CBCS Turnaround5947
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reggieb private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Was just about to send in my first submission in a while. I guess I might have to go with CGC. Came in here to see what the estimated TAT was. Lord it sounds like a mess... | ||
| Post 726 • IP flag post | ||
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Spc51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
 This is how every one feels right now |
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| Post 727 • IP flag post | ||
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schnove1977 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I am now at 4 months since dropping off 3 of my comics that I had signed at San Francisco Comic-con. Why would anyone keep using these guys- they are not that much cheaper than CGC. I will not ever chose them again - how hard is it to hire more people to grade? The got bought by Becket so one would assume there is some working capital there to deploy which would be well worth it to save customers. It just baffles me - this company will be out of business soon and since CGC doesn't honor signatures on CBCS yellow label - those will be stuck with one signature forever and not able to be re-slabbed. | ||
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Spc51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
 there u go guys.. if they can update there Facebook page, they can at least update there whole system |
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| Post 729 • IP flag post | ||
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BabaLament private msg quote post Address this user | |
| What fresh nonsense is this? “Thank you for calling CBCS. We apologize for being unable to take your call. If you are calling for an update on your order, please log on to...” Use TAT guesstimator, or send an e-mail. Apparently CBCS is tired of hearing directly from customers. CBCS has my money. CBCS has my property. CBCS has failed to meet the quoted TAT estimate of 12 weeks, and compounded said failure by exceeding what constitutes “reasonable delay.” CBCS now refuses to engage in even the bare minimum of customer support, answering a phone call. The time has come.  |
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| Post 730 • IP flag post | ||
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Gamecube2482 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Spc51If he can spend time going to this then he can spend that time at HIS company helping work on the backlog that they say they are trying hard to fix. Piss poor management. |
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| Post 731 • IP flag post | ||
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Gamecube2482 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by BabaLamentI love how they say use the TAT spreadsheet on the email and it says my books should have been delivered on July 30th. That's a 2 month difference. |
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| Post 732 • IP flag post | ||
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Zevgoli private msg quote post Address this user | |
| May 22nd...invoice still says submitted | ||
| Post 733 • IP flag post | ||
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BabaLament private msg quote post Address this user | |
| CBCS won’t take a phone call. Beckett Customer Service is extremely polite, and you get a human on the phone in under two minutes! Unfortunately, CBCS has not been integrated w/ Beckett, so the only thing they can do is send an internal e-mail prompt for someone to reach out. So, up the ladder we go. Eli Global owns Beckett, who owns CBCS. Eli Global doesn’t have an automated system, you get a human being on the phone directly; a very nice lady named Kathy. After politely listening to my complaint, namely the lack of customer service or services paid for, she was kind enough to send an e-mail to Mr. Sandeep Dua (President, Beckett Media. Aim high.), requesting he poke the folks in the CBCS division for an update. So we’ll see how this works out. |
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| Post 734 • IP flag post | ||
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RyanHicks private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Any of you guys that think that CBCS is doing all this poor customer service intentionally (ie. "they have our money so they don't care" ) I don't know what to say to you....Do you really think they want to never get customers business again??? If they wanted to go out of business, they would all just quit! The company is severely understaffed and they get hundreds of emails and phone calls EVERY SINGLE DAY! The reason they take weeks to respond is that is how big their backlog is of voicemails and emails (hence why the voicemail box is always full). I'm not trying to defend them because I think it sucks too but all these comments about them not caring and "they should be doing this" and "they should be doing that" just aren't helping anything. I know its not what anyone wants to hear but the best recommendation is to not call or email unless you have a dire problem (yes, I get that you think that because they have your books/money that they are responsible for responding to you, but they literally CAN'T respond to everyone right now). Until they can get staffed back up and on top of their voicemail/email backlog, all of these phone calls/emails for status updates are just continuing to clog the production/voicemail/inbox. |
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| Post 735 • IP flag post | ||
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Gamecube2482 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by RyanHicksI don't think they are doing it intentionally but the way I look at it is they have my money. I live in NC and they are in Texas so its not like I can drive 10 minutes and get my books. CGC has Newton rings which gives them alot of businesses. So i look at as they dont have to answer my calls or respond to my emails because they have my money and like 98% of people that have books there im not close enough to go there and walk in the building and get my books back. So its like they know the only thing we can do is wait and for the most part there is no other option. But I think one of the reasons they have some many people calling and emailing is that they aren't doing a good job of updating people. I know they don't want to turn business down so I see why they aren't putting a stop to submissions, but at some point when they have had peoples books for months past the TAT they need to figure something out. I would like to be able to call them and talk to someone and upgrade to fast pass if I need to. I know they lost a lot of people in the move but they should be sending out updates so people don't feel like they are forgotten. Even if its something as simple as showing how many orders are a head of yours. |
