PSA - why?!?!
 

OK, I know everyone has had their issues with the Grading Companies at one point or another, so this is no different. Just had to vent on something I thought was a no-brainer, but somehow PSA always seems to come up with their go-to play of "too bad, if you don't like it - stick it, we don't need you" attitude.

I was with them years ago for a year, but everything was about "can't do". Submit cards of different era on same form - "can't do". Have two orders done and ready to be shipped same time - wow, great, can you combine them..? "Can't do". They even sent my order to someone else one time, took forever to get it straightened out, never apologized - they just gave me 2 day shipping at regular rates next order. Wow, thanks - I had always used the 45 day turn-around, so why would I care about that..?!

Chicago Sun Times show last month I decided to throw down one more time and have them grade 15 cards I did the $175 for 15 and asked about not having cards come back with qualifiers and to slab/authenticate any cards they deemed altered for any reason. This time it was "no problem" instead of "can't do" - wow! Their Cust Rep said "just note in on the order form". Great, done - noted plain as day!

So to no real surprise I get my cards back - 2 with qualifiers and 2 unslabbed deemed altered. Wonderful - now they're "can't read"

I wrote to Cust Svc. advising of this and just asking for 4 vouchers on future submissions. No big deal, easy enough..? 3 Days later - response "what happened..", "what are you looking for..?", then "can you give us the order number" (I had originally listed that in the subject line along with my name, address and all information about the order). Then "we'll need to look into it", finally yesterday - "we can adjust one card, not the other.." (and no reason why) and nothing on the Authentics unslabbed. In addition, there was this long 4 step process to resubmit, "mechanical error", separate shipment, separate order form, then call for a voucher for shipping, etc.

Are you kidding me..? :confused: What the hell is wrong with you people..?! Just fix the problem!! Is all this easier than just saying mia culpa and giving me 4 vouchers for the next time..?! Never a "gee, sorry", "our mistake", "sorry for your inconvenience.." .. instead a week of jerking around, back and forth, stupid questions and jump through an amazing set of hoops so we can regrade one card and ignore the rest..?!

PSA's amazing lack or attention or Customer Service is enough for even well known Hall-Of-Shamers like Comcast to be embarrassed over! It's especially polarizing when SGC and Beckett have been nothing but "can do" and "how can we help" each and every time.

I thought I'd try PSA one more time - pony up the $175 and give it another try. Like betting on a lame horse - total losing experience. I told them to keep the $175 "member fee" - I don't want any part of it anymore.

PS - what I did get graded was a joke. Now I know many whine about their cards being undergraded and I'm no exception :D .. but I was so PO'd with these, I just said screw it and sold most of the cards here - a couple of you who received them got back to me and said they were the nicest for the grade you had ever seen, and one of you posted in the pick-up thread!

Anyway, thanks for the opportunity vent :)

PSA cards being undergraded... now that's something I've never read on this board before. ;)

I'm not surprised about the customer service story here even though I still still with PSA for the bulk of my submissions. It can be very frustrating. I often check my submission progress online daily. Once the grades pop, I need to check it before they ship it out. I've had a couple of times when I wrote on the form to slab Authentic, but they didn't. I had to talk to customer service, and after I did, they agreed to slab the cards as Authentic. This is even after I wrote I wanted all cards slabbed if possible.

With qualifiers, it could be screwup, which wouldn't be surprising. However, some qualifiers cannot be removed. For example, PSA will remove OC qualifier (but lower the number grade), but cannot remove other qualifiers like MK (marks) or MC (miscut).

The cannot mix orders has always annoyed me to no end. Saying that I've always been able to squeeze one postcard size card into a regular card size order every now and then, and they've processed the order still, but gave me a warning that they're doing this a complimentary service, but may not allow it in the future.

SGC has always been better than PSA in a lot of important ways including (1) consistent grading (2) allowing mixed size orders (3) higher declared value for the lowest service level <$250 vs $100> and (4) faster turnaround at the lowest service level <30 business days vs 45 busines days>. Also for turnaround, SGC consistently beats PSA is finishing the order in that time or less. I've waited for some PSA orders FOREVER.

The reasons I end up sticking w/ PSA more often are that (1) the Registry is simply better, and they are constantly improving it unlike SGC < I asked months ago on the SGC BB that the SGC Set Registry Ruth Master Set be updated since it only included cards from 1916-~1923, and it's never been updated, so I just gave up and have been crossing cards to PSA>, (2) PSA specials at the low end can be cheaper <$5 vs $6>, and (3) on average, I've found that PSA cards sell for slightly higher prices. Again, this isn't true for all cases, and I plan to use PSA and SGC regularly in the future. (I also use Beckett too for oversized premiums that PSA or SGC can't handle, and GAI for wrappers.)

Gary- agree with almost everything you mention but would only add that although PSA may undergrade, when it comes to pre-war caramel cards, SGC is by far the toughest and uber under grader. ;)

The truth is that the coulple large grading companies feel as though you don't have much of a choice other than their service.

This is one of the reasons tons of smaller grading companies are popping up, and some with registries as good as PSA

Please tell me who these other smaller grading companies are. I mean what choice does the average collector have to get cards graded other than PSA, Beckett or a diluted SGC due to association with JSA?

Matt

My bet is that the answer will be: http://www.verisleeve.com/

But it's just a hunch:

http://www.net54baseball.com/showthr...ght=verisleeve

My guess was gonna be the GMA grade your own services.

http://gmagrading.com/grade-your-own/