I always had my business line in the address as www.comicsheatingup.net
I seem to have migrated to 50% Midtown/50% TFAW. I was 100% Midtown, but was frustrated by their customer service after several instances of damaged comics. I’m curious where/what % of other members purchases fall in those or other shops.
I’m 95% TFAW, 5% MCS and Midtown. TFAW has mostly been good with some hiccups.
I tried preordering from TFAW 100% recently, but they suck at packaging. They try to sandwich 5 books into a flimsy mailer and somehow it’s the post office’s fault if it gets damaged. I’m back to 100% preordering from LCS and ratios from Midtown.
What were the circumstances when TFAW dropped you down? I’ve been using them almost exclusively for preorders for a few months now and have been playing around with things to figure out how it works with them. Here’s what I’ve found so far…
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If the listing says one per, it will still let you add multiples to your preorder. But you will only get shipped one.
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If you preorder prior to the limit being in place, prior to FOC usually, they will ship you all that you ordered, even if a limit is later added. Both Thor 5 and Venom 26 I ordered multiples well prior to FOC and before the limit. Around FOC they changed both to 1 per. They still shipped me multiples that I ordered.
I was at one time 99% Midtown. I would put in my pre-orders each month on the books in Previews for the 35% off discount. Then I would buy other books as they were released each week on books I either didn’t pre-order (overlooked) or I suspected they were going to heat up. The rest of my 1% was misc purchases at TFAW, Grahams and other online shops.
Then came my awakening of, I’m buying way too many books and I can’t keep up reading them all.
Now I’m 95% TFAW on pre-orders (they’ve just been faster at getting shipments out) and 5% others, mostly Midtown on books I missed, heating up, etc.
I always try to do my best though to make sure my TFAW shipments come in a box, not the rigid mailers. I know most of the time it’s not their fault since sometimes they show up in pristine condition but the USPS fault for manhandling them. But everytime they’ve taken care of me. Midtown usually takes care of me but it always seems like I have to spend more time getting a hold of them, snapping way more pictures, etc.
I don’t touch MCS. They did me wrong long ago so I won’t even bother. Even when a rep saw my gripe on CHU, they sent me a $25 coupon on next purchase and I turned it down. Sorry, they treated me so bad, they lost business for life. They’d have to really make up something special to lure me back… $10 off my orders for life, free shipping on any and all orders… something… Delivery on a silver platter type of service…
I changed my settings to every two weeks to avoid that. All my orders have been boxes lately as I preorder usually around 10 books a week.
The few times I got the envelope (usually on non preorders) I’ve been lucky things were okay inside.
I still use my LCS every week but he’s been having trouble keeping stuff straight without order sheets for a few weeks and DC issues, so I’ve been missing books. I started to back the important stuff up at TFAW and it’s 30% cheaper as my LCS does cover even on pull list. I’d rather 2 then 0.
Yup, that’s what I did as well. I also got tired of the 1 pre-order book getting shipped that was costing me like $7… umm… yeah, no thank you, can’t be spending $10 or $11 on a $3 book…
This is where I am at too. Even when it is obvious the books weren’t damaged by the post office, all I get is a “Well, what we can do at this point is offer you a 25% refund”. Nope - not worth my time.
Back when I used to order more from midtown more often I too was getting many books that definitely were not NM. One even had the cover folded over.
One time I opened two orders the same day as I let my mail pile up. One order had like 3 damaged books and the other had like 2. So I sent them separate emails one under each order number. Pics included with both.
Get both responses the next day within 10 minutes of each other. First one apologizes and says we apologize we can send you replacements or full refund. I took replacements.
Second order, 10 minutes later, says they can refund me 25% or I can mail them back for a full refund or replacements but needs to be in same box and shipping is on me to send them back.
I pointed out that it wasn’t worth me spending $5-10 to ship them $9 in books and that 10 minutes prior they offered me full refund or replacements without shipping them back. Their response was we handle all returns on a “case by case basis”. Pointed out it’s the exact same case, same situation, same damages, 10 minutes apart. After several more emails of me arguing and explaining how case by case basis works, I eventually gave up.
This continued to happen each time After that. Sometimes I would get full refund or replacements. Other times it was 25% or mail them back. No rhyme or reason at all.
No. I pre-ordered Venom SDCC PX variant x5. They shipped one. I preordered as soon as the came live. I also preordered the Bitter Roots Purple Rain Variant x3. They shipped one. I called them and asked what was up. They said they had damaged copies and were waiting for replacements (of books out of stock at Diamond) I said so how did that work Kyle, the customer service guys name, I said did all customers just get one. He said no. People got theirs but it was first come first serve. “I must have been at the back of the orders” I told him I ordered early on and he did agree I got in there early.
Sounds like they allocated then. Everyone that ordered got their first copy, then extras not damaged started to fulfill remaining orders…
Ha. I always get Kyle when I email too. He must be the only one.
Ironically your situation just happened to me yesterday. Det Com 1023 and Venom 25 2nd print I ordered 2 of each prior to FOC but was only shipped 1 and Justice League 48 I ordered 1 and wasn’t shipped any. I emailed Kyle and got the same damaged books and waiting for replacements and I will get them in my next shipment when they come in. I took him for his word on that one, now I’m not so sure.
The Bitter Root purple rain they shipped me 2 yesterday.
My online orders for new issues can be summed up as follows:
25% Midtown
25% My Comic Shop
20% Unknowncomicbooks
20% NYCollectorCave
10% others (sanctum, gooden Apple, TFAW, etc)
I like Midtown for books you know will be hot a week out (when they go on sale)
I like MCS for books you know are heating up the day before release (when they go on sale). Can combine new releases with backissues too.
I like UnknownCBs as you can order weeks/months out and combine any orders across multiple weeks (regardless of the month) as well as back issues and have them shipped together.
I like NYCCave as they offer discounts and cheapest shipping. Also They are usually one of the last to sell out of a new book (they still had spawn 308A as of last night, for example…sold out now though)
I don’t care for TFAW as they will not combine new releases with backissues, and if new releases span two different months they ship them separate.
The others are ok (golden Apple and sanctum) but have high shipping costs…even for one book.
I’ve gotten the exact same thing…two separate orders back to back, both damaged, completely different solutions for the same problem.
I think they either change it every other complaint, or they play Rock Paper Scissors.
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99% LCS, 1% online. I get great customer service for the most part. Shipping fees to The Great White North are just absurd, so…
I’ve done 0 online orders other the store variants for the PC. Last time I used Midtown was when they had the old (way better) website. I visited about 3 or so moths ago and yeah not the same feel.
It’s funny. They must have released two of my three copies of bitter rain to you. I called yesterday and they didn’t have any.
Ha, did you get my venom 25 2nd?
Too bad it’s off my preorder page which has the order date so we could see if maybe I ordered before you which is why I got 2 or if it’s completely random.
To update things…they finally responded to my email asking why the 1:25 was cancelled…
“The item was out of stock for the order. We unfortunately could not include this. We apologize for the inconvenience! If the item does return to stock you may purchase it at any time. Please note we are unable to retroactively apply sales prices.”
Very interesting wording on how I can buy it at a higher price.