Goulet Pens And Anderson Pens: I Am Their Customer For Life! I Had A Problem With My Orders And They Resolved It Splendidly

[Isay]

Hi,

 

I normally don't make threads about my purchases but this warrants a thread. I live in the Philippines, but my mom is in the U.S. so she buys stuff for me there and forwards the packages via a "balikbayan box" service that takes 1-3 months to arrive. So, just a few days ago, my orders placed in Oct 2015 from Goulet Pens and Anderson Pens finally arrived.

 

PART 1: My Goulet Order

 

The other day, my forwarded box from my mom arrived, and I finally unboxed a huge Goulet order (containing a ton of o rings, silicon rings, inks, a Jinhao, and some nibs). It was packed with apocalypse-proof layers upon layers of bubble wrap and blue wrapping plastic sheets. Nothing was damaged. Being my 3rd or 4th order from the Goulets, this was usual from them: awesome care in packaging.

 

However, when I double checked the listed items in my receipt, I couldn't find some items in my order, specifically an ahab nib and some Goulet nibs. Some Noodlers art nibs were there but the other nibs were missing. I was freaking out by this point (my order was technically 3 months ago, really. I must have the most delayed unboxing ever since the forwarding from the U.S. took 3 months).

 

I sent the Goulets an email explaining the situation and sent them of pics of my unboxed order. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they said I should just order a new set of nibs, or that my mom should have checked the box first before shipping it to me in the far-off tropics.

 

However, within the same working day, Jeremy from Goulet Pens replied and immediately sent replacement nibs to my mom. This level of customer service is top notch and highly appreciated, and I assure you I am a customer for life.

 

PART 2: My Anderson Pens order

 

Similar to my Goulet order, I unboxed my Anderson Pens order and double checked the items. Alas, there was a problem with this order as well! I ordered seven ink samples (since they have generous 3 ml ink samples), and three 3 oz Noodlers bottles, as well as ten empty ink bottles. However, I received TEN samples and the ten empty bottles. My three full Noodlers bottles were nowhere to be found.

 

I then took photos of everything and sent them an email as well. In the Anderson Pens site it states that there is a 30 day limit to refunds and returns. But remember, it took 3 months for the items to reach me because my mom forwarded the box from the U.S. to the Philippines by the cheaper "balikbayan box" option. Again, I expected my warranty to be void and sadly thought that I would have to reorder the ink. After all, my mom didn't check the order when it reached her and just immediately forwarded the box to me, so part of the fault was with us, the customers.

 

However, within a day, Chris from Anderson Pens responded promptly and said they would send the correct items free of charge. I was so relieved and happy. I am also their customer for life.

 

SUMMARY

 

I am a happy customer. This was my 4th (or 5th?) order from the Goulets and first order from the Andersons. I will most definitely be a repeat customer for both. Both Goulet Pens and Anderson Pens were more than stellar in responding to me and rectifying the issues, even if technically they didn't have to. This level of dedication to customer service is phenomenal, and the speed by which both sellers responded to my emails was topnotch.

 

In the future, before I even think of buying from unknown sellers on Amazon or Ebay, I will buy from the family run businesses of the Goulets and Andersons. Thank you.

 

-Isabella (Isay)

[I like mango cheesecake]

I couldn't even get a response to a question from Anderson a while back. I guess since I wasn't yet a customer my experience wasn't the same.

[FOUR X FOUR]

Hey Mango. Give em' the benefit of the doubt and fire off your question again. If they didn't respond to you, no doubt they just proved that they're human.

[inkypete]

Two orders - two mistakes. You are very unlucky.

[Isay]

Two orders - two mistakes. You are very unlucky.

Actually it was more like a dozen orders that arrived (I also had shipments from Amazon, Jetpens, Chinese sellers, Japanese sellers) but I gotta admit I was unlucky that week. Might have been due to the proximity to Fountain Pen Week; all the pen dealers were busy. The Andersons were at a pen show during the time I ordered and a mistake was made in the bill too: shipping was $30! But they were also reasonable about this and refunded the excess shipping that was charged.

[Brian Anderson]

I couldn't even get a response to a question from Anderson a while back. I guess since I wasn't yet a customer my experience wasn't the same.

Ask again, anything could have happened, got caught in spam, slipped through the cracks while we were gone at a pen show etc.

 

Best-

Brian

[Witsius]

I've been very pleased with the service from both Goulet and Anderson. They both have very responsive customer service. Anderson is just a 2-hour drive away. I plan on taking a drive there some Saturday morning next time I've got some pen money to spend.

[radellaf]

Anderson has hired more people so maybe you caught them when they were understaffed. Both companies are great at customer service, but the fact that I see the Andersons at the pen show every year biases me a bit towards them. Any other reasons are forbidden topics here.

I've had Goulet replace ink I ordered like two years back. That's above & beyond. And, yeah, took me that long to open the bottle. Then again, I've had an amazon seller (Pen Boutique) go out of their way too, so some on Amazon are personable small companies too.

 

Talk about bad luck, had a run of SITB that covered all three sellers and three different ink brands. All resolved now, thank goodness.

[inkypete]

I do a bit of public speaking on customer service and I always say you judge a company by the way they handle their mistakes. Everyone is good when the going is easy but when there is a problem is when you know how committed they are to customer service.