Twsbi: In Case You Have Problem With Your Twsbi Pen

[speedy]

Dear All,

 

From time to time I see some people have problems with their twsbi pens, most of these problems can be fixed by receiving new parts (or improved parts) from us then do the self service. But I also see some people cannot resolve the problems by this way.

 

If you really cannot fix the pen by yourself, PLEASE, do send the complete pen back to us, so we can service it for you without giving you more trouble.

 

We are not perfect yet, but we are moving toward that direction all the time.

 

Cheers

speedy

[AAN]

Good to know someone from TWSBI pays some attention to customers. I emailed the company about my problems on 23rd April and am still awaiting a reply, or even an acknowledgment.

Andrew

[msolok]

Hi Speedy,

 

Thanks for the response. I was emailing the Customer support email from the 25 April to the 30 April. The end result was for me to send the pens back to TWSBI in the USA for you to tweak. As I said in my last email before TWSBI stopped responding, this will cost me around $60 in shipping back to the USA, so is not a good solution. No offer has been made by TWSBI to replace faulty parts and no apology was given in the emails for receiving 3 pens with performance issues.

 

I would love to have these issues resolved, but I don't think it is acceptable that a paying customer who just received 3 faulty pens (out of the 3 I purchased) has to spend another $60 to resolve the issues.

 

I am sorry if I sound a bit short or rude, that's not my intention. I think it might just be the frustration of having the pens sitting there and now getting used getting to me

 

EDIT: I am also left wondering, obviously this thread was started after myself and AAN (as well some some other forumers here and on some other Forums) started posting about some issues with our pens. But Speedy hasn't tried to contact myself of AAN from the looks of it (I have no personal message left for me nor an email). I would have thought the first step would have been to contact us directly about the issues and then post this thread, or the other way around. But no contact other than what we have tried to make with TWSBI, we were left to find this thread on our own. Could be nothing or a minor slip on Speedy's part, but it just seems a little strange to me.

Edited May 6, 2013 by msolok

[speedy]

If you are outside US or North America, send the pen back to our Taiwan office, not US. You can email info@twsbi.com, Rebecca will help you. And you should send out the pen in regular, not expensive way. There is no point to pay shipping that is more expensive then the cost of pen.

 

The contact email in US is twsbiinc@gmail.com

in Taiwan is info@twsbi.com

[Fabienne]

I was super impressed with the service I got. I had a problem, I was told what to do by Speedy. I tried that and it didn't work. I wrote to speedy who asked that I write to Philip. I did, he asked me to send it back, I did, He fixed it, sent it back, it works. I am a happy customer. So glad because the product is super! They have a few rocks in the road but... don't we all. I am a fan.

[msolok]

Thanks Speedy. The price of postage is my entire point. The price of shipping to the USA, with a basic level of cover (require a delivery signature and insurance to cover the items (things go missing more often than not in the Aus mailing system)) is huge. I pointed this out to TWSBI when I was emailing, and you simply stopped emailing me!

 

Just done a bit of a look at the cost to send to Taiwan instead of the USA, and the price is a bit better, but not a huge amount. To send the pens back using the cheapest available method (shipping times between 2 and 4 weeks...) with signature and insurance is still going to set me back $30. To step up the postage 1 notch to get slightly quicker delivery it will set me back $68.

 

So even with the cheapest shipping rates back to TWSBI in Taiwan I am looking at having to pay 60% of the price of a new 580 (not to mention the weeks I would be without the pens) for pens that were defective right from the factory to be repaired. Honestly, don't expect me to be happy about it.

[AAN]

Hi Speedy

 

Am I being impatient in expecting a response after two weeks?

 

Should I re-send the email?

 

Thanks,

 

Andrew

[twdpens]

With reference to the above post: any customer who has bought a pen in the UK should contact their retailer. This is your statutory right under the Sale of Goods Act.

 

I have fixed lots of TWSBI pens for customers including barrel replacements, piston mechanism repairs (some customers are a little, how shall we say, "hasty" in their approach to disassembly), freeing stuck piston seals, nib adjustments, feed/collar replacements and general cleaning and servicing etc. If you have a problem with a pen you have bought from us please do get in touch.

 

HTH,

 

Martin

[Hoovy]

  On 5/7/2013 at 3:04 AM, msolok said:

Thanks Speedy. The price of postage is my entire point. The price of shipping to the USA, with a basic level of cover (require a delivery signature and insurance to cover the items (things go missing more often than not in the Aus mailing system)) is huge. I pointed this out to TWSBI when I was emailing, and you simply stopped emailing me!

 

Just done a bit of a look at the cost to send to Taiwan instead of the USA, and the price is a bit better, but not a huge amount. To send the pens back using the cheapest available method (shipping times between 2 and 4 weeks...) with signature and insurance is still going to set me back $30. To step up the postage 1 notch to get slightly quicker delivery it will set me back $68.

