Jordan S.

I recently started purchasing through Midtown Comics thinking " hey, they're a huge mega-store with multiple locations all over NYC, they must be good, right?" Me, living in NJ, thought it would be a great place to continue my comic collection. I made several purchases right off the bat that were around $200, and then tried to start a Pull List of 25 comic series.

First problem, in one of my orders I put comics in my cart at one price and when I check out it charges me more. Customer service tells me "prices in cart are subject to change without notice" but doesn't tell me WHERE it says that. I look everywhere. It doesn't exist. Also, I complain about the fact that I placed the order through their app. They tell me that their app is a not related to them, not a subsidiary of them and therefore the two don't sink together. Go find where it says that? Somewhere in the deep find print on the website (not inside the app itself). So if you start something on the website, the app doesn't sync it and vice versa.

Secondly, I started a Pull List 2+ weeks ago with over 25 series. Nothing ever happens, I never get a notification of my books. I call them and they tell me I have to come in and sign and form and pay $20 fee. Fine, no problem. I go in the NEXT DAY to pay the fee and sign the form. Firstly, the girl behind the counter has no idea what I'm talking about, she's literally a lost puppy who looks at some guy behind the counter who then comes over, sighs, and asks what the problem is. Clearly he was flustered and busy, bouncing around like a chicken without a head. I tell him my problem, he tells me, "my timing was bad" because TODAY was the first day they were taking their PULL LISTS entirely online, therefore the form and the $20 in person fee were no longer needed. I said, "I just came from NEW JERSEY - is it possible when I called YESTERDAY someone could have told me this on the PHONE?"

He apologized and said he himself didnt find out until just that morning. THAT'S HOW WELL THEY KEEP THEY CUSTOMER SERVICE REPS INFORMED.

I go home and get back on the computer trying as quickly as possible to set up my PULL LIST so I don't miss out on any of the books I started the pull list with (which is already too late). I get someone on their online chat direct from the website, she seemed very helpful, and she walked me through the process of what to do. I did everything she told me to do, and she said she CHECKED it and it looked "good to go." Meaning, my PULL LIST looked perfectly set up and I did not have anything further to do. She informed me that as the books came out, I would be made aware via email and if I logged into the site - and that the card I had on file would simply pay for them. GREAT! I felt satisfied finally.

Today, I log in AGAIN just to be SURE that there were no hiccups and SURE ENOUGH my PULL LIST that was active yesterday after I spoke to her, has been INACTIVATED for what reason I do not know. Of course, it's after hours, so I just sent them emails about it, but I told them they had better figure out what the problem is because I do not want to miss out on key books I signed up for just because they dropped the ball on how their online pull list system was going to work.

I'm currently waiting on a response. In the meantime, I google "Midtown Comics Reviews" and I get taken to a couple of sites like this one where most of the people are extremely dissatisfied with their customer service and the quality of the books they received (as well as the time it takes to "process" the orders).

The overall prices seem reasonable to me, however - I thought it wrong that I was charged extra for comics that were in my cart at the time of my purchase for a much lower price. The rep informed me that the sale had been over for one day and I should have known that. That's not how this works. If you don't have ANYTHING on your site that says the cart could change at any time, then your store should HONOR the prices in the cart. AM I WRONG? Any customer-service oriented company would honor that, especially for a measly $4. After over 4 hours of emails back and forth, the rep finally tells me "This will never happen again, but once your order is in and you come pick it up, reply to this email and I'll credit your account $4." Instead of saying, "I'm sorry for the confusion, we really should have that information put up somewhere, and you're right if there's a glitch in the cart and the price is $1.81 right as you check out then it should remain so. It shouldn't CHANGE to $4.04 AFTER the payment is sent through."

These are the types of people we're dealing with here. If they don't fix my pull list - I'm going to extremely angry, more so than I am now. It's a shame they're the "biggest game in town" and they feed off of that, but if we all start boycotting them, I'm sure they'll fix their problems REAL QUICK.

I found a few other places that are much better, one of which is called Hanahan Comics, which I've purchased from through eBay. They're good, I don't know what made me go with Midtown - I guess I was optimistic that I could just go there and pick my comics up rather than pay shipping costs. Speaking of shipping costs, Midtown Comics shipping costs (especially on their pre-orders) are INSANELY high. They try to fool you by giving you a low price off the cover price of the pre-orders, but then the MINIMUM shipping on any size order is $20. Ridiculous. They make it up by robbing you in the shipping.

I am so sickened to death by this experience.