M800 Cracked barrel

[hari317]

I bought my M800 old style NOS in Oct 2007. The barrel section joint had some annular gap from the start which I asked about here, after about one year of use with Waterman's B/B ink, I cleaned out the pen and found some peculiar stain marks seemingly in between the binde and the inner sleeve. At that stage I decided not to do anything about it since it was only a cosmetic issue. However after about a month of my noticing this staining, the pen leaked in the middle of a meeting when I took out the pen to jot down something. Since I had come in to the meeting straight from the airport I thought the flight had caused the ink bomb, but flushing the pen and cap did not subside the leak. Close examination showed a small crack in the section barrel joint. I have no clue how it cracked. I treat my pens with good care.

http://i264.photobucket.com/albums/ii197/hari317/M800/IMG_2666.jpg

I was broken hearted and did not know what to do due to the lack of a Pelikan service centre in India. I decided to send this pen to a good friend (also a FPN member) in the USA to see if Chartpak could do anything about this pen; due to the change in their policy they refused, so the pen was sent from USA to Pelikan in Germany. The pen was missing in post for about 8 weeks when fortunately USPS returned it back to the sender undelivered to Pelikan for some reason. The pen was sent again to Pelikan in Germany and this time they did the repair within 4 days and replaced the barrel free of cost(from the Pelikan repair invoice). USPS and Indiapost delivered the pen to me within 10days by Express mail.

 

I am very satisfied with Pelikan service and grateful for the all the help of my friend and consider myself lucky that the pen was returned to working condition.

 

Thanks for reading,

Hari

[Inka]

I am so happy the conclusion was sound and you had your pen barrel replaced.

When I first saw that crack my heart sank as well, looks more like a stress fracture from the section being too tight against the barrel.

It sounds like your pen went on a very long journey, all over the planet, so it must be a very good feeling to have it home again with new parts as well.

[girlieg33k]

Congratulations on the happy ending!

[Underskoterskan]

Another case of excellent after-sales service from Pelikan !

 

I'm glad you're able to continue enjoying the greatness of your M800, Hari.

 

Regards

Undersköterskan

[DeScribe]

Congratulations, Hari. Good to hear another happy ending.

[Ondina]

Glad to hear it was solved, but is not the first time I wonder about modern plastics. I've seen shrunk barrels in Shaeffer Balance II's, Montegrappas..... while vintage ones hold well. This is a crazy hobby....

[printhardcopy]

Congratulation !!! So happy that you get good service from pelikan germany !!.

 

Thanks for sharing your positive experience of pelikan.

[skipwilliams]

Hari was kind in not mentioning my name, but I was the poor guy who almost lost his pen.

 

It came to me well packed and I forwarded to to Pelikan Germany at the address mentioned on the Pelikan.de website for service. That was in late January.

 

Not wanting to tell Hari that his beloved, old-style M800 with the Binder-tuned nib was possibly lost in my care, I contacted the customer service lady in late March and then proceeded to exchange emails for 3 weeks hoping that Pelikan would find the box stuffed into some in-box somewhere. But no luck; I had to tell Hari that his pen may be lost. :-(

 

Then, lo-and-behold, it showed up at my house April 15 with lots of German writing, stickers, and "could not deliver" messages all over it. It looks like the address on the Pelikan website was to blame, being totally wrong; even as bad as the Wrong City! I sent the package uninsured to keep the costs down, so I had no tracking information. But I'd probably do it again; I've had very few problems shipping packages, only using EMS when a buyer recommended it.

 

So I sent the package back to Germany via FedEx this time with our work discount. It arrived back at my house in about 2 weeks. I opened the package to make sure that they hadn't returned it un-repairable. :-o It then went to India via EMS, to arrive at Hari's hands this week. So it had quite a long, 4-1/2 month, transcontinental journey. Pelikan was very nice and fixed the pen for free, as it was obvious that it had failed. The celluloid barrel had split just behind the threads, which is a pretty low stress area. Maybe it was due to shrinkage?

 

Skip

 

[Inka]

Being very new to Pelikan in general myself, it's still good to know that Pelikan will take such good care of their customers when issues arise.

It is a shame they had the wrong information on their Website, no fault of yours Skip [obviously] but I feel your pain when it came back on your shoulders.

If I ever need to do something similar [knock on wood that I never have to] this will be an important lesson learned, as I will now most likely triple-check any address information prior to shipping.

A 2 week turn-around is outstanding, once delivered to the proper place, something I've not had with any other company when defects had arisen and repairs needed.

 

[hari317]

Hari was kind in not mentioning my name, but I was the poor guy who almost lost his pen.

 

Thanks Skip for everything, if you had not agreed to help me, the pen would have just languished in my pen case and I would never have bought any more Pelikans. and it was no fault of yours that the package could not be delivered the first time around. I also wanted to clarify that the nib on this pen is not a Binder tuned one, but a favorite none the less.

 

Thanks again!

Hari

 

[Pendel]

Interesting to see another M800 with a gap between the barrel and the section. Mine has that too (but no cracks yet). I wonder whether this is just a common manufacturing defect... Have you seen many such "gappy" M800s around?

 

:-)

 

[hari317]

Interesting to see another M800 with a gap between the barrel and the section. Mine has that too (but no cracks yet). I wonder whether this is just a common manufacturing defect... Have you seen many such "gappy" M800s around?

 

:-)

 

Pendel, pls get the barrel changed if the pen is under warranty. Why take chances and risk ink bomb embarrasment, I have a feeling the gapped ones will eventually fail due to increased strain on the section bell.

 

Best,

Hari

 

 

 

[Pendel]

Pendel, pls get the barrel changed if the pen is under warranty. Why take chances and risk ink bomb embarrasment, I have a feeling the gapped ones will eventually fail due to increased strain on the section bell.

 

Best,

Hari

 

I am not sure how to tell whether the pen is under warranty. It is not a new pen. I guess I can contact Pelikan in Germany and see...

 

:-)

 

[Charles Skinner]

What is "old style NOS?" I have an M800 that I love. Bought it about ten or twelve years ago. Would it be "old style, and how is old style different from "new style?" C. S.

[sargetalon]

Old style refers to the trim. Pelikan restyled their lines in the late 90s creating old and new styles of several of their pens. The cap top and piston knob had gold medallions before switching over to what we have today. That's the biggest difference on an M800. NOS simply means "new old stock." A new pen bought new but from from older stock that had gone unsold. A pen from 10-12 years ago would be new style.

[Charles Skinner]

My M800 has "gold Medallion" on the top of the cap, but not on the piston knob. C. S.

[Charles Skinner]

To be clear, --- I need to say that the "gold Medallion" on top of the cap is somewhat dull looking, and is not like the other gold on the pen, such as the gold clip. C. S.

[hari317]

To be clear, --- I need to say that the "gold Medallion" on top of the cap is somewhat dull looking, and is not like the other gold on the pen, such as the gold clip. C. S.

The following article should be able to help you:

 

http://www.thepenguinpen.com/pelikan/pelikan_m800.jsp

[sargetalon]

Here is an exampled of the medallions on an "old style" M800 Collector's Edition. Ricks article linked above is also very informative.

 

[alexwong001]

A refreshing change in term of good post purchase customer care!! Kudos to pelikan.