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

[Detman101]

2 minutes ago, Just J said:

OMG, I bet i could name that ink without one sniff! LOL 

Cedar what I mean? 😉

OMG!!
You know what ink I'm talking about!?!
You bought it too!?
The black ink?
Was Cedar and smelled powerful strong but was absolutely runny and not good on ANY paper!

[mizgeorge]

6 hours ago, Just J said:

Meanwhile, while I'm here.... and imagining before the night is thru I will be awaiting another bottle or four (It's a sickness) in the mail -- I've just learned of, and was extremely surprised to find, (since they are purported to be of extra-high quality, one of this groups mainstays, and lord knows the bottles & trappings are exceptional!) that there's no mention of the brand, or at least, none I could find with our Search Tool, and that being  ink.  Anybody know anything about them?? 

 

I'd add a link for their website,  but not sure if that's 'legal for me here. Goog' s your friend.  😇

I've never heard of them. The website's so full of incomprehensible hyperbole it looks almost like an elaborate joke, but their video links would suggest at least two people are using them! 

 

They appear to be based in Canada.

[Just J]

For some reason I'm starting to think maybe Australia!  Anyway,  I used their Contact form to ask them, & complain about their lack of adequate display of their ink colors, & inquired about a pamphlet or somesuch.   

[A Smug Dill]

On 5/5/2021 at 12:19 AM, A Smug Dill said:

I just ordered all nine … 

 

Crud! I didn't get any shipment notification, in spite of having received (automatic) order confirmation last Tuesday, so I asked Cult Pens about it … and was told that the order “got stuck in the system” since placement, and one of the items has sold out in the meantime, and so they (upon looking into it) just went ahead and cancelled my order entirely, apologised for “the inconvenience caused”, then suggested that I just place a new order (at today's prices, offers and exchange rate) for the products that are still available if I still want them.

 

Not happy.

[mizgeorge]

12 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Crud! I didn't get any shipment notification, in spite of having received (automatic) order confirmation last Tuesday, so I asked Cult Pens about it … and was told that the order “got stuck in the system” since placement, and one of the items has sold out in the meantime, and so they (upon looking into it) just went ahead and cancelled my order entirely, apologised for “the inconvenience caused”, then suggested that I just place a new order (at today's prices, offers and exchange rate) for the products that are still available if I still want them.

 

Not happy.

That's dreadful! They're normally so efficient as well. 

[mehandiratta]

Waiting on some waterman inks.. especially mysterious blue

[Detman101]

3 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Crud! I didn't get any shipment notification, in spite of having received (automatic) order confirmation last Tuesday, so I asked Cult Pens about it … and was told that the order “got stuck in the system” since placement, and one of the items has sold out in the meantime, and so they (upon looking into it) just went ahead and cancelled my order entirely, apologised for “the inconvenience caused”, then suggested that I just place a new order (at today's prices, offers and exchange rate) for the products that are still available if I still want them.

 

Not happy.

Oh nooooo....that's not gonna work.
If they don't make that right for you I'm scratching them off my list of potential vendors.

[IlikeInksandIcannotlie]

A 100ml bottle of Perle Noire.

 

[Just J]

I've had the VERY same thing happen to me recently! Ordered (along with a couple TR pads & loose sheets) 2 btls of ink, one on sale, & the order 'fell thru the cracks' becuz one ink -the sale priced one, natch - ..."got lost". So they cancelled my whole order & in the ensuing correspondence they suggested I just order again. Of course, at the regular prices!  And I suggested that since they were apparently SO proud of their merchandise, they should just keep it.  

 

And I let them do that. ~8b 

[Just J]

Oops! Should add, that this was not Cult Pens, but rather one of the Amazon 3rd party sellers. 

[Detman101]

Got tired of waiting on my Vanness order that won't arrive for a full month thanks to the $#!++^ usps service in my area, went to Amazon and spent money there for "Diamine - Tobacco Sunburst".

Will be here in 3 days.

Seriously...why can't amazon take over the postal delivery services in this country???

[A Smug Dill]

4 hours ago, Detman101 said:

If they don't make that right for you I'm scratching them off my list of potential vendors.

 

For what it's worth, as it happened the offers of ‘5 for 4’ on inks/refills (with some exceptions by brand) and 10%-off selected sets of coloured pencils are still in play, and the site-wide discount code I used on top of that still works today.

