Visconti Divina Desert Spring - Auction Won At Martemodena

[pchand2]

Looks like martemodena online shop link is no longer working. They used have a shop website different from their auction site. Auction link is still working though.

Edited September 4, 2017 by pchand2

[dms525]

@pchand2 Have you received the pen yet?

 

I ordered a VISCONTI fountain pen Divina Desert Spring - Oversize from MarteModena on the 2nd of August, and I have still not received the pen. I have also attempted to contact MarteModena, and have received no reply. Are they scamming me?

 

Tom

 

More likely they are vacationing. It's August. Italy goes to the beach (or somewhere) for the Month.

[pchand2]

martemodena rep replied to me - this time with a new reason that Visconti will open only next week. Also they never give me any shipping estimate. So Visconti go for vacation entire August and one week in September - hard to believe for me.

 

Also i won another auction of Delta rollerball for 1euro. So i send them a note asking if they will honor the deal before i make payment, because last time i won an auction for 1 euro, they cancelled it after i payed siting technical issue with auction. To not my surprise, the winning auction disappeared from my account with no information or trace.

 

I dont like their response nor their reasons nor their support. This was my first ever experience with them and it is not good. I am asking for cancellation of the auction and a refund. Saving money is one thing, but not at the expense of customer experience and the anticipation and waste of my time following up, reading etc....

 

Good luck for any one who shall deal with them in future.

[encremental]

Divina Springs or Divina Falls?

 

At first glance they appear identical, but the former is the LE with an ink window, the latter a regular release with the captive converter piston filling system. It is amazing how often the one is misnamed as the other. Both lovely pens to be sure (I have the Falls) but the Springs is the really expensive one.

 

John

[flipper_gv]

Martemodena sells under cost many time and I've only heard good things about their customer service. Be patient and you should get your pen at some point.

[Bill P]

Divina Springs or Divina Falls?

 

At first glance they appear identical, but the former is the LE with an ink window, the latter a regular release with the captive converter piston filling system. It is amazing how often the one is misnamed as the other. Both lovely pens to be sure (I have the Falls) but the Springs is the really expensive one.

 

 

To my knowledge there were two versions of the Divina Springs - the Limited Edition, and the non Limited Edition. I have never heard of a "Divina Falls"...other than one poster on the FPN referred to his Pen as the "Divina Falls".. I have never seen it described any where else as "Divina Falls" ...even Bryant's Chatterly website (the FPN poster purchased his from Bryant/Chatterly) refers to it as the non limited Edition Divina Springs.

 

The Divina Springs being sold my Marte Modena is the NON Limited edition with the "Pull & Turn piston filler" and no ink window.

 

Bill P.

Edited September 6, 2017 by Bill P

[Bill P]

martemodena rep replied to me - this time with a new reason that Visconti will open only next week. Also they never give me any shipping estimate. So Visconti go for vacation entire August and one week in September - hard to believe for me.

 

Also i won another auction of Delta rollerball for 1euro. So i send them a note asking if they will honor the deal before i make payment, because last time i won an auction for 1 euro, they cancelled it after i payed siting technical issue with auction. To not my surprise, the winning auction disappeared from my account with no information or trace.

 

I dont like their response nor their reasons nor their support. This was my first ever experience with them and it is not good. I am asking for cancellation of the auction and a refund. Saving money is one thing, but not at the expense of customer experience and the anticipation and waste of my time following up, reading etc....

 

Good luck for any one who shall deal with them in future.

One issue I have with Martemodena is that they offer items for sale on their site AND in their auctions (Ebay and their OWN site) that they do NOT have in stock WITHOUT placing any advice with the item they are offering for sale to that effect, on their site or on ebay.

So you win an Auction on ebay or on their site and then wonder several days later why it hasn't shipped...make an inquiry only to receive a reply that they are waiting for the item to arrive from the manufacturer...I have experienced 3 weeks to a month delay in shipment...Had I known up front the item wasn't in stock I may or may not have bid/purchased.

