PSA Customer service "will PSA grade ???"

eagles33

Has anyone noticed a down tick in the level of customer service lately? I sent an email with scans of the front and back of 2 cards asking if these were cards that psa would grade and slab. I've sent cards in the past that were returned because PSA didn't have enough info on them so i figured I would check before sending. This is the response i got

"Hello,

We will try our best to grade these cards. As long as we can locate information about the manufacturer releasing this card and the set, we should be able to grade it. If for whatever reason we cannot, we will refund the grading fees.

Thank you,"

this does me zero good. 1) i'm not going to bother buying the cards if PSA won't grade them 2) if i'm only sending 10 cards and 2 come back "NO INFO" i would rather include 2 different cards that i know they will grade. I used to deal with girl named Christie in customer service who was awesome. She was always very helpful but lost her direct email so its the luck of the draw who handles my customer service questions.

Dboneesq

I agree that is not the way the issue should have been handled. While PSA customer service is usually AWESOME, I too had an issue a while ago which is even worse than yours. Before purchasing a "decal" of Mickey Mantle (I believe they were sold in stores in the 60's to be placed on a bat rack that stores sold) on eBay, I aked PSA if they would grade the decal. I was told it would be no problem. I bought it. I sent it in. They sent it back ungraded. Too bad, as it would look real nice in a slab.

eagles33

You should try again with the mantle sticker. The same has happened to me before but i emailed customer service before they shipped it back.. they took a second look and decided that they would grade it.

bking

That reply wasn't helpful at all, more of a cookie cutter reply.

I've had that happen to me lately, coupled with it taking 3+ days to get an email reply with those stock replies. I've gone to an all-phone policy with them now.

CollectorAtWork

Why don't you try calling them and talking to that rep that you liked? I've done this before when there was someone that I was working with for a particular issue.

eagles33

after making this post i got a pm from the customer service manager... after about 2 months STILL no answer.. a simple yes or no would be nice. I base my decision to buy some of these oddball rookie cards on whether or not psa will grade them. Taking this long is extremely poor service.

cpettimd

The customer service there is variable.
The CSRs are good when you get them on the phone

I sometimes get poor answers with regards to "will grade" when sending scans

They mislabelled one card on each of my last subs- and they were clearly writen down with the varaition
They badly mislabeled a card on which popped on Friday (group sub) luckily I caught it- and called them- and they fixed the problem- before they shipped
but the first response on the phone was "just send the card back" and I told them the card is still there please go check.

MULLINS5

I asked a woman in the set registry department about adding team photo stickers to a player's registry. Sent scans of front and back and got the green flag that they were good. Bought close to 100 of them raw from various years and sorted out the top looking 20. Sent to PSA, graded, slabbed, then denied to the player registry because the player's name was not on the back. I called and they denied our correspondence. This was about three years ago.

scotgreb

I have received great service with similar questions (specifically fron Sonia in Customer Service) -- although not always the answer that I want.

It's helpful if you provide them with as much info as possible along with the scans, e.g., card size, set checklist, web links, etc. An open-ended "will you grade this" is a tough proposition for them -- it could be hours of research. In other words, if you do the research, you have a much better chance at the answer you want and in a reasonable time frame.

Lastly, if you receive a "yes" answer -- be sure to include a copy of your correspondence with your submission.

jacksoncoupage

I have had some pretty bad luck with this also.

My last batch included two 1996 Upper Deck Vending Derek Jeter cards. These cards may not be listed in one or both major catalogs (not sure since I don't own any from 2002 forward), but I am pretty sure that their football and basketball counterparts are cataloged somewhere. These cards were issued to mass retail outlets (vending machines in toy stores), are licensed my mlb and mlbpa and produced by Upper Deck.

After packing them up and shipping them, I thought I should make sure to confirm (Sonia is who I usually contact) that PSA does grade these. I included as much info as known about the cards just to be thorough. After 3 or 4 days, I get a "we cannot grade these" response.

Why? Even if they aren't cataloged, it doesn't make sense to not grade a licensed and distributed issue. They can see, clearly, in front of them, that the item is not some broder-type production.

So now, 2/8 cards are not expected to come back graded.

This is even worse when it comes to grading variation items. If the catalogs don't acknowledge it, it doesn't exist as far as PSA is concerned. This doesn't make any sense either. Sure, grading a "fish-eye" or miscut as an error is one thing, but an unlisted, clear-to-the-eye design/picture/stat/etc change should not be rejected, especially when comparison photos/examples are included. This is especially frustrating since the main reason I purchased a membership was to grade hard-to-find and unusual variations.