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 Replies: 12 / Views: 3,769 |
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New Member
United States
2 Posts |
I'm an amateur collector who has been collecting coins for about 30 years. I have a nice collection of raw and slabbed coins. I have 4 raw coins which I wanted to send to a TPGC for several years, but I could never justify the expense of membership for those few coins I really wanted to get slabbed. I had a membership to NGC about 10 years ago for 1 year, but I let it lapse because I didn't have enough raw coins I wanted to submit. These 4 raw coins I had bought during the interval after my NGC membership lapsed.
A jeweler that has his store next to mine casually mentioned that he was going to be submit some coins of his to PCGS for grading. I asked him if I can add my 4 coins to his submission. I gave him my coins on Monday January 30, and within 2 hours, they were on their way to PCGS. The jeweler was very professional. He gave me the yellow copy from the submission form and a copy of the shipping invoice.
On the submission form he marked all coins for "REGULAR" service level. My coins and the jewelers coins were all regular, minted for circulation pre 1965 silver and pre 1933 gold. On the form, PCGS claims this service level has a turnaround time of 15 business days. I don't know what turnaround time means to PCGS, but to me it means the amount of working days it takes for PCGS, from when the package is delivered to perform the service requested and have the package physically leave its facility. By that metric, PCGS should have been able to be able to turn around my coins almost 4 times by now.
What makes matters much worse is the opacity of the whole process. The jeweler has called PCGS once or twice to inquire about the delay but has gotten nowhere. Curious, I called PCGS using the information from the submission form. A very pleasant sounding woman answered the phone. After giving her the identifying information, she stated that the coins are "in processing" and that it could be "any day now" (this was about 2 weeks ago). I asked her if this meant that the end of this process is imminent? She replied, "I didn't say that". So in other words, it could be in the next 10 seconds, 6 months, or 25,000 years. I read once that David Hall was a futurist, and into the latest technological advances. After being more than 1.5 months late this lady didn't have a clue what stage of the process my coins are in! It seems more Byzantine than futuristic.
It does not bode well for our hobby that the leading TPGC has all the efficiency and customer service of a poorly run government bureaucracy. This is the first time I've ever done business with PCGS, and I can tell you it will be my last. I would never put my customers through a service experience like this. Not every successful business is well run, and not every business that goes under is badly managed. A lot of it depends on idea, timing and intangibles. I used to wonder, given PCGS's lofty status, why NGC is 2X bigger as a company? I don't wonder anymore.
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1273 Posts |
That is highly insightful. I'm gathering a collection at the minute in preparation to send for grading and slabbing at PCGS. I figured they were the best, and being in The UK, Paris being fairly close, I thought the turnaround time would be quick. I wonder whether I should send over to The States for NGC now. Hmmmmmmm...
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
There are a lot of factors here, but the fact is, if it's important, you can pay more for a faster turnaround time.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
When did the coins actually arrive? Business days are just that business days, shows don't count neither do holidays. It is also the busiest submitting time of the year. The crossover special happened which was highly successful and a lot of new product has come out that is being shipped in the masses. Also had the Fun Show ect. Should they have been done by now, almost certainly but not anywhere near 4 times. The other question is what was in it? You put something unusual or that need variety attribution and it will be much slower. Quote:
I figured they were the best, and being in The UK, Paris being fairly close, I thought the turnaround time would be quick. Europe turn around times are completely different. Usually faster I believe. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
564 Posts |
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New Member
 United States
2 Posts |
Re:basebal21
2 day delivery registered insured with the USPS. That meant it arrived at PCGS Feb 1. As for when the coins were "registered" by PCGS, the jeweler did not mention that it was extraordinarily long. As the weeks passed by, he told me has been submitting coins for years and this is by far the longest its ever taken. All coins are USA minted coins meant for circulation. Mostly gold dollars and silver coins of various denominations. My point with my earlier post is that PCGS should have some protocols or mechanism in place, to inform the customer when they are not able to keep up with the estimated turnaround times. Its irrelevant whether it is 1 hour or 1 year, I entered into a transaction with PCGS expecting, naively as it turns out, that they would be able to perform the services I requested within the time period they themselves stated. If it was a few days or even 1-2 weeks longer, it's not so significant. Subtracting a day for President's Day, PCGS has had my coins for 51 business days. Compounding this is the 100% lack of communications from PCGS and the open ended time horizon on completing this transaction. If you are interested, I'll post when PCGS finally gets around to grading my coins.
RE:Justinokay
Thanks for the friendly greetings and best wishes for successful collecting.
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
2 day delivery registered insured with the USPS. Well I guess I have to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no such thing as registered two day mail. Registered mail can take as long as it wants and often times is at minimum a week or two. You pay for security not speed. If that person is telling you USPS registered was assured in two days they are feeding you lies Edited by basebal21
04/14/2017 01:26 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1699 Posts |
They have been slow lately (that's putting it mildly). It is absolutely frustrating and I can sense your feelings in your post. To make it worse, the upper submission tiers are facing long delays as well for some submitters.
Hopefully this is temporary, but I don't see any relief soon. If PCGS didn't have what most consider to be a superior, more consistent product, I don't think customers would put up with it at all.
I wish you the best!
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
1273 Posts |
Just a heads up about shipping.
When I sent worldwide I use UPS for fast and secure delivery. There have been times when I have sent items to Florida for example, and UPS have collected the parcel from me here in The UK, and delivered it the next morning in Florida. If USPS is anything like our Royal Mail, then the times can be significantly longer than they say! I've used UPS for two years now and they are by far the best.
I hope you get your coins back soon!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1211 Posts |
"It does not bode well for our hobby that the leading TPGC has all the efficiency and customer service of a poorly run government bureaucracy. " Come on man... The good or bad customer service of a single TPG does not correlate to the overall health of numismatics. Don't be so dramatic. |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
NGC runs rings around PCGS as far as turnaround times and customer service is concerned. Here is a similar thread I started a while back regarding the PCGS turnaround delays. http://goccf.com/t/261274I have not only had problems with the turnaround times at PCGS I have also had coins ruined, Wrongly attributed and I found that the customer service was always abysmal. However I have had a couple of hundred coins graded by NGC and the experience was always a smooth as silk and without any dramas whatsoever. Even the return shipping charges are far cheaper using NGC's services, So for Me it is a "No Brainer" who I would choose to use to get my coins graded  |
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
5404 Posts |
NGC is eons ahead of PCGS as far as customer service and communications. You phone they actually talk to you.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3475 Posts |
Unless you're Mike Mezack, you're going to be waiting. You might want to think about using that name on your next submission.
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Replies: 12 / Views: 3,769 |
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Posted 04/13/2017 5:03 pm
