Got My Pelikan M805 Ocean Swirl. Boy Am I Disappointed!

[TSherbs]

TSherbs, on 22 Apr 2018 - 18:58, said:

 

From your original post, which has since conveniently disappeared (but quoted here for context) apparently there is no firsthand experience with this pen. So discussing quality control issues over several posts (deleted, they may be) is rather difficult.....

Well, I have not deleted anything. I see all of my posts.

 

What is going on around here? What are you suggesting in this snarky tone?

Edited April 23, 2018 by TSherbs

[BeckonRay]

TSherbs, No offense intended, truly. Most of us did advise the original poster to return his pen. I certainly would if I weren't 100% satisfied.

[Mew]

I'm guessing that what they are trying to say, TSherbs, is that there is nothing wrong with the pattern, it is the way it is supposed to be. There are no QC issues and the patterns on the pen weren't necessarily supposed to align.

If he doesn't like it, he can return it but as such nothing is wrong with the pen.

Edited April 23, 2018 by Mew

[jekostas]

Every photo posted by Pelikan of any of the Ocean Swirl models shows that the coloured bands match between the cap and barrel. If it were Pelikan's intention to not have these bands line up when the pen is capped, why are they photographed this way? I think it perfectly acceptable to make assumptions based on the product photos provided by the manufacturer.

 

So why is this an unreasonable argument?

[TSherbs]

I'm guessing that what they are trying to say, TSherbs, is that there is nothing wrong with the pattern, it is the way it is supposed to be. There are no QC issues and the patterns on the pen weren't necessarily supposed to align.

If he doesn't like it, he can return it but as such nothing is wrong with the pen.

Thanks. I knew that. What I did not understand was the snarky and derogatory tone in a few cases here when someone disagreed with the conclusion that nothing was "wrong."

 

But whatever. Question withdrawn.

[praxim]

Several posters came in and suggested that he/she should accept the variance and not return the item. [my emphasis - P]

 

Please point to any post in which someone said he/she should suck it up and not return the item.

 

I searched for the word "return" on each thread page, to find only suggestions that they could or should return it, regardless of whether that poster personally liked or disliked the pen themselves. Objections were properly raised to a premise that this was either a QC or information problem.

[TSherbs]

 

Please point to any post in which someone said he/she should suck it up and not return the item.

 

I searched for the word "return" on each thread page, to find only suggestions that they could or should return it, regardless of whether that poster personally liked or disliked the pen themselves. Objections were properly raised to a premise that this was either a QC or information problem.

 

Should I search for "suck it up" too? <eye roll> What's your problem? Why are you barking up my tree?

 

This kind of thing usually doesn't happen at FPN.

[praxim]

If you check back on my replies on earlier pages, TSherbs, until most recently I was loading them up with acceptance of your point of view, for you, with smilies to leave no doubt, and making a clear point about individual differences. You have responded by blaming everyone else while making a false claim about their behaviour. No, this kind of thing is mostly absent from FPN, fortunately. You can have the field now.

[TSherbs]

If you check back on my replies on earlier pages, TSherbs, until most recently I was loading them up with acceptance of your point of view, for you, with smilies to leave no doubt, and making a clear point about individual differences. You have responded by blaming everyone else while making a false claim about their behaviour. No, this kind of thing is mostly absent from FPN, fortunately. You can have the field now.

 

Can you get back on the topic?

[TSherbs]

Every photo posted by Pelikan of any of the Ocean Swirl models shows that the coloured bands match between the cap and barrel. If it were Pelikan's intention to not have these bands line up when the pen is capped, why are they photographed this way? I think it perfectly acceptable to make assumptions based on the product photos provided by the manufacturer.

 

So why is this an unreasonable argument?

 

yeah, I just looked at the Pelikan website, and I see what you mean. Those images don't even appear to be photographs, but maybe they are.

 

I checked the Goulet site, too. Both sites describe each pen as "unique," but this is not a way to describe how the patterns of the cap and barrel may or may not be aesthetically compatible. Interestingly, however, Goulet has two photos of the pen with caps on them: the photo of the pen capped shows the patterns not matching, and the photo of the posted pen shows the patterns matching. So that is a mixed presentation (both data sets are small, of course).

[flipper_gv]

The caps and bodies are rarely made of the same rod. One of the few brands that did this was Omas and even there the Paragon new style in arco I had for all of one week didn't align properly on the piston knob, body and cap. It bothered me like it bothered you and I returned it.

