Disappointed In Mb Customer Service

[OTDoc]

Gather round folks, I have a story to tell. Let me start by saying I am a fan of many MB pens and have several. They are attractive pens and write well with a good consistency. They are, of course, overpriced but the market supports this price so one just has to decide whether it is worth it or not. The last time I needed one repaired and sent it to MB it was expensive. This was about 4 years ago and I sent a pen in for a scratchy nib. I thought about sending it to a nib meister but thought I would get it done well. It ran me about $200 but it included getting the whole thing redone and a brand new nib and came with a decent warranty.

 

So, fast forward to a year ago. I secured a nice used Nikolai MB 146 a year or two ago and pulled it out to use it recently. Low and behold, the tines are out of alignment in a pretty significant way. Now, I am a fair hand at repairing nibs myself by this point in my Fountain Pen journey. Yet, this is a pricey MB. Do I dare try? I decided not to risk it. Well, I am thinking about the price and figure the price is probably gone up a bit by now at MB Repair. I decide to send it to a reputable nib meister instead. It is gone a year. Finally comes back and cost me 45 dollars. The nib writes now but is still a tiny bit scratchy. I look at it under a loupe. The tips of the tines are now mostly aligned but the rest of the tines have been warped a bit to make this work. Sigh. Off to MB Repair in TX it goes. Today I get the letter. It is the standard repair form letter telling me about their professional care, etc. to basically clean and oil the pen and replace the nib. The price tag? $345!!!! Ouch. Well, I will think about it and if I decide to hold off I can. Or that was the way it used to be. Not anymore. I read on to find out that now they hold the pen hostage and if you refuse their work they require $40 for telling you what is wrong with it. MB has always been pricey and I expect that, but holy cow! I imagine I will go ahead with the repair but this is the end for me and dealing directly with MB on anything. They must have some good business practices to continue to prosper but I would think that at some point they will price themselves out of the market. There are other pens out there that write just as well and are just as attractive for much less. I don't see how they can continue to survive in an economy in which luxury purchases are shrinking. Anyone else have thoughts on this?

[meiers]

$345 for a nib exchange is the going rate for level 3 service. Your pen will come back to you with a brand new nib, in perfect working condition and a one-year warranty. Money well spent, I say because I availed myself of their level 3 service when I sent them my demolished Heritage 1912 for a nib exchange. It came back in brand new condition. And it only took four weeks.

 

Having to wait a year for a pen to return from a poorly executed nib adjustment is really disappointing.

 

My plumber charged me something like $345 to replace a cracked drain pipe. It hurt but it was money well spent, too.

Edited November 11, 2018 by meiers

[jmnav]

$345 for a nib exchange is the going rate for level 3 service. Your pen will come back to you with a brand new nib, in perfect working condition and a one-year warranty. Money well spent, I say because I availed myself of their level 3 service when I sent them my demolished Heritage 1912 for a nib exchange. It came back in brand new condition. And it only took four weeks.

 

I think you are right... up to a point.

 

It's true that 345$ for a new nib right from Montblanc is nothing but expectable... provided you wanted a new nib, which is not the case. A nib with a slight out-of-shapeness? C'mon! that's under the ability of any self-respected nibmaster, much more the builder of the nib itself with its tooling and internal knowledge.

 

Montblanc is all about the "user experience" and the perception of luxury and yet they blatantly show such a sign of carelessly incompetence?

 

Having to wait a year for a pen to return from a poorly executed nib adjustment is really disappointing.

Absolutely true. Probably the obvious path of action should be returning the nib to the original nibmeister explaining your (OTDoc's) disappointment and allowing him for an explanation/reparation.

 

My plumber charged me something like $345 to replace a cracked drain pipe. It hurt but it was money well spent, too.

Apples to oranges. Your plumber didn't install the cracked drain pipe to start with, nor did he wrapped it in a hefty profit margin because he isn't in the bussiness of drain pipes but in the "precious drain pipes" one.

[Karmachanic]

These are my thoughts.

You were aware of Montblanc's policies and prices at the outset, You chose to buy the pen.

[AlohaLani787]

I'm positive I'd be more disappointed in the nibmeister that kept my pen for a year and whose "fix" introduced warping to the nib, requiring a trip to Montblanc for a new nib.

[meiers]

I think you are right... up to a point.

Edited November 11, 2018 by meiers

[jmnav]

I'm positive I'd be more disappointed in the nibmeister that kept my pen for a year and whose "fix" introduced warping to the nib, requiring a trip to Montblanc for a new nib.

 

Both. The nibmeister's behaviour is difficult to justify but then, remember why he sent the nib to him instead of Montblanc to start with (and given Montblanc's answer when he finally ended up sending it, it's hard to say he was wrong on trying to avoid that).

[OTDoc]

These are my thoughts.

You were aware of Montblanc's policies and prices at the outset, You chose to buy the pen.

