COMC - Anyone have anything positive to say in 2021? (2022 UPDATE) (2023 UPDATE)

[mrmopar]

Is anyone happy with COMC (Clearly Oblivious to My Customers) at this time? I have to wonder how sellers are being treated right now. Since it is all about getting paid, I suspect that this service is not being affected because it probably doesn't require much intervention by a staff member. I'd guess if anything, slowness in getting new items scanned and listed could be one negative result, but as this gets COMC more revenue, I'm sure that is priority one over shipping out cards that have already made them their commission.

From a buyer standpoint, I am to the point where I am ready to look into legal matters. This may just be my frustration boiling over, and perhaps the reality of legal action against this company is a fantasy, but they have suspended phone service, ignore emails and are not shipping items owed to customers, at least not my order. The dates for getting new shipments out other than some sort of overpriced priority service level has now exceeded 4 months wait time, IF THEY EVEN BOTHER SHIP ON TIME!

COMC is completely ridiculous right now. I would encourage anyone/everyone to boycott them! Rewards of any kind for this type of behavior is just going to make it harder in the future to receive any level of customer service.

To recap my story, I requested a shipment on 12/3/20. Knowing full well that Covid had affected most businesses, plus the post Black Monday sale is always a reason to delay a shipment. Over the years, you can see the delay around that time of year vs any other time. Shocking, but my estimated delivery date was 3/9/21. 3+ months I was going to have to wait for my cards to arrive. Oh well, what could I do, right? Every other order I had ever made with them in the prior 10 years shipped on the date they estimated.

By 3/9/21, I was anxious to see that "shipped" notification. When I didn't after a couple of days, I emailed customer service. They apologized, credited my s/h fee and said the new ship date was 4/13/21. That would be the first and only time they responded to any of my numerous emails to the time of this comment. Not happy at all about that, but again, what can i do about it. They are holding my cards hostage. They have my money and there is nothing I can seemingly do about until until they are good and ready to send the cards.

Yes, you guessed it. 4/13 was Tuesday and now another "estimated" ship date has come and gone and my order is still showing unprocessed as of today.

The complete lack of customer service is mind blowing. This company went from being a favorite of mine to being utterly hated. With 23 shipments made over the previous 10 years, equaling close to $5K, I can assume I am not a high roller, but that is not chump change either. I guess they don't like my money any longer. I really don't see myself ever using them again. I have 3 cards in my port that I was hoping they would ship with the rest, as a show of goodwill for the absolute screw job on the current shipment. I'll probably need to abandon those for good or my option is to pay them $5 and wait 4+ months to get those 3 cards, when they have not shipped my current order yet. F THESE GUYS!

I am sorry if you are a seller, although if the bump in hobby interest is helping you sell more through COMC, good for you. I feel more sorry for the buyers of those cards though. They are being treated like **** right now. I really hope that COMC feels enough pain from this lesson that it will affect their bottom line and future business.

This is how you lose a long time customer and former cheerleader for their services!

 

[#19Addiction]

I used Comc for the first time last year. Requested shipment late in December. Due date is still 3/27/21. As far as I can tell they still haven't shipped. I can say I am not a fan of that company at all.

 

[Dilferules]

The only positive I have seen is that they keep adding new cards to the site, and the site at least keeps running. As you mentioned, they should probably move some of their resources that are being used to add cards in order to drop those ridiculous shipping times. Their shipping and customer service has been absolute dog crap for at least a year now. I understand that the COVID issues ballooned shipping times but it seems like they have done nothing at all to address this, despite their statements that they have hired more shipping staff it only gets worse and worse.

Due to the way I collect I am not at the point of outright boycotting them. I can be quite a spiteful person, but I'm not ready to negatively affect my collection to this extent purely out of spite. But I certainly go to other sources before I go to COMC, when it used to be the opposite.

One option for those three cards you still have there would be to used "rushed" shipping instead of "economy" shipping. It will only cost you $1.50 more and the estimated ship date for that service is 22 days out instead of 113 days. 22 days is still a while but at least it's not the "express" option that would cost $40. When I used the rushed option on some cards in early December their estimated ship date was 15 days, and they actually shipped it in 14. Then when I requested economy shipping on a large pile of cards on December 9, estimated ship date was March 15 aaand of course they haven't shipped yet. That shipment is about a thousand cards so I did not feel like paying an additional $500 to get them quicker.

 

[chippernate]

I requested shipment like 2 weeks ago, but it’s all PC items, including a really big one so I’m already anxious haha I bought another off of eBay cause I didn’t want to start another stack, even that wait time is almost a month

 

[mrmopar]

None of my items need to reach me in a "timely" manner. I get people on ebay who apologize because they have not shipped in a week. I don't even sweat that stuff. If after 2-3 weeks, something has not arrived and I might inquire if the seller has shipped yet, but even then I am not worried about it. I don't believe I have anything to worry about in regards to not getting my cards from COMC, at least I hope not. The problem is they are not communicating, rather ignoring what has to be piling complaints from unhappy customers who agree that 3-4+ months is complete BS.

