I’ve gone through a huge thing with them that I’ve talked about before, but it seems My Comic Shop is shipping every single order as bound printed material, which makes it take up to three to four weeks longer to arrive snail mail, and for which they only pay .99 to ship when charging $5 from the customer. Is this happening to other people?
For me, my order got stuck in a warehouse awaiting scanning, leading to having to call USPS multiple times and huge stress. It’s been three weeks since it was shipped and stuck in ‘waiting for acceptance at post office’ to be scanned for a week, but they said it could literally take up to 14 and have no clue where it is. This is nonsense, and they are so greedy to put people through this to save a couple bucks. I also have no doubt they are pocketing all the tax they are now charging to buffer their profits, this has to be illegal. They’ve lost their minds this last year.
I wonder if everybody is going through the same, it can’t literally just be me. Any attempt to contact them leads to the utmost contempt on their part and zero effort to locate item or give any kind of a refund. I’m sick of having to placate rude people who don’t care about my business, and won’t admit to blatantly pulling such a stupid move. I will never be buying from them ever again, but curious about if other people have been getting normal shipping.
I’ve only dealt with their customer service once so I can’t really speak to that.
I’m not their biggest fan mostly because their prices tend to be very high. But I do order from them from time to time when I need to.
Tax - they are one of the largest comic dealers in the country and a very large business. They are not pocketing the tax money. They do way too much in sales to not pay tax.
Shipping all over the country is delayed. I shipped a package priority that got from me in Mass to Los Angeles in 36 hours. Then sat in the LA hub for weeks when it only had to go to Long Beach. It didn’t move until I filed a claim. What happens once it leaves MCS is not their fault.
Media mail is not $0.99. Yes it’s cheaper, but it isn’t $0.99.
That being said, they offer multiple shipping options. If you don’t want their economy shipping, pay the extra couple of dollars and do priority. It was your choice to do the economy shipping.
I don’t find their shipping times once in the mail any different then most other companies. Try ordering from Midtown right now. Ha.
I’ve actually found MCS is better then most companies in processing orders. Most of the time when I order from them it’s out the door in 24-48 hours. That’s faster then my orders with Midtown, Mile High, TFAW, Newkadia, etc…and other companies of similar size.
I’m not sure of your experience but they charge $5 shipping, and instead of sending media mail, ship it as printed bound material for .99 cents and pocket the rest. It then goes through a long period of stagnation due to this, I confirmed the shipping price with USPS. At least for me.
My point being you chose the shipping option of economy shipping. They offer multiple shipping options including priority and other faster options. You chose the cheapest economy option. Mail time is on the carrier. You chose the shipping method.
I don’t know where you are located, I’m about as far from them as can be in the continental US. All 5 of my orders were $4.95 economy shipping, all 5 shipped UPS Mail Innovations Expedited, 4 of the 5 processed in 24 hours, and all 5 arrived to me across the country in 5 to 12 days. None were stagnant, none were delayed. These were all within the last 60 days during the pandemic.
It looks like your package just got caught up in the ever slowing mail system. I’d equate it to my package taking 3 weeks with Priority mail. Mail just sucks these days.
My biweekly TFAW packages run me $15-25 in shipping which is their “cheapest” offered shipping (granted these are bigger orders but MCS is unlimited books at $4.95). I don’t get them any faster then my economy $4.95 packages with MCS. On top of that I have to pay TFAW $0.25 per book for bag and board. I literally paid more for TFAW to just bag and board my last order then MCS charged to process and ship my order. Additionally, my Midtown order from a month ago literally just shipped.
It sounds like your main gripe is you believe they profit off the shipping. I’m not sure that UPS Mail Innovations Expedited costs $0.99 but i will take your word for it.
$4.95 is pretty much the cheapest shipping cost of any company I’ve ordered from, especially considering that’s $4.95 no matter how many books. That $4.95 covers shipping costs, packaging, material, them pulling and packaging your order, bagging and boarding all your books, etc…I don’t think $4.95 is excessive and they are making a killing off you.
I’m not a MCS fanboy. As I said I’m not a fan as their books are typically overpriced. I do most of my orders through TFAW, but I would just direct more of your frustrations towards the mail system then MCS.
