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PSA = Particularly Slow Authentication???

Just spoke with a rep at PSA. Even the hold time for the call exceed the 46 minute wait time. (Took 58 minute).

Anyway, I have 3 cards that are in the assembly phase, they are a few weeks past the original estimate date. The rep told me that the assembly phase is the longest phase. I’m hoping this isn’t true because the initial phase of sitting in a stack before even being looked at took 9 weeks.

The rep told me to call back if I haven’t received my order on July 3rd. Seems they have a way to expedite late orders but not until they’re over 5-6 weeks late?? 🤷‍♂️

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    JoeBanzaiJoeBanzai Posts: 12,819 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Ilikecolor said:
    Just spoke with a rep at PSA. Even the hold time for the call exceed the 46 minute wait time. (Took 58 minute).

    Anyway, I have 3 cards that are in the assembly phase, they are a few weeks past the original estimate date. The rep told me that the assembly phase is the longest phase. I’m hoping this isn’t true because the initial phase of sitting in a stack before even being looked at took 9 weeks.

    The rep told me to call back if I haven’t received my order on July 3rd. Seems they have a way to expedite late orders but not until they’re over 5-6 weeks late?? 🤷‍♂️

    There's no such thing as "late" at PSA.

    Your first submission?

    2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
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    IlikecolorIlikecolor Posts: 195 ✭✭✭

    @JoeBanzai said:

    @Ilikecolor said:
    Just spoke with a rep at PSA. Even the hold time for the call exceed the 46 minute wait time. (Took 58 minute).

    Anyway, I have 3 cards that are in the assembly phase, they are a few weeks past the original estimate date. The rep told me that the assembly phase is the longest phase. I’m hoping this isn’t true because the initial phase of sitting in a stack before even being looked at took 9 weeks.

    The rep told me to call back if I haven’t received my order on July 3rd. Seems they have a way to expedite late orders but not until they’re over 5-6 weeks late?? 🤷‍♂️

    There's no such thing as "late" at PSA.

    Your first submission?

    From PSA’s website. They’re apologizing for being late… 🤔
    Oh, I’m DELAYED….

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    JoeBanzaiJoeBanzai Posts: 12,819 ✭✭✭✭✭

    So...........your first submission?

    2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
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    bgrbgr Posts: 4,397 ✭✭✭✭✭

    They just announced they are investing heavily in more Magic 8-balls and expect grading to accelerate by September.

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    IlikecolorIlikecolor Posts: 195 ✭✭✭

    @JoeBanzai said:
    So...........your first submission?

    Ahhh, I see what you’re saying. Par for the course??

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    JoeBanzaiJoeBanzai Posts: 12,819 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Ilikecolor said:

    @JoeBanzai said:
    So...........your first submission?

    Ahhh, I see what you’re saying. Par for the course??

    A few years ago I sent in 2 orders at the same time, a bulk order of 50+ cards and a small order of 4-5 cards I "needed" graded quickly to put in my Registry Set. I paid for a higher service level in order to get those 4-5 cards back sooner.

    The larger order that was supposed to take much longer got done quickly and the smaller order took a lot longer. I couldn't believe they would charge me extra to get just a few cards done faster than a much larger order that was at the lowest service level, and then FAIL to do so!

    There's absolutely no rhyme or reason on how PSA does things. Send them in and forget about it or you'll drive yourself crazy!

    Things seem to be much slower now. In PSA's defense ALL turnaround times are estimates only. I still don't see how they can charge extra for a faster turnaround and then not get those cards done first.

    2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
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    JoeBanzaiJoeBanzai Posts: 12,819 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 16, 2026 11:52AM

    @bgr said:
    They just announced they are investing heavily in more Magic 8-balls and expect grading to accelerate by September.

    Does the Magic 8 ball only grade up to an "8". That would explain a lot.

    Also, September of THIS YEAR?

    2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
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    CardGeekCardGeek Posts: 763 ✭✭✭

    They told me they would give me vouchers, if I called back, if they were some number of days past their estimate. I didn't bother calling back because the wait was really long. Any time I'm waiting 45 minutes, or something, to talk to a companies customer service, I'm way more angry when they actually pick up the phone than I was when I started the call. the call ends up being a bad experience for both me and the rep picking up the phone.

