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WATA Turnaround Times?


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My game was received Dec 2, 2020 on the Select tier.  I got an email today that my game is shipped FedEx.  Interesting enough, I emailed them and asked them about why my game was damaged and what were they going to do about it.  First response-- "It's not damaged and you got a 9.6 grade with an A+ seal!".  I then responded with their own photo and highlighted where at the bottom the game is scraped up and the celo is all busted up.  I told them it wasn't like that when I bought it (I would have rejected such a game, personally and definitely wouldn't have shipped it off to be graded.) I also mentioned that I knew I didn't have photos but, regardless, that 9.6/A+ seems bogus.  The tech told me they'd escalate my request.

Well, that was last week.  No word back, but I did get the message today that the game is shipping.  Oh, in that first correspondence, I was told it should likely ship in about 4-6 weeks.  So... I guess the squeaky wheel got some grease.

I'm just cutting my losses here.  I'm going to sell this game on eBay.  I didn't get it graded to profit but instead I wanted to try out the experience and simply encase a nice display piece.  Thanks Wata!  I could have rolled my eyes and forgotten the delays, but with the damage I personally have no point to keep this sub-par game. I already own a nice, CIB copy for play.  There's no need to keep up a beat up, graded game even if the grade is 9.6/A+ because that grade is a farse.

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I asked wata cs a simple question, what months of the "scans" are they shipping? I should've known by now nothing with wata is simple.

 

"Due to the migration from Denver to Santa Ana, we are experiencing additional delays with shipping. So it is difficult to get an ETA. I know causing more delays is not something you want to hear is happening, but this is a necessary step to get things running smoothly and efficiently as part of Collectors Universe so that these delays never happen again. 
If you need anything else, please let us know."

 

Questions:

1. When did they migrate from Denver to Santa Ana? Example, Started and Finished.

2. Why didn't they come up with a plan before moving, to mitigate the "additional delays with shipping?"

3. After being setup in there new overlords warehouse, I thought they would have the workforce in place to deal with any unforeseen delay?

4. What other delay do you think wata isn't sharing with the public?

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Well obviously the migration started around the 1st of the year and package redirect were at the beginning of February.  I'm sure it's just people resource contraints, you can only properly move a warehouse of inventory so fast (trucks, people, organizing, loading / unloading, etc.)  I can't speak in any official capacity, but I do assume there is some drop dead cut off date when they stop paying rent in Denver and everything has to be out.  Whether that's this month, next month, mid years, who knows. 

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Imagine not being able to fix problems after years of the same issues. Imagine customers throwing money at you and still being this incompetent and not being able to fix issues...

This is why I have not sent anything to Wata. Reading some of these horror stories. Some of you are way more patient then me. I would be email every day if I had a game that was sent 1.5 years ago.

What's the point of evening paying for upgraded tiers when these tiers are rarely hit?

Some games I would love to grade but I don't have time for a company that still has this many issues after years and apparently has no ideas how to fix the issues the same issues customers keep complaining about.

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9 minutes ago, Ghostofsparta said:

Imagine not being able to fix problems after years of the same issues. Imagine customers throwing money at you and still being this incompetent and not being able to fix issues...

This is why I have not sent anything to Wata. Reading some of these horror stories. Some of you are way more patient then me. I would be email every day if I had a game that was sent 1.5 years ago.

What's the point of evening paying for upgraded tiers when these tiers are rarely hit?

Some games I would love to grade but I don't have time for a company that still has this many issues after years and apparently has no ideas how to fix the issues the same issues customers keep complaining about.

It's just been one excuse after the other as to why they can't get things done on time.

I have little to no faith this transition to cali will solve anything. That being said, VGA it a shit-show with return times too... but I'm not sure if they have the same issues with DVD style cases as WATA.

Maybe someone else can provide clarity with that.

But yes,  I'm on month 7 of a 2 game "speed run"...

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1 minute ago, 3rdStrongestMole said:

It's just been one excuse after the other as to why they can't get things done on time.

I have little to no faith this transition to cali will solve anything. That being said, VGA it a shit-show with return times too... but I'm not sure if they have the same issues with DVD style cases as WATA.

