A Day in the Life of Joe Orlando
thunderdan
Posts: 3,036 ✭✭✭
Interesting piece he wrote in most recent PSA Insider. I have often wondered what kinds of "issues" Joe has to address each day. This vignette gives me some nice flavor. I like his account about the crease and the "Super Loupe." The Maris auto is pretty funny as well.
You'd have to be able to laugh some of this stuff off to remain sane if you're in Joe's shoes. This board is probably a microcosm of what he experiences every day: mostly really great insight shared by decent, honest people partly offset by a few morons, malcontents, and thieves.
Joe Orlando - August 25, 2009
A lot of people speculate about what it's like to be in my shoes on a day-to-day basis. Of course, they are not interested in what I eat for breakfast or what I do in my spare time. People want to know what it's like to work at PSA each day, to understand what types of challenges I face.
One of the things I like about working here is being involved in so many things. From marketing to authentication, from writing to business development, from management to operations, there are so many aspects to my job and I thoroughly enjoy it. That said; the part of my job that most hobbyists and dealers wonder about is the customer service side of the role.
Since our company is often in the position of delivering bad news, it can get difficult at times, especially when you are dealing with someone who may have lost a lot of money on an item or when you are dealing with a person who simply refuses to listen to reason. It is hard, for anyone, to learn that an item they may have spent a ton of money on may not be authentic but there comes a point when you wish common sense would kick in.
I want to keep things light this month so let's look at three actual, yet comical, customer service experiences that occurred in recent months.
1) The Lou Gehrig Adirondack Gamer – I had a man... correction... a belligerent man, try to argue with me about a game-used bat submission that included an alleged Rawlings Adirondack Gehrig bat. For those of you who may not be familiar with bats, this is one of the most preposterous claims I have heard in my 10 years at PSA. Adirondack bats barely appeared in the big leagues in the 1950s, let alone 20-30 years earlier. This man would not let it go and wanted to argue about every bat in his order, none of which was remotely close to being the real deal.
2) The Tale of the Invisible Crease and the Super Loupe – I am sure you have heard of the old hypothetical, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Well, there may be a new one. If a submitter can't see a defect then, apparently, it doesn't exist. After I pointed out a crease on the front of a card, a submitter told me that since he couldn't see it under his special Super Loupe, it must not exist. This loupe was the size of a small dog with a huge light on the top. Even though you could see the crease with the naked eye, he continued to argue. I tried to tell him that the light was too bright but it didn't matter. In his mind, the Super Loupe was right and I was wrong.
3) Roger Maris Signs from the Grave – This was an all-time classic. The reality is, in many cases, autograph authentication comes down to an opinion, whether it passes or not. In some cases, an item can be positively identified as a forgery. This was one of those cases. This submitter assured us that he obtained the autograph in person (a claim that we hear often) and was baffled how we could fail the signed ball. The funny thing was that the ball was manufactured years after Maris passed away. Despite telling the submitter these facts, he continued to argue! Sometimes, there are no words.
In this hobby, there's no doubt that emotions can run high due to the subject matter and potential money involved so we are used to the occasional drama. That said, there are some instances, like the ones mentioned above, where all you can do is try to smile in the heat of the moment. Otherwise, you will drive yourself crazy.
You'd have to be able to laugh some of this stuff off to remain sane if you're in Joe's shoes. This board is probably a microcosm of what he experiences every day: mostly really great insight shared by decent, honest people partly offset by a few morons, malcontents, and thieves.
Joe Orlando - August 25, 2009
A lot of people speculate about what it's like to be in my shoes on a day-to-day basis. Of course, they are not interested in what I eat for breakfast or what I do in my spare time. People want to know what it's like to work at PSA each day, to understand what types of challenges I face.
One of the things I like about working here is being involved in so many things. From marketing to authentication, from writing to business development, from management to operations, there are so many aspects to my job and I thoroughly enjoy it. That said; the part of my job that most hobbyists and dealers wonder about is the customer service side of the role.
Since our company is often in the position of delivering bad news, it can get difficult at times, especially when you are dealing with someone who may have lost a lot of money on an item or when you are dealing with a person who simply refuses to listen to reason. It is hard, for anyone, to learn that an item they may have spent a ton of money on may not be authentic but there comes a point when you wish common sense would kick in.
I want to keep things light this month so let's look at three actual, yet comical, customer service experiences that occurred in recent months.
1) The Lou Gehrig Adirondack Gamer – I had a man... correction... a belligerent man, try to argue with me about a game-used bat submission that included an alleged Rawlings Adirondack Gehrig bat. For those of you who may not be familiar with bats, this is one of the most preposterous claims I have heard in my 10 years at PSA. Adirondack bats barely appeared in the big leagues in the 1950s, let alone 20-30 years earlier. This man would not let it go and wanted to argue about every bat in his order, none of which was remotely close to being the real deal.