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    BBBrkrrBBBrkrr Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @CardGeek said:
    They told me they would give me vouchers, if I called back, if they were some number of days past their estimate. I didn't bother calling back because the wait was really long. Any time I'm waiting 45 minutes, or something, to talk to a companies customer service, I'm way more angry when they actually pick up the phone than I was when I started the call. the call ends up being a bad experience for both me and the rep picking up the phone.

    Hold times of 45 minutes do a very good job of communicating a company's dedication to customer service...

    I get shorter hold times when I call Spectrum and we all know how beloved cable companies are in the US.

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    CardGeekCardGeek Posts: 763 ✭✭✭
    edited June 16, 2026 1:13PM

    These companies are pretty much using 20 year old girls as human shields.

    It's kinda similar to drug lord mentality.

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    AhmanfanAhmanfan Posts: 4,485 ✭✭✭✭

    @bgr said:
    They just announced they are investing heavily in more Magic 8-balls and expect grading to accelerate by September.

    lol!!

    Collecting
    HOF SIGNED FOOTBALL RCS
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    RiveraFamilyCollectRiveraFamilyCollect Posts: 873 ✭✭✭✭

    What three cards did you submit?

    Llamas and alpacas are camels. They aren't like camels, or related. They are camels. When was anyone going to tell me this?! How long had Bill Nye been holding out on us?

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    1982FBWaxMemories1982FBWaxMemories Posts: 2,593 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BBBrkrr said:

    @CardGeek said:
    They told me they would give me vouchers, if I called back, if they were some number of days past their estimate. I didn't bother calling back because the wait was really long. Any time I'm waiting 45 minutes, or something, to talk to a companies customer service, I'm way more angry when they actually pick up the phone than I was when I started the call. the call ends up being a bad experience for both me and the rep picking up the phone.

    Hold times of 45 minutes do a very good job of communicating a company's dedication to customer service...

    I get shorter hold times when I call Spectrum and we all know how beloved cable companies are in the US.

    Ive never waited more than 5 min for Verizon and they are prob more evil than spectrum

    It's the singer not the song - Peter Townshend (1972)
    Not even a minute do I buy the whole buh buh buh I'm a man-child japery - Me (2025)

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    BBBrkrrBBBrkrr Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @1982FBWaxMemories said:

    @BBBrkrr said:

    @CardGeek said:
    They told me they would give me vouchers, if I called back, if they were some number of days past their estimate. I didn't bother calling back because the wait was really long. Any time I'm waiting 45 minutes, or something, to talk to a companies customer service, I'm way more angry when they actually pick up the phone than I was when I started the call. the call ends up being a bad experience for both me and the rep picking up the phone.

    Hold times of 45 minutes do a very good job of communicating a company's dedication to customer service...

    I get shorter hold times when I call Spectrum and we all know how beloved cable companies are in the US.

    Ive never waited more than 5 min for Verizon and they are prob more evil than spectrum

    Ha. Exactly my point.

    There's never been a more important and evil industry created than the cable companies.

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    IlikecolorIlikecolor Posts: 195 ✭✭✭
    edited June 25, 2026 7:59AM

    Well I finally made it to QA. Been there for a week. No notice of an upcharge - just waiting…. Again….

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    smallstockssmallstocks Posts: 1,785 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Lucky you. One of my subs was due on May 12. It's been in assembly for over a month now. When I passed the "special late date", I called and the rep said he contacted the people handling the submission and that it would be prioritized now. 4 days later (so far) and it hasn't moved at all. Simply par for the course.


    Late 60's and early to mid 70's non-sports
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    BBBrkrrBBBrkrr Posts: 1,874 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @smallstocks said:
    Lucky you. One of my subs was due on May 12. It's been in assembly for over a month now. When I passed the "special late date", I called and the rep said he contacted the people handling the submission and that it would be prioritized now. 4 days later (so far) and it hasn't moved at all. Simply par for the course.

    That seems ridiculous. So, all they need to do to speed things up is. All someone?!? Everything about that is messed up, including the fact they’re telling customers that.

