David Hall's work on the Q & A board

Mark

Based on the times of the "last post" for the most recent crop of questions on the Q & A board, David Hall spent over 3 hours last night answering the questions. While I realize that answering questions about PCGS and numismatics is "an indoor job with no heavy lifting," nonetheless I am truly appreciative of the time and effort he has devoted to this endeavor.

Mark

Spooly

David is doing 10 times better than Rick ever did! (3 weeks in a row!)

nwcs

I do think David Hall's willingness to answer questions and participate more is commendable for sure.

Catch22

PCGS's willingness to respond dirctly to consumer questions demonstrates why they are and will remain the leader in the coin grading industry. I'm not even a big fan of the industry and still impressed.

coinguy1

Catch22, you said "PCGS's willingness to respond dirctly to consumer questions demonstrates why they are and will remain the leader in the coin grading industry. I'm not even a big fan of the industry and still impressed. '

I think it's great that PCGS is CURRENTLY responding in the fashion that they are. However, unfortunately, it appears that it took the departure of Rick Montgomery to their main competitor, to get them to pay attention to their customers. Let's see if this new attitude persists - I'll keep my fingers crossed and my skepticism on alert.

lincolnSence

Careful Mark, I don't want you to drop off the top 100 list

IMHO, I for one suggest that his departure breaks the logjam (more as the root cause of some of the noted concerns). Would we have expected David Hall to step in and force Rick to spend time on the forum? As I recall the forum members had to beg him to participate. I no longer spend any time over across the way, but I don't see any NGC BIG shots spending any time on their forum either.

I for one echo and commend Mr Hall's efforts in the wake of recent events to spend time answering questions. I also see he is reading posts and is probably making a concerted effort to see whats going on here. He occasionally jumps into threads and contributes. This seems like much more than Rick was willling to do. Two thumbs up to David!

coinguy1

lincolnSence, I might already be off the list, but so it goes.

I think David is doing a great job, so far (please don't tell anyone I admitted to that).

But, I'm curious about a couple of things -

1) If Rick didn't want to post here (I don't even know if that was the case - perhaps he simply didn't have time and that would be perfectly understandable), why didn't David or someone else do so before Rick left?

2) With one less grader, how does PCGS/David now have the time and/or desire to post, when they didn't previously?

Seems a bit strange to me, but I'm still happy to see David posting here.

By the way, both John Maben and Dave Lange are pretty good about posting on the NGC forum.

gmarguli

2) With one less grader, how does PCGS/David now have the time and/or desire to post, when they didn't previously?

I'm not going to comment on that, but I will say that I recently submitted coins to both PCGS & NGC.

I used the Regular service for both.

I just got word that my NGC coins were graded and shipped back to me today. The PCGS coins are still somewhere in the grading process. It used to be that PCGS was faster.

BTW, went 3/3 (2 PCGS, 1 ICG) in crossovers at NGC. Damn those people for looking at the coin and not the slab!

Russ

<< <i>PCGS's willingness to respond dirctly to consumer questions >>



NGC has always done that - and, it didn't take the departure of a major player for it to happen.

While the recent rejuvenation of customer service at PCGS is a pleasing development, a couple weeks of answering questions and responding to concerns is not yet an adequate test. It's a good start.

Russ, NCNE

lincolnSence

With all due respect to David Lange (who I think is top notch) who does NGC have on their management team responding to threads on their forum? Lets compare apples to apples here. Rick was the president, no? Does anyone know this answer?

DHeath

I appreciate Mr.Halls responsiveness. I think PCGS management remaining in touch with the collector community is critical to their success. I'm sure the collectors are a royal pain, but they are the end user of PCGS product. Maybe the dealers are the significant submitters, but they really aren't the ones who decide how useful PCGS grading is. The collectors do. As long as the collecting community respects PCGS, submissions will continue to flow. Having read some of the responses, it's evident Mr.Hall has read the boards, and I'm sure there are some comments and complaints he feels are unfair and unwarranted (many are). I appreciate his even-handed responses. I am encouraged that he values our opinions enough to open a dialog. In customer relations, it isn't the complaints you hear that are worrisome. It's the ones you don't ever have a chance to address. As big a nuisance as we probably are, I hope our discussions prove useful. It is a very competitive marketplace, and PCGS has an inside edge with this unmoderated forum in understanding how collectors talk among themselves about coins and PCGS's product. Priceless.

gmarguli

With all due respect to David Lange (who I think is top notch) who does NGC have on their management team responding to threads on their forum? Lets compare apples to apples here. Rick was the president, no? Does anyone know this answer?

