panini or UD

[whalechaser]

I don't know about this year. Most of the 09-10 stuff from UD was pretty bad. The regular UD was good because the inserts were neat like the Now Appearing set. Panini's stuff does not excite me, but it's what we're stuck with. Customer service means nothing to me if they don't make product I want to purchase in the first place.

Edit: I still have had no problem with UD customer service and they have always been stellar to me.... I don't know why people have had such bad experience with UD customer service, is it because those people are either too demanding, unrealistic, or asked for something in a rude way?

[themanishere]

^ That's not the case. To say that bad CS is because of faulty or unrealistic customer claims is just a deflection of the blame.

The point of CS is to reasonably satisfy the customer. Of course there are some people who demand too much, but a large majority are just regular people looking for a fair replacement/resolution. Just because you haven't had problems with them, doesn't mean several others shouldn't.

UD and Topps have reputations with a large population of collectors as being terrible at CS. Panini, on the other hand, has been largely lauded for their CS. Perhaps more so in football, but since they do a lot of cross-over on basketball, I believe that will eventually transfer to win people over.

I find it awful that people say they don't care about CS - building a good reputation counts for A LOT. Eventually, it will catch up to people who say they don't care, and bite them bad.

I also find that it is a different crowd in football - people love Panini in football, for the most part. Basketball has different standards, and yes I will say this, seems to have a lesser appreciation for things like CS as a whole.

[moe693]

I don't know about this year. Most of the 09-10 stuff from UD was pretty bad. The regular UD was good because the inserts were neat like the Now Appearing set. Panini's stuff does not excite me, but it's what we're stuck with. Customer service means nothing to me if they don't make product I want to purchase in the first place.

Edit: I still have had no problem with UD customer service and they have always been stellar to me.... I don't know why people have had such bad experience with UD customer service, is it because those people are either too demanding, unrealistic, or asked for something in a rude way?

i say the same thing never had a problem out of cs, but i will say that ud has sold some horribly designed cards over the years and saved everthing for exquisite IMO. to me the death of ud was in their product. i cant remember the last time i've pulled a decent jersey out of any of thier products let alone decent autos. but one the other hand UD does have some very desirable players out there still on contract, which will keep them a float until those contracts run out.
Panini hasnt even put out a product i would even consider buying.

[Atrain81]

I thought 09-10 was crap. They sloppily threw the product together, inserting cards from completely different years for example.

Panini, for their CS alone, is better already. However, I think they needed to release a product like Absolute or National Treasures for basketball this year, which they aren't as far as I know. Those products would have made a big splash.

I just saw a poster or whatever they for a NT version for bball @ my lcs today. It's called........something Treasures. We'll see how that goes.

[whalechaser]

I think there are many collector's (I'm solely speaking on the basketball side of things here) who have received good or at least satisfactory service from UD CS. I'm not going to speak for Topps as I have much fewer (but still positive) experiences with them. I often find that many poor CS experiences was a result of a combination of things such as unrealistic expectations and poor communication skills.

I feel that lots of people have receive fair replacements but are just not as vocal about it. I think people with poor CS experiences complain intensely and often while people who have received satisfactory replacements do not really talk about it.

As for not caring about CS, of course as a consumer I and everyone one care about CS. BUT the point is that why would I care about CS if I do not patron that company.

For example, if I do not eat at McDonald's EVER, why would I care if their CS is stellar or craptastic? However, if I do eat there, of course I would care about CS.

For Panini, if I never buy any of their products... does it matter to me if their CS is good? No, not at all. . .

^ That's not the case. To say that bad CS is because of faulty or unrealistic customer claims is just a deflection of the blame.

The point of CS is to reasonably satisfy the customer. Of course there are some people who demand too much, but a large majority are just regular people looking for a fair replacement/resolution. Just because you haven't had problems with them, doesn't mean several others shouldn't.

UD and Topps have reputations with a large population of collectors as being terrible at CS. Panini, on the other hand, has been largely lauded for their CS. Perhaps more so in football, but since they do a lot of cross-over on basketball, I believe that will eventually transfer to win people over.

I find it awful that people say they don't care about CS - building a good reputation counts for A LOT. Eventually, it will catch up to people who say they don't care, and bite them bad.

I also find that it is a different crowd in football - people love Panini in football, for the most part. Basketball has different standards, and yes I will say this, seems to have a lesser appreciation for things like CS as a whole.

[wrafman]

I realize that is why UD inserted so many auto's and GU in their product but I still think you have to give them a little credit for it. There are Jordan, Lebron and legends auto's in their Sig. Sensation set.

Topps did the same thing last year apparently with their Topps Signature Set. While they also have some nice star and legend auto's they have a ton of scrub auto's #ed to 5000 (exagerrating a little but not much).

The problem, with UD, as someone else said is that they also threw in a ton of scrub auto's and GU. In regular UD I think this is acceptable and understandable but not in high-end products like UD SP Signature and SP Game-Used(a nice product but overpriced, I feel). They used the same base design for those two products, as well.

[beishuizen91]

UD was an amazing company, but the last year they had to clear invintory. You cant blame them for that. I havent found any panini product I liked yet.

[mtalley82]

Topps was horrible in my opinion. I had two redemptions that went unredeemed for 6 months, a Mario Chalmers refractor auto, and Brandon Rush refractor auto. They sent me two of the same exact spud webb autos that were numbered /1899, then when I called and complained, they sent me a freakin Yi Jinlan auto.

I think there are many collector's (I'm solely speaking on the basketball side of things here) who have received good or at least satisfactory service from UD CS. I'm not going to speak for Topps as I have much fewer (but still positive) experiences with them. I often find that many poor CS experiences was a result of a combination of things such as unrealistic expectations and poor communication skills.

I feel that lots of people have receive fair replacements but are just not as vocal about it. I think people with poor CS experiences complain intensely and often while people who have received satisfactory replacements do not really talk about it.

As for not caring about CS, of course as a consumer I and everyone one care about CS. BUT the point is that why would I care about CS if I do not patron that company.

For example, if I do not eat at McDonald's EVER, why would I care if their CS is stellar or craptastic? However, if I do eat there, of course I would care about CS.

For Panini, if I never buy any of their products... does it matter to me if their CS is good? No, not at all. . .

[whalechaser]

Topps was horrible in my opinion. I had two redemptions that went unredeemed for 6 months, a Mario Chalmers refractor auto, and Brandon Rush refractor auto. They sent me two of the same exact spud webb autos that were numbered /1899, then when I called and complained, they sent me a freakin Yi Jinlan auto.

topps was pretty bad last year i heard of many who got the same spud webb auto. I wonder if this was just this last year or were they always this bad