Visconti Issues

[rrs]

 

One other question -- have you reached out to the main Visconti dealer for your area (I am not sure who it is for the UK) to inquire about your problem? You mentioned that you had corresponded and exchanged with the store that you purchased the pen from, but maybe you need to go slightly higher in the chain to get an answer, especially if it's the case that your pen is one of the problematic ones from the first production batch.

Hi Strawberry

 

The pens were sent back to the retailer that they were brought from in the UK, he has refunded the money for one of the VHS, and part money left from other VHS.

 

As I have swapped one of the VHS, for a Pelikan M800 Black with a 1.5 Italic Nib. One of the few Italic nibs left in the UK.

 

I have also spoken to another retailer who has informed me that he has a pen from the new batch. With the ink problem solved.

 

He will be at the North East UK Pen Show being held on the 1st of September 2013 (this Sunday) in my home town. The Visconti contact for UK will be there as well so will be getting to inspect the pen first hand and make sure it is from the later batches of pens.

 

Thanks

 

rrs

Edited August 28, 2013 by rrs

[de_pen_dent]

To add to the data points, I have:

- Homo Sapiens Maxi

- Homo Sapiens Midi

- Wall Street LE Red

- Wall Street LE Black

- Divina Desert Springs LE (bought from a fellow FPN member)

- Opera Crystal [not yet delivered, though]

- Van Gogh

- Rembrandt

- Michelangelo

 

Of these, the Michelangelo needed to be sent to John Soworka for fixing, as it was skipping a little (in hindsight, i could have probably fixed it myself) - and this was, ironically, the only pen I bought from my local pen suppliers and actually dip-tested before buying. The others have all worked flawlessly.

 

I buy mostly from Bryant/Pen Time & Dennis/La Couronne, and ask them to always test before sending, Perhaps that helps my success rate?

[rrs]

As I do not care about hearsay or similar things, I just state what I know:

 

- Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze - M-nib - bought at the end of 2012 - no complains

- Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze - F-nib - bought in spring 2013 - no complains

- Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze - Stub nib - bought in spring 2013 - replaced by the dealer *

- Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze - BB-nib - replacement for the Stub - sold

- Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze - Stub nib - bought in summer 2103 - no complains

 

Regarding the *:

 

I thought, this pen had problems with starting and writing, so I replaced it. This was no problem, because this is one of the two shops where I buy my pens. She did not have another Stub, so I took the BB - with the same problems...

 

 

Result: it wasn't the pen or the nib - it was the paper. I use Exacompta Books on a daily base, and the paper is to glossy for this huge amount of ink, which these pens deliver.

 

So I changed the paper - and everything went well...

 

Afters this I sold the BB and re-bought a Stub, which I am completely happy with.

 

Note regarding the "ink in the cap"-problem: there seemed to be a design change in the area of the feeder. Actual models (all of mine but the first one with the M-nib) have an additional protection ring on the feeder.

 

See http://www.penexchange.de/forum_neu/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7905

 

Ciao - Peter

Peter

 

Thank you so much for the link. My German is rubbish so just this very minute had it translated to me in English.

 

The two VHSapiens are currently with the retailer that I brought them from and on the way back to Visconti.

 

One of the pens that I sent back I have exchanged for a Pelikan M800 Black with a 1.5 Italic nib.

 

The other I have had money refunded to me and spoken to another dealer who will be bringing me a VHS to check out at pen show this weekend. The UK Visconti contact will be there so will get him to confirm that this pen is out of a new batch with seal in.

 

thanks

 

rrs

[rrs]

 

Try replacing the smallest Montblanc part the day after the warranty has expired Prepare your wallet and yourself for a nice surprise...

Visconti's warranty is a lifetime one and you'll most likely end up with your pen repaired (or with a new one) for free (well, just the shipment charges). Often, even when you damaged yourself the pen by misusing it. That's not something that happens with most of the pen producers, and believe me I have quite the experience with pen brands' after sale assistance service.

 

About the modern manifacturing process point, if you think that spending lots of money gives you the certainity to have a perfect and flawless item, you just have to be prepared to be disappointed quite often in life . Perfection is something that doesn't exist and defective products can be found everywhere (you know, Ferrari has a post sale Assistance service too, as well as Rolex, Louis Vuitton and so on). You were just unlucky, my suggestion here would be to just send it for repairs.

 

I've had a horribly scratchy Sailor (from factory), a Waterman which just didn't write and a Lamy 2000 with serious piston problems (just to mention the ones you talked about). But you'll never hear me say that my bad experience sets a rule in the field, I just had them repaired and I like all of them.

Apologies I did not know that the warranty was life time, I knew it was longer than most manufactures miss information provided. I do have my dumb moments

 

I understand that fountain pens are not cheap to buy run or maintain, unless in the lower price market.

 

Yes I know the modern engineering does not mean a perfect product every time and that there is aftercare. But when you pay for a premium product you expect for it to work straight off without issues. After ware and tear overtime you expect problems to develop.

 

That's like me saying I walk into Mercedes dealership buy a £80000 pound car for the retailer to say after sale, the brakes only work 1 out 5 times used.

 

Yes luck might come into it when it comes to 1 faulty pen or 2, but 4 that's not luck that's an issue. Not to mention all the pens that have been reported of having problems straight out of box.

 

rrs

[rrs]

Now could it be that these Bronze HS pens were from the first batch? As at the time there appeared to be a small problem with ink leaking between section-wall and feed. These pens had to go back to Visconti for a slight modification to stop the leak.

 

The later batches should be leak-free.

 

D.ick

D.ick

 

Thank you for the information, along with post from Tombstone I know what to look out for on Sunday.

 

rrs

[rrs]

 

Divina Proporzione LE. One of the silver strips started to come loose from the barrel, which seems to be fairly common with these pens.

 

 

Based on a little bit of personal experience and alot of second and third hand experience, Visconti and Faber Castell seem to have the best after sales service in the pen business. There are other brands with reputations for good service; however, there are also well known and popular pen brands with reputations for mediocre, poor, or downright awful after sales and warranty service.

 

 

When it comes to expensive pens, even if the machinery is state of the art, for most brands the processes will be rather more traditional. Part of the reason these pens are expensive is that they're partially (often largely) hand made in small numbers, because the relatively small production numbers the make the high setup costs of modern automated mass production processes unfeasible. In general, cheap mass produced pens are probably made using more modern machinery and processes than the high end luxury pens.

 

Second hand modern pens are often trouble free because somebody else has already taken care of their problems (if any). Vintage pens, of course, often have issues due to age and many years of hard usage.

Racing Dragon

 

I agree that modern manufacturing is not trouble free and that the expensive pens are hand manufactured, however I do not think that the VHS range of pens fall under that category of pens, maybe hand assembled.

 

From videos on certain internet site you can see the manufacturing processes at Visconti at work. The components for this pen are most likely machine manufactured then hand assembled and finished.

 

rrs