Postal Ink Carnage

[ReadyFireAim]

Am I a member of the club now?

 

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f312/dlg208/IMG_0508_zpsw1s5lehx.jpg

[cattar]

Ouch. 😟

Nice color. Could it be filtered into a clean bottle?

[ReadyFireAim]

Is this what it looks like when your running away from the bank with a bag full of money?

Edited March 21, 2017 by Bordeaux146

[Tasmith]

Where did you order it from?

[escribo]

Ruh ro.

 

When I saw the title of this thread it did not bode well

[ReadyFireAim]

Where did you order it from?

I just got a bottle of Iroshizuku Kosumosu form Japan and it made it here fine, after about a month. It was my keen post-clicking eye that caught the small script at the bottom of the Amazon page indicating the item was in fact in Japan at that very moment. Those 4 pt. high letters would be the last recognizable information I'd see for some time regarding this package. I did receive regular updates on its location in a language that was unknown to me for my presumed benefit. I felt a bit over served in this regard on account of being so regularly updated.

As I wonder about things like beautiful bottles in far away places.....

 

I could get to Birmingham Pen Company in 45 minutes if I wasn't worried about never driving again.

[white_lotus]

I want you to know that there are many online retail outlets in the US that carry this ink. Perhaps you weren't familiar with Anderson Pens, Vanness Pens, or Goulet Pens. All have it, and their service and packaging have been very good. And you would have had your ink in a few days.

 

I'm sorry for your loss.

[ReadyFireAim]

...there are many online retail outlets in the US that carry this ink...

 

Actually Nick, of Birmingham pens, sent me the ink for free & he isn't the person who normally prepares items for shipping.

 

You may not know this but, some time ago Birmingham Pens sold their own brand ink.

They ran into supplier problems for some of the ingrediants and had to reformulate.

 

After they pulled their ink off the web-sight, they still had several bottles of various colors lying around.

It was 2 of those bottles Nick sent me.

 

Shenley Park Thicket Green survived but George Westinghouse Alternator Crimson did not

 

Last I talked to him, he said that they would be rereleasing inks around early summer.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Bordeaux146

[white_lotus]

Oh, I misread your post and thought you were ordering regular Iro ink from Japan. My confusion.

[Tasmith]

Oh, I misread your post and thought you were ordering regular Iro ink from Japan. My confusion.

 

I thought so too.

 

So the carnage was from poorly packed ink from Birmingham Pens.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Tasmith

[WhosYerBob]

Welcome to the club. That happened to me about a decade or more ago, before Goulet was big in the ink game (my ink carnage was from a different fountain pen/ink supplier that has since gone out of business). I think I spent close to $200 on that order, which required a signature upon delivery; as soon as I saw ink dripping from the bottom of the box, I refused to sign for it and it went straight back. I got a completely new delivery of the same inks a couple of weeks later.

[SamCapote]

Has happened to me 3 times over the years. Twice due to inadequate package protection. One was a crack in a lid. Retailer always made good once shown photos.

[LanceSaintPaul]

Yesterday I received a bottle of Pelikan ink from Amazon. The bottle was inside its retail box and this was put in a rather large box compared to what it could have fit. It was not packed with any materials & so it bounced around the entire trip to me. The retail box was dented a bit, but the bottle remained intact & the box remained brown, not stained blue. A relief, that, but I'm not going to buy more ink from Amazon. It was a lucky trip, but without an enhanced payoff I'd rather not roll those dice again.

[inkstainedruth]

Sorry for your loss. But honestly, driving in Pittsburgh is not NEARLY as bad as, say, Boston... which would frighten the most hardened NYC cabbie. (Is it just me, growing up 50 miles north of NYC, where you had to drive EVERYWHERE? I've run across several people around here who are locals who won't drive in the city, or cross a bridge....)

At least here the locals are generally polite in merge zones during orange cone season (although not always quite so good on the lower deck of the Ft. Duquesne Bridge...). The real problem in the city is the distinct lack of parking -- especially in Shadyside on a Saturday on Walnut Street (you take your chances with street parking, or overpay in the garage a couple of blocks away, or really take your chances in the lots on how much to feed the meter machines (and the meter readers patrol lots 24/7). Or, try to guess whether people have the same idea that you, and park on Copeland in the 2 hour resident zones on the other side of Walnut Street from Copeland Way, where the store is. I really miss being able to run in to Birmingham Pens on a Wednesday afternoon, on my way to dinner or to a SCN meeting. Having them only open on Saturday is a lose-lose, IMO.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ReadyFireAim]

driving in Pittsburgh is not NEARLY as bad

 

I was born in Bloomfield and grew up in Lawrenceville so I'm good as long as I stay in the triangle.

