My 2 Experiences With Aurora Repair Service

[RitchieMac]

I’ve bought my Aurora Optima 4 years ago, and it has become one of my favourite pens.

 

1^st Experience - Just shortly after I’ve bought it, it suffered from a loose cap ring, which I sent to Italy for repairs. Communication was polite but scanty. After a bit of anxious wait, my pen came back 3 months’ time.

 

2^nd Experience - 5 months’ ago, I have the misfortune of having my capped Optima dropped onto a carpeted floor, which in turn resulted in it shattering at the ink window. The nib was stuck in the cap. I contacted Aurora via their email contact as reflected in their website and they promptly replied. I’ve sent off the pen via registered mail and patiently waited. I knew from previous experience that there would not be any acknowledgement of the receipt of the pen.

 

 

2 and a half months later, I received an email informing that my pen was overhauled and repaired. I was tardy in checking my email and took about a week to reply. After settling the payment, I waited till recently when a FedEx package finally arrived – 5 months after I sent it off to another continent.

The pen that came in was as good as new.

 

 

My take home messages from my 2 completely anecdotal experiences:

1. Auroloide is fragile. I’ve heard of “precious resin” shattering and though not having the privilege of owning one, I think the fragility index of Auroloide comes close. I will baby the Optima from now on. As a side note, besides the Optima dropping out onto the carpeted floor as I accidentally flipped my shirt pocket over, a Pilot Prera and a Sailor Progear fell at the same time onto the same floor, with none of them showing any wear.

2. Aurora repair is top notch. My Optima came back as good as new, and I think the Auroloide glitters more than before.

3. Aurora communication is courteous but sparse. As pen owners we tend to be anxious about our expensive pens being away from our hands for long, especially with little updates on the status of the pen.

4. Be very very patient.

 

 

[Feanaaro]

Thanks for relating your experience.

Auroloide might be particularly fragile, or not, but we wouldn't know either way from this specific case, since the ink-window, were the pen broke, should be just regular transparent plastic (I presume some kind of acrylic?), not auroloide. Likewise the cap ring accident would seem to have little to do with the fragility of the auroloide material.

[RitchieMac]

When I think back about it now, the Auroloide material may not be entirely at fault. The Optima, as a whole, must still be handled with care.

 

That being said, the Optima is still one of my favourite and most beautiful pen.

[jmccarty3]

I was traveling with my Blue Mare clipped to the inside pocket of my leather carry-on, which I never put in the overhead bin. When I returned home, I found that the barrel had shattered completely. The outcome of my story is same as with others: I sent the pen to Aurora via Kenro, and after a long wait it returned as though it were new. In the meantime, I had bought another Blue Mare just for insurance, in case the first could not be fixed. I'm thinking of trading one of the Mares for a Sole, since I like the Optima version of the Sole much more than the new 88 version.

[Chrissy]

  On 2/5/2017 at 10:55 PM, jmccarty3 said:

I was traveling with my Blue Mare clipped to the inside pocket of my leather carry-on, which I never put in the overhead bin.

 

Perhaps it would have been more protected in there than under the seat in front of you?

[ksm]

Good for You.

My experience with Aurora repair service is not as stellar. I've sent them hard starting 88. They either did nothing or changed nib to one from the same defective batch.

ps. In problem description I stated that pen is intended as writing tool, not a collection piece, and I expected them to try it with ink before shipping it back.

[taiga]

May I ask how much they charged for the repair? Did you use the Kenro repair service, or just sent it to Aurora directly? Thank you.

[marlinspike]

I have also sent an Optima back twice for repair. Neither time was because of any abuse or accident, the Optima simply like to break. The second time it needed a replacement cap, and while I was charged a fair bit for it, it was much less than Pelikan charges for the same. My experience was the same as yours, no communication, it takes many months, but you do eventually get your pen repaired back and nicely cleaned up. This most recent time they even polished the oxidation off my nib, and nobody seemed to mind that my nib had been customized for flex.

[RitchieMac]

I sent it directly to Aurora in Torino, Italy. Kenro is not the distributor in my country. Can't remember the cost, but it was not that much. I think most of the cost actually went to FedEx.

Edited May 25, 2018 by RitchieMac

[Crazy4doxies]

I sent my Aurora Optima Flex to Kenro 9 weeks ago. I have heard NOTHING from them. I only know they received my pen because I requested a signature upon receipt of the package.

 

My nib was damaged when I received it as a gift.

 

I attempted to reach out to Aurora 1st. They said I had to go through Kenro.

 

After reading the above, I do not expect much.

 

It is really sad that you spend so much on a fine writing instrument with a warranty and they cant even get it right.