 

What annoyed me was:

1. The order was confirmed, and my PayPal payment had gone through, last Tuesday but nothing has happened since, and nobody proactively informed me that there was a problem. It wasn't even showing in my account's order history on Cult Pens's web site, and that was what made me suspect there was a more serious issue than the dispatch function being slower than usual, and took the initiative to ask.
2. They were quick to look into it after I asked overnight, and discovered the error, but instead of either asking me what I wanted to do now that one item is out of stock (or perhaps already was out of stock, when I placed the order, which could well be what caused the problem in the back-end), or deleting and refunding that single item from the order and fulfil the rest of it pronto, they went for what I suspect is procedurally easier, and just cancelled and refunded the entire order without consultation.
3. Having done so, and then suggesting that I just place a new order for the items that are still available today, it was not accompanied by a pledge along the lines of, “Of course we will honour all the discounts that were applicable to those items on the original order as confirmed last week,” no matter how tricky and time-consuming the adjustments to the substitute new order may be, if the discount codes or offers had already expired in the meantime.
4. The item that has gone permanently out of stock is a £0.73 clearance item. That Cult Pens was so prepared and proactive to cancel the entire £135 order because of that, without consultation with me, without suggesting an alternative product it could supply (when there were other colours of that item at the same price) instead, and without otherwise trying to “make it right” was just… incredible.
5. I was then told they only update stock levels once a day, so even though I saw that there was "1 in stock" for that item in my shopping cart — the reason I took it through to checkout in the same session,  instead of mulling over the order for a few more hours or even couple of days — it could already have been out of stock all the while. I know many folks here love to “hate on” LCdC for not promptly advising customers when an order-able product is out of stock (which is an issue the company has sorta fixed earlier this year, albeit in a similarly flawed fashion, I suspect); to discover that Cult Pens can be equally poor (or worse, since it essentially just lost my order altogether after taking payment) is very disappointing.
6. Having received a refund through PayPal for the original order, I expressed my displeasure, then placed a substitute order, asked the customer service rep I was dealing with to ensure it goes through (with payment already effected) and get sent, and was assured the order is confirmed and will be packed and forwarded to the company's shipping partner today (which I guess is the best it can do to “make it right”, once what's done is done). An hour or so later, I received email from a different customer service rep (quoting and replying to my initial query sent by web form overnight) that, “It looks like there was a problem when placing your order and it never went through. …‹snip›… You should not have been charged for the previous order.” Maybe I should not have been charged, but PayPal most certainly told me I was charged last Tuesday, and the original order confirmation I received clearly stated, “Payment Details: PayPal”. The apparent left-hand-doesn't-know-what-the-right-hand-is-doing in the whole episode was astounding.

I've had many good customer experiences with Cult Pens before, so I hope this is a one-off screw-up. That said, I've had to point out to the folks there, in the first week following the web shop's system change, that its implementation of sales tax was broken for Australian customers and double-charging us; and (I guess) there's something systemic about orders being confirmed and paid for but then bombs out of processing quietly when one or more items turn out not to be in stock. Unlike for orders placed in 2020 before the system changes, I'm unable to see the details of my successful new order in my account, other than its order number, date and total amount. And it seems to be using a different order dispatch and shipment process (and/or partner?) from before. I question how many of these new things are tested thoroughly before going live.

 

Let's see if my new order (with ten bottles of Platinum Mix-Free Ink, and some other products), which has a higher total amount by a few dollars, is indeed sent by “Express Courier (Air)”, instead of “Tracked Post” on the original order. (The customer can no longer either see the applicable delivery charges or choose a shipping method when assembling a shopping cart, after the system changes. I suspect the original order was on the wrong side of the cusp of qualifying for a better grade of delivery service, and not that I'm being given a ‘free’ upgrade on account of Cult Pens trying to make up for the screw-up.)

[Detman101]

36 minutes ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

For what it's worth, as it happened the offers of ‘5 for 4’ on inks/refills (with some exceptions by brand) and 10%-off selected sets of coloured pencils are still in play, and the site-wide discount code I used on top of that still works today.