Additionally , having already sold the item that they don't have in stock...they continue to offer the same item as an auction item, again with no advice that it is not in stock...so this is not occurring because they have had some unexpected increase in the sale of the item(s) and they unexpectedly ran out of inventory....only ONE person wins an auction...this is a conscious decision by MM to continue selling items they don't have in stock. For example on the Divina Springs non limited edition version, there is at least one FPN customer who purchased a Divina Springs in early August whose Divina Springs still has not shipped...YET, MM has continued to sell the Divina Springs on their website (auction and non auction) right up thru today...but they haven't had it in stock since at least early August.. at a minimum they should advise potential buyers/bidders that the item is NOT in stock...and perhaps they could include an expected availability date...in the mean time they continue to collect customers $$ on an item that they do not have in stock and are therefore not able to ship.

Most vendors tell you up front if an item is out of stock...Martemodena doesn't do that.

As it relates to shipping cost...they post the shipping cost, and it does seem inconsistent and unreasonable at times..I just take the shipping cost into consideration when I purchase or bid on an item..most times their shipping cost just forces me to reduce the amount I am willing to pay for the Pen...it is the total cost (Purchase price plus shipping cost) that I focus on.

[pchand2]

Also they have cancelled two auctions i won at 1euro. One saying there was technical problem with auction and second time it just disappeared from my account. Then i see it back on auction. I can deal with informed delay. But, I do not agree to keeping customer in dark after collecting their money and also not honoring the auction. Also they have not replied to my request to cancel the order since we are already past the 15 working days to ship policy they set. I have honored my end until now. Now all i want is my money back. I hope they will do that quickly.

[Bill P]

Has anyone received their Visconti Desert Springs that they won at auction on the Martemodena website?

[pchand2]

They have not shipped it out yet, nor cancelled my order for refund as i requested. Support promised me weekly update and they said they will ship out the pen this week.

 

-Pradeesh

[tjt7a]

Still waiting here; they promised an update this week.

[pchand2]

Quick update: The pen is not shipped out and my refund request is being ignored for last 2 weeks. I raised a pay-pal dispute a week ago and still no reply. Looks like martemodena administration is delaying it because customer support asked me to escalate the claim on Monday since administration is not processing the refund.

 

-Pradeesh

[tjt7a]

I had waited for almost two months for my pen, and then asked them for a refund. It has been a week, and still not a peep. I also submitted a Paypal dispute. This is very unprofessional, and I recommend everyone avoid this company.

 

Tom

[iruciperi]

I also bidded and won in the auction for the exactly same model as yours, but it took about a month in a "Payment Accepted" status. So I contacted their customer service team, and I got following answer:

 

They are struggling with the Visconti pens because they can't get stocks of the pens and they even don't know when Visconti supplies the pens for them. So they are cancelling pending transactions on all the Visconti pens, and they will not sell Visconti products anymore.

 

I think you will get an e-mail from MARTEMODENA's customer service team and they will ask you for cancelling the payment.

[iruciperi]

I had waited for almost two months for my pen, and then asked them for a refund. It has been a week, and still not a peep. I also submitted a Paypal dispute. This is very unprofessional, and I recommend everyone avoid this company.

 

Tom

 

Actually, they are famous for their very kind and gentle customer service. I've also experienced their good customer service many times, but for this pen, Visconti products, I think their brains are fried because of miscommunication between Visconti and them.

Edited October 5, 2017 by iruciperi

[shahrincamille]

If what Martemodena says is true vis-a-vis supply problems with Visconti, and reading between the lines, does this imply that Visconti is also following in the footsteps of fellow Italians Omas and Delta?

 

I hope not

 

 

Shahrin

[Bill P]

 

Actually, they are famous for their very kind and gentle customer service. I've also experienced their good customer service many times, but for this pen, Visconti products, I think their brains are fried because of miscommunication between Visconti and them.

You may have had very good experiences with their Customer Service, buy many customers did not...several of their business practices have also been called into question.

 

Their feedback ratings on ebay declined rapidly over their last few months on ebay...they are no longer a registered member on ebay...

