up!
6 Likes
Probably doesn’t have an FOC date set. Sometimes (especially lately) marvel will adjust dates and we still have no easy way to automate changes from PRHs data.
2 Likes
Like I said, MOST of the time we get complaints on shipping costs it’s people who don’t understand what they picked. Or forgot they picked an option until the processing email comes. I’m pushing for the choices to be simplified a bit clearer but there are people every week who contact CS saying they picked like overnight Express for pre order processing (or whatever the fastest one is called) and had no idea that would cost more. UPS/FedEx can also surprise people with costs because their rates have gone up so much this year and unless you’re getting a bigger package the cost to send a couple comics through them is crazy.
3 Likes
That just means youve never had to pay $3+ shipping per book. Right now I have a 26 book order due to them sending whatever and whenever they feel like Instead of a 15 book 4 week order so my shipping stays below $20 usually about $17, 26 books shipped they are trying to charge me $65 in shipping not because I ordered 26 books for a 4 week order but because they screwed up my 4 week shipping schedule by sending one week worth of books when they fixed their building.
4 Likes
That is exactly what is happening to me right now as well. TFAW stacking books and invoice orders that should have shipped on my 4 week shipping schedule?. So now I am up to 31 books instead of the 15 and over $20+ in shipping.
My next ship date got pushed again another week as of yesterday and few more books added to the order?. So pretty much TFAW is shipping and stacking more books to orders when they feel fit instead of sticking to the shipping schedule we pick?. This has happened a lot on my last few invoices for pre orders
3 Likes
Including this week (1/5)…my pre-orders are 5 weeks behind. How the hell are they going to get that caught up and when? Looking at over 200+ books. Either multiple shipments a week or one large a$$ bundle that’s going to kill me in shipping costs and most likely results in damages.
2 Likes
If you are OK with your TFAW shipping charges, then great ! I am NOT !
I get larger packages shipped from other retailers at a cost between $5.99 to $10. I also know what my shipping charge is going to be when I place the order, unless there is an issue with a book delay, loss, etc. Because of the way TFAW processes and ships books, there is no clarity on shipping, and there are often multiple shipping charges. I have had a $16 charge on one order and then another $6 charge on another order, split between books that have been out for more than a month. These issues have been going on for a while, and TFAW should be more receptive to customers concerns (which I think Brendon mentioned that TFAW is looking in to).
My SUGGESTION and hopefully expectation that TFAW consider USPS if DHL is not delivering, is just that. TFAW can do whatever it wants to !
And other online retailers also ‘pay to pack those orders & have supplies to buy’ and still manage their shipping costs. I havent FORGOTTEN about it; that should be figured into the cost and strategy of operating a business.
So what you think of COMPLAINING, I think of airing out my grievances ! This is a thread on TFAW Status right ?
You do you, I’ll do me !
1 Like
I dont get this argument. I sell on Ebay in a limited way. I list a shipping charge and stick to it. A customer buys my item, knowing the shipping charge. Its on me to ship the book based on the charge I specified. I dont list a book and say I’ll figure out the shipping charge later. How I pack it or the cost of materials is something I factor into my shipping charge.
For TFAW, I expect that I am going to be hit by multiple shipping charges since the last year (yes, yes, Covid, storms, staffing, etc.). I accept this and I still order from them. Still, doesn’t preclude me from being frustrated with the practice, sharing it on this forum, and offering suggestions to address it.
My shipping charge is not based on predictions ! You may be insinuating that TFAW does this or other sellers, and while I accept that this is the practice with TFAW, I dont have to like it.
I understand your process and struggles. I am just saying that more clarity would help in atleast understanding what the ball park shipping charge is going to be inspite of all the factors you and the other TFAW shipping policy defenders mention.
I know what to expect from TFAW and accept it ! Again doesnt mean it cant be improved and suggestions provided.
And I do appreciate your candor in discussing the topic on this forum. My comments were meant as a suggestion to improve service and customer response.