I've had great customer service from NGC over the years, but just the last year I've for the first time had several bad experiences. These are incidents where I am obviously being lied to by the customer service rep on the phone, and they are lying to cover up things I know for a fact that they have done incorrectly. Has anyone noticed a similar trend in customer service experience from NGC this last year?
Not YET. All my experiences lately have been 100% positive. Right now, I have my Baltimore Whitman drop-offs pending. I'll let you know. Right now, it seems to be moving through normally. UPDATE: my coins are now IN grading. They were "scheduled for grading" yesterday.
Ive heard nothing but good things about NGCs customer service. Ive heard many people say, thats what sets them apart from PCGS or any other TPG. What exactly were they lying about? Is it possible that the customer service rep just doesnt know a darn thing about Hungarian coins?
If I had classic European coins, I might be tempted to send them to another NGC office than Florida's. Moderns are okay either place.
No doubt, but I also don't expect them to. I do expect them to be truthful. Some background: most of the problems I've encountered are due to them ignoring the notes that I put on the submission form (at the direction of their own staff). Some of these notes are attribution notes for coins that they do not have in their census yet. Some are notes directing how I want something to be slabbed if there is a choice. It is a huge pet peeve of mine that they follow or ignore supplementary notes without any apparent consistency. This has always been a problem with NGC. If they are ignoring one of my notes on a submission form that directs how I'd like something to be slabbed and they are not notifying me of the change, they are processing my submission in a way that is different from what I have authorized payment for, and I shouldn't be charged. This is why I babysit my submissions through their process, but fundamentally this is a different problem than what I'm talking about. Generally I have had fantastic customer service experiences submitting at shows, and even while babysitting my submissions as they go through. They have fixed many errors in and added coins to their catalog at my request. My expectation with customer service is that if I point out a problem, they will either correct it or tell me why they can't. Reasonable right? The kind of customer service issue I'm talking about is when I know a rep is making things up to get me to just say okay and hang up. If you want an example, the most recent one was when I called to point out a coin was entered with an incorrect country and attribution. I was told that the coin is supposed to be entered that way until it hits the grading room where it will be changed, and I should just wait until it got through the process and see if it's still incorrect. Ok, sometimes attributions do get caught and corrected when they hit the grading room, but frequently they do not. Sometimes the finalizer catches it, but many times they don't, especially with material they are not familiar with. I've had plenty of coins come back with wrong labels, even one that was attributed as a klippe when it was not! In general, I don't have much faith in their process shaking out label errors, and assume that what I see online at any given moment is going to be what ends up on the label if I don't speak up. Basically if I had faith that it would get corrected on its own by the end of the process, I wouldn't be bothering to call. As it so happens, I had another submission in progress with basically the same coin, and on that submission the country and attribution were correct. I pointed this out, and was told that it was because it had already hit the grading room. I pointed out that the status on that submission was "Scheduled for Grading" so it wouldn't have hit the grading room yet, to which I was told that it was because it was really in the grading room and I just couldn't see it on my end (it's been days and it's still Scheduled for Grading). I then told the rep that the coin had the correct attribution because it was entered that way when it was originally received - the rep said they didn't know as they couldn't see that info on their end, to which I replied, "I do, because I'm watching these submissions every day". As far as I know, they did nothing for me and the coin is still identified incorrectly in the system. I really don't care about their internal processes as long as the coins go out with correct labels. I don't like having to take the time to send stuff back, and have coins out of my inventory needlessly in the meantime. I don't care if they tell me they don't know something or have to check on something for me. Great. Let's get it fixed. I do care when I get stonewalled and lied to and they do nothing.
In my experience the classic Austro-Hungarian coins coming out of the German NGC office are graded more loosely and are more likely to be attributed incorrectly than ones that come out of the Florida office. If I wanted really loose world grading I'd send my coins to PCGS.
You have succinctly put why I now almost NEVER send coins in; I wait for the next show they'll be at, and talk to the reps there in person. I have a short 2-1/2 by 2-1/2 red box marked "FOR NGC NEXT SHOW".
On an unrelated note. I do use a trick sometimes to be able to verify labels on submissions before they ship out. Provided the submission you want to double check is going to be slower to process than another submission on your order, just request a "ship with" for the submissions. All the submissions that finish earlier than the slowest will simply sit in QC and will not ship until the last one is done, so you can double check them and kick them back to the finalizer if need be.
Do understand that your carefully written notes don't follow the coins around. The data is entered into the computer and the computer printed label is placed on the flip. If there is room in the computer form for a note it might be keyed and might be read. If not...
