Originally Posted by
knapp40
Posted on Facebook for all the good it will do.
Dear DCBS & IST,
I am writing this letter to express my love of comics, the industry, and my concern of what is currently happening on Instocktrades.com on Tuesday afternoons at 12PM EST, 3PM PST.
Firstly, I want to thank you for all of the many years of service and endless entertainment. You provide quality service at an unbeatable price. I also want to note that these are indeed extraordinary times and circumstances that we’re all living in. People have lost jobs, livelihoods, careers, family members, homes, etc. I’m not minimizing traumatic experiences or these awful events. You’ve been able to stay open in spite of this current pandemic, thank you!
I do want to acknowledge that you’ve addressed issues regarding the ongoing situation with a disclaimer on your web page about shipping, and volume of emails. That being said, I feel that the situation has reached a tipping point in terms of my patience and the understanding of the community at large.
I, (and I know of dozens of others) have waited over a month for books to ship. I’m not talking about USP, USPS, or FedEx, I’m talking about the amount of time you take to get the orders to the shipping service. I see my books either waiting to be shipped, or have been picked and scanned and not shipped for weeks at a time. This to me is completely unacceptable because you’re literally “sitting” on items that I have paid for a month or longer. I then send an email to ask, “why” or “what the status” of something is and I do not receive a response.
This is unprofessional, and extremely poor business practice since your website is the primary way that your business communicates and disseminates information about goods to the general public, and when items ship. The community isn’t receiving information from you, and your patrons aren’t being communicated with, by you. It is extremely concerning that people would spend hundreds of dollars worth of goods only to be ignored by the company that they just gave money to. Communication to the customer is key!
What is worse is when orders that are created are then, later, canceled. Sometimes weeks go by before you communicate that you don’t have said book. This is awful, because in that time I would’ve found a different company that has that book and I would’ve been able to buy that before it is completely gone, or OOP (out of print). Refunds are all well and good, but not when you’re still sitting on money with customers not getting what they paid for! This needs to speed up!
I also feel as though the web site has become unusable on Tuesday afternoons, with error messages and loading timeouts. It took me 40 minutes to get the books that I wanted to purchase and complete my order. The increased demand of new releases should’ve been anticipated, and prepared for. It was not, and is an ongoing issue.
I know that you’re (hopefully) following CDC guidelines, and practicing social distancing. Other companies have adapted to add more shifts so all workers aren’t there at the same time, or hired more people to answer emails and inquiries - this can be done remotely. If it’s a supply chain issue talk to Diamond, Lunar, or UCS Distributors and collaborate on some kind of a work around. If it’s a website traffic issue, (which I work in IT and I can tell you it is), get a new server!
You go on record stating, “You’ve more business than you know what to do with”, and yet don’t take steps to address that. This is frustrating! Please note that large discounts don’t translate to “best customer services”, nor does it always mean that I, or other comic book collectors, will always blithely use your service just because of “cheap prices”.
I love IST. I love the comic book community. I love reading comics and I love the service I (used to) get from IST. I always want to be able to buy my books from IST or DCBS, and I hope that things are soon fixed so I still can! Thank you for your time, and service that you’ve provided for us all!
Best,
Adam