Edited December 23, 2018 by Crazy4doxies

[jchch1950]

  On 5/9/2018 at 12:08 AM, marlinspike said:

I Neither time was because of any abuse or accident, the Optima simply like to break.

+ 1.

[Frank_70]

  On 12/23/2018 at 6:35 AM, Crazy4doxies said:

I sent my Aurora Optima Flex to Kenro 9 weeks ago. I have heard NOTHING from them. ...

 

 

About mid August I sent, through Kenro, two Optimas in for repair. I used UPS and was able to confirm receipt a few days later using UPS tracking.

 

At the San Francisco Pen Show spoke with a Kenro representative about timing. He reminded me that Italy pretty much shuts down for August.

 

In any I was called during the final days of October for payment approval, and the repaired pens were shipped to me the first week of November.

 

Aurora did an excellent job on the repairs. On both the blind cap for the filling mechanism had broken off, and on one the feed had also broken off. I thought that the charges ($100.00 for the one with just the broken blind cap, and $150.00 for the other) were reasonable. Both pens were older and long out of warranty. They had bee sitting in my pen box for some years before I got ambitious enough to attend to getting them repaired.

 

While communications could be better by todays standards, overall it was a satisfactory experience.

[freshmaker]

Thanks for all the comments here.

 

I have an Aurora Optima Orange Flex and just recently noticed that the cap has cracks in it. You can't feel them with your finger, but you can see them. I honestly have no idea how, but my best guess is that it happened during one of the times I was carrying it in my pocket at work. I emailed Aurora (aurora@aurorapen.it) and they got back to me but only to ask where I lived - and then stopped responding after I told them. From what some of you have said I suppose this makes sense - you've given me the idea to contact Kenro so thank you! I'm hoping that will yield some results on Monday.

 

It seems like I'm not alone in feeling a bit shy to really use this pen after having it break. Even if I get it fixed I'm going to worry about cracking it again. I wanted this pen to be my EDC but it seems like that was not meant to be

[CoolBreeze]

I was at the DC pen show for two days and tested the same optima in the OPs picture. I loved the pen, but on the second day the threading was no longer functional and the cap couldn't screw on. I am not sure if it's a design/manufacturing/materials issue or if too many people just didn't take care in screwing on the cap during testing. I wasn't sure what to make of it. My next pen is either going to be an Aurora or Pelikan and I'm still trying to figure out the durability question between the two. Damn those Auroras are beautiful though.

Edited February 7, 2019 by CoolBreeze

[oregano]

I’ve had a terrible experience with Aurora’s nib exchange service. They failed to change it to the right nib requested, kept the nice Graf von Faber Castell box I sent the pen in, still charged me, and took four months to send the pen back. In the end I had to get the nib changed directly through the seller.

[AngeloPardi]

I was yesterday in Torino and had a visit at the Aurora Factory. Each pen, even in the lower range, is made by hand, from beginning to end of the process, in a very handcrafted style. Each nib is checked by their nibmeister Filippo Loghero, a very interesting and passionate man. The pens of the higher range (Talentum, Optima, 88 and limited editions) are made on demand (wether the demand comes from a private or a seller.) They have quite no stock at all for those pens, so that it was even impossible to buy one after the visit.

I had a long talk with Mr Loghero, occasionally about their repair service, although I was not personally concerned. He explains that they can take a long time to do so, because they try to change the less parts as possible on the pen, so that it would be the same pen, but repaired, and not a new one, witch in many cases would be very much easier. They do so because most of the time, the owner of the pen can have an emotional connection with it, and don't want another pen, but that very one.

Edited February 20, 2019 by AngeloPardi

[Calabria]

I am going to finally send in my Optima Demo for the third time. The problem with this pen is that the material develops cracks; I hardly use the pen, but when I take it out of storage, often new cracks have developed, mostly where there is stress on the material (the screwed parts).

 

Paying Kenro $35.00 just for processing doesn't seem right, but I guess that's my only choice.

[Tweel]

Aurora seems not to know how to mold plastic of any type without inducing a lot of internal stress (leading to spontaneous cracking), and apparently has no interest in learning. I even had an Aurora converter crumble!... And I don't think I'll ever buy another of their pens. My lesson is learned, at least.

[georges zaslavsky]

One of the reasons, I will never ever buy a single pen from Aurora

[Mr.Rene]

  On 2/14/2019 at 6:01 PM, oregano said:

I’ve had a terrible experience with Aurora’s nib exchange service. They failed to change it to the right nib requested, kept the nice Graf von Faber Castell box I sent the pen in, still charged me, and took four months to send the pen back. In the end I had to get the nib changed directly through the seller.

I am in the same troubles now..two month ago Aurora repair service got my aurora 88 flex nib sent to be repaired or replace it...poor communication and still waiting...