 

So even with the cheapest shipping rates back to TWSBI in Taiwan I am looking at having to pay 60% of the price of a new 580 (not to mention the weeks I would be without the pens) for pens that were defective right from the factory to be repaired. Honestly, don't expect me to be happy about it.

 

I'm going to sound a little harsh here, but there is absolutely no reason for Speedy to pay your shipping - AFAIK no company in the world is going to cover shipping both ways on a warranty repair, especially when the customer demands insured delivery with signature.

 

EDIT: What I mean by this is that there has to be some sort of reciprocation; you cannot simply demand that everything be replaced for you, entirely free of charge - it shows that you as a customer don't care enough about the product to pay for its delivery. And if the customer doesn't care enough, why should the company?

Edited May 7, 2013 by Hoovy

[speedy]

  On 5/7/2013 at 5:41 AM, AAN said:

Hi Speedy

Am I being impatient in expecting a response after two weeks?

Should I re-send the email?

Thanks,

Andrew

If not weekend or holiday, we normally reply Within a day . If you don't hear from us, the mail may e lost In the way to us, pls resend

[AAN]

Thank you Speedy. I'll try sending my email again.

[AAN]

  On 5/7/2013 at 1:58 PM, Hoovy said:

  On 5/7/2013 at 3:04 AM, msolok said:

Thanks Speedy. The price of postage is my entire point. The price of shipping to the USA, with a basic level of cover (require a delivery signature and insurance to cover the items (things go missing more often than not in

 

I'm going to sound a little harsh here, but there is absolutely no reason for Speedy to pay your shipping - AFAIK no company in the world is going to cover shipping both ways on a warranty repair, especially when the customer demands insured delivery with signature.

 

EDIT: What I mean by this is that there has to be some sort of reciprocation; you cannot simply demand that everything be replaced for you, entirely free of charge - it shows that you as a customer don't care enough about the product to pay for its delivery. And if the customer doesn't care enough, why should the company?

 

No just harsh, but incorrect, I think.

 

I believe that Msolok's pens were faulty from the start, therefore not of merchantable quality. In that case, the customer should have all costs reimbursed.

[Hoovy]

  On 5/7/2013 at 3:01 PM, AAN said:

No just harsh, but incorrect, I think.

 

I believe that Msolok's pens were faulty from the start, therefore not of merchantable quality. In that case, the customer should have all costs reimbursed.

 

Well that's a different story, then. I assumed that TWSBI's QA team wouldn't let a nonfunctional pen through.

 

To msolok, I apologize for my rudeness.

[msolok]

AAN has the right of it.

 

As a brief background, I put through an order directly with TWSBI for a 580 with M nib, a 580 with 1.1 Stub nib, a VAC700 with M nib, a VAC20 bottle and a Diamond 50 bottle. Received the pens and inked straight away. None wrote well or in a usable fashion, so I de-inked the pens and cleaned with soapy water. Re-inked the pens and tried again and had the same results. De-inked the pens again and gave another good cleaned, this time totally disassembling the pen and scrubbing the feed with a soft toothbrush. Re-inked the pens and tried again.

 

The pen's still suffered from the same issues with poor flow, hard starts and skipping. Contacted TWSBI and was told to squeeze the nib wings and then push the nib down on a hard surface and spread the tines. I tried this (although the 580 with M nib had issues with ink simply gushing from the pen when it was writing, so this process was going to make that worse) and then attempted to write with the pens again. The VAC700 was writing a bit wetter, but all still suffered the same issues with skipping and hard starts as well as writing inconsistently. So i took the pens apart again, cleaned them all again, used a toothpick or a staple (can't remember what exactly I used) to make sure the channels in the feeds were clear and clean, adjusted the nibs again and tried writing again.

 

Still the pens have the same issues. They are simply not writing in a fashion which is suitable or acceptable for a pen (I tried using them in a meeting at work and could not for the life of me to get them to work. Luckily I had some reliable Kaweco's on me, so I was able to take notes with them). I contacted TWSBI again saying that the pens still don't write acceptably. To which I was told to send the pens back to the USA. I replied saying the cost of doing so was huge. I then got no further correspondence from TWSBI until Speedy has asked me to email again in this thread.

 

So, end of the line is 3 out of 3 pens on my order direct from TWSBI were non-functional OUT OF THE BOX. I have spent more time on trying to get these pens writing than any other pen I own, and certainly more than is acceptable for a brand new product. The products clearly can't have gone through QC, as they simply don't function. TWSBI's response has been to say I have to spend a further 60% of the price of a new 580 in order to send the pens back to them for 'repair' (hell, I could almost buy 2 replacement nib units for the TWSBI's for the same price...).

