What ink(s) are you waiting for in the mail?

[ScarletWoodland]

Added a few more samples to the postman's workload:

 

*Visconti Blue

*Pure Pens Saltire

(On the hunt for a nice, true blue between Monteverde Horizon Blue and Diamine Sargasso Sea. There's a big, gaping hole in my collection there)

 

Pure Pens Cwm Idwal

(Because I'm wondering if it'll serve as the "Organics Studio Walden Pond if it chilled the hell out" or "Monteverde California Teal condensed in a forgotten pen" that I keep wishing I owned)

[jleeper]

Diamine Racing Green. Rolf from missing-pen.de said it may take a while for him to get it out of Germany.

[Misfit]

My order from Cult Pens arrived. All was well until I opened the bubble wrap envelope 3 inks were in. The Kaweco Summer Purple had leaked. I have purple fingertips now. It is my first inky mess in a package.

 

The lid was a tiny bit loose, so maybe that’s why. But it wasn’t a lot loose. Luckily I opened it on the garage work bench. I had to throw away the clear plastic box the Kaweco ink came in.

[sansenri]

I "was" waiting, since it's just arrived

 

found a good offer a few days ago

 

 

 

[Intensity]

My GvFC order has arrived from EndlessPens, 5 inks. Tried Cognac Brown so far, and it's excellent. I was a bit worried about it being pale, but it works great with a vintage flexy Montblanc 252 with a stub/italic nib. Nice light, slightly muted orangey-brown with a dark outline/halo.

Edited June 27, 2020 by Intensity

[SchaumburgSwan]

Diamine Racing Green. Rolf from missing-pen.de said it may take a while for him to get it out of Germany.

Good choice! A great murky green...

 

Enjoy

Jens

[A Smug Dill]

After all the waiting, the bottle of Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng I ordered from Amazon arrived today in the post.

 

... in a lightly padded mailing bag, with no bubble wrap, foam or other protective packing around the retail cardboard box.

 

... with a lid that cracked in transit and split into two separate pieces.

[Intensity]

After all the waiting, the bottle of Noodler's Kung Te-Cheng I ordered from Amazon arrived today in the post.

 

... in a lightly padded mailing bag, with no bubble wrap, foam or other protective packing around the retail cardboard box.

 

... with a lid that cracked in transit and split into two separate pieces.

 

Ouch, I hope you have carefully disposed of the remnants without forever staining your entire home.

[A Smug Dill]

Ouch, I hope you have carefully disposed of the remnants without forever staining your entire home.

 

Thank you very much for your kind thoughts. I was actually surprised by how little was spilt.

 

 

Amazon has promptly refunded the entire purchase price without asking me to send the broken bottle and its contents back to the US on its expense, of course; it is very good that way, although I just wish it took more care, especially when shipping from its US warehouses to overseas destinations, to pack shipments properly and appropriately. This is not the first time a bottle of Noodler's Ink (which, being an American product, is easier to order from a supplier such as Amazon US than from retailers in, say, continental Europe or the UK) I ordered has arrived with a broken bottle and its content spilt.

 

The first time it happened — a total disaster, in that it also stained many other items in the shipping carton as well as covered everything with glass shards, and a terrible customer experience as well in trying to get proper compensation — was from a UK-based retailer (which, just to be clear, was not Cult Pens with whom I'm perfectly happy after many orders satisfactorily fulfilled) from whom I'll never buy anything again; but Amazon US sent me a bottle of Noodler's Aircorp Blue Black that arrived broken last year, promptly refunded the transaction, and promised it wouldn't happen again. So far, out of five bottles of Noodler's Ink I ordered from Amazon US (on five separate orders), two have arrived broken; as an absolute number it isn't that bad, but a 60% satisfactory delivery rate isn't good at all.

[inkstainedruth]

Was the broken bottle directly from Amazon, fulfilled by Amazon, or from a 3rd party seller? I have often (but not always) found that makes a difference). The worse experience I had was with a CD from a 3rd party seller who turned out to be an HOUR from my house. But the second worst was directly from Amazon -- it was just that they used a 3rd party delivery service and I spent half the afternoon on the phone with Amazon's Customer Service Dept. going "Where is my package? I could have DRIVEN to your Pittsburgh warehouse because I know where it is...." (just across the river from me). In the second case I got a complete refund for the two CDs (the guy finally showed up about 4 hours after I got the notice that the package was being delivered -- turned out at one point the guy was at the OTHER end of the main road my street is off of ; seriously, you ever hear of Google Maps?). In the case of the horrible 3rd party seller, I gave the absolutely appropriate negative feedback. They THEN offered a "partial refund" if I amended my feedback.... Oh, I amended it all right; just not the way they hoped.... Joke's on them -- part of the cost had come from the refund I'd gotten from the two CD order. So with the refund, a $13.99 US CD cost me a whole whopping 68¢ and the seller still gets the absolutely negative "amended" review of "Here's what the seller then did...." (Apparently, from the posts I read on their FB page, I'm lucky I got the CD at ALL....)

