Hey, Folks!
I am happy to announce that the final renovations to my YEAR ONE project are coming to a close! I’ve succeeded so far in in getting the walls painted and the lights replaced and the racks are nearly all painted. The final piece of the puzzle will be the moving around of all of the racks in order to accommodate the new counter configuration which will end in an island-style rearrangement in the middle of the floor. Of course, I had also planned on replacing the floors, but the surprise expense of replacing all of the light fixtures took precedence. I have scheduled Leibe Electric to come in on Monday, July 19th in order to install the new “power pole” which will bring electricity and internet to the new counter configuration. As a result, I am planning on being closed on Sunday, July 18th in order to move all the counters and racks around the store and into their new places. So, if anyone is interested in participating in a Sunday of back-breaking labor then please let me know. I think I can get it done with a half a dozen or so strong people and we will be getting started around noon. I think I have it worked out so that Monarch will be and running as normal on the 20th.
I have an amusing UPS story from this week. While it is true that I am closed on Mondays, I am often still here for at least a few hours in order to pay bills and catch up on paperwork I always fall behind on during the weekend. One of the things I always do on Mondays in write out the check for my Diamond Distributors COD shipment. The easiest way to do this is to go to Diamond’s “Shipment Tracking” section on their website as they always have the total for the COD charge next to the box that it is attached to. (For the uninitiated, when you are on COD terms with Diamond the COD charges are always on just one of the boxes in your weekly shipment, no matter how many boxes are covered by the payment.) So I made a note of the total and then decided to make sure that all of my boxes were actually in Toledo and ready to be delivered on the usual delivery day of Tuesday. Imagine my surprise to see that 2 out of the 9 boxes I was due this week were noted as being delivered to the store to some guy name “Jacob” about 45 minutes before I even got to the store!
Now understand that I strive NEVER to have anything scheduled for delivery on a Monday because I never know how long I will actually be at the store because I’m, you know, closed. This week was a little different as the silver age resealable comic bags that have been on backorder for months became available last Thursday and I needed them to ASAP so I had Southern Hobby go ahead and send them to me immediately…figuring UPS would just bring them back on Tuesday if I wasn’t there to accept them on Monday. There was a UPS note on the door noting the unsuccessful delivery and, of course, it said they would bring the box back tomorrow. So imagine my surprise that UPS was saying that two other boxes were delivered. The mystery deepens as I have no employees named “Jacob” (I’m not counting dear Jake as he always goes by “Jake”, not “Jacob”, and he lives over an hour away.) Another problem is that one of the boxes supposedly delivered to the Phantom Jake was the actual COD box which they shouldn’t have been able to deliver without receiving a check.
I started to draft an e-mail to Diamond inquiring as to what the ding dong was going on, but halfway through it I realized I didn’t have time to fart around with polite e-mails. Monday was my Dad’s birthday and I was planning on taking him out to lunch as well as to run his weekly errands and since he is a diabetic he needs to eat at certain times. Diamond is sometimes difficult to get someone on the phone, but I decided to give it a whirl and see if this couldn’t be dealt with fairly quickly. Luck, or something similar, was on my side and my call was not only immediately answered, but I actually got someone on the phone who could help me. I explained the whole story, including the pat pending Ed Katschke digressions and mildly humorous side comments and the gentleman on the other line immediately understood the situation and agreed with me that something funny was going on. He went on to reassure me that he would call UPS and try to get to the bottom of the situation and then give me a call back.
Well, he called me back rather quickly and informed me that he had spoken to the supervisor of the driver working my route that day and the she would contact the driver and find out what was going on. I didn’t know at the time, but apparently if a UPS driver delivers a COD package without actually getting the payment that they personally were on the hook for the payment. Considering this COD was over $2000 I imagine the supervisor was very concerned about who the box was delivered to. The Diamond rep assured me that she would contact me personally to let me know what she found out.
She found out really quickly and I received a call back from her around 15-20 minutes later. Apparently the driver on my route was a new employee. This new employee was scanning my three boxes (remember the one from Southern Hobby?) into his device as “not delivered” when he punched the wrong keys in and accidentally keyed both of the Diamond boxes as “delivered”. Then he couldn’t figure out how to change it to “not delivered’ and, in fact, somehow got the device stuck on the delivery screen. As a result, he simply left them designated as “delivered” and put his own name in as the person who accepted delivery. His name, naturally enough, was Jacob. Mystery solved! The UPS representative then asked if I would be at the store for a bit and told me that the driver was still in the area and would drop off all three packages within the hour.
I’ll admit I was completely relieved to hear these words. I’m also glad I noticed the problem pretty much immediately and was able to accept the packages on Monday. If those boxes had gone back into the UPS system and then gone missing after that then I all manner of chaos could have been unleashed. The driver did how up and I was a little irritated at first, but then I saw how confused and stressed he was by the events of the day and I endeavored to make his delivery as easy as possible. I didn’t even raise my voice. I was kind of proud of myself…lol. In any case, crisis averted and I got my books and passed off my COD check. The moral of the story? Well, if there is a morale I’d say “Be kind to your delivery driver as the hell they are putting you through is probably only a fraction of the hell that they are going through…”
I haven’t been talking about comics on here too much lately, mostly because I usually save that sort of thing for when I have people right in front of me, but I did want to mention a great comic I read recently. James Tynion IV’s new D.C. Comics horror series, Nice House on the Lake, is a terrific first issue! Honestly, I was a little bored with the book until I got to the 2/3rd mark and the big surprise was unleashed upon my blown mind. I literally wanted to sell this book to EVERYONE after that! Unfortunately, I sold out of the book relatively quickly and Lunar, of course, had no more copies available for reorder. I resigned myself to waiting for the trade to come out so I could vigorously hand sell it. Then D.C. Comics announced a second printing of the first issue (Due out 7/14!) and I hit upon a marketing idea that I’ve been wanting to try ever since I took over the store. I ordered a crap load of the second printings of #1 and successfully boosted my order for the second issue considerably. When the second printing of #1 arrives I will be selling the $3.99 cover price book for $2 so that I can get as many of you as possible to give the title a try! If this promotion goes over as well as I suspect it will then I will try it on other titles in the next few months. SO watch out for Nice House on the Lake #1 2nd Printing that is due out on 7/14!
That is it for this week, my friends. It’s already after 2pm and I still have to post all of this stuff for your edification and entertainment so I think I will get moving. I also have a huge Diamond reored to unpack and another book shelf to prep for its first coat of black paint so I will bid you adieu. Oh! Before I forget, Monarch Comics will be closed on Sunday, July 4th, for the observance of Independence Day. Additionally I will be out of the office after 3pm on Friday and will be off all of Saturday. If you have any questions or problems then I will get back to you ASAP when I get back to work.
Have a safe and happy holiday!
Eddie