 

As for expecting TWSBI to stump the bill for shipping, that comes down to the situation. If the pens were fine out of the box and then started developing problems I of course would expect to have to pay shipping back to be repaired. If I had received 1 pen that was faulty I would also expect TWSBI to ask me to send it in to them. However when all pens on an order have the same issues and have had the issues since the boxes were opened (so a clear QC control issue. I would be saying at this stage there is no QC), so the products are clearly not of merchantable quality or fit for purpose, I would be expecting TWSBI to be doing more to resolve it. I would also expect some sort of a apology from TWSBI that all the pens were defective out of the box, but I have received nothing of the sort.

Also, considering there have been several reports around the place of TWSBI simply sending out new nib units and not asking customers to send the entire pen in and suffer the further shipping costs, I have to wonder why this has not been offered in my case. As Speedy has said, not point spending more on shipping than the worth of the pen, but that's EXACTLY what TWSBI is asking me to do.

 

As a bit of an anecdote, I bought a Kaweco Sport pen from a retailer here in Aus (they are also the distributor and cover the warranty for the Kaweco's in Aus) and when I got it it had issues with how it was writing. I tried adjusting it, but had no joy. So I contacted the retailer/distributor and asked for some advice. They apologized right off and said they will simply replace the pen. They said not to both sending it back to them (as this was going to be a further cost to me) and I could simply do what I wanted with the defective one. The next day I received a package from them. In it was a replacement Kaweco, a replacement nib unit for the defective pen, and a Kaweco cartridge holder with 4 carts of blue ink.

I also experienced an issue with a Lamy Safari I purchased. I unknowingly filled it with a contaminated batch of J Herbin ink. It was all sludgy and sticky, and it totally gummed up the feed and the pen would not work. So I contacted Lamy here in Aus and explained what happened. They then sent me out a new feed unit and nib, and a box of ink carts (their Red/Orange colour ones). They did this KNOWING that the issues with the pen were not a manufacturing or quality issue of theirs.

[msolok]

  On 5/7/2013 at 5:21 PM, Hoovy said:

 

To msolok, I apologize for my rudeness.

 

 

Don't worry about it. I don't think what you were saying was particularly rude. In most cases what you were saying is 100% correct. However, in this case there is an issue which is the result of a poor QC process at TWSBI. They are then expecting customers to stump up more money to make up for the fact they aren't doing proper QC. I think TWSBI has to take responsibility in these cases and fix the issue without expecting their customers to be further out of pocket.

I mean, the simple assumption is when you are buying a pen like this it will work out of the box. If it doesn't there is an issue.

[msolok]

Hey AAN, let us know how you go with emailing TWSBI.

 

I have just sent an email to the Tawain email address explaining the situation. Hopefully I get an acceptable solution there.

[AAN]

Five days on from my second email to TWSBI. And absolutely nothing in reply. No acknowledgement, nothing.

 

That's twice I've emailed (the second time at Speedy's suggestion) and nothing.

 

This really is a very poor show TWSBI.

 

However, for news on Cult Pen's response, please see the other thread.

 

Good luck to anyone seeking help from TWSBI.

[storyteller]

  On 5/12/2013 at 6:38 AM, AAN said:

Five days on from my second email to TWSBI. And absolutely nothing in reply. No acknowledgement, nothing.

 

That's twice I've emailed (the second time at Speedy's suggestion) and nothing.

 

This really is a very poor show TWSBI.

 

 

 

Something strange is going on here.

 

Five days is a long (as in more than enough) time for someone to come up with an "official" company response to this problem. A lost email is no excuse as someone in TWSBI is very likely to be monitoring this thread. The least one could expect is some form of communication.

 

No way am I going to invest in another TWSBI pen until this matter is satisfactorily resolved.

 

Edit: with regards the "other" thread on FPN, I personally think a pen should perform out of the box.... regardless of where it was purchased.

Edited May 12, 2013 by storyteller

[vishwaskrishna]

@AAN If I were in your situation, I would be distraught too. To be fair to Twsbi, I received quick replies when I mailed them about the skipping and the dry nib issues with my 580 (M). Did as told by them, the dry nib issue got solved, but the nib still skips at times, especially when I try to write staright lines (b,t,i,1,etc).

 

Unfortunately, I bought the pen directly from Twsbi, which means, sending it to them for repair would mean incurring huge shipping costs. So bought a new nib (EF) today, hoping that it will solve my problem. Not happy with these issues, but as you said in the other thread, I am still happy with the pen because of of its smoothness, when it is not skipping, and huge ink storing capacity.

[AAN]

Thanks for the sympathy. I am very fortunate in that I bought mine from a good retailer here in the UK.

 

I'm baffled by TWSBIs lack of response. I was simply asking their advice, not ranting or making demands of them. I'm still hopeful that someone there will respond, just to clear this up.