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| Post 736 • IP flag post | ||
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BabaLament private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @RyanHicks I appreciate your candor sir. However, things have gone beyond what I consider reasonable business practices. As with any other business, delays are occasionally inevitable. When they occur, the company or business contacts the customers and makes them aware of when the delay condition will be resolved, and provides a new estimate for completion of the work. Most companies also apologize for the inconvenience, and provide tangible compensation of some sort to the consumer for having to bear the delay. This is common practice in any other production industry, from automotive to fabrication. CBCS has not communicated an estimate for when the delay causing situation will be resolved, updated estimated completion times beyond a link to a do-it-yourself excel spreadsheet of questionable accuracy/usefulness, or offered any sort of recompense to people whose delay has extended to double or more the quoted service period. Instead, CBCS has chosen to go “radio silent” by reusing to receive customer calls; based on the commentary in this thread, with one guy handling e-mail responses, the communications delay appears deliberately extended in the expectation that customers will give up attempting contact. CBCS has qualified to do business in Texas, as such they are required to comply with Texas law. Implying a 12-13 week TAT on new invoices, when in possession of internal information that actual TAT is closer to 24-30 weeks, appears to be a violation of Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, section 23. Even with a disclaimer that TAT estimates are non-binding, at a certain point delays go from reasonable to unreasonable. I consider doubling the originally quoted waiting period to be unreasonable, and eventually there must be some level of accountability. My opinion, I could be wrong. |
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Gamecube2482 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @BabaLament Well said. Its not the fact that my TAT is at 25 weeks, its the fact that I cant get anyone one the phone or emails and when the automated response to an email comes back it says my books should have been shipped back on 7-30. I took my truck to a mechanic one time. He said it would be a week and a half. The end of the first week he called me and told me that he had a family emergency and he would be gone for 2 weeks. I told him to keep the truck and fix it when he got back. It took 4 weeks. That phone call took him a minute to make. If he didn't spend one minute making that call at the end of the 2nd week I would be mad and wanting to know where my truck was. I have taken more vehicles to him since then. I like him more than others in my area (kinda like how I like CBCS more than CGC) I don't mind waiting longer for CBCS, but they need to so something like this. They could send weekly emails explaining what they are doing to help the TATs and how far behind they are. It probably wouldn't take someone more than 10 minutes to do. And I saw something above here how the president of CBCS is going to be at a con or something. I think hes the one that needs to be working over and pulling weekends making sure stuff gets done. Ive ran a business before and there were plenty of times I had to work longer and come in on the weekends. They say they are working to help resolve everything but what have they done and how long will it take. Once again putting out a weekly or bi weekly report might help more people understand. Then they wouldn't be calling and emailing as much. But like ive said, they have my money, im in NC and there isn't anything I can do but wait. |
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| Post 738 • IP flag post | ||
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RyanHicks private msg quote post Address this user | |
| @BabaLament @Gamecube2482 I totally get your frustration, i really do. Let me try and shed some light on a couple things that may help you piece together what is going on (Full disclosure: I am a CBCS facilitator but not a CBCS employee). CBCS has no public relations person or anyone on staff that has any kind of social media or PR knowledge...they really don't even have any kind of marketing dept. short of the employees that help setup at shows. They also do not have in-house IT staff; and as a web developer myself, i can tell you first-hand, the IT people they contract with are TERRIBLE (yea IT guy, i know you can see this message and you already know that I think you are terrible!). So not only are they short-staffed in terms of their normal day-to-day production employees and customer service employees, but they also don't really have the "easy" capability to update the website on command or the PR capability/knowledge to quell some of these issues or reach out to frustrated customers. Their massive backlog of emails and voicemails are attended to every single day, pretty much all day; but a little simple math and you can easily conclude that even with 1-2 employees responding to say 50-100 emails/voicemails per day, when you are getting in 100-300 per day for the past 3 months, you will never catch up until more people are hired (which they have done but those employees are still being trained) What CBCS is great at doing is grading books, and if you filter through all the disappointment and upset messages, i think you will see a theme that hardly anyone (that is not a newbie) is legitimately upset at how their books were graded/treated. That is because they are great at what we pay them to do. Where CBCS is failing is in all the other areas where they are severely short-staffed and that can't be fixed in any way other than staffing up (production staff, PR staff, IT staff, etc) |
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| Post 739 • IP flag post | ||
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KingNampa private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Comic_Playhouse I think CBCS dropped/lost the ball last year when the hurricane hit and they never found it again. They just moved to Texas with no balls. |
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| Post 740 • IP flag post | ||
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zosocane private msg quote post Address this user | |
| So I have an Expanded submission (website estimated TAT "8-12 weeks" ) that was received June 5th. We are now ending 16 weeks of "Processing". How many more weeks should I expect to wait until I get the book back? | ||
| Post 741 • IP flag post | ||
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farseer private msg quote post Address this user | |