John Maben who is their finalizer and from what I understand, a policy maker. Ken Krah who apparently sets policy for foreign coins.

I believe that Dena was referred to as "management" once. I don't know how true that is.

coinguy1

lincolnSence,

John Maben is a finalizer at NGC. I don't know if he is also some type of president or VP - he probably is, but I don't care enough to look it up. He has been there for several years.

I think that is a fair comparison, so far as someone being intimately familiar with policies and procedures, but that is for you to decide. He certainly seems to post as much as or more than Rick did.

Regardless, I hope both companies continue to monitor their boards and address questions and issues raised by forum members.

twodollardon

<FONT size=2>
I am a new member of PCGS and probably have no right to voice my opinion. With that being said my opinion is that while David Hall (who I do not know) is the man, he is no better than the people he employees.
As with any company upper management should be focused on the future financial strength and objectives of their company. David Hall and PCGS are no different.

It is the responsibility of all subordinates who deal with customers on a daily basis to provide satisfaction to the end user. If they are doing their job correctly David Halls name will not be mentioned. How many of you critics can name the CEO of your favorite products? The only time the CEO's name comes up is in discussions as to the success or failure of the company. I do not believe the company is failing due to the loss of a key person. While some like to use these situations as an excuse to make contact with Mr. Hall? It's almost like I will start some chatter where he will have to answer my questions!
In respect to Rick Montgomery (who I didn't know), I can't make any comment except, If he had been doing the right thing(s) there would not be an issue. Have you ever heard you might be doing things right but you are not doing the right thing.
I have an idea but not totally sure why the few that post negative publicity on David Hall do so. I think everyone likes to feel they are and have a right to be connected to top management. In my opinion that was Rick's duty as one of the key people whom everyone had contact. You can't say that he shared with Mr. Hall all the concerns that I have read in these Q & A forums over the past several weeks. I do however feel he shared those thing he felt were important to him.
I could go on forever, but I am done.
The drinks are on me!!! </FONT>

coinguy1

twodollardon,

I must strongly disagree with something you said : "I am a new member of PCGS and probably have no right to voice my opinion".

Of course you do!!!!!!

Bear

Twodollardon - Interesting reply. Keep up your comments.

They show good common sense. Bear

P.S. Welcome to the Forum!!!!

wondercoin

Let's face it, David gets an A+ in his first month "back on the job". Why he wasn't on the job for the past couple years, I have no idea (incidently, David has stated he was always available to intervene on a variety of issues, including grade related issues, but, as for myself, I simply accepted Rick's position as final and respected his position as President of PCGS and a spectacular finalizer). I must confess, I never even thought of getting David involved on various issues - perhaps I should have.

As I said a month ago, the "sleeping dog" is no longer sleeping. Why he may have been sleeping last month or last year frankly does not concern me at this point. Let's just move on and I fully expect David Hall will continue to do what he has been doing this past month (until his family cuts him off from these boards like mine has tried to do on a number of occasions)!! Wondercoin

DHeath

Twodollardon,

You mean like Balmer and Gates?

Bear

Wondercoin - I would have given David an " A" but let us not quible, its only a grade

for the quarter term. Let us hope that necessity will indeed become the mother of

invention, creativity, innovation and consumer responsiveness. Bear

Steve

Just my two sense on this subject. I think David Hall is doing a good job in public relations right now by answering questions. He even answered one of mine last week. I think for the long term that a permanent Q & A board be set up on the forum in which one of the managers answer questions. Periodically, questions to David or the new president of PCGS might also be answered. Thanks again to David Hall for spending the time to answer our questions. Steve

airplanenut

I also wanted to post about this... I think it is a great way to get some good answers

Thanks David!

gmarguli

I'll give David credit, he answered a few of my questions that Rick wouldn't.

ccr

So far I`m 2 for 2 when it comes to David Hall answering my questions. Even though my 2nd question was lame, not the answer, just that my question was lame. So I guess I can`t complain about him answering my questions.

15 years ago, a president of any business wouldn`t give you 2 seconds of thier time. Now things change and I`m glad to see that David Hall is willing to talk. I much rather have the option to talk and sort things out then not. I wasn`t around when Rick was doing it so I don`t have anything to compare Dave to like the veteran members do.

grip

I agree with the >>> He occasionally jumps into threads and contributes. This seems like much more than Rick was willling to do. ......More of this and were off to a good start,and it will also keep a lot of post to a minimal.Al