 

If you are easily bothered by patterns you think should align and might not, I'd say stay away from them. Most of the time the cap and barrel aren't made from the same rod and therefore won't align ever, other times the threads aren't cut properly for the pen to align 'perfectly' (like my Omas).

[sub_bluesy]

The caps and bodies are rarely made of the same rod. One of the few brands that did this was Omas and even there the Paragon new style in arco I had for all of one week didn't align properly on the piston knob, body and cap. It bothered me like it bothered you and I returned it.

 

If you are easily bothered by patterns you think should align and might not, I'd say stay away from them. Most of the time the cap and barrel aren't made from the same rod and therefore won't align ever, other times the threads aren't cut properly for the pen to align 'perfectly' (like my Omas).

 

The advantage I had with Omas was I could always pull the piston filler and re align the body to the cap. Then shellac the piston filler threads and tighten it to match. I had to do this more times than I’d like to admit with Omas but it always worked. If an arco pen had been cut with the “arco” at some screwed off 45 deg angle on the cap and then straight on the body, I don’t think anyone would have kept one. I equate it to having a solid colored round body pen with the cap and barrel being two different shades. No matter though, Ron at penchalet sent me a return label today with ZERO hassle and will ship a replacement out asap. Always had great service from Ron over the years. No complaints there! The next pen should have a good pattern so I’m looking forward to that. I really want to like this pen! Maybe that’s why I’m being so particular. That and the cost escalates matters too.

[Kandil]

They seem that they are good pens

[TSherbs]

The advantage I had with Omas was I could always pull the piston filler and re align the body to the cap. Then shellac the piston filler threads and tighten it to match. I had to do this more times than I’d like to admit with Omas but it always worked. If an arco pen had been cut with the “arco” at some screwed off 45 deg angle on the cap and then straight on the body, I don’t think anyone would have kept one. I equate it to having a solid colored round body pen with the cap and barrel being two different shades. No matter though, Ron at penchalet sent me a return label today with ZERO hassle and will ship a replacement out asap. Always had great service from Ron over the years. No complaints there! The next pen should have a good pattern so I’m looking forward to that. I really want to like this pen! Maybe that’s why I’m being so particular. That and the cost escalates matters too.

 

<thumbs up>

[sirgilbert357]

Every photo posted by Pelikan of any of the Ocean Swirl models shows that the coloured bands match between the cap and barrel. If it were Pelikan's intention to not have these bands line up when the pen is capped, why are they photographed this way? I think it perfectly acceptable to make assumptions based on the product photos provided by the manufacturer.

 

So why is this an unreasonable argument?

Jekostas makes a fair point.

 

Lets be honest: if the pattern and color of the pens everyone received were more consistent and looked like the Pelikan product photos around the entire cap and barrel, would anyone be surpised??

 

No, because this is how it was portrayed by the product shots.

 

When all we had was those pics and nothing else, the only chatter I ever saw was about the true color tones of the pen. Never once did I see dark areas discussed or postulated on the magnitude that they actually appear on pens we see today. I think most of us probably expected something similar to the way the pattern on the Renaissance Brown went around the whole pen (or the Vibrant Blue for that matter).

 

Yet when the pen comes out and people start taking delivery or seeing real world pics and video, it seems the product shots were misleading at best, and intentionally so at worst. Pelikan never once played up the dark bands or areas as a big deal. We were given some verbiage that seemed to indicate there would be dark-ER areas within the pattern and I dare say it would have been understood to be a homogenous feature and fully depicted by the product shots. But no one as far as I know actually EXPECTED 1/3 or 2/3 of their pen to be as dark as dirty oil on a moon lit night.

 

Now, while it could be argued that expectations have evolved since the release of the pen and that the later you place your order the more likely you are to know that these dark areas are not only possible, but quite likely, who are we to say that another person should have known??

 

We dont know other peoples internet browsing habits. What if I almost never get on the forum these days and I just happen to see ONLY Pelikan marketing shots before placing my order? You see my point...in fact, I personally did that very thing with both the Renaissance Brown and the Ocean Swirl. I just got lucky that I got wind of the issues with the latter right before my preorder was fulfilled and managed to cancel it in time.

 

I fully support anyones decision to return a pen if it does not meet expectations, regardless of the information known beforehand. Sometimes an item looks better in pics online than it does once we have it in our hands.

