Customer Service Has Spoken.7566

Originally Posted by BabaLament
CGC has also taken additional steps to rent out off site venues to prevent CBCS from maintaining a convenient off-site presence (dirty pool)

Originally Posted by BabaLament
Hello all!

Up front I’d like to extend my thanks to @Jake_Fleming, @SteveRickets, and the other CBCS staff & moderators who have done what they can to provide updates & information. After today’s conversation I have a better understanding of what you’re working with, and will concede that your efforts on our behalf have been under-appreciated. My offer to buy the first round, or ship a bottle of Kentucky’s finest export with my next submission, still stands.

Having spoken with Customer Service at length, I can put out the following information from our conversation:

There is/was an error with the phone system; calls should not have been dropped. It is being worked on. The customer service phone line *does* work. That being said, CBCS would greatly appreciate if customer service calls can be held to billing inquiries, address/shipping updates, questions regarding services (ASP/VSP/Pressing/etc.), or other non-status-update related calls. Currently Jake is the only guy burning down the voicemail box & answering the phones; he will be getting help starting next week. However, the new Customer Service department staff, Mrs. Kendra, will need some time to get up to speed.

My two cents, let’s give them a chance to get the important billing/shipping info stuff under control. Nobody wants books in limbo due to billing issues, or worse, sent to an old address.

I have been assured that the customer service e-mails are being answered as best they can. Again, the focus is on answering priority billing & address/shipping updates & submission questions first. For anyone who thinks they are having problems getting e-mail through, I’m a Gmail user & Jake assured me that on the CBCS end, they have not received any of my e-mails, so Gmail might have some internal gremlins for whatever reason. I’m going to look into that later & will update if I find anything.

For TAT related questions, Jake has assured me the TAT tracker *is* functional & can be relied upon. On the subject of TAT, Jake was kind enough to provide the following information:

Modern, Consumer, and Expanded are significantly behind.

Quickstream, Rapid, 2-Day, & 1-Day submissions are on time. Fast Pass submissions are also on time.

With TAT’s the bottleneck is in production. There are only so many hours in the day, so much equipment available, and so many people qualified/trained to use it. Additional production staff are starting next week, and I was informed they have prior experience, so hopefully they will be up to speed & start helping to work down the backlog ASAP.

Objectively, if you need a short TAT to flip a book for profit or as an occasion/holiday gift, at this point in time, the best thing to do is submit under one of the higher priced tiers. It costs more, but the book(s) will completely sidestep the low cost tier backlog.

A moment to talk about the people. Jake tells me that the people at CBCS have been working like mad to keep things going; his team of guys hasn’t had more than a day off a week since June/July. From our talk, and some of the comments I’ve read in the forum, I gather the rest of the company is much the same way. They’re people too guys; kids, families, friends, they are not just slab production robots. They’re exasperated, bordering on burnout, and it’s showing. I’m guilty of focusing too much on the company & forgetting about the people behind it, for which I apologize. Ya’ll need time to spend with loved ones & deserve time for personal enjoyment too.

With Conventions going forward, there may be some news on that end in the future. As many of you know, “the other guys” at CGC entered into an exclusive service agreement with ReedPop, which has locked CBCS out of on-site participation at Emerald City Comic Con (ECCC, Seattle), Comic Convention & Entertainemnt Expo (C2E2, Chicago), & NYCC (New York). CGC has also taken additional steps to rent out off site venues to prevent CBCS from maintaining a convenient off-site presence (dirty pool). The exclusivity contract between CGC & ReedPop May expire this year, allowing CBCS to attend these & other ReedPop promotions in the future. More to come as it develops.

We did discuss the infrequent communication between CBCS staff & the consumers; be it through Facebook, Twitter, or here in the forums. Jake acknowledged that CBCS does not have much in the way of social media presence, but that there are other more important things to address at this time. My suggestion was for a YouTube video from staff to ya (consumers) with an update on company status, upcoming changes/events, and a FAQ response based on the feedback CBCS has been getting. Jake said he would send the idea up the chain.

I’m not an employee, nor do I have a vested interest beyond being a consumer to the tune of about $10k/year in grading, and a notable pain in the butt. This is based only on conversation(s) w/ Jake & a couple of forum back & forths w/ Steve Rickets. As previously stated, Jake Fleming has always been polite, professional, and done his best to facilitate fixing whatever issues I’ve brought to his attention. Mr. Rickets & his pressing team have worked miracles with the books I’ve sent his way; I can’t think of anything but good things to say about him & his department.

I’m not the most patient guy in the world, and again, I apologize for reaching into my toolbox of evil first before waiting a couple days for a response. I’m going to do something out of character here & ask everyone to give them time & space over the next couple of months to get them backlog down, the IT stuff straightened out, and back into the groove.

My opinion, I could be wrong.

Originally Posted by Catalyst_Comics
@BSeldin305 For what it is worth, At Mega Con we had no idea the move would cause as many issues as it did. If we had known we would have shared that info.

It wasn't until Middle June we started to realize we were going to have bigger issues then thought.