 

The North or South Hills can be a challenge for me.

I had a map taped to the visor years ago.

[senzen]

Ouch! Perhaps senders need to put on a sticker that says "Break this and you will be stained for life".

[inkstainedruth]

 

I was born in Bloomfield and grew up in Lawrenceville so I'm good as long as I stay in the triangle.

 

The North or South Hills can be a challenge for me.

I had a map taped to the visor years ago.

 

Well, I live in the North Hills (well, North Boroughs if you believe the banner in the local weekly paper my neighbor is now the publisher for). And I used to live in Highland Park, a block away from the King Estate, and a few blocks from the Zoo. But I don't know everything on the North Side (or even everything in the East End, for that matter); and large parts of the South Side and West End are foreign countries....

A number of years ago, on a lark, I went down Edgebrook Avenue from off Saw Mill River Boulevard (Rt. 51 South) and thought I was in the backwoods of West Virginia.... And I was still inside the city limits! And there used to be a car dealership ad on the radio where someone from either NYC or Boston (wasn't *quite* sure of what the accent was supposed to be) who is asking directions gets told "by some steel hunk with his 'silly Pittsburgheese' accent to 'go over some mountain, cross a bridge, and turn left where the Isaly's used to be....'!" My husband once heard someone -- who was NOT a native -- give directions to someplace based on what he was told, which actually *included* the phrase "turn where the Isaly's used to be", even though the guy didn't even know what Isaly's WAS; let alone where it had been located....

When we lived in Highland Park, we saw three different maps of the neighborhood: one showed our street, as is; one showed it going across the ravine at the end of the block (and through someone's driveway in the process) and up into Morningside; and one showed the stretch of Bryant Street on the other side of Negley Avenue dead-ending onto Negley (that of course didn't take into account the fact that when you get to Highland Avenue, Bryant jogs half a block; and if you're going the other direction, and cross Highland, you end up on Bryant Court, which is a dead end.... And then of course there's the intersection of Beechwood and Monitor, over in the Squirrel Hill/Greenfield area. Not to be confused with the intersection of Beechwood and Monitor. OR the intersection of Beechwood and Monitor.....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ReadyFireAim]

Ouch! Perhaps senders need to put on a sticker that says "Break this and you will be stained for life".

 

I was looking for a hand print on the side of the box in order to find some humor in the tragedy

[Ink Stained Wretch]

Am I a member of the club now?

 

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f312/dlg208/IMG_0508_zpsw1s5lehx.jpg

 

Oh, I would be so sad if that had happened to me. I've gotten some pretty smashed up boxes, and some of the packaging, like the box a pen or ink came in, has gotten eaten up, but the damage always ended up missing the pen or else didn't break the bottle.

 

I know that one vendor puts an extra, resealable, plastic bag around the ink bottle, so that if it breaks it is less likely to even stain the box the ink bottle was in. And in such a case you might even be able to recover the ink from the plastic bag. Looks like the plastic bag didn't hold in this case.

 

Yeah, I've had other nightmare from the USPS.

[BCGGSM]

I've had a similar experience from another US vendor.

I ordered about 70 Noodlers ink bottles as a group buy back in October 2016. After receiving the order, the vendor didn't block the items and they were purchased from his eBay store. Result? The order went down to 60 bottles as the vendor refused to hold inventory until next restocking.

Then, the horrendous packing. The bubble wrap was only on the 4 sides of the box and the bottom of it. The bottles were kept in the box, free to collide amongst themselves, no bubble wrapping on the bottles. Around 3-4 bottles broke and destroyed labels and boxes of other 25 bottles (remaining 30 also had some ink over them, but not that much. I spent close to 6 hours trying to figure out what survived and what didn't. For 25 bottles with no labels or boxes, I had to individually open the bottles and make swab samples to match with the swabs on noodlers website so that I could figure out the colours.

 

I think all sellers should learn how to pack before starting the ink/pen business. This particular seller has the worst way of packing I have ever seen. I have received more bottles without any issues from other countries.

 

Also, I am now buying the remaining bottles (and more) from another vendor. The new vendor did not have Baystate Blue (in required quantities) in stock and is holding the available bottles until he gets the delivery of other bottles to complete the order.

 

Moral of the story for me is that always buy from established vendors, not any tom, dick and harry that appears on eBay, even if it is a bit expensive. Paying a little more is better than receiving broken items.

Edited March 28, 2017 by BCGGSM