Welcome, Guest Login
You must login or register to post.

Card Review Time / Customer Service (Read 1764 times)
FIONA_146836
GCU Newbies
artist
*



Posts: 5
Card Review Time / Customer Service
Dec 6th, 2010, 10:14am
 
I am a new artist and have 88 cards still waiting for review after 2 weeks. I realised the 3 - 7 days in GCU advice was likely to be longer in the run-up to Christmas but was concerned something was wrong - or I had done something wrong.  I contacted GCU twice by e-mail and still have not had a reply or acknowledgement.  I have other cards to set up but do not want to do this until I know the first ones were ok ( I only went ahead with them as many are for Christmas) so last week I resorted to phoning GCU from the UK to make sure nothing I have done is holding up the process.  To say the person I spoke to was less than helpful is an understatement.  No checks were made and I was told it would take OVER two weeks and that even if approved would take some weeks to be found on the searches therefore they would sell NEXT year (so the delay is not relevant).  Even though I was surprised by this information I remained polite yet seeking clarification she hung up on me!  I called again (more expense) and she denied hanging up on me but gave no explanation to why the call was cut or any apology and seemed quite smug that the cards were not being reviewed and I would get no sales.  
 
I thought GCU was the best place for my cards after much research but am beginning to think I have made a mistake especially with such poor artist's customer service.  You might say this is not the norm but what else am I to think when its been all I have experienced.  
 
Couldn't GCU at least send an email or display an index by artist or card number so you know where you are in the queue and can see the system is working and you are moving up the queue.  At the moment it just feels like they are in a black hole.  Or just display the current approval waiting time.  Then GCU would not get unnecessary e-mails or phone calls (esp from new artitsts like myself) leaving them more time to carry out the reviews and help speed up the process.
 
Best wishes
Fiona
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Lane_143513
GCU Newbies
artist
*



Posts: 2
Re: Card Review Time / Customer Service
Reply #1 - Dec 6th, 2010, 11:23am
 
Hi, Fiona.  I am fairly sure you have gotten this response already, but you may want to just load up your images onto another site, even while you are waiting for gcu to approve your images.  I loaded mine onto zazzle.com at no cost, and as far as I can tell, there isn't a review or approval process.  Sorry for your distress.  This sounds REALLY inexcusable!
 
lane
www.greetingcarduniverse.com/darkhorsecreations
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
KC_141411
GCU Administrator
artist
*****



Posts: 610
Re: Card Review Time / Customer Service
Reply #2 - Dec 6th, 2010, 11:35am
 
Fiona,
 
I would first like to start by apologizing to you.  In no way was I trying to be rude or discouraging to you. As a customer support representative I assist customers with their card orders and help artists with technical issues, however I am not a member of the review team and as such, do not always know what is going on in the review process.   To check the status of your submitted cards it's best to reach out to the review team directly which you had already done.   The review team is made up of artists like yourself that work outside of our offices so it's impossible to get an immediate answer regarding the status of your cards.    We do apologize for the wait in receiving a reply to your email inquiries regarding your cards, and we have reached out to the review team and asked them to send you an email if there are any issues with these cards.  
 
As I explained, we are aware of the extended wait period; we apologize for this and are doing our best to speed things up. We have updated our Wiki and Artist’s FAQ regarding the approval process and the extended wait period that may occur during the holidays.  
 
We hope for every artist on GCU to do well and make many sales. I was simply trying to explain to you that we recommend artists submit holiday cards at least three months an advance.  This reason is to allow for the review process and also allow search engines to find and index your cards.  The search engines help in sales as a good number of our orders are a result of people doing searches on Google and seeing our cards appear at the top of the search results. That’s not to say cards can’t sell as soon as they are approved. I mentioned that some artists have posted on the forum stating they have seen more sales of last year’s holiday cards because of search engines.  
 
Regarding the dropped call, I assure you that I did not hang up on you during our call, it's very likely that we may have been disconnected somehow.  
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Christine_135506
Junior Member
artist
**



Posts: 55
Re: Card Review Time / Customer Service
Reply #3 - Dec 6th, 2010, 12:56pm
 
Hi Fiona,
 
I'm sorry you have had such a rough start at GCU.  This is defineately not the norm.  the staff at GCU are usually quite helpful and responsive to the artists.  As for review times it can be a bit frustrating because we all want that immediately gratification, once we are done our cards we want to see it up right away and we want to sell it right away.  But unfortunately the review process does take some time.  And during holiday times it is worse.  I think right now it is at least a 2 week wait.  But stick it out...GCU is a great place to sell your art!
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged
Mindy
GCU Administrator
Community Manager
*****



Posts: 6535
Gender: female
Re: Card Review Time / Customer Service
Reply #4 - Dec 9th, 2010, 12:57pm
 
Hi Fiona,
Sorry for your frustrations but I too assure you that our customer service team and KC in particular would not hang up on any caller.  
 
Please see here and on the forum re: card reviews and advice for submitting cards well in advance of the occasion/holiday.  Also some good info in there re: the process in general.  We will also update this thread to reflect the current 2 week review times:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1234562095
 
See here for card status discussion:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1244156807
 
As for our review process GCU strongly believes it is a necessary evil.  There are other sites, ahem, with very superficial review processes or no review process at all that we believe does not serve the community nor shoppers well.  
 
For example please see here re: tag spamming at Zazzle:
http://www.greetingcarduniverse.com/forum/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1234562095
 
My apologies as well for the lack of response to your two emails.   Sad
Back to top
 
 
Email   IP Logged

About Us     Artists     Artist FAQ     Blog     Card Sellers     Contact Us     Content Disclaimer     Forum     Paper Card Categories     Privacy Policy     Shopper FAQ     Holidays 2011

Click to verify BBB accreditation and to see a BBB report.                        
© Copyright 2000- Greeting Card Universe - Powered By Bigdates-Solutions.com   

GCU Forum » Powered by YaBB 2.1!
YaBB © 2000-2005. All Rights Reserved.