Comic Kingdom needs a Gordon Ramsey visit!
I realise that this section is for online stores, but I figured that being bricks and mortar, that feedback on Comic Kingdom (and when I say feedback, I mean a warning to avoid it like ground zero of a thermonuclear blast) is a pretty close fit.
A few weeks back I made the mistake of stopping in there and learning first hand what it's like to feel dirty having bought something from a comic book shop when the shop is bad - the kind of dirty that people reportedly experience when doing adult films for the first time- yes, it was that bad.
The first and last time I'll go there and the first time I've ever walked out of a comic store having felt dirty for having shopped there.
I went there a few months ago, having first called up to see if they had Marvel Transformers Comics in after asking for help, the woman I spoke to told me they didn't. However I decided that as it was on my way to where I needed to go, that I'd look to see what else they had.
I initially dealt with a woman who I would learn is the living embodiment of a whinging pom, when I asked about the condition of a particular vintage Transformer. She didn't know so she got someone else to help me. The older man I dealt with asked me what I wanted to ask about. I pointed to the Transformer and named them, asking if it was just the outer shell (the figure in question was Monster Pretender Slog) or if the figure was complete. The man responded with "who", to which I named them and pointed again. Again they responded with "who?" I wound up describing the figure to which I was asked "oh, so you want to ask if it transforms". I responded by clarifying that I wanted to know if it was complete. You would think that unlike an op shop, that a comic shop specialising in vintage comics and toys, would have bothered to learn about their products.
Then again, considering that most of their comics are without bags and boards and stock seems to be indiscriminately thrown around, caring about their business doesn't appear to be their strong point.
I then looked around at various things on the bottom floor and at no point was I asked whether I needed assistance or if I was looking for anything in particular.
I then went up to their second floor and asked if they had any vintage GIJOE comics in. I was told they were downstaris and asked how I could possibly have missed them like there was something wrong with me. I was about to head back downstairs when out of the corner of my eyue, I noticed some GIJOE Comics on the side shelf- predictably missing bags and boards. I took the whole lot over the counter, wanting to avoid risking further damage to them.
I then asked the man behind the counter if he could sell me individual bags and boards for the comics I might buy, to which I was told he would only sell bags and boards in lots of 100 to me. After some prying, he reluctantly agreed to see if he had any spare bags he could use for comics I might buy.
Some comics had been marked around $20, but after looking at the current prices for some of them, he decided to do them all for $5 each, which I felt happy about - so happy after the train wreck of an ordeal I'd had that I decided to go downstairs and take a look at more of them. I'd soon learn what a mistake it was.
Firstly, in amongst the comics that were there, were comics with price tickets on them - I don't mean price tickets from 20-30 years ago, I mean price tickets that had been clearly applied directly to vintage comics within the past couple of years or sooner.
I then took those I was interested in, mentioned what had happened upstairs and asked whether the same thing applied. She immediately became slightly panicky and called upstairs and demanded to know from the man upstairs that I'd been dealing with what had happened. I could only hear her end of the conversation, but what sticks out in my mind is her stroppily uttering "well, I'm not seeling them for lass than $8" (I honestly felt like saying "hello, I'm right here"). She then gets off the phone, wants to see the comics, tells me "he made a mistake while wanting to know what issues he sold and saying with the higher price oones "see, he should have sold them to you for $X".
At that point, it was only generousity of spirit which prevented me from walking out of the store right then and there. After totalling up the comics, I decided to just get half of them- partly because it was more than I had expected to spend based on what had transpired upstairs and partly because she'd killed off any chance of me having an "oh what the hell" moment and deciding to get them anyway.
Then when she bagged them up, she took my card to pay for it -at which point I was left wondering if what she was doing was being done as an act of comedy. She took my card, but could not figure out how to use the chip slot on the EFTPOS machine. She inserted it every way but the correct way, before finally giving up and swiping it. I then entered my pin and paid for it - at which point, I actually had to ask her for the receipt. She at first claimed she couldn't give it to me because the til was shut- at which point she first printed one off, but then insisted on trying to get one out o the register, at which point I told her 3 times that I only needed the EFTPOS receipt, before finally having enough and walking out of the store - feeling really dirty, like I was some 50c hooker.
The place needs either a wrecking ball or the comics equivalent of a Gordon Ramsey to go into there and whip them into shape- they treat their customers like they treat their stock (like crap) and I honestly have to wonder how, besides a stream of innocent victims- I mean first time customers - how they even stay in business.
My advice to anyone reading this is to avoid them like ground zero at a thermonuclear blast.