| My order submitted March 26th, one modern and one Copper age with pressing, no fast track, moved from received to grading on Sept 24th. On Sept 30th it moved from grading to shipping and today I got the email that the books have shipped. 31 weeks instead of the stated 24 when it was submitted. I do believe things are improving |
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| Post 742 • IP flag post | ||
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Gamecube2482 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by farseer Im at 25 weeks and mine were just Moderns with no pressing. They have been in labels for 6 weeks. And least yours moved quickly. I do believe things are improving |
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| Post 743 • IP flag post | ||
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dalkeil private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I have many orders piled up, the earliest from May 12th is now "grading", while a submission the next week is still "processing. I'm not complaining, just posting info for those curious about wait times currently. |
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Spc51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
 That's all I got to say for the day... |
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| Post 745 • IP flag post | ||
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LamontCranston private msg quote post Address this user | |
| And now another update. My lone comic just moved from Labels to Billing today (10/3/18). I actually had to update my payment information, since the card I used at the beginning of this process had expired. Quote: Originally Posted by LamontCranston |
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| Post 746 • IP flag post | ||
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Treweldy private msg quote post Address this user | |
Earlier today, invoice said processing. Just got an email that my order is ready to ship. Received August 5th with fast passes, stated 7 week turn around time. Just went from super mad to pretty happy  |
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| Post 747 • IP flag post | ||
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JustABitEvil private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I dropped off at a con 4-14 (billed on 5-4) and I got the 'Order Complete' email this evening. Assuming it ships tomorrow thats 21 weeks from payment, almost 24 weeks from receipt. Honestly, if I didn't really and truly believe that CBCS had a better case I would probably be going to the other company for all my non-VSP needs. I hope you guys can get back on track, I have a really sweet book in a really crappy Newton Ringed case that I want to send you but I dont want it out of my posession for 6 months either. |
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| Post 748 • IP flag post | ||
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BrashSmurf private msg quote post Address this user | |
| my invoice say submitted What does that mean? This is my first time grading books |
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| Post 749 • IP flag post | ||
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Spc51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
 5 months,2 days and No updates on my books |
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| Post 750 • IP flag post | ||
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bobadont private msg quote post Address this user | |
| I’m relatively new to this whole thing. I collected comics a little as a teen and now, as an adult, I’m slowly getting my interest back. When I decided to submit my first comics for grading, I did quite a bit of research on the big three. I decided on CBCS because of what I read about the quality of work, the price, and the reasonable timelines offered. I had my first submission received on June 1, excited about the first email I received from the company about my comics going into the vault and how I would get notifications via email at every step of the way until the shipping email. I’ve been lurking the forums since August, when I realized that I wasn’t getting any notifications and learned about the excessively long TATs. Regarding the apologetics about how there’s no social media staff, limited IT, and few employees to meet the demand, I have empathy for the employees on staff, but not on the leadership. In the Dallas metroplex there are dozens of colleges with students who would need internships in social media - with a financial infrastructure that supported a company move across state lines and a new partnership with a large established company, I’m sure that someone could hire some temp help to answer phones or emails. The metroplex is huge - there are MANY temp agencies that could supply cheap, temporary manpower. I think the frustration arises from the reactive defensiveness of the company, rather than a proactive approach to try to get ahead of the problems. All of us, I would think, appreciate quality work and have no problem waiting a little longer than an original quoted timeline would imply - this message took me five to ten minutes to type. It doesn’t tasks all that long for a clear, informative message to be written with weekly updates about what problems exist, what is being done, and where improvements are being made. |
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| Post 751 • IP flag post | ||
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Gamecube2482 private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by BrashSmurf I haven't had a lot of submissions here but I think that means they received your books and they are waiting in the vault. Next should be grading or labels. Ive been told that when the invoice says labels thats also where the encapusaltion and QC take place. Then I think it goes to shipped. |
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| Post 752 • IP flag post | ||
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Spc51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
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| Post 753 • IP flag post | ||
 CBCS Pressing
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SteveRicketts private msg quote post Address this user | |
Quote:Originally Posted by Spc51 Yes, it's a hoot for us. We spend our days doing snow angels on piles of your money. It gives us a lot of joy to hear you complain about how little we care. |
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| Post 754 • IP flag post | ||
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Spc51 private msg quote post Address this user | |
| Well if we start getting any information about our books just like you have the time to post here, then we wouldn't be complaining would we????? Just an observation..and trust me you would be frustrated too if you had to wait over 5 months for your order status to change from processing and you send emails and leave messages and don't get a response, so please don't cry me a river... | ||
| Post 755 • IP flag post | ||