After being a propoent of AFA I'm officially done with them.

I recently submitted a carded Uzay for grading and blister support. The seller and I both contacted AFA to act as a go between. Despite the delay in Emails and Voicemails they agreed to confirm that the MOC arrived and didn't come apart. They did this for me a while back on an Uzay as well. I wanted it supported and Emailed about it. Here's the reply:

AFA wrote:

Hello John,

Thank you for your inquiry. I am well; how about you and yours? The carded Uzay figures will go under the Archival Tier (A-S-A - $80) and must be submitted to CIB for authentication ($50). We should be able to grade the figure if the blister is not so loose as to allow for removal of the weapon or figure. We can also add a blister support ($25). They are given a Qualified grade.

We have made great progress in getting back on schedule. The Archival and Premium Tiers are priority, and for the most part, are on time.

Kind regards,
Kim

So the unit gets send along. There was a deabte on whether it was resealed (Tom says it might be, Joe Y says he's seen this bubble before) but I decided that it wasn't worth the fight. I requested it be cased and supported like the last one. Here's the message:

I wrote:

Kim

Okay, please have it cased and not graded at all. Please put in the rails of course. If the case can slide open from the back so the card can be removed that would be great. It’s what we did on the last Uzay I bought.

Thanks again

John

So here is what happens. After no reply after that I finally Email them to ask for an update 10 days later. I'm told it was completed and shipped.

It arrives at my house 2 days later. I open to find it put in a standard case, with no blister support! The bottom of the blister cracked a little more than it already was, and part of the blister lifted. As you can imagine, I wasn't happy. But what happened next is what set me off.

I contact AFA immediately about this. They ask me for pictures and I reply with them. They then tell me that after review, they confirm the rails are there!!!!! When I pressed them on this, they said that was I was desribing was "blister support" and they couldn't do that. I then said that couldn't be true, since you did it already on my last one. Again they said I might be wrong and asked for pictures. I sent them pictures of the other case.

They responded today to tell me that since they feel it was a partial reseal, there is no devaluation in it. They also said I wanted blister support, and not rails (despite her own Email to me confirming it above) so basically I can take a flying leap.

This is just disgraceful. Whatever faith I had in them is gone. I'm not too concerned about the re-seal but the fact that they don't care that they screwed up, will not even offer to make it right, and that the item came back a little more damaged is unreal.

Absolutely a slap in the face

Unbelievable.

Sorry you have to go through this, John.

I hope, AFA will admit their msitake and compensate you.

I've never dealt with AFA myself, but I'm shocked & disappointed that they would treat a customer that way. I guess like a lot of large businesses, they no longer care as much about customer service as they did when they started out.

Are AFA aware that you run this forum? I know your position in the community should not affect the way you're treated, but you would think they would want to avoid the negative PR? If this post was raving about what a fantastic service they provided, it could generate more business for them.

I hope you get some sort of resolution from this.

That sucks John.

I certainly hope they make things right, if not we need a new Anti-AFA banner!!

That sounds pretty crap to be honest.

What is the score with regards to items being returned from AFA damaged. I know that I hate sending out expensive AFA Graded MOCs because there is no support in the case. But if it is sent directly from AFA and arrives damaged - who foots the bill ?

Can you explain the bit about the bubble? Was Tom saying the bubble itself was a completely new type to him?
Sorry to hear it went to shit also, mate.

Josh wrote:

Can you explain the bit about the bubble? Was Tom saying the bubble itself was a completely new type to him?
Sorry to hear it went to shit also, mate.

The bubble shows some discoloring behind it and (I'm told) Tom and another grader felt it was a partial reseal. However Joe Y actually had this in hand and says it's in line with what he has seen and has no doubt it's okay. While I'd normally like the AFA authentication I won't take their word over Joe when it comes to an Uzay MOC. I even asked that Tom reach out to Joe, but nobody did.

That sucks balls. Another case of a company getting a little bigger and forgetting who butters their bread.

DarthBerizing wrote:

Josh wrote:

Can you explain the bit about the bubble? Was Tom saying the bubble itself was a completely new type to him?
Sorry to hear it went to shit also, mate.