2) The Tale of the Invisible Crease and the Super Loupe – I am sure you have heard of the old hypothetical, "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" Well, there may be a new one. If a submitter can't see a defect then, apparently, it doesn't exist. After I pointed out a crease on the front of a card, a submitter told me that since he couldn't see it under his special Super Loupe, it must not exist. This loupe was the size of a small dog with a huge light on the top. Even though you could see the crease with the naked eye, he continued to argue. I tried to tell him that the light was too bright but it didn't matter. In his mind, the Super Loupe was right and I was wrong.
3) Roger Maris Signs from the Grave – This was an all-time classic. The reality is, in many cases, autograph authentication comes down to an opinion, whether it passes or not. In some cases, an item can be positively identified as a forgery. This was one of those cases. This submitter assured us that he obtained the autograph in person (a claim that we hear often) and was baffled how we could fail the signed ball. The funny thing was that the ball was manufactured years after Maris passed away. Despite telling the submitter these facts, he continued to argue! Sometimes, there are no words.
In this hobby, there's no doubt that emotions can run high due to the subject matter and potential money involved so we are used to the occasional drama. That said, there are some instances, like the ones mentioned above, where all you can do is try to smile in the heat of the moment. Otherwise, you will drive yourself crazy.
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Comments
Thanks Joe!
Thanks for sharing
<< <i>Based on my dealings with Joe, I would have to say he is a class act. He has been very helpful in a thankless job.
Thanks Joe! >>
I too have had nothing but good dealings with Joe. No complaints here and I do agree it is thankless job with countless no win situations.
Matt
I am an attorney. My clients in a current matter are the DUMBEST family of all time. No joke. I could tell stories for hours. My receptionist has to leave her desk when they meet in the lobby because their conversation is so annoying. They are not of diminished capacity in a legal sense but are frightfully dumb and thus might as well be. My client’s son is the king dumb guy. I mean PAINFUL. He has no clue and, in fact, thinks he is really smart. He is the one who “reads” everything before it is signed which means nothing since he has no clue what he is reading. We had a mediation a couple weeks ago. So to start the mediation the mediator and 4 lawyers met in the conference room for 15-20 minutes to frame the issues before bringing the parties in. Think back to Animal House and the scene at the rush party, ”you guys playing cards?” One of the other attorneys also has encountered my dumb client’s incredible stupid son but the others had not yet. Knock on the door, Dumb guy pokes his head in, looks at all of us, slowly, and with the exact same vocal inflection as the Animal House cards scene says, “you guys having a meeting?” Nobody even responded except to stare in disbelief but I think we all thought to ourselves, "what the F&*% do you think we are doing... of course we are having a f&*%ing meeting."
in the grading game.
<< <i>At my restaurant, one of my managers was working the floor and was flagged down by a lady at one of the tables. He walked over to see what he could do for her and she pointed at her dish and said "I don't like this, can I order something else?" The manager looked down and saw not a bite had been taken out of her food. He asked, "Did you even taste it?" She said "no", but explained it looks different than what she expected. He told her to try a bite and if she didn't like it he would take it off the check and buy her whatever she wants on the house. She agreed and told him she loved it once she tasted it. >>
A similar story. Years ago, I was running a steakhouse and had a customer complain to one of my waitresses that his well-done steak was "rare." The waitress returned the steak to the kitchen and my kitchen manager and I looked at it. It was well done. I accompanied the waitress to the table to speak with the guest. The waitress put the plate down for the guest and I introduced myself and asked if I could be of service. The customer, after using a few choice adjectives, proceed to tell me that he was going to get sick from "eating raw meat" and that we'd be hearing from his attorney.
I explained to him that the steak was indeed well-done and any further cooking would render it inedible. At this point the customer demanded that I look at the steak on his plate and tell him to his face that it wasn't raw. Noticing that he had brought and lit a candle in a red hurricane at his table, I asked, "Rather than me looking at your steak, could you blow out the candle for a minute and look at your steak?" He did and wouldn't you know it, he agreed the steak was well done. The glow of the red from the hurricane he had brought made the steak appear reddish. In the end, the customer was red from embarrassment, but never apologized for insulting the waitress, the cook or me. Sometimes, people just say and do the most stupid things. And of course, it's never their fault.
I left a message - he called me back - was very friendly - we talked about PSA, cards, grading....
I - then - told him what I was requesting - without hesitation - he said - "done."
I was sent an email with a warning: "next time, we're coming for your first born!"
1991 Conlon signed with a Sharpie.
Shane
I explained the idiom was actually "killing two birds with one stone."
She gazed upon me with a thousand-yard stare that I shall soon not forget.
Joe needs a raise.
<< <i>I bought this for $500. I am sending this one in. I hope it passes!
1991 Conlon signed with a Sharpie.
JSA Authentic!
Here's a funny PSA story.
I subbed a Pete Rose card (for the life of me, I do not remember what?)...
The large-sized card I subbed had Pete Rose on one side and another player on the other.
Each side had a facsimile signature (Rose's facsimile sig on one side and the other player's facsimile sig on the other side).
PSA wouldn't initially grade the item until I paid an additional $20 PSA/DNA sig grading fee!
rd
Quicksilver Messenger Service - Smokestack Lightning (Live) 1968
Quicksilver Messenger Service - The Hat (Live) 1971
Steve