PCGS Turnaround Times

My last submission took 53 working days.
I won't be sending any more coins to PCGS until when or IF they can get their act back together.
These long delays, wrongly attributed coins and some of the shaky grades of late are making this TPG an unviable option for me at the moment.

my submission to NGC arrived there 2 days ago, It will be interesting to see how they perform, They are a lot less expensive than PCGS as well.

I'm still waiting for a reply from the CSR at PCGS who I emailed days ago...

Looks like we may be using NGC for all future grading.

We initially went with PCGS because we had been using the resources at their website and I felt like since the price difference wasn't that great (or at least did not seem to be at that time) we might as well give them our business.

That loyalty only goes so far though. I can understand the occasional glitch or slight delay, but this Monday will be 50 business days since they received our submissions, and we still have no word on one of them.

Now we're told the "mechanical error" (no secure service photos on a submission of 25 coins) may take 2 months (or longer?) on top of that.

It seems that PCGS may be a 'victim of their own success'.

You may die of old age waiting for a reply to an email from PCGS. They don't have a very good reputation for replying to emails. You want information for what customer service they have, you'd better call. You may not get a satisfactory answer but at least you will get to talk to some one.

I ended up dealing with David talk the customer service Manager and this Bloke did get things done and answered my emails.
Everyone else at the customer support that I emailed or talked to on the phone were pretty much useless and was a wast of time and effort

Unfortunately, we now have a second 'mechanical error'.

After waiting fifty (50) business days, we finally received our last submission (5 of 5). We requested -- and were charged for -- Secure Service but there are no images available on the PCGS website.

I have to say, I've never seen a reputable company deteriorate this badly in such a short period of time.

I have emailed the CSR I've been communicating with but do not expect a reply.

I will call her tomorrow.

Thanks basebal21, that's helpful.

The CSR did reply to my email. She said:

"The images can take up to a week to upload..."

That was the first time I'd heard that.

With our first 3 submissions (of 5 total) the photos were available before the coins left PCGS. That experience -- and the 'mechanical error' I mentioned above -- led me to believe that there was something wrong when the photos still were not available yesterday (and still are not up as I write this).

This Friday (8/5) will be one week since PCGS shipped this last submission back to us. I'll wait until then and go from there.

Just a quick update:

Although we were charged for 'Secure Service' there are still no images available.

I'm afraid we may have another mechanical error...

Excellent Trout! That's good to know.

I just received the following email yesterday regarding our latest problem with PCGS:

"It appears the images were taken. Our Photo Dept is having computer issues, where the photos are not loading onto the website. Until this is fixed, there won't be any photos posted. We do not have a time frame for the upload yet. I apologize for the delay, we are working to fix the issue."

It is now over a week since we received our last submission back from PCGS. They shipped it on Friday, July 29, and we still do not have Secure Service photos available online -- 7 business days later.

Initially I was told that the photos sometimes take up to a week to be uploaded. Now we are being told they have 'computer issues'.

I realize that 'stuff happens', but after all of the positive things I've read about PCGS, I'm very surprised that a) they are having problems like the ones we've experienced, and b) that any 'mechanical errors' (great euphemism BTW) and/or computer issues are not taken care of much faster than they are.

I was told by a PCGS rep that the submission of 25 coins we had to return for photos to be taken might take up to two (2) months to be returned!

I don't have an MBA, but it seems to me that when a company makes a mistake, they should correct that mistake before they do anything else. A rough analogy might be car repairs. If a person waits a week or two to have their car worked on, does not interfere with the work and allows the shop to use their best judgement regarding replacement parts and procedures, pays in full, and then the new transmission (or whatever) blows up before they even get out of the lot, most decent shops would a) be extremely embarrassed and apologetic, and b) immediately put the car back in the shop to correct the problem.

Just sayin'...

Unless there are drastic changes soon, we'll be going with NGC from here on.