Let’s Talk About That Ugly Problem...Shall We?

Owning a small business is an empowering thing. It’s a tremendous accomplishment and you should be proud to have built sonething up. No matter how big or small, YOU took the risk involved. YOU put the time, effort and money into it. YOU are most likely the face of the business and are a large part of its success. Pat yourself on the back fellow small business owners. YOU deserve it.

All of this brings me to a topic that I myself have to deal with more often than I would like to. The deadbeat customer. I’m not talking about someone who does not make a purchase. I’m directly and only talking about those that order and dont’t pay. Now let me give a little background on my business first to put things a bit into perspective.

That’s my shop. Conquest Comics located in Bayville, NJ. This month we’ve been around for 10 years and while it hasn’t always been rainbows...I’m happy with where we are at overall. We carry action figures, statues, Funko Pops, graphic novels, t-shirts, and so much more but with a heavy emphasis on comic books.

“New Book Day” as it’s known in the industry is every single Wednesday. Each week a slew of new titles grace the racks of comic shops all over the country. Comic readers and collectors alike flock to their LCS (Local Comic Shop) to pick up the latest issues and talk shop. It’s a part of the business that I truly enjoy. Wednesday is a day to connect with my customers...many whom have actually become good friends. We talk the latest books, art, movies...whatever. It’s a great place to be on New Book Day. If you’ve never been to a comic shop, pop in. I promise we aren't all like this guy. (Disclaimer:Some totally are.)

Back to the point. Plenty of customers get specific books and are part of a reserve system. Different shops call it different things but basically it works like such. Teddy gets Amazing Spider-Man, Walking Dead, Avengers, Batman, Saga, and Venom. That’s what his pull list consists of so every issue that comes out of those titles, we yank for him and put in his pull. This helps both Teddy and I in different ways. For Teddy, this ensures that he gets his books no matter what. Lots of books sellout so he’s golden incase he can’t make it in for some time. It’s a win win for both of us.

For me I know what my reservists get on a normal basis so it helps with my ordering versus just blindly guessing. I know that if I have 36 reservists that have Walking Dead on their pull list, that I need to order a minimum of 36 plus however many I want for the rack for walk ins. Simple. For this we reward those that sign up with pull lists with us with a 10% discount plus their books bagged and boarded automatically. That roughly save them on average around .50 cents an issue which adds up...believe me.

Here is the problem. A somewhat decent percentage of those reservists break bad. They end up not picking up their product. It builds and piles up to the point of a problem. We are more lenient than others but have had to change our policy recently once again as we got burned hard in 2017. We usually do purge of these reservists about two to three times a year although we are now going to break it down more often and pay closer attention. When the books start piling up we give the subscriber a call. We do this 3 times before your pull is terminated. The problem is now we are stuck with overstock on books...most of which are now several issues old and will be difficult to move. That’s just a loss. If this happens with one person, not a big deal. But when 11 subs go bad at once it can lead to something like this.

This was the holiday purge a few months back. We gave each one of these reservists several chances to not only pick up their stuff but to just be decent human beings and be honest. We get it. Life is tough and challenging and filled with circumstances that lead to a financial hurting. The loss of a job, divorce, car breaks down. Maybe you just lost interest all together. We will understand if you just let us know. The slap in the face comes when you tell me time after time you’ll be in and to not worry...just to end up stuffing me. Or even the complete ignore. No offense but we deserve better than that. Have some courtesy. It’s not that hard.

I’ll also mention that the above stack did not include the over $1000 in statues and figures that we special ordered for these reservists. Nor does it include the deadbeat layaway plans that plague us either.

Collectibles are expensive. We have items that cost hundreds to thousands. We know it’s a daunting task, dropping $1200 on a book so we offer a layaway plan. We ask that you put 20% down and then make a payment every 2 weeks to a month depending on the item and payment size. Non refundable. All of this is laid out in advance yet we have to constantly chase people down for the payments. Then after holding said item and removing it from the sales floor for 3 months, the buyer says they changed their mind and would like their money back.

It’s almost comical how often this situation arises. I hate being that guy. I hate chasing folks down but as a small business, we depend on our customers to do the right thing and just be decent folks. Let us know if there is a problem. We will work with you if need be. Lucky for us the majority of our reservists and customers as a whole are amazing people. We wouldn’t have survived for 10 years thus far otherwise. It’s just a small percentage that qualify for the title of “deadbeat”.

The main thing is we just have to have common ground. A respect for one another.

Regardless, we have had to beef up our policy and be a bit less lenient with timeframes. Take CC numbers in advance on larger special orders. We are still figuring out how to go forward and protect us as best as we can while still being customer friendly and not scaring folks away. That’s a hard thing to balance at times and are still learning how to implement new policies that are fair for all involved.

I’ll end with a quick story of a hardcore reservist that was with us for a couple of years. He was a heavy hitter and would come in every few weeks to snag his stuff. He would drop between $300-$400 each time. Well he started piling up in the fall of last year. We contacted him and he said he had car problems but would be in soon. So we kept pulling. It grew. We called again...and again. Each time getting the “I’ll be in. All good. I’m sorry. Just been busy.” routine. Well 2018 rolled around and we stopped pulling new titles and ordering for him. We still kept his stack but didn’t add new books to it. Contacted one last time and wasn’t told “next week”. Well as you probably guessed already, he never came in. On top of his books he had some Wonder Woman special order statues and props, he ended up burning us for over $2k worth of product.

I saw him the other day at a comic show I exhibited at. He looked at me and turned quicker than I’d ever seen him move before and he bolted in the opposite direction. The question I have is...why?!?!?

Any comments welcome. If you own a small business and have dealt with this or something similar in any capacity, please share your story below. Maybe you are a customer who fell in this category? We’d love to hear from you as well.

Thx for taking a look folks.