PCGS Turnaround Times

While I have no doubt that there are unreasonable PCGS customers who start to complain if their coins haven't been shipped back to them within a week of PCGS receiving them, I think it is safe to say that most people simply expect PCGS to uphold their end of the agreement.

As trout mentioned, the turnaround times are clearly printed on the submission forms. If you pay more you get faster service.

The 25 coins I mentioned above were submitted for 'economy' service, which has a stated turnaround time of 20-30 business days.

I've been around long enough to know that when a business (or person) gives a time frame, you can generally expect the actual delay to be closer to the longer end of the range. So I was expecting the turnaround to be close to 30 days, maybe even a day or 2 over, but 40 days is excessive.

Then, to add insult to injury, the secure service we had requested was not done, so all 25 coins (which were already 2 weeks late) had to be returned -- which was very disappointing and cost us both time and money.

As of today it has been a full 15 weeks since PCGS first received our coins (5 submissions/59 total) and they still have 20 of them that are "In Process".

Most customers understand that wait times will fluctuate -- I assumed that was accounted for with the 20-30 day (4 to 6 week) turnaround time. If turnaround times can be as long as 6 months (as Conder said) then PCGS should either:

a) List the turnaround time as "approximately 20 to 120 business days", or

b) List the "typical" turnaround time as "approximately 20 to 40 business days" and then give a link where customers can go to see the actual current turnaround time -- so they will have a realistic expectation.

Trout asks a good question:

"PCGS list their turnaround times and I know that these are just "Estimates" But as we have to pay more to get things done faster why isn't there a provision for a "Discount" if the submission takes longer than the listed turnaround times."

That is, in fact, how many contracts are written -- the job will be done by [date]. If job is not complete by [date] there will be a [x% per day] discount applied.

Submitted my order - turnaround times quoted as 26 business days - after 38 b.ds. contacted the CSR who checked and found no problem and said the order should be graded very soon. Later that week the turnaround times actually dropped to 24 b.ds.

Well it is now 48 b.ds and still not done .Turnaround times changed this week to 35 b.ds.

Now as I pointed out to the CSR I don't mind waiting if I know how long something will take, but when you advertise a timeframe there is an expectation that this will be met give or take a few days.
PCGS create their own problem here - it is not the impatient customer but their service - if they advertise a timeframe then they should be able to deliver - otherwise change the timeframe to something more realistic - or is this because they don't want to put customers off when they see the long wait periods.

I don't know anyone who enjoys waiting and bogus turnaround times create anticipation and constant disappointment once the advertised period is met then exceeded by more than just a few days.

Nothing has change here going by the experience of others on this thread - not good enough.

Simple truth: PCGS can do what they please because they have only one meaningful competitor, who acts in exactly the same way.