 

Their is nothing to suggest they had mis-communication with Visconti..the facts are that they sold Items on their auction and on ebay that they did not have in their possession...they did not disclose this to the buyers...even after not having the items in stock for over 6 weeks they continued to sell the very same items to more customers (and collecting their funds) again knowing they did not have the items in stock and again without disclosing this to the buyers.

 

After waiting for substantial periods of time for the purchased item to ship, and there was no shipment, customers requested refunds, and did not receive any refund.

 

Even after filing claims with paypal for non delivery of items...after 8 days Martemodena has not replied to the claim, has not shipped, and has not provided a refund.

Edited October 5, 2017 by Bill P

[Bill P]

If what Martemodena says is true vis-a-vis supply problems with Visconti, and reading between the lines, does this imply that Visconti is also following in the footsteps of fellow Italians Omas and Delta?

 

I hope not

 

 

Shahrin

I have not heard, or become aware of ANY issues with Visconti providing products to their Dealers...not aware of ANY Visconti supply chain issues.

 

There is another possible explanation...perhaps Marte is saying that Visconti is responsible for their not having products, perhaps that is accurate, perhaps it isn't..BUT even if it is correct, it is possible that Visconti is not providing product to them for a valid reason... perhaps a dispute, perhaps non payment for product, perhaps violating an agreement, who knows.

 

For some reason Marte is NOT providing refunds to customers who have requested them and are deserving of them....cash flow?

[iruciperi]

You may have had very good experiences with their Customer Service, buy many customers did not...several of their business practices have also been called into question.

 

Their feedback ratings on ebay declined rapidly over their last few months on ebay...they are no longer a registered member on ebay...

 

Their is nothing to suggest they had mis-communication with Visconti..the facts are that they sold Items on their auction and on ebay that they did not have in their possession...they did not disclose this to the buyers...even after not having the items in stock for over 6 weeks they continued to sell the very same items to more customers (and collecting their funds) again knowing they did not have the items in stock and again without disclosing this to the buyers.

 

After waiting for substantial periods of time for the purchased item to ship, and there was no shipment, customers requested refunds, and did not receive any refund.

 

Even after filing claims with paypal for non delivery of items...after 8 days Martemodena has not replied to the claim, has not shipped, and has not provided a refund.

 

 

I thought their customer service is fairly good based on the posts on FPN a few years ago. And I pretended it's due to the mis-communication between Visconti and Martemodena, because the customer service said like that. After reading your post in this and another thread, I changed my opinion. Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

As I wrote above, I also bought Visconti Divina Desert Spring from them, and have not received yet. My transaction was not via Paypal, but directly using my credit card, so I requested them to cancel the transaction by themselves or send the money back to my Paypal account. They chose the later option, yesterday, and not yet sent.

 

I will post if they reply.

[Bill P]

 

 

I thought their customer service is fairly good based on the posts on FPN a few years ago. And I pretended it's due to the mis-communication between Visconti and Martemodena, because the customer service said like that. After reading your post in this and another thread, I changed my opinion. Thank you for sharing your experience.

 

As I wrote above, I also bought Visconti Divina Desert Spring from them, and have not received yet. My transaction was not via Paypal, but directly using my credit card, so I requested them to cancel the transaction by themselves or send the money back to my Paypal account. They chose the later option, yesterday, and not yet sent.

 

I will post if they reply.

 

Several of us here on FPN have the same circumstances....

 

paid for a Pen with MarteModena..

several weeks later no shipment

Marte blames it on Visconti - Marte promise updates on shipping

No updates on shipping

FPN member patience expired - request refund from MarteModena

No refund

File claim with Paypal for refund due to non shipment of product (some FPN members have waited 60 days after payment to MarteModena-NO shipment/No Refund)

MarteModena does not reply to Paypal

MarteModena does not issue refund

We all now wait for Paypal to issue the refund

 

We all have received the communications from Marte where they place the responsibility for this on Visconti..not confident that this is accurate...

 

I hope you, and all other customers who have paid for products from MarteModena and who have NOT received the product(s) they paid for, get a full refund from someone. (Paypal or Credit Card co)

 

Best Regards,

 

Bill P.