Controversial Experience With Martemodena's Customer Service.

[iruciperi]

Hi guys.

 

 

As you know, MARTEMODENA's exit from Ebay and some questionable business have been being reported. But there are non-negligible number of FPN users who are saying that they haven't experienced anything negative with the customer service of MARTEMODENA. I'm opening a new thread to share my experience, some were positive and others were negative, and get your experiences.

 

My first purchase from them was a Montblanc classique. You know, they sometimes do not tell the customers what they are selling accurately enough. For example, they always say the nib material of their pens such as FREEDOM line is an iridium, which is not a correct information because the nib material normally indicates the nib itself, not the tipping. The case of my Montblanc classique was not different from that. They said the pen is a brand-new "Classique" model of Montblanc, and did not indicate the year of production. So I thought it is 145, which is the only modern fountain pen in the "Clssique" line. But the pen was 144, which is vintage and a bit cheaper.

 

It was okay in this case because you can distinguish 144 and 145 with the photos: former has no cap thread at the grip section. I considered it as my fault. My second one from them was another Montblanc, 146 this time. As previous case, they marked it as a new Montblanc Le Grand fountain pen with 14k two-tone gold nib without year of production. The description photo showed very clean and seemingly brand-new Montblanc 146. Guess what. What I got was a vintage 90s Montblanc 146 with a lot scratches observable with bare eye and sign of repeated cap-opening and closing at the ink window. You know, it is almost impossible to distinguish modern and 90s Montblanc 146s with the photos only, and the photo was not the actual pen I got. I contacted their customer service in this case, and they almost immediately responded that the pen is produced in 90s so it may have some scratches, and they will refund if I want to. But the shipping from Korea to Italy costs ~USD30.00 and their response was prompt and frank, I didn't return the pen.

 

At that time, my opinion on them was sth like this: their business practice has a bit of cheating, by not telling all the truth they know, but their customer service is very gentle and definitely has willing to solve any issue. I would say I was positive on their customer service.

 

 

My opinion dramatically changed at my next, and probably the final purchase from them, Visconti Divina Desert Spring. I won the auction with EUR330.00, which is such a bargain for the pen, and payed by stripe. In my previous case, the shipping was immediate. It never took more than one business day since I payed. But in this case, it had not marked as shipped for more than a weak. So I contacted to them and got a prompt answer that it may took 2-15 business days to make it shipped. I waited one more weak, and I thought sth was wrong with them. I contacted to them again, and they replied a bit slower then previous ones, and said that they are struggling with Visconti's pens because it is almost impossible to get stock of them. The guy at customer service suggested me a full refund and asked me to issue the refund at Paypal. But, as I said above, my payment was not via Paypal, but by stripe. So I replied, and they said they would cancel the order directly.

 

Because I felt it was not an accidental case just for me, I took a look at FPN and found that many FPN users were struggling with MARTEMODENA in these days. I discussed a bit, and waited ONE MORE MONTH in this case, because I hadn't lost faith to their customer service yet. I contacted again, but got no reply this time. After two more contacts about one weak between each, I finally got a response from them. This time, another guy at customer service replied to my enquiry and said, miserably, they'd done all the things they had to do. All the remainings are on Paypal for the refund. I finally got very upset because, as I said above, again, my payment was not via Paypal. They didn't even asked me my Paypal e-mail address, which is different from the e-mail address registered at MARTEMODENA. They were just lying and clearly cheating on me. I said, again, my payment was by stripe and you have to cancel the order. They said they got it, but I couldn't just wait because there was no remaining faith on them. I contacted to my local credit card company and issued this problem and attached all the continuous conversations with MARTEMODENA. The credit card company is contacting VISA and MARTEMODENA to give me a full refund for not-delivered goods.

 

 

According to my experience above, I think that they are very gentle and fast for the enquiries that there's no their fault, but their attitude changes dramatically for those they have mistaken and have something to lose. I do not trust them at all now, but I wan to share it and hear yours, to check whether I'm biased by their only accidental one single mistake and being unfair for them, and if you guys have similar experiences, help the other users to be aware of them.