 

What annoyed me was:

1. The order was confirmed, and my PayPal payment had gone through, last Tuesday but nothing has happened since, and nobody proactively informed me that there was a problem. It wasn't even showing in my account's order history on Cult Pens's web site, and that was what made me suspect there was a more serious issue than the dispatch function being slower than usual, and took the initiative to ask.
2. They were quick to look into it after I asked overnight, and discovered the error, but instead of either asking me what I wanted to do now that one item is out of stock (or perhaps already was out of stock, when I placed the order, which could well be what caused the problem in the back-end), or deleting and refunding that single item from the order and fulfil the rest of it pronto, they went for what I suspect is procedurally easier, and just cancelled and refunded the entire order without consultation.
3. Having done so, and then suggesting that I just place a new order for the items that are still available today, it was not accompanied by a pledge along the lines of, “Of course we will honour all the discounts that were applicable to those items on the original order as confirmed last week,” no matter how tricky and time-consuming the adjustments to the substitute new order may be, if the discount codes or offers had already expired in the meantime.
4. The item that has gone permanently out of stock is a £0.73 clearance item. That Cult Pens was so prepared and proactive to cancel the entire £135 order because of that, without consultation with me, without suggesting an alternative product it could supply (when there were other colours of that item at the same price) instead, and without otherwise trying to “make it right” was just… incredible.
5. I was then told they only update stock levels once a day, so even though I saw that there was "1 in stock" for that item in my shopping cart — the reason I took it through to checkout in the same session,  instead of mulling over the order for a few more hours or even couple of days — it could already have been out of stock all the while. I know many folks here love to “hate on” LCdC for not promptly advising customers when an order-able product is out of stock (which is an issue the company has sorta fixed earlier this year, albeit in a similarly flawed fashion, I suspect); to discover that Cult Pens can be equally poor (or worse, since it essentially just lost my order altogether after taking payment) is very disappointing.
6. Having received a refund through PayPal for the original order, I expressed my displeasure, then placed a substitute order, asked the customer service rep I was dealing with to ensure it goes through (with payment already effected) and get sent, and was assured the order is confirmed and will be packed and forwarded to the company's shipping partner today (which I guess is the best it can do to “make it right”, once what's done is done). An hour or so later, I received email from a different customer service rep (quoting and replying to my initial query sent by web form overnight) that, “It looks like there was a problem when placing your order and it never went through. …‹snip›… You should not have been charged for the previous order.” Maybe I should not have been charged, but PayPal most certainly told me I was charged last Tuesday, and the original order confirmation I received clearly stated, “Payment Details: PayPal”. The apparent left-hand-doesn't-know-what-the-right-hand-is-doing in the whole episode was astounding.

I've had many good customer experiences with Cult Pens before, so I hope this is a one-off screw-up. That said, I've had to point out to the folks there, in the first week following the web shop's system change, that its implementation of sales tax was broken for Australian customers and double-charging us; and (I guess) there's something systemic about orders being confirmed and paid for but then bombs out of processing quietly when one or more items turn out not to be in stock. Unlike for orders placed in 2020 before the system changes, I'm unable to see the details of my successful new order in my account, other than its order number, date and total amount. And it seems to be using a different order dispatch and shipment process (and/or partner?) from before. I question how many of these new things are tested thoroughly before going live.

 

Let's see if my new order (with ten bottles of Platinum Mix-Free Ink, and some other products), which has a higher total amount by a few dollars, is indeed sent by “Express Courier (Air)”, instead of “Tracked Post” on the original order. (The customer can no longer either see the applicable delivery charges or choose a shipping method when assembling a shopping cart, after the system changes. I suspect the original order was on the wrong side of the cusp of qualifying for a better grade of delivery service, and not that I'm being given a ‘free’ upgrade on account of Cult Pens trying to make up for the screw-up.)

Ahhh I see.
Well, I will be standing by awaiting your report on whether it gets fulfilled properly the second time around. 
That was quite a bit of rigamarole to get your order through...

[brokenclay]

On 5/4/2021 at 1:52 PM, brokenclay said:

 

Got the notification that this order shipped early last week. Apparently it's made it out of Germany, but the US hasn't acknowledged its existence yet...

 

And everything got here safely! Fritz Schimpf did a wonderful job packaging it all. 

 

 

Now I seriously will never need to buy ink again (I know, I know, famous last words).

