My customer service saga

JCMhouston

So back on February 4th I sent an email to customer service to have a simple problem fixed on their certification lookup for a coin I have. It's not all that common a coin, an off metal strike in silver of a 1797 Bremen 2 1/2 Schwaren graded SP64, actually it should be pretty difficult to confuse that with anything else. So when you go to their certification lookup it's got the correct picture of the coin in it's holder, but a completely random written description (1967 West Germany 5 Mark) that has absolutely nothing to do with the coin. Ok, they almost got it right, it's Germany.

6 weeks later (March 26) I get a response from customer service saying please send a picture of the front and back of the coin, which I did a week or so later when I got back from Africa. That seemed pretty slow to me but I thought heck, maybe they are really busy.

Then I completely forgot about it assuming they had taken care of the very minor text problem on the certification page, but never bothering to check again. I mean it seems so simple even a caveman could do it, my Schnauzer could do it if he had opposable thumbs.

Apparently not.

Today, 3 months after the last go around, I get an email from customer service to return the coin to them to have it reslabbed since it's a mechanical error ??? WTF???

Is it really that difficult to get competent help in California?

Do they expect all of their potential customers to be stupid enough to send them a coin in the mail when it's obvious they can't even perform this simple task?

Rant finished, thanks for listening, no, I'm not going to send them the coin, God only knows what would happen to it and how long it would take.



And a link to the cert page.

WorldTypeSet

I've been through this a couple times with PCGS ... it just takes patience and persistence.

Here's what the Cert Verification says about your coin:
Cert Verification #: 27251248
PCGS Coin #: 417331
Date, mintmark: 1967-F
Denomination: 5 Mk
Variety: Humboldt
Country: Germany-Federal Republic

The main issue seems to be that PCGS No 417331 has been assigned to the 1967 West Germany 5 Mark. If you look at the PCGS Pop for 417331, there are 7 graded. Presumably 6 of them are actually 1967 West German 5 Marks.

If you PCGS Label says has a PCGS No of 417331, they need to assign a new PCGS No for your coin, both in the database and on the PCGS Label. That's why they want it to go back to California. If it has a different PCGS No, they should be able to fix it in just the database.

When I sent coins in to fix Mechanical Errors, it was at no cost to me. All I had to do was scan my postal receipt, and my shipping to PCGS (and insurance) was refunded. Everything else was free.

An alternate solution would be for you to sell me the coin

coinkat

I did not even need to finish reading and I knew it was a mechanical error- I don't claim to understand or appreciate how this happens. It did happen to me and my coin, a 1924 Peso, was returned to be reholdered. Sorry to read this happened to you... it is inconvenient

dizzlecc

Grades are debatable, customer service is not.

JCMhouston

Thanks guys, it's been a long week with one of our boats having mechanical issues (at $200k per day) so when I got this it just really annoyed me.

PBR, you wouldn't want to buy this one, I really wanted it so I figure I am buried in it for another 10-15 years until the rest of the market catches up.