Maybe someone else can provide clarity with that.

But yes,  I'm on month 7 of a 2 game "speed run"...

That is what's frustrating. How can they offer these tiers where customers pay more money but then they can't hit estimates? There is no way someone should pay $125 for a warp zone then is waiting 6 plus months that is a joke. Wata is offering tiers of services they cannot meet or even reasonably meet and that is what I think is BS. 

Stopping taking submission and figure out how to run a business without a majority of your customer base getting frustrated by incompetence.  Not to mention potential customers being turned off by the many issues current customer have and continue to experience. 

 

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29 minutes ago, Ghostofsparta said:

That is what's frustrating. How can they offer these tiers where customers pay more money but then they can't hit estimates? There is no way someone should pay $125 for a warp zone then is waiting 6 plus months that is a joke. Wata is offering tiers of services they cannot meet or even reasonably meet and that is what I think is BS. 

Stopping taking submission and figure out how to run a business without a majority of your customer base getting frustrated by incompetence.  Not to mention potential customers being turned off by the many issues current customer have and continue to experience. 

 

Part of the problem is, they aren't really losing a huge chunk of that customer base because VGA can't keep up either.  It's just that there are no great options right now, and everyone's trying to take advantage of the grading boom, and neither of these companies are adjusting properly for demand. 

It's the blatant lies that get me.  Like, changing the tier estimates on the site would be a great start.  Stop lying to your customers (especially new ones who might not know 30 business days actually means half a year). I thought it would change when the company changed hands,  but nope...

Also laughable that they ramped up CIB pricing to ease the load and get games out faster and it's literally changed nothing. It just costs 100 bucks more for a CIB now 😂

If they wanted to resolve any of this they would eliminate grading tiers for now and grade based on date received. It will take them forever to catch up having to backlog speed runs in favor of warp zones and so on.

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New stuff submitted is actually beating submission estimtes. I'd guess the backlog is being addressed in Denver and the new stuff in CA. Tons of people now are getting their older orders, so I'll bet they're caught up in the next few months and then everything is hitting turnaround times or better. 

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On 3/16/2022 at 5:35 PM, 3rdStrongestMole said:

I haven't even looked recently... is CIB more than Warp? They're both over 200 I think

Idr the price for Warp CIB but I know Speedrun CIB is $170. I wish they revert back to $85. 

3 hours ago, ExplodedHamster said:

New stuff submitted is actually beating submission estimtes.

Depending on how many pple send x number of sealed and CIB games in.

3 hours ago, ExplodedHamster said:

and then everything is hitting turnaround times or better.

I hope so. I am refraining from sending anything right now. I read CGC hired several pple and will open sometime in 2022 but not sure when. No idea what there slabs will look like. More akin to Wata, VGA or something else? I hope it isn't anything like VGG. The abomination.

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5 hours ago, AnimalHouse said:

Idr the price for Warp CIB but I know Speedrun CIB is $170. I wish they revert back to $85. 

Depending on how many pple send x number of sealed and CIB games in.

I hope so. I am refraining from sending anything right now. I read CGC hired several pple and will open sometime in 2022 but not sure when. No idea what there slabs will look like. More akin to Wata, VGA or something else? I hope it isn't anything like VGG. The abomination.

Nah, they're well equipped to handle turnaround times now.  It feels like they could actually turn on more systems at this point believe it or not (DS? PS3? Etc.)  They have more resources than ever and are clearing out backlog faster than many people can handle receiving it back.  There's such a glut of games hitting the market and prices have cooled a lot since summer 2021... so some of those speculator only submissions have cooled a lot as well.  I suspect the turnaround times on new orders are going to be very spot-on for the recent foreseeable future. 

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I finally got my shipping notice today for half my order from November 22. This order only had 2 DVD style games in it, the other half with 6 in it hasn't shipped out yet. I sent both as 2 separate orders on the same day so they chose to only give me 2 of the precious coveted DVD style cases so they could at least get one of my orders out. Now I know if I'm submitting multiple orders in the same shipment, put all of the DVD style submissions in one order.

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