I was aware to an extent. I bought most of my MB pens from FPN with the knowledge that I might need to do some work or send them to a nib meister. In other words, I didn't buy the pens "knowing the prices and policies at the outset." When I have sent a pen in the past it was less than 200 and I had the option of refusing service without a charge if it was too much. I even emailed MB this time before I sent the pen and they said that most repairs were 200ish. They wouldn't give me any more info than that and said nothing about a hostage fee if I couldn't afford the repair. There is nothing on the repair page of their website to tell me about this policy other. So, nobody really knows their policies on some of this until MB has your pen.

 

All of this is a lesson learned of course and I now know better. It is just too bad in my opinion that MB cannot appeal to the wider market and still make quality pens at various price points. This would only help their business I would think. I'm not a businessman so I admit I could be wrong. I just don't see how making your services more widely available would hurt your reputation unless you have to sacrifice quality to do so. I have to imagine that the profit they make on their repair service is decent, especially since they keep the old nib and can get some money back on the gold in the nib or remake it at a lower cost than a new one. At any rate, I will be sticking with the MB's I have and doing my best to avoid MB service from here on out. I like MB pens so it is too bad.

[OTDoc]

I'm positive I'd be more disappointed in the nibmeister that kept my pen for a year and whose "fix" introduced warping to the nib, requiring a trip to Montblanc for a new nib.

In the nib meister's defense, they are very reputable and normally do good work. I have never heard of someone having a bad experience with them nor have I had anything but a positive experience with them. There were some other issues involved for he/she/them that delayed the repair. I have no doubt that the nib did write fairly smoothly when it left their shop. It just got a little off in transport and when I looked at it under the loupe my perfectionism was triggered enough to see how much MB repair would charge. I honestly don't even mind the money I spent with the nib meister because they put work into it and it wasn't that much relative to what MB wants just to tell me it needed repair. Being a nib meister has to be tough. You are trying to fix things that are often very subjective and dealing with people that are very picky!

[Shannon]

I'm positive I'd be more disappointed in the nibmeister that kept my pen for a year and whose "fix" introduced warping to the nib, requiring a trip to Montblanc for a new nib.

 

This.

 

I don't think I've ever heard of MB repairing anything -- it's all about replacement.

[888007888]

I don't think this is an MB customer service issue. There is a minimum service charge to cover some postage, service communication, and a bit of examination work by a trained MB professional. I doubt that $40 even covers the cost of the employee salary that responds back to inquiries. I have had nightmare MB service issues that I've elaborated on within this forum and others have read about. What you're describing here is about price, not service.

[meiers]

My plumber charges me $90 just to show up at my house and diagnose the problem. However, he provides excellent service and is worth every penny.

[meiers]

Shannon is right. MB service tends to replace rather than repair defective parts.

Edited November 12, 2018 by meiers

[meiers]

$40 also includes return postage.

[jmnav]

I don't think this is an MB customer service issue.

But of course it is. Who else?

 

There is a minimum service charge to cover some postage, service communication, and a bit of examination work by a trained MB professional. I doubt that $40 even covers the cost of the employee salary that responds back to inquiries. I have had nightmare MB service issues that I've elaborated on within this forum and others have read about. What you're describing here is about price, not service.

Which is irrelevant to the issue at hand. It is still Montblanc's decision what (and how much) they ask money for. You can bet they also don't (directly) recover the wages of the attendant on the shop when there's nobody in and, yet, they decide not to ask for an entry fee to their shops. They could do a lot of things and they decided to manage their business exactly the way they do (which they, of course, are absolutely free to do).

 

They could, for instance, have someone on the shop that is not only a pretty face on a pretty dress/suit but capable of doing minor service work (it used to be case on the fountain pen business). They could offer life-time warranty on their products (it used to be case on the fountain pen business). They could offer a pen-for-lend while yours was under maintenance (it used to be case on the fountain pen business). They could have a special program for old-timers' maintenance/restoration (as other business, say, some luxury car or wristwatch brands do). They could offer extended warranty on their pens (as even off-the-mill mobile phone companies do). They could do R&D on old nibs to be able to produce them the quality they used to 70 years ago...

 

But they decided to do exactly what they do.

[Karmachanic]

 

But they decided to do exactly what they do.

 

As does everybody else. No one is forced to buy, or use MB.

Buy an MB, and one buys into the ecosystem. This is a choice. Buying in, and complaining about it is, it seems to me, irrational.

[NotAWiz4rd]

Im my opinion, one should still be able to buy a pen (because one likes the pen) and complain about the costly customer service (or why they don't repair but rather replace parts - even though a repair would make more sense).

[jhsd1124013561]

Take the pen to a pen show where Richard Binder goes, and ask him to adjust it for you.

 

Linda and Mike from Indy-Pen-Dance should be good, too.

 

Cost is about 25-40 USD.

 

Montblanc repair is BAD, their EF nib exchange for my 1912 is ridiculous.

[jhsd1124013561]

Also, Ron Zorn from Main Street Pens is also good.

[A1979]

Take the pen to a pen show where Richard Binder goes, and ask him to adjust it for you.

 

Linda and Mike from Indy-Pen-Dance should be good, too.

 

I can also recommend Mike Masuyama and John Sorowka. Great results and both true gentlemen.