I am not flipping, selling or otherwise moving them. If that were the case, I would be even hotter about this. It comes down to what Dilferules said, they are not shipping anything in a timely manner if you are not paying a premium and the regular ship times have fallen WAY PAST remotely reasonable for anyone. Nobody pays for something online and is OK waiting 4 months for it to arrive because the vendor is a complete idiot and can't manage their business! The Covid excuse wore out months ago.

I was not happy but at least satisfied when they pushed out my original date by a month. I would be less happy if they told me it would be another month, but at least I would have another target to watch for. Now it is just anyone's guess and it is very frustrating. kind of like the same debacle I have with Panini over 3 redemptions of cards I have seen being sold already. If some are out there, where the hell are my cards?

As I have discussed in other threads, all of this is just hitting at the right time in my life to push me towards quitting the part of collecting where I add anything new. Maybe it is time to buckle down, save a ton of money, organize what I do have and start working on a plan to get rid of it. This is supposed to be fun, but more than not lately, it has just become a point of stress.

Anyone in the market for a PSA 4 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson? If that card goes, then the bandaid is ripped off and it gets easier from there!

 

[zlpeterson]

Amazing how Comc can manage to ship within 2 days when it's a sale on Ebay.....

 

[WizardofOz1982]

I haven't bought anything on there since my last request in March so I guess I'm kind of boycotting? It's more like cautious waiting. I've never used anything but the basic $3.99/$4.99 shipping option. 99% of everything I buy on COMC is PC so I'm not stressing delivery times much.

I basically just stack stuff up there and request shipment every three months or so when I get 40 or 50 cards in my inventory. Last year the shipping delays went 4 days (January), 7 days (March), 2 days (June), and 3 months (Aug 25 to Nov 23) when the pandemic really started to hit them. They still beat the August Estimated ship date (11/25) by a couple days though so I was good with that thinking it was just a temporary situation.

I requested my normal January shipment (42 cards) on 1/19 this year and it gave me a three month estimated ship date of 4/21 just like the one in August 2020 did. I wasn't worried about it since they were all PC cards. That one shipped in 9 days though and I had them in hand on 2/3 so I just figured the long estimated ship time was them making sure they could meet deadlines in a still uncertain time.

I thought they were getting a handle on things based on that shipment and what other people were saying. Apparently I just got lucky based on what everyone is saying though. Who knows.

I requested my normal March/April shipment on 3/11 though it's only 10 cards because I've been leery of buying much there with everything that has been going on. I was given an estimated shipment date of 6/25 so I guess we'll see.

 

[WizardofOz1982]

Amazing how Comc can manage to ship within 2 days when it's a sale on Ebay.....

From what I'm seeing online even their eBay shipments are taking forever too.

 

[mrmopar]

From what I'm seeing online even their eBay shipments are taking forever too.

Yep, I bought one card back in February (my last ebay purchase from them for sure) and it shipped about 3 weeks after I paid, also nowhere near acceptable for any ebay vendor.

 

[mrmopar]

I don't blame you guys for buying with them to help build the collection. However, at some point when you are getting **** upon, you have to decide if it is worth it. For me, this was the straw. I guess I probably made up my mind first in November, when I ended up buying maybe 5 cards over the Thanksgiving sale period. Sellers were being tight with any discounts, cards that should have sold cheap were jacked up and then the whole no free shipping/slow shipping thing.

I really liked it for new Dodger roster additions, when a guy like Corey Knebel joins the team. I could snag a cheap auto right away, just in case of some Dodger related inflation period. More and more though, I either had the new autos I needed already, they weren't for sale on COMC or they were too spendy. COMC and the sellers were positioning themselves out of me being a customer, hand in hand! Now with ebay's standard card shipment option, as long as sellers jump on it (which they should if they were smart), cheap cards can be affordable on ebay again. It's not the same as racking up 50 cards for one s/\h fee, but the delay in getting the cards, even if you build it in to your routine, will still cost them some business in the end.

 

[JVHaste]

I was considering selling on Check Out My Codpiece but these delays are concerning. I don't want to ship my stuff to them only to have the amount of buyers dwindle.

Is FCB going to do another one of those virtual seller shows anytime soon?

 

[WizardofOz1982]

I don't blame you guys for buying with them to help build the collection. However, at some point when you are getting **** upon, you have to decide if it is worth it. For me, this was the straw. I guess I probably made up my mind first in November, when I ended up buying maybe 5 cards over the Thanksgiving sale period. Sellers were being tight with any discounts, cards that should have sold cheap were jacked up and then the whole no free shipping/slow shipping thing.