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[A Smug Dill]

Was the broken bottle directly from Amazon, fulfilled by Amazon, or from a 3rd party seller?

 

 

Sold and shipped by Amazon US.

[Intensity]

Amazon US is such a big organization with huuuuuge warehouses, and countless people working. They might say they will do a better job wrapping something for shipping, but the reality is it will be up to the individual doing the packing. I've received a floor lamp twice in a row from Amazon.com with glass lamp shades shattered in shipping, because each time the lamp was shipped only in its own box, which did not have sufficient styrofoam inside to prevent the breakage with rough handling. Twice I had tried to get Amazon to put that box into Another box with some extra padding in between, and they said they would, but nope. On the third time I just got lucky and nothing was broken, despite still receiving the lamp in its original box with a shipping label slapped on.

 

Some packages will have padding, but it's a box that's too large a size with some air packets next to the items, not even around the items. etc., etc.

 

If you want careful packaging, I suggest buying from actual fountain pen and ink vendors who are aware of the need to use proper padding and packaging for transporting inks. Buying from Amazon is always a gamble.

[A Smug Dill]

If you want careful packaging, I suggest buying from actual fountain pen and ink vendors who are aware of the need to use proper padding and packaging for transporting inks. Buying from Amazon is always a gamble.

 

 

Japanese retailers (from whom I used to order when Rakuten Global Market was fully operating) usually do an excellent job of packing everything, including ink bottles, for shipment over the long haul.

 

Cult Pens in the UK, too. Fontoplumo in the Netherlands as well.

 

Then there's La Couronne du Comte, that usually gift wraps every item I order from it, including individual bottles of ink! I'm real curious how its staff is going to pack my next shipment, which contains (if I'm not mistaken) 23 bottles of ink and two pens. I've never had any bottles of ink arrive broken from those three European retailers, but I've had one instance in all these years where a bottle of (Platinum Carbon Black) ink from Japan arrived with a cracked lid.

 

Whereas every single time I've ordered inks from China, they have been shipped with inadequate protection — often just dumped into a flimsy, unpadded shipping bag — and arrive looking pretty battered after 50+ days in transit. Miraculously, though, no ink bottles I ordered have ever arrived broken from China; but sometimes they just never arrive at all.

[Bristol24]

I have been waiting since Mid-March for three bottles of Hero 232 Blue Black coming from China. The order was placed just before things got really bad with wholesale lock-downs and improvised toilet paper substitutes. The vendor offered to refund but, since we were using PayPal and there was the back and forth Email exchanges, we kept the order open. I just received word that they found an alternate method of getting it to me. We will see...

 

Cliff

[Intensity]

A bunch of ink samples. A back-up bottle of the old (round bottle version) Sailor Jentle Blue-Black, as I've recently learned that the square bottle version is a slightly different color, more blue.

[ScarletWoodland]

A bottle of Robert Oster River Of Fire.

 

It'll probably be a bit darker than I was hoping but I just got bored of trying dark, teal-y samples looking for the exact right colour. I've never met a Robert Oster blue, green or teal that I didn't like so figured stuff it, let's just get a bottle of the closest Oster.

[aimi]

I managed to get my hands on Troublemaker Milky Ocean! (Not directly from Troublemaker). I'm so excited! I had a sample of this laying around that I didn't get to recently, and I LOVE it. It is definitely a little bit dry, but it's just such an aesthetically pleasing middle blurple. I notice I'm partial to lighter shades now in my broader and flex pens since they ghost less on TR. Might have to sell some of my old inks.

Edited July 9, 2020 by aimi

[AmandaW]

I too will miss Smoky Quartz when it's no longer available, so I have spent hours curating a shopping cart at Cult... I was there to order a set of the inexpensive Sailor Neo italic pens and a couple of other little things, then topping up with ink to qualify for free shipping. The outcome is just one bottle of Smoky Quartz (to delay the inevitable) and several Diamine browns as possible successors: Macassar and Espresso.

 

I had tried to make my list work with two SQ, then decided that wouldn't solve the long term problem - I do use a lot of brown ink (and grey...). Finding another brown I might like as much as SQ is more important for me than ordering as many SQ as marital harmony would allow. I hope.

[A Smug Dill]

The outcome is just one bottle of Smoky Quartz (to delay the inevitable) and several Diamine browns as possible successors: Macassar and Espresso.

 

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on those. I was just getting ready to do some simple colour comparison of brown inks I have in sets of nine, so did some initial swabbing to form the groupings (and rejecting a few of the thirty-odd inks for the exercise). Diamine Espresso ended up in the same group as Pelikan Smoky Quartz, but not Diamine Macassar.

[Stompie]

Krishna inks from Pure Pens

Autumn

Cool Breeze

Dark Chocolate

Brown Pink - I know I know! but it looks nice!