They sent my books to the wrong address at no fault of my own books were returned to sender by USPS, refused to refund or do anything about it had to get a refund direct from PayPal and now anytime I order from them they immediately cancel it the next day. Whoever is in control of online sales and shipping is a major douche. But besides all that they have the worst prices and if I can’t find a cheaper better copy elsewhere I’ll just pass on buying from them at least I know I’m not getting ripped off and the most horrible customer service you’re going to find in the state of Texas.
That’s pretty shitty. Not sure how they could justify not refunding you if the books were sent back to them. Irregardless of whose fault the address botch was, they had the books back in their possession. Can’t keep the money and the books.
The two books that were in the order 1st monster squad and the black moon knight cover I still don’t own to this day they are now like 3 times the price I paid when I didn’t get them
Remember in cost of shipping it is just not postage. When I ship and charge exact weight I have to pay for the box I mail them in, Gemini mailers cost me about .52 cents each., there is the cost of tape, printing the label, and manpower. Not to mention I have to pay a fee on a percentage of my total sale for the sale to be processed.
So let’s look at an average eBay sale. Weight is 8 ounces and costs and $3.28 to ship. My shipping cost to mail a book I charge around $5. So am I pocketing the profit? $5-3.28 is $1.72. Minus 10% for fee brings it down to $1.22 “profit” cost of my mailer is .52 so that brings it down to .70. Cost of bag and board is .16 so now we are looking at .54 cents profit. Tape, yeah we will say .08 so .46 cents profit. Then there is man power for each package I ship. Say 5 minutes or so. I don’t have to pay myself.
I am just saying their shipping is exactly what tfaw, Midtown, and others do. But it is not like they are making a huge killing off shipping your package.
I calculate my shipping costs using a similar method, Tony. I include costs for the materials and manpower that it takes to do the physical shipping, on top of the actual shipping rate.
They have some to weird thing where if you ‘slight’ them, they ban your account and everyone who every shared your family lineage. I’m not sure how you got around that, but you shouldn’t have to have met their standards of ‘politeness’ to get your books. All of this, combined with the shipping creepiness on top of deciding to charge tax this year, makes them the worst buy for your buck. I literally get better deals from Mile High Comics, at least they don’t hold grudges when they were the ones to blame, and do no tax and free shipping over 60.
And for those of you defending them, look, you enjoy MCS, more power to you, I can’t do anything about that. And I can’t do anything about the notion that people like to be contrary when someone gripes about anything here unless you’re one of the cool kids, even though half the things I say are in a jokey sarcastic tone that no one gets. The only point that matters is that it seems they are now instituting this half-assed bound printed matter shipping which allows them to do it for .99 cents and takes an extra three weeks where the box literally sits waiting to be scanned. I can only assume this is the new norm for everyone, but I have heard no evidence to the contrary yet that it wasn’t just randomly me.
And Anthony, I think they more than make up for the shipping costs with what they charge for the books, everything is higher priced than Mile High in a sale and in worse condition. This new .99 cents to ship in bulk is a new low though and just untenable, unless it’s not happening to other people. They didn’t ship the economy I paid for is what most people seem to be missing, they found a workaround by shipping it as bound matter which saved them 4 out of the $5. That is ripping me off, not me bitching that I didn’t get expedited.
And not at all the case. Trust me we are comic book nerds so no cool kids allowed (I kid). Just offering a different perspective on shipping. I order from a ton of different places. All have their issues. I do not order from Mile High as I have had too many issues with books showing as in stock suddenly not being in stock when it comes time to ship them. I fully understand your point of view and not trying to counter point it or be contrary, just explaining that shipping and handling charges also include handling charges. Also, Midtown and TFAW use the exact same shipping methods as Mycomicshop. As for prices, I think Mycomicshop is comparable in price as opposed to Mile High who raises prices in order to have sales (watch books prices before and after sales and you will see what I mean).
If possible, please provide a valid USPS link to this category of shipping … I’m curious, as I’ve never heard of a rate that low … USPS maintains a shipping calculator on the site and in no way does anything like this show up …
My only guess is they ship out so much they have special rates with USPS. IDK though… seems a tad bit on the low side. 99 cents is what one pays for two 1 oz first class stamps…
