UPDATE: We’re only human. But you could have fixed this easily. (MyComicShop.com)

UPDATE!

This was a GREAT thing to wake up to today! And my faith is restored in the folks at MyComicShop.com! Check out the message I got from them today:

I’m sorry for the difficulty you had with our customer service department regarding this issue. Once we got in this morning we had a meeting regarding our policy on wrong items and have decided to change it so that this sort of thing doesn’t happen. From now on, if you receive an incorrectly labeled item, you will be credited for the cost of the book as well as the cost of basic shipping so that you’ll be able to reorder the item with no additional charge. I’ve gone ahead and sent you out a copy of issue 12 so that you can continue your run. Happy reading!

As I said, it’s when a company makes a mistake; in that moment, how their customer service will be determined; and this shows, that they do care, and they do listen! Thank you again, MyComicShop.com!

ORIGINAL POST:
So maybe because it was Monday when I found this out; and no one’s ever happy on a Monday, right? But this really bugs me. So, lately, I have been re-ordering a bunch of older comics, typically from the 80’s, that I remember reading in my youth. Comics, that to me, had left an impression – some good, some bad – some, because it made me laugh. I typically get these comics from my favorite local comic shop, Southern California Comics, but even their vast stock doesn’t always have what I look for. So when that happens, I turn to the one place, I have found to be pretty reliable – MyComicShop.com – heck, I even inquired with them and made a partner thing (which, if you order comics from their site using our link over to the right, we get a small percentage of credit from your total sales, which helps out). Well, after this post, you may or may not wish to order from them – so let me make one thing clear – I have ordered from them many times before and never had an issue. The comics always come bagged and boarded, in the condition/grade I ordered them in.

But we’re all human. Even the folks who work at MyComicShop.com – and thus, they’re bound to make an error.

So there I was, pretty much caught up on all my retro comic reading, and all of my new comic reading; when I thought, “What should I pick up next for some retro reading?” I took a journey through my memory and became 11 years old or so, when I suddenly remember an iconic cover with Doctor Fate and Specter fighting on a cover… I closed my eyes, concentrated, and it came to me. All Star Squadron. I went onto MyComicShop.com and saw that they had all of them – and for very reasonably price (as most comics from the 80’s generally are). So I ordered #1 through #30. They, along with Team America #1 through #12 (who remembers them?) arrived after $60 and some change was spent between all the books and shipping. I read through Team America first, and it was just like I remembered; overly campy and overly silly situations, but still, over all, a fun trip down memory lane.

Then I began reading All Star Squadron, I realized pretty early on, that I had not read these earlier issues, but was enjoying them; even though they were written in the fashion of the 1960’s comics, with respect to dialogue, costumes, campy’ness, and the general story dealing with World War II. I read all the way through issue #11, then picked up issue #12, or what I thought was #12 – and was confused as to what was going on. Different members, different costumes, what happened to the events at the end of #11? Then I looked at the cover and saw that it said “#21.” Thinking I must have put that in the wrong order, I went and grabbed #21 (which I thought must have been #12) – only to find, it had the same cover. So someone at MyComicShop.com had mistakenly labelled #21 as #12.

Here, take a look:
No problem, I told myself. We’re all human. We all make mistakes.

So I wrote them a letter, explained what had happened – and even attached the above photo so they could see what I mean by the mix-up of giving me two #21’s because someone at their store mislabeled the issue.

They kindly wrote back (and pretty promptly, I might add) –

We apologize for the mistake. Your account has been credited for the book. Please do not worry about returning the other item.

So I kindly replied back:

The problem is I still need issue #12. I would rather return the incorrect one and get the correct issue. And ideally not have to pay for S&H again, since that’s more than the cost of the issue.

And so they replied back with:

We’re sorry, but we do not ship replacements. If you do not plan on placing any further order in which you would use the credit to include the book, you may request a refund.

Now my first thought is – Wait a minute, this isn’t a replacement. You shipped me the wrong comic!

I admit, I was a little annoyed. So I replied back:

So because someone there – labelled issue #21 as #12 on the sticker and sent that to me – I am stuck with an issue I didn’t need – due to an error on MyComicShop’s behalf? I am thankful for the refund, but would rather have the correct issue – considering I ordered issue #1 – 30 of the series to read. I mean, I could understand if _I_ had accidentally ordered #21 twice – then it’s on me. But I didn’t. I ordered #12. And someone at MyComicShop.com – slapped a #12 sticker on issue #21. So now I am without something I ordered. And if I want it – I will need to order just that issue, and pay $6 for shipping (which is two or three times the worth of the issue) to “fix” a mistake by someone who did inventory at MyComicShop.com – hardly seems fair or good customer service.

Having clearly read my email, they replied back with:

If you do not plan on placing any further orders in which you would use the credit to include the book, you may request a refund for the amount instead.

This was going nowhere; so I opted for the refund (a whole 2 bucks). I feel like this was some pretty poor customer service. An error on their behalf and they don’t make the easiest effort of correcting this (simply sending All Star Squadron #12 to me). As I said, I was more than willing to send back the extra #21 they had given me. (Probably due to it’s low value they were not concerned about getting it sent back to them – this was, after all, no New Mutants #98 or something, where they’d never say, “Oh, just keep the extra.”)

While I have had, as I said, repeated past success with them; the true test of a company, and it’s customer service, is when it does something in error and how it reacts to fix that error. To me, this was a very poor example of customer service, and makes me hesitant of using them going forward.