Visionnaire Fountain Pen

[spolky]

I got my warranty replacement pen after sending an email of such grovelling proportions it almost made me sick to write it.

 

The pen may have cost him only a dollar, but postage to Australia? That's a wee bit more out of his bucket.

 

[heymatthew]

I got my warranty replacement pen after sending an email of such grovelling proportions it almost made me sick to write it.

The pen may have cost him only a dollar, but postage to Australia? That's a wee bit more out of his bucket.

 

I'd be interested in hearing this email... I sent a fairly short message and ended up with an immediate refund. Took about 2 hours total and he didn't require that I send the pen back to him so I still have range fodder if the weather ever clears up...

 

[Dr.Slackware]

^Well that's good!

 

I had a good laugh at the notebook Visionnaire, until I read the sickening comments, where he masqueraded as his "colleague".

[Dr.Slackware]

Notice in the notebook video how the screen changes multiple times, probably in order to pick up a new pen.

[Emperor]

Umm... who wrote these

 

http://visionnairedesign.com/reviews/

[vossad01]

Umm... who wrote these

 

http://visionnairedesign.com/reviews/

 

At least some of those look like things I remember reading in the KS comments section.

[heymatthew]

Umm... who wrote these

 

http://visionnairedesign.com/reviews/

 

Probably made up for the most part. Either that or he gave people free pens in exchange for reviews, etc.

[Cyclin]

Ahhh, so I've found the voice which broke my heart, albeit for the 5 minutes it took me to decide I'm now delving further into fountain pens.

 

heymatthew thank you for your review, I actually found the video in my first 15 minutes of research after un-tubing my own pile of disappointment. Although initially I was a little annoyed with myself for not researching the exact pen first, I've come to view it as spending $45 to discover a new collection hobby.

 

<<Also a KS junkie, still waiting for my Coin and Pressy haha

[MattD]

This thread is how I found Fountainpennetwork, back when the Kickstarter was still on. I had backed for two pens, liking the idea but the details started to bug me and I started to Google...

 

Doubt over the quality and impatience lead me to cancel my backing and pitch in a bit more to get a Pelikan m200 instead. Best decision ever.

[dkirker]

Wow.... How disappointing. The comments on the joint project really speak volumes to the original pen project. I bought (ha!) into this because I grew up, and have lived in, the SF Bay Area most of my life. But what a disappointment. The pen does feel nice, but I can't including it in the rotation that I carry around knowing it is a lie.

 

I still plan to design, and hopefully create, my own faountain pens some day. But I certainly won't lie about it...

[stopher]

I haven't been reviewing the Visionnaire KS comments for a few months now, and with today's posted I decided to see how things have been playing out. What a shame. People still don't have pens, and those that received are requested refunds are not getting a response.

 

I know that I shouldn't be surprised by these postings considering the broken moral compass of one "visionnaire", but he had a chance to gain back some credibility by offering a refund to the percentage of backers requesting it, and low and behold, he has disappeared into the ether of the www.

 

As Mr. Colbert would say, Wag of the Finger to you Morgan Combes

[penlife]

I joined FPN today after reading about the issues with the Visionnaire. I was an original backer on KS and was happy to be a part of a project that looked so much like "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington." I was taken by the "authenticity" of the pitch, so much so that I envisioned an astute, skinny French man pouring his life savings into the love of his life - a fountain pen. I watched the beautifully crafted videos and marvelled at the excellent calligraphy and the entire story. I gladly sent my money to Morgan for the pen.

 

When it arrived, I wasn't disappointed. The packaging was superb. However, having written with several fountain pens before, including Waterman's, Parkers and Montblancs, I was slightly disappointed with the scratchy quality of the nib. I assumed that this was just a breaking in period. I was happy with the weight of the pen, something that I like with Watermans. But I began to notice a few things as time went on. The scratchy consistency of the nib never improved even after 3 months. The converter never seemed to fill evenly. It was always filled with bubbles. No matter what I did, no matter how fast or how slow I filled it. The pen was still useable and because I use it predominantly to sign documents, I wasn't too disappointed with it.

 

However, the converter has been a constant bother to me. Over the past month it has failed to lower itself, despite the number of turns that I have given it. I have had to push down the top as I turn in order for it to advance. Today, I got a little tired of doing this and went to contact Morgan to see if I could replace the converter. After all, he sent a beautifully "hand written" thank you note that seemed heart warmingly welcoming. I was stunned when I was met with a parked domain. To me that signalled a problem! I had never seen that with any of my Kickstarter projects. I then Googled Visionnaire and suddenly found a large number of posts, mainly from FPN disparaging the Visionnaire. I went back to Kickstarter only to find that most people thought that this was a scam. Some had not received their pens and others were having significant problems, including the scratchy nib and problems with filling the barrel, similar to my own issues.

 

But the kick in the pants came from one KS poster Josh Barrett on Feb 28. To pay $30-$40 for a project which claimed to have independent research and design and to show a video of a man claiming to work for years creating a concept and bringing that concept to life, only to find out that I have been scammed, made me feel awful. Apparently Mr. Morgan Combes of BHG spent about 80 cents (possibly up to $4) for each pen and rebranded it under the Visionnaire label. Suddenly it all made sense. That nib was never going to improve. There was no break in period. I fell for a scam ! I was stunned to see the pen in all its glory on Alibaba. I had to stop working for hours and kept putting the pen up to the screen, looking for reasons why this couldn't be true. I continued searching the internet and found more horror stories of people with broken nibs, ink spilling everywhere; pens working for only a few days etc. Alibaba has called the pens "Novelty Pens." However to those of us who have been scammed, believing that we were buying quality, there is no Novelty here.

 

Tonight I am going on Ebay and a few other places to see if I can find a decent Fountain Pen for a reasonable used price. Until I move out of the city, I will use a used pen for a while. Be Careful Everyone. And to those of you who keep complaining about not having received your pen, you would be better off with a Metropolitan Pilot, available for $10 on Amazon. That would only be a few more dollars and will probably suffice as a cheap alternative until you can pick up a decent pen.

 

Thank you for this forum and website. I only wish that I had found you before I sent any money to this Kickstarter Project.

 

Chagrined.

[warblerick]

What really surprises me is that there is still any interest in "the Visionnaire". I think if anyone has or had read the (many,many) posts here, you'd get a good idea of what this scam was all about. I read the very first post when it first came on here, and thought to myself, "a scam".

 

Brings to mind the old saying "if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is".

 

And another, from PT Barnum, "there's a sucker born every minute".