Packaging, Shipping, Refunds and Replacements - Share your Experiences!

[mars]

They obviously aren't going to give you any money, but issuing an apology is not all they'll do.

[bob fett]

Like you I ordered Hellboy and Fear Agent. I emailed IST and was told that they had to re-order the books from their distributor. B/C of the move they gave me a choice of a refund , or the option to wait. I think after today things should go back to normal.

If you are still concerned here is the link to email here customer.service@instocktrades.com. They always get back to you within the day

I received notification today that one of two orders has shipped.Thanks for the info.

[RandomHero]

hey guys, as I know that you are fellow collected edition owners as well and you are my primary demographic to sell books to I need some help. I've bought many books off ebay and other sites and being a long time purchaser, but not a seller. I am finally looking to sell on ebay and would like any tips or preferences to ship dc and marvel OOP omnibuses. I have some diamond retail shipping boxes and padding from previous IST orders and wondering if you think that will suffice. Also looking to only ship in the United States to avoid hassle. Any tips or preferences will be very welcomed, and which company should I ship through? USPS, UPS, FedEx?
Thanks again,
Cameron

[NZ_InFerno]

hey guys, as I know that you are fellow collected edition owners as well and you are my primary demographic to sell books to I need some help. I've bought many books off ebay and other sites and being a long time purchaser, but not a seller. I am finally looking to sell on ebay and would like any tips or preferences to ship dc and marvel OOP omnibuses. I have some diamond retail shipping boxes and padding from previous IST orders and wondering if you think that will suffice. Also looking to only ship in the United States to avoid hassle. Any tips or preferences will be very welcomed, and which company should I ship through? USPS, UPS, FedEx?
Thanks again,
Cameron

As far as packaging goes, pack them as you would like to receive them. The more expensive the book, the better the packaging.

[mars]

FedEx is the only carrier I have strong feelings about, and they aren't good. But it's all from experiences where I was the one receiving a package. Whoever you use, I would suggest getting tracking and verification.

As for packaging, make sure the items don't move around. It's probably not a big deal with that IST packing foam, but if you run out it can be. Other than IST's foam, the best packing I ever received just had the books in a plastic shopping bag with the empty space in the box stuffed with old newspaper. Not as pretty as IST, but it did the job.

[aquitaine]

hey guys, as I know that you are fellow collected edition owners as well and you are my primary demographic to sell books to I need some help. I've bought many books off ebay and other sites and being a long time purchaser, but not a seller. I am finally looking to sell on ebay and would like any tips or preferences to ship dc and marvel OOP omnibuses. I have some diamond retail shipping boxes and padding from previous IST orders and wondering if you think that will suffice. Also looking to only ship in the United States to avoid hassle. Any tips or preferences will be very welcomed, and which company should I ship through? USPS, UPS, FedEx?
Thanks again,
Cameron

Oh joy, another seller refusing to ship outside the US, not even to Canada. FML, no wonder we have no damn choices up here.

[mars]

Placed another couple orders with CGN through Amazon on the 27th. Delivery window is Sep 4-19, but one of them arrived today. Once again, the packaging is top-notch. If anybody is interested, I can post pics of what the packaging is like.

[zaboraviti]

something has happened to Barnes & Noble. as i already said, i ordered twice from them and both times they sent the package via Brokers Worldwide aka Asendia USA, which took forever. going against my resolution never to order from them again, i still ordered the second Hellboy Library Edition just before the Labor Day. they shipped on Sept.2 and its UPS Worldwide Express! i mean, i went for the cheapest shipping option as usual and was prepared to wait for a month at least. i don't know how it goes from there, but the tracking info says the package is already in Germany and estimated delivery date is Sept.5. is there such thing as a Labor Day miracle? if there is, i'll try not to be tempted till the next year

[rightsuperhero]

I just recently got burned bad a second time after ordering from comiccollectorlive.com. After ordering my comic I repeatedly e-mailed the store to check the status because I noticed that it hadn't shipped. Finally I filed a claim with paypal. The next day the store (this website is a collection of stores btw) reversed my credit and issued a refund minus $1.48 of the $15.25 that i originally paid. The store gave me a refund of $13.77. Why didn't the store give me a full refund I have no idea because they're not answering my e-mails or even paypal's.

[NZ_InFerno]

^ Don't you pay a certain amount to send money between people on Paypal? A gift tax or some other charge? Perhaps they are set up as individuals rather than businesses, thus only refunded the amount they received from paypal rather than the amount you paid through paypal.

Got Fury Max OHC from Amazon US today, turned up mint in a nice solid cardboard wrapper.

[Ivan P91]

Yeah with PayPal even though it is technically a 'refund', you still get slugged the PayPal fees, which is why you didn't receive the full amount back.

[rac shade]

I use book depository only because on the odd occasion that a book is damaged they'll send a replacement but I wish we had an IST or something similar here in the UK. It's disappointing to hear so many people accepting damaged books or partial refunds, companies would be more inclined to review their packaging if more people sent back damaged books. You pay for a book in perfect condition, accepting anything less just adds to the problem IMO.

[mars]

I've never gotten a book I felt was damaged enough to warrant a return, but seeing some of the stuff people here have experienced and knowing Amazon always just throws my omnis in an oversized and otherwise empty box made me feel it was just a matter of time until I had a similar situation. So now I'm strictly CGN and IST for omnis.

[legion_quest]

I didn't see this thread, so I've also posted this and my original post over the in the general Marvel Omnibus thread. Thought I'd post it here as well seen as I happened to see there was actually a thread for this sort of thing:

I posted a few days ago about an issue I'm having with Amazon UK's ability to provide me with a good copy of Uncanny X-Force. My replacement arrived today and I was left just as annoyed as the same errors on the previous volume were present again. I have sent them a second email and am pushing my luck quite a bit, but I am genuinely annoyed:

Dear Amazon,

My replacement order outlined below arrived today. I attach an image of the replacement order which clearly shows another large dent to the top of the spine of the book and once again what appears to be a printing error on this sleeve.

Having spoken to others who own this book they assure me that this is not standard and not something present on their copies. As such, I can only assume that Amazon UK has been supplied with shoddy copies.

This is simply not acceptable to me. I have now had two copies of this book and both have had the same defects, following on from previous similar issues with another order for a large Marvel omnibus. I am a collector, I am not going to accept merchandise at the price of these books that is not in pristine condition.

I now fully expect you to send me a third copy of the book and want your assurance that this will not happen again and that a message will be sent to whomever it needs to be sent to in your picking/dispatch team to make sure they are not sending out damage and faulty printed items.

In the mean time, I fully expect to be recompensed for my wasted time and the inconvenience of now having to take another book for return. At this stage you should be considering giving me the book gratis and offering me a full refund because frankly I am shocked with the utter disregard Amazon appears to have for its customers of these high end collectable volumes.

I await your assurances around my third copy and the matter of my personal inconvenience.

Here is the image:

[mars]

Accidentally posted this in the Marvel thread.

I ordered the Lee/Kirby Avengers omni from newbury_comics via Amazon's Marketplace. It was scheduled to arrive between the eighth and twenty-third, but arrived today. The book was wrapped three times with bubble wrap (taped down so it didn't slide off) and there were a bunch of those airbags that Amazon uses sometimes (these were actually inflated, though). Book wasn't damaged at all.