I really liked it for new Dodger roster additions, when a guy like Corey Knebel joins the team. I could snag a cheap auto right away, just in case of some Dodger related inflation period. More and more though, I either had the new autos I needed already, they weren't for sale on COMC or they were too spendy. COMC and the sellers were positioning themselves out of me being a customer, hand in hand! Now with ebay's standard card shipment option, as long as sellers jump on it (which they should if they were smart), cheap cards can be affordable on ebay again. It's not the same as racking up 50 cards for one s/\h fee, but the delay in getting the cards, even if you build it in to your routine, will still cost them some business in the end.

Agreed. Unless it is just something I can't get elsewhere I won't be buying anything on COMC for a while. I won't rule out buying from them again in the future if they sort out the shipping mess though.

 

[Letch77]

I have about 150 cards in my account that I'm waiting to ship (holding out for the return of shipping credit). I used to request a shipment when I'd accumulate 100 cards since that was the "shipping bonus" threshold. Now, I doubt that'll ever return, so I may just have to abandon that idea...they really do seem grossly mismanaged.

 

[Gwynn545]

1. Isn't the COMC guy a member here? or is he too big now for this website? I'd love to hear what he has to say.
2. I have bought from EBAY seller COMC three times since December, and have gotten each within a few days. I never would have known there was a shipping problem. Guess I'm just lucky.
3. If a company like PSA (and Topps) is having supply/demand/overload issues, it makes sense that a company like COMC is having similar issues... not that it helps with anyone's problems, it is more just a statement of the hobby

 

[phillyfan0417]

2. I have bought from EBAY seller COMC three times since December, and have gotten each within a few days. I never would have known there was a shipping problem. Guess I'm just lucky.

This is why eBay stands the test of time...their model is one that assures sellers have to ship quickly and that transactions finish timely...they charge alot but give you access to millions of buyers...COMC has no choice but to focus on eBay sales.

 

[JVHaste]

2. I have bought from EBAY seller COMC three times since December, and have gotten each within a few days. I never would have known there was a shipping problem. Guess I'm just lucky.

Perhaps its because COMC HQ is in Redmond and you're in Seattle?

They really should give priority to locals because we have to pay an extra tax each time, it ate all the (would-be) savings over doing the same transactions elsewhere.

 

[mrmopar]

They need a free local pick up option! Save resources while we locals get our cards faster.

Update! I did notice that the shipment was "released" yesterday and there is a tracking number. Let's see how long it takes to get it. I am only a short drive to the North from COMC headquarters. It should be here Saturday, but guessing it will be next week. They still never responded to my emails. I doubt this has anything to do with the fuss I am putting online, probably just my random time finally came up.

Tracking showed it starting in Auburn (weird) yesterday and has now made it's way to Kent.

 

[banjar]

I forgot about him. What happened to JamesfromCOMC, or whatever his name was?

I am a hard core PC'er. So if COMC has some rare card I need, and it isn't wildly overpriced by a delusional seller, yes I will buy it. But ultimately COMC is simply another internet source that I use to build my collection. And at this point, given the choice, I will absolutely buy from other outlets, even if it costs a bit more. I am absolutely sick of COMC's excuses for their atrocious management.

It's not like COMC is a restaurant, or a movie theater, or a bowling alley, where social distancing etc. has really impacted their ability to do business. They are a sports card consignment house where they receive cards, scan them, store them, and ship them. So there is absolutely no excuse for their 3 month turnaround time. I bought a gable vent from a supplier in Idaho yesterday - which requires people to assemble and ship - and the damn thing was in the mail the next day.

So yes, a year ago when all this covid **** started coming down, I could give them some leeway on filling orders. It was tough, and I get it. But here we are, 13 months later, and they still haven't gotten their act together? I'm sorry, but no. Especially when you can somehow find time to ship Ebay orders in a day or two. COMC is truly a case study in how not to run a business.

COMC is the Colorado Rockies of the sportscard business world. As long as that cash keeps rolling in, it just doesn't matter if they perform.

 

[K34PuckettAddict]

I bought a new Puckett from COMC that popped up on eBay in the beginning of the month. However for the first time ever, I jumped over to COMC and bought the card there instead of eBay. The shipping date is listed as August 8th, purchased April 9. I should have just ended it via eBay and I would have it already... blah


Sent from my iPhone using Freedom Card Board mobile app

 

[Dilferules]

Perhaps its because COMC HQ is in Redmond and you're in Seattle?

That's definitely not it since mrmopar and me are also in the Seattle area and we have been waiting forever for shipments. But once the stuff actually ships I do usually receive it the next day.

They need a free local pick up option! Save resources while we locals get our cards faster.

Update! I did notice that the shipment was "released" yesterday and there is a tracking number. Let's see how long it takes to get it. I am only a short drive to the North from COMC headquarters. It should be here Saturday, but guessing it will be next week. They still never responded to my emails. I doubt this has anything to do with the fuss I am putting online, probably just my random time finally came up.

Tracking showed it starting in Auburn (weird) yesterday and has now made it's way to Kent.

Glad your stuff has finally shipped! Maybe mine will follow in a week or two. I believe my last shipment came from Auburn as well, I know they have facilities down here. I should pop over and help them pull my cards.