[mizgeorge]

There does seem to be a bit of a left-hand right-hand problem at Cult Pens at the moment, which I suspect is to do with remote working - the customer service people do not appear to be at the 'office' as normal, but are working from home, which would explain the reduced stock checking and rather more things going wrong than usual.  I contacted them last week about an order with a very specific packing request and for the second time in a row, this was not communicated to the guys in the warehouse, despite assurances that it would be. 

 

As for LCdC, I have two outstanding orders with them at the moment (having sworn I wouldn't bother trying again), which show no sign of movement, despite being well outside the estimated dates now. 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, my order from Van Diemens, which was placed on 16th of last month, and supposedly shipped 'express' (at a cost of AUD$40) on a 7-12 working day lead time, doesn't even appear to have left Australia yet. Not that impressed on that one - especially when I was able to order a Karas Kustoms pen last Tuesday afternoon, and have it in my hands on Friday morning. 

 

 

26 minutes ago, brokenclay said:

 

And everything got here safely! Fritz Schimpf did a wonderful job packaging it all. 

 

 

Now I seriously will never need to buy ink again (I know, I know, famous last words).

Well done FS - I must get me some of those inks! And I'm rather liking the black top now I see it (yep, mine's in one of those back orders so who knows when I'll get it...)

[brokenclay]

4 minutes ago, mizgeorge said:

And I'm rather liking the black top now I see it (yep, mine's in one of those back orders so who knows when I'll get it...)

 

I hope it comes soon. I don't really like the derby caps at all, I prefer the rounded vintage pen ends, so I can't get excited about whether they're black or metallic or whatever. The binde is so pretty, though...

[A Smug Dill]

22 hours ago, A Smug Dill said:

For what it's worth, as it happened the offers of ‘5 for 4’ on inks/refills (with some exceptions by brand) and 10%-off selected sets of coloured pencils are still in play, and the site-wide discount code I used on top of that still works today.

 

Geebus! All that changed today. Good thing I sent the query in the wee hours of Monday morning, and got it all sorted yesterday. There is now a site-wide 15%-off discount that can be applied, but the ‘5 for 4’ on inks/refills and 10%-off selected coloured pencils offers have been removed, so overall I'd be worse off if I had to reorder today, not to mention some of the products on my order are now out of stock.

—

 

I must have a short memory, or could it be that I'm just cheap? With the ‘right’ discounts on offer — to everyone equally, not just to me — all is forgiven readily.

 

I just placed yet another order with Cult Pens today. Bottles of Graf von Faber-Castell Cognac Brown, Deep Sea Green, Midnight Blue, Olive Green, Stone Grey and Violet Blue should be on their way to me soon by express courier.

 

Edited May 11, 2021 by A Smug Dill
Hail the new order

[A Smug Dill]

On 5/11/2021 at 4:58 AM, Detman101 said:

I will be standing by awaiting your report on whether it gets fulfilled properly the second time around. 

 

Sixteen bottles of ink (in fifteen different colours) now on their way to me in two separate DHL consignments, sent on behalf of Cult Pens by Global-e at the same time; one being a day later, and the other being a day earlier, than when Cult Pens told me to expect.

 

DHL advises the expected delivery date is next Friday, just in time for a Sunday barbecue when I'm intending to give two little girls sets of watercolour pencils and water brush pens to go with the colouring books we got them.

 

 

[inkstainedruth]

On 5/10/2021 at 8:42 AM, Detman101 said:

Oh nooooo....that's not gonna work.
If they don't make that right for you I'm scratching them off my list of potential vendors.

Agreed.  I ordered a pen from them a year or two back, and it was a great experience.  So I'm really surprised at the comments of ASD about his experience.

But IME, Amazon should NOT be running the USPS.  And I say that as someone who doesn't have a high opinion of the USPS either -- but Amazon *isn't* answer, IME -- I've had problems with them (and not just with third party vendors, either).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth 

[Detman101]

1 hour ago, A Smug Dill said:

 

Sixteen bottles of ink (in fifteen different colours) now on their way to me in two separate DHL consignments, sent on behalf of Cult Pens by Global-e at the same time; one being a day later, and the other being a day earlier, than when Cult Pens told me to expect.

 

DHL advises the expected delivery date is next Friday, just in time for a Sunday barbecue when I'm intending to give two little girls sets of watercolour pencils and water brush pens to go with the colouring books we got them.

 

 

Awesome, glad that story wound up with a happier ending.
I'll consider them in the future, thank you!