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Sometimes I have to shake my head at the poor quality of service my LCS provides. In the past I have talked at length about how my experience with my LCS started out great when I got back into comics. Then as time wore on I have voiced concerns about how that service just seemed to deteriorate. At the time my pull list hovered around the 60 title range which meant that every month they got a nice chunk of my paycheck. For that I was not asking more than that they actually get the books in that I had on my list and that they provided me with books that had no damage. It got to the point where every week books from my list seem to always be missing (at least two or three books every week) or I would get books with damage to them (damage to the pages or covers normally being bent).

I always tried my best to make sure everyone was on the same page and would not only email them my pull list again to confirm that everything matched up..but I would also hand them a print copy and ask them if they had received my email. This was always presented in a way to be as helpful as I could to them (as I stated my list was around the 60 tittle range so mistakes are bound to happen). Things would get back on track for a month or two then books would start to go missing again. It got to the point where they misses a tittle four months in a row and didn't even bother to try and get me copies of the books they missed.

At that point I yanked 99% of my subscriptions from them leaving only one or two independent titles that they had been consistently reliable on. The rest of the titles went to a monthly subscription service through one of the CCL stores I was a regular customer of. Who might I add has always provided the sort of service, communication and always puts forth the effort to make any mistakes or damages right. I get better service from an out of state mail order service than I do from the guy that I had been buying comics from since I was in middle school (I am not in my mid 30's so you can do the math).

Things have gotten so bad with the LCS either not having boards for months at a time or from conflicting stories about why the two titles I get from them are either always late or short shipped. The final straw came when they lied to my face about why a tittle has not shown up. At first they told me the issue was missing due to a shortage issue with Diamond. Two weeks later I was told it was on order. Two weeks after that they told me the the issue in question had not been printed/released yet.

Now mind you when they told me this the title had already been for sale on CCL the entire time I had personally seen it in a store on the day of its release. If I had know then the crock of *bleeeeeeeeeeeep* I was going to go through I would have picked it up. The only reason I had not is because I was under the false belief that my copy was sitting in my slot at the LCS because they had yet to not get me a copy of this book.

So now I find out that all my questions and attempts to help by forwarding them the Diamond order number for the book and giving them links not only to the CCL library entry for the book but links to the publishers release information has led to them acting like children and throwing a temper tantrum.

It seems they did not like being caught in their lie. They did not think that I would pay attention to detail (or actually keep emails) and when I referenced said communications my last conversation with the owner of the store (he admitted his mistake and apologized profusely) I thought it was all taken care of. Having left the store being told I would have the issues in question with in two weeks. I gave them three before I went back to the store and found out that not only had they canceled my subscriptions..but they had made no effort to get the books. If I had been paying better attention to Facebook I would have noticed that the store's page as well as the owners page are no longer among my friends list. I later found out that shortly after I left the store after the "heart felt apology" I was removed because I am a pain in the ass. The mutual friend that told me this is also a customer of the store and is having the same sort of issues at this time.

So at this point I am glad I never have to go into that store again. I am just flabbergasted that someone who complains about how his business is struggling would treat any customer this way. Especially one that is as patient as I have been. Am I wrong in thinking this? If any of the CCL stores that I interact with could give me some feed back that would be great.

Damn - it sounds like they're starting to follow the All C's Collectibles business model.
That sucks dude, I hope you can find a good LCS or at least a great online source for your monthly funny book fix.

If you still have your CCL subscription service then give him all your business. If not, contact me and I'll take care of you.

I still have my CCL service. He has been fantastic. It is sad that someone that I will never meet in person because he is several states away..treats me better than a person I have known and had done business with for most of my life. I can't say enough how much I appreciate the fact that he not only answer his emails but he is helpful and wants feed back to make sure that his customers are happy.

This guy sounds like another business owner that really shouldn't be in business. I've found that across the spectrum, many businesses, regardless of what they sell or service they provide are becoming lazy.

(large rant removed)

Sorry to hear you had such crappy experience, dump him for good and go where someone appreciates your business.

Excellent advice.
It took me a long time to get it through my thick head, but once I did my comic buying experience has improved exponentially and collecting has become fun again instead of something I dread each week.

The stories I could tell about this guy and how at times it surprised me just how much he does not get it. Case in point..remember when the death of Johnny Storm issue of Fantastic Four came out? He only ordered enough to cover his subscription customers. He made fun of people that walked in off the street looking for it. I easily remember at least 10 sales he could have made just while I was there that day to pick up my books. 10 sales that would have put $ into his pocket. Yet he chooses to skip chances like this or poke fun at potential new customers.