 

 

 

 

[Chrissy]

I think most of us are now aware of their shady or shabby business practices. I wouldn't buy anything from them if they said it was a 10th of it's RRP and offered free shipping and returns.

 

As far as the Montblanc 144 and 145 are concerned, yes it is easy to tell them apart. The 144 not only had no threads on the section, but it also has the extra gold plated band next to the nib.

 

To differentiate between an old 146 and a new one shouldn't be that hard if you are given clear pictures of the actual pen that you will receive. The older version has a blue ink window with no visible stripes. I know that always assumes you can see the window in the pictures though. It also has a monotone gold nib.

 

I hope you get all of your money back for the Visconti.

[iruciperi]

  On 11/3/2017 at 9:33 AM, Chrissy said:

I think most of us are now aware of their shady or shabby business practices. I wouldn't buy anything from them if they said it was a 10th of it's RRP and offered free shipping and returns.

 

As far as the Montblanc 144 and 145 are concerned, yes it is easy to tell them apart. The 144 not only had no threads on the section, but it also has the extra gold plated band next to the nib.

 

To differentiate between an old 146 and a new one shouldn't be that hard if you are given clear pictures of the actual pen that you will receive. The older version has a blue ink window with no visible stripes. I know that always assumes you can see the window in the pictures though. It also has a monotone gold nib.

 

I hope you get all of your money back for the Visconti.

For 146, the pen was from late 90s, or early 00s, so it has a two-tone gold nib as the modern one. The ink window is also transparent as the modern one. Comparing with my modern 146, the only difference I could catch was the length of the pen. The modern one was a little bit longer and the cap was incompatible.

 

Thank you for your concerning on Visconti case.

[Chrissy]

  On 11/3/2017 at 9:42 AM, iruciperi said:

For 146, the pen was from late 90s, or early 00s, so it has a two-tone gold nib as the modern one. The ink window is also transparent as the modern one. Comparing with my modern 146, the only difference I could catch was the length of the pen. The modern one was a little bit longer and the cap was incompatible.

 

Thank you for your concerning on Visconti case.

 

That's true enough. You can't tell any difference in pictures in that case.

[MuddyWaters]

you are very forgiving and tolerant. pretty much everything you describe in the post is shady stuff

 

too bad because the delta pens are beautiful, but this company and perhaps delta is as transparent as a wooden table

[bbs]

Well, just to balance things a little bit, I've bought a lot of pens from Martemodena over the years and have never had a problem. Admittedly some of the newer models, such as the Chronicle, do seem to have slightly inferior quality in the threading but nothing disastrous. And the materials they are using are really nice - the Harmony Chronicle I have is absolutely stunning.

 

I also bought a couple of Pelikans from them at good prices without problems.

Edited November 8, 2017 by bbs

[lockfeler]

Their customer service is really bad, they send me a wrong pen, so I ask for a refund. After I returned the pen, the refund never came.

(Already more then 3 months)

 

Moreover, they arrange some auctions in which there are lots of pens they don't have access to. I still waiting for some orders from them and it has been more than 7 months.

 

So I want to remind every Fp collector, this is a really bad store and they will use every excuse to refuse to refund, absolutely a fraud.

[Bill P]

  On 7/8/2020 at 10:31 AM, lockfeler said:

Their customer service is really bad, they send me a wrong pen, so I ask for a refund. After I returned the pen, the refund never came.

(Already more then 3 months)

 

Moreover, they arrange some auctions in which there are lots of pens they don't have access to. I still waiting for some orders from them and it has been more than 7 months.

 

So I want to remind every Fp collector, this is a really bad store and they will use every excuse to refuse to refund, absolutely a fraud.

 

+++++

[Babangita]

  On 7/8/2020 at 10:31 AM, lockfeler said:

Their customer service is really bad, they send me a wrong pen, so I ask for a refund. After I returned the pen, the refund never came.

(Already more then 3 months)

 

Moreover, they arrange some auctions in which there are lots of pens they don't have access to. I still waiting for some orders from them and it has been more than 7 months.

 

So I want to remind every Fp collector, this is a really bad store and they will use every excuse to refuse to refund, absolutely a fraud.

 

 

  On 7/8/2020 at 11:33 AM, Bill P said:

 

+++++

I super second that!