CCL Messageboard

You would think CCL would do something about this. To me this hurts CCL more then anything when people see post like this & nothing happens makes them feel like there back at ebay

Has anyone brought this to the attention of Steve? If not he probably isn't aware the problem is still going on.

I forwarded him this thread about 10 minutes ago.

lol, Just PMed Steve as per suggestions.

Still waiting on refund

You would think if you don't want to be bothered shipping out comics you could at least just approve refunds instead of waiting people wait another 30 days and frustrate them more.

Thank you for messaging me and letting me know. I got notifiction from a CCL member today about this. I can't monitor every part of the forums 24 hours a day, so yes, I need messaged so I can be directed as to where to go.

That being said, I'm taking this extremely seriously. I don't like being jerked around when I'm basically told everything's going to be handled and it's (banned) not. I'll figure out what's going on with this guy real quick.

Here's excerpts from the PM I sent CC today:

Good afternoon - I spoke with you a few weeks back about some concerns people are having with your storefront on CCL - hope you're doing well and things are running a little better for you.

I'm writing you because I am still getting and seeing complaints from customers on service from your store. One gentleman is still waiting for a PAYPAL refund back on an order he made over a month ago and he claims he has gotten no word from you. In addition, I personally asked you to post in the Seller's Thread that was made about your store assuring our membership that you hit a bump in the road and you're still a good seller. As of 12/7/12, this still has not been done.

An attempt was made to reach you via the phone number on your account today but the voice mailbox was full. I can't continue to play customer service rep for your store on CCL. I need you to step up and take care of ALL these problems. Your store account on CCL has been locked until resolution on some of your customers requests as well as the one I asked has been made and until I hear back from you. I'm sorry there's been some things out of your control, however I'm sure you understand my position.

You seem like a good guy, but this is becoming unacceptable. There's still management that needs to be done on your end and I have to protect our name and our site.

I ask that you call me as soon as possible at 615-264-4747 ext 103 or this weekend at 615-354-4797 with an update and an explanation. Otherwise, I'm going to have to shut you down.

Steve Boyd
Director
CCL

FYI: This seller has been locked.

Hey all.
Clearly, I am long overdue to chime in here. I am not one for messageboards so I thank you in advance for reading this with some patience.
My name is Jeff Watkins and I am the owner/founder of Cloud City Comics and Toys.
We have a 3500 sq feet retail store in a shopping mall and an inventory of literally millions of comics, and are proudly celebrating our fifth anniversary in a couple of months.
Our motto is "We don't have customers. We have friends." and among the staff here, the word "customer" is not even allowed to be used.
I do want to explain what has been going on with our CCL store, but I am not passing the buck or making excuses. The blame falls at my feet and I have no misconceptions about that. I just think that you are owed an explanation and want to offer that.
Things were running smoothly on our CCL store until about summer. We had the opportunity to move into a new retail store front that offered us an additional 1200 feet. The thing I was most excited about was the even bigger stockroom because it gave us even better capabilities here on CCL.
I even hired two brand new staffers to handle CCL exclusively. We were seeing some real volume on here and I thought investing in two new workers was sound.
Needless to say, the move was exhaustive and when it rains it pours, literally and figuratively.
We began the process to open a second store in Pennsylvania and took on a brand new store manager.
I broke my left foot doing a home repair and as mentioned previously, we are in New York and Hurricane Sandy hit.
Our damage was barely worth mentioning. A roof leak that damaged our new comics for that week. I don't use it as an excuse. It doesn't qualify.
However, with all that going on I had failed to monitor the staff in charge of maintaining CCL.
I saw packages going out every day so I assumed things were running smoothly.
As you are aware of, and I became aware of, that was not the case.
I have personally taken over CCL in the interim to get all orders rectified and I would like to outline steps I am taking to restore confidence and avoid this in the future:
-The staff that mishandled CCL and these orders have been let go.
-CCL business is being handled by me personally and by the senior most staffer here. We both have decades of experience in comics.
-We have researched the entire half year of orders and everything has either been shipped or refunded.
-We have included an incredible amount of freebies with our apologies on late and recent orders.
-We no longer will be shipping outside of the US. (Sorry Canada. Love Ya.) This way the customs forms and extra time and effort can be directed into the bulk of our orders and this will reduce all delays. Down the road, we may return to shipping internationally but I would rather do 10 things correctly than 30 poorly.
-We only will be shipping to Paypal addresses. We have seen packages returned because the incorrect addresses are provided. The corrective action required to remedy these situations in big volume, takes away from filling other orders.
and finally,
-We want your confidence back. We are apologetic to the small percentage of you that were left dissatisfied. We also want to prove that those cases are not consistent with who we are as people or as a company. So with that being said, we are offering FOR FREE and as an added bonus, a copy of the brand new AVENGERS #1 with the next 30 orders that are eligible for free shipping.