I'm positive that is the case, which is why when they tell me it will be corrected later on in the process I do not believe it for a hot second. I don't think anyone who isn't specialized in my area would catch most of this stuff. For example, I had a pattern I submitted (Hungary 1950BP 2 Forint) that was attributed as the business strike, and the differences were a different sized star on the obverse and the letters PV (short for probaveret = pattern). Then after I called to point it out they made the correction but still sent it out to me with PV incorrectly as the mint mark on the label. In total probably I called half a dozen times about that one coin and they still got it somewhat wrong even after I sent it back for correction. But many of the type differences are not nearly as dramatic, perhaps a slightly different orientation of a hair ribbon or a transposed position of a tiny arms on a shield. I see these mis-attributed NGC slabs on eBay not infrequently. I don't blame them for not catching these things, but if I am directed to write these notes on the submission form by NGC staff, someone should be reading them. I just had a submission post today for a jeton. The date is wrong, the country is wrong, and the emperor on the attribution line is wrong. The only thing correct is that it is silver. I wrote the entire attribution out for them, including the catalog number in the book they use for these. I've literally done all the attribution work for them, all they have to do is flip to that page and go "yup". But no, now I have to call them again (probably more than once) to get it fixed. I shouldn't have to do this.
I’ve heard mostly good things with NGC customer service but there really is no good excuse for the issues that you describe. It seems like some things are just not worth the time for the TPGs. To them getting some esoteric world coin isn’t important since there is little financial gain. Plus it sounds like the reps that you are in contact with are either too indifferent or incompetent. Is there any possibility of contacting someone higher up? It seems like the issue should not be hard to fix as long as someone over there put in a little bit of effort.
Just them putting a big 'ol thumbprint on a Red Newfoundland cent. They wouldn't tell me which of their employees it belonged to and said it was there before. I asked if they didn't call those Red/Browns and got a blank stare. This was at an ANA show. No more copper to them. Using minimum-wage employees to handle coins worth more than they make in a year is not a good business plan. No wonder they don't guarantee copper - not even for 14 days!
Don't get me wrong. Some of the reps are awesome all of the time and fix stuff very quickly. I've never had a bad experience with their customer service lead or any of the finalizes. The reps answering the phone used to be all amazing, but over the last year that went from all to some. Whether that is just bad personnel or a deliberate policy change, I don't know. I've given up entirely on NGC for world medals service (another story) in favor of PCGS, except for this one jeton series I collect where I already had all NGC slabs.
Seems to me that the top 3 these days just thumb their nose at their customers! One tries to under cut the other 2. However @$7 each coin one can't expect much... well yes you can. Why is it your fault that @$7 a coin they cannot get it either done in due time or done correctly? As for PCGS &NGC I haven't used their services in years. That said I cannot add anything to their quality or customer service. I can tell you that Customer service is job #1 in any successful business. If you take care of your customers everything else will fall right in line. And no matter how much money is spent on advertising word of mouth will make or break you in a NY second! What really makes me mad is not being heard....spending years in retail food never once did I blow off a customer....true several were muted but not to the extent their satisfaction wasn't taken for granted. After 50 plus years in my field I can assure you this......customer service is a thing of the past! Business is only about one thing the bottom line! They don't care about you....just how much of your money is now theirs.
Well, I've got a few down there right now. One in particular has a note to follow. I'll let you know how mine went at the end of the month.
By sending it in you are authorizing them to grade and slab it. I'm not aware of anything in their terms that REQUIRES them to follow your notes. If they do great, but they don't HAVE to unless they relate to a specific service you are paying extra for. Part of the problem is that although they may be the best at dealing with non-US coins, they are still in essence a "US coins" only company and are really not that qualified in non US material. They will try but they will make a LOT more errors with non-US material. Someone probably is. The low wage data entry guy in receiving who may or may not know anything about coins.
I just wish they could stop slabbing modern Lincolns shield side up, such as my 2017 enhanced uncirc. one. Get over it already. Lincoln should be the face up side!
I would say that all notes are related to a specific service you are paying for, are they not (unless you're just writing a cake recipe on your submission)? Keep in mind, the notes are the only method for requesting certain services, including but not limited to: Designation dependent minimum crossover grades (for example: cross at min 65 if RD or RB, cross at min 66 if BN) Specifying the desired country or attribution when more than one is allowable for a coin, as in the case of nested states/empires (for example: Austrian E mint coins can be requested holdered as either Austria or as Hungary Transylvania, and some late 19th century Hungarian medals struck in Vienna can also be holdered as either country). Specifying a direction for NCS (for example: treat spot on obverse but do not dip) Specifying a collection note for the label for purposes of provenance (either adding one for the current collection it is in, or carrying one over with documentation) Specifying which face of the coin you would like presented forward (especially relevant with errors and toners - and shield cents!) So for example, if you have a coin that is already slabbed, and you want it reholdered with the reverse facing forward and a different country on the label, the only way to submit that request is with notes. It would entirely miss the point of the submission if they simply reholdered the coin in the exact same way, ignoring your notes. That is not okay. The authorization on the form is for the entire form. When they ignore notes on the form, they may be changing the entire intent of the submission. That should require contacting the customer. They collect your email address and phone number for this purpose.