The bubble shows some discoloring behind it and (I'm told) Tom and another grader felt it was a partial reseal. However Joe Y actually had this in hand and says it's in line with what he has seen and has no doubt it's okay. While I'd normally like the AFA authentication I won't take their word over Joe when it comes to an Uzay MOC. I even asked that Tom reach out to Joe, but nobody did.

I see. Thanks for the extra info, mate

Their issue was some minor discoloration of the cardback from the glue that was used to secure the bubble. It's not common on Uzays, but I've seen it a few times. I didn't feel any off texture to the cardback (reseals typically the glue stiffens the cardstock as it's generally applied too thick and saturates it.) Nothing like that was evident. So I stand by my orig assessment that it left the factory like that.

Cheers
Joe

I totally agree with Joe in regards to it being original. What I believe happened, and another Uzay expert actually suggested first is that the bubble lifted and took some of the paper and in some parts, some of the red pigment from the image on the card leaving a strange orange hue to the paper. And my own opinion is that poor storage of the MOC allowed for further discoloration of the glue that was exposed. When I look at images of Uzay MOC that I've saved over the years, it falls in line with those examples of poor quality plastic, paper, and glue, but that's part of their charm honestly. As someone here said recently, you can't be too picky with such limited supply.

Either way, its a beautiful Uzay Blue Stars with unique paint apps. I'm glad you have it and will enjoy it John and AFA has demonstrated its ineptness once again with the poor customer service and other things I don't think you even mentioned in this thread. When the seller spent probably an hour protecting it for its shipment to AFA, they ship it to you like a Kenner ROTJ MOC, ridiculous!

Andy A

That's a big arse bum deal John, especially on an item like that. The prices are just ridiculous to me, I've never personally dealt with AFA, but just what you've poted there, seems to me in that email that they were very quick to mention prices before anything else. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wan't the whole original point of AFA that they were non profit and there by non biest. Acrylic don't cost that much!!!!!

They never claimed to be non profit....

Quote :

They never claimed to be non profit....

Couldn't remember if I'd read that or not somewhere in the early AFA days. Makes sense really, they're clearly raking it in!

its a shame

Frirst W.. T.. F.. ... ... ... ... ...
Do they have realy no sense of responsibility anymore ..
No matter what,we are talking about a high end carded uzay figure,and they shipped
as a commen carded figure.John hope the will do the right thing ?!!!

Unbelievable.....you are doing well making this public on every forum!! The sad thing it wont affect their buisness.....people will still send in such items for grading!

Sorry for you John

Just to keep everyone up to date I did get a reply from Chad. He is going to speak with Kim and get back to me. I'm hoping to have a positive outcome, fingers crossed.

This is terrible John. Sorry to hear about this!

Hope you get a satisfactory outcome!

Another nail in AFAs coffin!!

OMG... I would be so pissed! This is why I have never sent anything into AFA to be graded. There is no way I would trust anyone to handle my figures correctly. Wow, hope this works out for you John, what a bummer.

Fingers crossed

I wanted to give everyone an update.

I took Jeff's suggestion and reached out to Chad (thx to Finestcomics and others who sent me his Email addy). Chad respsonded and asked for details on what happened. After we went back and forth he spoke to Kim and verified everything.

We worked together on figuring out the devaluation of the Blue Stars. Now to be honest it was cracked in places but this crack did expand badly. However the figure is still in there. We agreed on a value and Chad immedaitely had a check cut and sent to me for that amount. I have to say he never flinched at the number (it's not terribly high by Uzay standards) and he is going to file a claim and basically took me out of that process.

I also took good high res pictures of the figure and measured the areas around the blister. He gave them to a fabricator and they are shipping me the case I originally requested without having to ship the figure back and risk more damage. If it doesn't fit, we will have to take it from there.

I will post up the case when it arrives and hopefully put an official end to this. I have to say that Chad has been more than friendly and quick to reply. I'm not thrilled at the circumstances of course, but I have to say that dealing with him has certainly given me a better feeling. I can say his desire to fix this, and his overall sense of caring, have felt genuine.

That's good news John. Please keep us updated.

Hey John,

I am happy things are getting more in the postive direction right now!

Things are looking up.