My apologies to CCL. It is a great service to the comics industry as well as fans and collectors and a thank you for the opportunity to correct this and outline our plan of action.

Our store number is (315)449-0003 and we are open 7 days a week.

Jeff Watkins
Cloud City Comics and Toys

Jeff, I applaud you for your candor. That couldn't have been easy to write. I wish you the best of luck in restoring your reputation on this site.
Howie
Hall of Heroes

+1
I too appreciate you owning this and apologizing. That goes a long way (IMO) with customers and potential customers (like myself). I too wish you the best and will be browsing your store inventory to fill in a few gaps in my collection.

+1

Way to address the issues and move forward.

Good luck on getting things back on track!

Mike
Alpha Comics

I won't quote your entire lie "Cloud City" but you are so so full of it.

Funny how your giant explanation was all about how recently a bad employee messed you all up.

Also to everyone who is +1 this pack of lies should know more.

On 6/7 I placed an order with this seller and waited and waited.
on 6/22 I emailed seller to find out why order had not shipped.
on 6/22 "Cloud City" replied would go out that day the 22nd
On 7/6 I contacted Jim because order still had not shipped.
On 7/6 "Cloud City" apologized with exact same excuses above and shipped books out finally.

So silly me didnt remember this crappy seller and I placed another order on 11/5 and as you all know from this thread I never received comics, and they never responded to Paypal insuring the slowest refund possible. This happened to numerous people as well as this thread points out.

Now this seller has come out with the same lame excuses he used in June?

So to comments about how hard it must have been for him to write? Not really he probably just copy/pasted from Junes excuses.

You can review this sellers feedback and see this is not a one time thing, every page has at least one bad comment about being ignored or never receiving package. This goes on for months and months not a one time error.

HORRIBLE SELLER!

This is why the date feedack was left, should be listed next to the feedback. Would really be helpful to discern a short term problem, as opposed to a seller with a long term pattern of poor service.

It's pretty clear that there's not going to be a 100% solution that's going to be keep everyone happy in this particular series of orders with CC.

In this particular case, as I've suggested before, you should let a store's feedback AND behavior dictate if you purchase from them again. Because I "vouched" for CC and told everyone in this thread that CC would address this thread publicly and he didn't (or at least didn't QUICKLY), I voluntarily refunded freakdylan back the amount for the last order in November he made with CC. So if there CAN be a bright side to this story, the seller is aware of our stance on customer service AND I hope people see that CCL does want to try to help resolve problems that arise if we can. The customers last order was refunded and now it's up to buyers to read this and decide from themselves if they should buy from CC.

I really don't want this thread to become one where we beat a dead horse, so it might be best to close this one to further posts, but it will remain up so people can read it and comment.

Well, Cloud City must be doing something right.....he's currently number ten on CCL's Top Seller's list for the month (as of January 3). It's still early, but hey, it's something.

Thanks for noticing Thundercron!
We have been getting a lot of positive feedback and adding new inventory.
Orders are shipped with freebies and we are pleased with the change in staff and logistics.
Onward and upward!

Yeah, I've been checking out the Feedback. The first two pages are all 'Hero', where previously there were multiple 'Mortal' and 'Villain' ratings on every page. Obviously things have changed for the better!

I hate dredging up old negative thread but figured this warranted a new comment.

I recently decided after much debate to give Cloud City Comics another shot because they always seem to have the books I want at the best prices. So placed order and was extremely happy with the speed of shipping and grade of comics, not to mention the prices I wanted.

CloudCity also threw in a few extra comics that was nice surprise but it was something else that made me realize just how hard CCC was trying to make up for its past mistakes. I received a hand written apology about previous bad orders and that was the icing on the cake :).

So good work CloudCityComics you have won me back.......

Awesome!

Thank you for the feedback. We are grateful for the opportunity to prove ourselves.