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    RonSportscardsRonSportscards Posts: 1,178 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BBBrkrr said:

    @smallstocks said:
    Lucky you. One of my subs was due on May 12. It's been in assembly for over a month now. When I passed the "special late date", I called and the rep said he contacted the people handling the submission and that it would be prioritized now. 4 days later (so far) and it hasn't moved at all. Simply par for the course.

    That seems ridiculous. So, all they need to do to speed things up is. All someone?!? Everything about that is messed up, including the fact they’re telling customers that.

    I think they say that to everyone. They did to me when I contacted PSA about my order being seemingly forgotten.
    They said they'll talk to some people in the department and it will now be prioritized.
    Things will happen now! Of course nothing did, and it ran it's normal stand still pace.
    They also said if the order still seems like its not going anywhere, to contact them again so they can tell you the same.

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    JoeBanzaiJoeBanzai Posts: 12,819 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 29, 2026 8:05AM

    @RonSportscards said:

    @BBBrkrr said:

    @smallstocks said:
    Lucky you. One of my subs was due on May 12. It's been in assembly for over a month now. When I passed the "special late date", I called and the rep said he contacted the people handling the submission and that it would be prioritized now. 4 days later (so far) and it hasn't moved at all. Simply par for the course.

    That seems ridiculous. So, all they need to do to speed things up is. All someone?!? Everything about that is messed up, including the fact they’re telling customers that.

    I think they say that to everyone. They did to me when I contacted PSA about my order being seemingly forgotten.
    They said they'll talk to some people in the department and it will now be prioritized.
    Things will happen now! Of course nothing did, and it ran it's normal stand still pace.
    They also said if the order still seems like its not going anywhere, to contact them again so they can tell you the same.

    >
    >
    >

    90% of the time there's nothing to be gained by calling and inquiring about your order. In fact it probably either does nothing to speed up the process, or it actually slows it down.

    I used to work for a HUGE company (MUCH BIGGER than PSA not even remotely close) in sales of garments that were embroidered with company logos, employee names and other decorations.

    Customers would be excited about getting their jackets, shirts etc. and often called me to check on, or complain about, how long things were taking. Because I tried to do the right thing, (silly me) I would contact the supervisor in the embroidery department and ask. I didn't have any authority, of course, to go into the embroidery area and start snooping around and telling people to work on this order or that one. They weren't even located in the building I worked in.

    The supervisor eventually (pretty much right away) got mad at me. He said "we're swamped, I don't have time to run around looking for your order (the exception being if it was an unusually large order with a specific deadline, but those were RARE!), I've got lots of other stuff to do."

    My company had just built a new building and filled it up with as many embroidery machines as they could fit in there and weren't going to rush out and buy property or a building and expand the business. That would be a huge expense. Of course we did end up losing business because there's a LOT of places that embroider garments just as well, or better, than we did.

    When I got real busy, I soon became tempted to tell the customer "Stop bothering me, you'll get your order when it gets done, there's absolutely nothing I can do about it". Especially the customers who were unrealistic about how long anything should take.

    Eventually we outsourced some of the work to another company and that helped. Of course that cut into our profit margin.

    PSA basically OWNS the card grading business, especially after buying their closest competitor, SGC.

    If you choose to use their service, my advice is, send in your stuff and forget about it. It will get done when it gets done.

    2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
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    IlikecolorIlikecolor Posts: 195 ✭✭✭

    Well, up charge notification came in….

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    JoeBanzaiJoeBanzai Posts: 12,819 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Ilikecolor said:
    Well, up charge notification came in….

    GREAT NEWS!

    2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
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    jackstrawjackstraw Posts: 3,872 ✭✭✭✭

    @Ilikecolor said:
    Well, up charge notification came in….

    Are you going to share with the group the 3 cards you submitted?

    Collector Focus

    ON ITS WAY TO NEWPORT BEACH, CA 92658
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    IlikecolorIlikecolor Posts: 195 ✭✭✭

    @jackstraw said:

    @Ilikecolor said:
    Well, up charge notification came in….

    Are you going to share with the group the 3 cards you submitted?

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