I'm starting to see a trend here, and i'm not trying to crap on LCS here but i keep hearing this story all over the web. Same story different store, this story reminds me of Amazing Spider-man #583(the last minute Obama cover) i had a subscription starting at #533 when this book came out i was told i had to pay $15 and they were all spoken for anyway so i would have to wait (i had a subscription) so i had to settle for a 3rd printing a couple weeks later. Needless to say not long after i started an online pull instead. Not to mention my books were hardly ever pulled or the wrong comics in my bag. It was really frustrating. I understand people have a lot going on with owning a store, but if you offer a service i expect it to be done professionally.

That is what i am talking about. You should at the least be able to properly order books for your subscription customers or why bother to offer that service.

I have the same problem at my LCS. Sometimes I just dont get books at all. Its super annoying but it is the only store i can drive to weekly, so I have to deal with it. Although, when I am missing a book, I use it as an opportunity to visit a store that I dont regularly go to.

I guess I'm the lucky one - my LCS is super reliable about subscriptions. I think I've had one missing issue (which may have been my fault) in 3 years. I've been going to them for almost 20 years now and usually would pull from the new comics wall. If it wasn't there, I'd ask and they'd find it for me the next week.

Wow, if I didn't know any better, I'd swear we shop at the same store. My LCS is fantastic; which is why I haven't made the switch to an online subscription service (although CCL does get about 98% of my back issue business). The mistakes have been few and far, and the ones that have been made were corrected quickly.

So I was double checking my Mind the Gap #2s because I purchased them about two weeks after coming out, hoping I got the recalled version. I asked my LCS owner and he said he knew they were recalled but he was still gonna sell them at cover price. He lied right to me probably knowing that they weren't the recalled versions. He also said the correct version wasn't going to be out until issue #3 was released, but I just looked that up and the week I got my issues was the same week the corrected #2s were released. So glad, I dropped my subscription service there.

I'm not quite sure what it is with comic book stores and making the assumption that they're the only place to buy books. :P

I would rather go to my LCS, but when you go there to by 3 or 4 books with a card and not cash, you become an intruder in there card shop/e-bay store, enough is enough. Online store it is. Especially when its the only store in 40 miles.

That's what i mean, though. People seem to think that customer service can take a back seat, because they don't think that people will go elsewhere.

For example, i greatly appreciate my local shop taking the time each week to pull my list into my box. Not so much that sometimes they have marks in them or corner impacts. But that's okay cause i check it over and replace off the shelves...

My not so local store... Employees are all rude as hell, and they seem to think i should be honored to be there... Not to mention they gave up our gaming night to a bunch of kids.... No wonder we don't spend money there. You tell us we have the gaming area, but then cram us with kids playing an entirely different thing? No...

Sorry, I'm ranting. But yeah... Customer service is why you should go to a shop. If you're not getting the service, why wouldn't you just buy online?

This was a very interesting topic. Thank you for sharing it.

I do not buy from a local shop, though there are several in the area I travel too and from my regular job.

In the past year, I have stopped at each of them, and browsed the selections of new comics on there racks. There are so many out I find it amazing. Some of the stores stock lots of new issues, but very few back issues. Others have lots of back issues.

I have looked into PULL services with most of them, but found the discount not enough for my own budget. It is my experience that waiting and buying online saves me tons of cash, and I get more comics for it.

Ihave found that most new items sell online at a minimum of half cover price. Many times less. And, you get bags and baords with them too. Not in the shops.

But getting back to the stores, only one store of the 6 I can go to, makes it a point to talk to you. The rest of the staff in there are watching TV or playing a game, and you are interupting them. They come over to RING YOU OUT THOUGH. You ask them if they have a book, and they may look for it for you, but you are still bothering them.

Personally, I would be very interested in a PULL TYPE service if I could get the rare variants and be guaranteed them. But it seems many shops do not get many variants, except the 1/10 types.

Most online comic shops that have subscriptions services don't offer a variant subscription service. They only list them for sale once they are received and a few others will let you preorder but the discounts are maybe 15% off suggest retail for the variant. The lucky ones are in a few larger cities where a few of the shops will sale variants at cover price to their pull service customers, but I still don't think they are guaranteed a copy.