 

I honestly cant say I feel Pelikan did nothing wrong in promoting this pen. Their pre-sale marketing photos absolutely do not accurately represent the actual delivered pens in every case that I have seen not entirely in color (which is more forgivable), and not in pattern at all (which is absolutely ridiculous in 2018). Some people are more tolerant of this situation than others, and its a pretty subjective thing. While some may simply shrug and write on, others might send their pen back, post a thread on the internet and even email Pelikan to express dissatisfaction. Neither of those two scenarios is unacceptable and I hope that posts on the topic would take this into account and remain civil despite differences of opinion. One can express their position without directly calling someone elses preferences wrong.

Edited April 25, 2018 by sirgilbert357

[Larry Barrieau]

If I didn't get a pen that looked as good as the advertised one, I'd feel cheated. Bait and switch. Which I believe is what is happening.

[Tseg]

It is not a bug, it is a feature?

[alanshutko]

My take is Pelikan screwed the pooch in its marketing photos. And probably have on the M600 Turquoise too. As far as I have read, there's no way they could have made the material without the dark bands in it, so to show so many pictures without the bands is deceptive marketing. Sort of like food photography... Sure, it may have been a production pen which was carefully selected and staged, but it doesn't give an accurate impression of the pen.

 

And that I think is a shame, because I think the pen is beautiful on its own merits. Not to everyone's taste, absolutely. Especially since it wasn't a goal of Pelikan to make the cap align with the body. But I think if the pictures had been more accurate, it would still be a very popular pen. It would still sell well. And people who didn't like it would simply pass it by, instead of feeling they were being fooled.

[Parker51]

Im truly trying to understand why you think that the darken parts of the barrel are a defect.

From everything released by Pelikan, it was an intended effect. Their webpage says

 

Just like in the deep sea, bright spots alternate with dark spots mimicking the light that radiates and is found in the ocean. Each writing Instrument is truly unique.

 

While this may not be interpreted as bands, the company released a video (if Im not mistaken previously to the pens release) which unmistakably showed bands of dark and bright - as one would see in the sea, from deep waters to shallow waters.

 

The alignment (or lack of it) issue, from all we know, is also intended by the company (and, in the past the company has shown that, if they want, they can make things align). Now, if the lack of alignment is something desirable or not, it is every individuals prerrogative.

 

Im not making an apology of Pelikan here, I do know first hand that there are serious QC issues going on. But I dont see how the intended characteristics of a pen can be construed as QC. To me, it seems a bit like saying that the lack of homogeneity in Jackson Pollocks drip paintings showed his inability to paint.

Again, please look at the pictures. They show that on one side of the pen there is both ocean swirl on the cap and the body, while on the other side their is only ocean swirl on the cap while the body on one side is dark to the point that there is almost no color but black on that side. It would be like if Jackson Pollock had executed one of his paintings and then just as he was finishing he accidently spilled a can of black paint which covered and largely obscured one quarter of the work and then he sold it as if he intended to do so intentionally rather than acknowledging the mistake and he pretended that the extra paint was not there.

The ocean does not look like that, except where it is dirty and not clear. The pen isn't named the polluted ocean. If that was the intent, then it should have been appropriately named as such and presented with advertising copy which might have read: that while over all the pen has the beauty of the ocean, it has obscuring splotches covering large sections of the pen just as pollution obscures the ocean in many places.

Edited April 27, 2018 by Parker51

[Uncial]

Pelikan's own marketing pictures have always been a little odd, but they are hardly the only ones! Most pens that I see in pictures from manufacturers have them massively over lit. This usually means that what you get in the post is almost always a lot darker than what you will have seen in the pictures. I was very tempted by the Renaissance Brown, but when I saw it in person the brown was so dull and greyish that I was glad I hadn't taken the plunge without seeing it in person; and there's the rub. So many of us, in a great and terrible rush to buy the latest model, buy online without ever having seen the pen in our hands. How many times have we all done this with other products that looked amazing in pictures but when it arrived was deeply underwhelming? My guess would be many times. Thankfully, if it doesn't match our expectation we can return it, but in this instance, with this particular pen, Pelikan actually confirmed pretty early on in the release that there would be dark areas (both on instagram and on their official website) and that pattern matching was an issue. This was confirmed almost instantly on release by the many, many retailers who stated it here and elsewhere and even on their own web pages. If someone reads that and takes the risk then they can return it if they decide it really is not for them, but they can't genuinely claim to have been ignorant of the facts unless they chose not to read anything about this pen before buying, which seems a little unlikely - possible maybe, but unlikely.