What Pen Are You Waiting For 2019

[biancitwo]

I need to stop looking at the USPS tracking site every time I get online. My Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Lava full size, with stub nib, left Vancouver 6 days ago! There has been no word from USPS since it left San Francisco 4 days ago. Apparently, the package is taking its leisurely time. Or, I’m being ridiculously impatient. I think it’s taking its sweet time. And, I don’t appreciate it. The moment I ordered the pen, it was time for it to arrive.

[truthpil]

Yes it is the 2016 LE

 

Still not here yet....

 

Excellent! I'm still pondering grabbing one while there are still some left. It'd look nice next to me vintage 400 tortoise. Gotta pay some bills first though.

[A Smug Dill]

Or, I’m being ridiculously impatient. I think it’s taking its sweet time. And, I don’t appreciate it. The moment I ordered the pen, it was time for it to arrive.

 

 

I wasn't exactly delighted that it took some rather irate prompting on my part this morning to get my order of pens from Pen Chalet, placed on 28 December, finally shipped – but at least this time it did put aside the last remaining stock of the pens I ordered (which I ordered on the basis they're the last of the stock, being cleared at favourable prices) to fulfil the order. Failing me in that regard twice in as many months would be completely inexcusable.

[praxim]

I dropped in at the post office on the way past today, thinking maybe one order had arrived earlier than expected (too soon to check tracking, I thought) to find myself loaded up with packages, or so it felt. An Omas 620 with 18k nib, from the 1980s, a Soennecken 506 14k, two variations on Stilus 111 Oro, and a Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Age. Never thought I would buy a Visconti. It is second hand, proven to write.

 

No, not waiting for anything now.

[Driften]

 

 

I wasn't exactly delighted that it took some rather irate prompting on my part this morning to get my order of pens from Pen Chalet, placed on 28 December, finally shipped – but at least this time it did put aside the last remaining stock of the pens I ordered (which I ordered on the basis they're the last of the stock, being cleared at favourable prices) to fulfil the order. Failing me in that regard twice in as many months would be completely inexcusable.

 

 

Strange I have placed a lot of orders with Pen Chalet and 90% of them ship the same day and the others ship the next business day.

[A Smug Dill]

Strange I have placed a lot of orders with Pen Chalet and 90% of them ship the same day and the others ship the next business day.

I have no idea why two out of two orders I placed with Pen Chalet were delayed, even though I only order what the web site told me was in stock, not 'special order' or backordered items marked with asterisks. This time it was a leather pen case that apparently held up the order; out of four colours, three were marked as sold out at the time, so I selected the only one that was available even though it wouldn't be my first choice of colour.

 

What got me really cross was that, with my last order, it took Pen Chalet 18 days to contact me and let me know it could not fulfil my order. To put that into perspective: I placed the order in November a week before I went away on vacation, did some land-based touring overseas, then took a long-ish cruise on an ocean liner that brought me home. I was notified only on the day I arrived home, with an email that began, "We went to pull your order and unfortunately found that we are out of stock of..." and asked me if I wanted to select a different colour; no apology, and also no other colour was showing as being in stock with the nib width I ordered. In the meantime, some pens I ordered from random Chinese sellers on AliExpress before I left had already arrived, and was awaiting my collection from the post office.

 

It was a miracle that that revised order arrived late in the afternoon of Christmas Eve at my post office. It just so happened that I went there to give its staff a Christmas card and small gift of chocolates to acknowledge how helpful they've been to me all year, and when they saw me one went to the back office to check whether there was anything for me in that afternoon's dump of parcels from the distribution hub. The parcel would not have been processed for final delivery before the Christmas holidays otherwise.

 

This time I found out there was an issue in just 11 days, but only because I got sick of waiting and took the initiative to ask Pen Chalet. There was some confusion as to whether it had once again accepted my order for something it subsequently found it did not have and could not restock, and I was outraged that Pen Chalet failed to discover the problem sooner and approach me immediately. As well, I was again asked if I wanted to select another colour when no other colour appeared to be in stock; furthermore, when I pointed out the ridiculousness of the question, yet again I was told something along the lines of, "Let me go look... we have [a single other colour] of the pen model with the nib width you ordered," that didn't appear on its web site as being available.

 

Forget about any proactive attempt to remedy the situation, put available solutions on the table, make things up to the customer, and get the order on its way. "What do you want to me to do? Do you want to cancel the order?" was about what I got. For both orders, it took my pushing before available alternatives were looked for and 'offered'.

 

After such undue delays, offering to send the parcel to me by a faster delivery method than what I expressly paid for 11 days ago on top of the total price of the products would be nice. (No, it wasn't offered, and I did not demand it.) That's why I prefer to buy from UK and Malaysian online retailers in general, or even Japanese sellers; Amazon.com is the one US-based seller I would recommend to friends and family in Australia. Well, Fountain Pen Revolution, too, as I think Kevin is great to deal with, but few of my friends and family would independently seek out the limited range of products that FPR offers.

 

I really wanted to come to the conclusion that, on the basis of the prices on offer and the customer service, Pen Chalet would be a retailer I could recommend to other (prospective) purchasers of pens and inks, in spite of it not offering free international shipping above some minimum spend threshold. I have recommended buying from Japanese sellers before, even though generally they also charge explicitly for shipping: for roughly the same delivery charges for my Pen Chalet order, I can get EMS service from Japanese sellers; and last time a Japanese reshipper sent something to me by EMS at my cost, it was dispatched on Saturday and I received in on Tuesday in Australia just after lunch. There are also UK-based retailers I would wholeheartedly recommend to others.

 

We'll see whether Endless Pens becomes the stand-out among US sellers of 'premium' fountain pens and paraphrenalia that I can recommend.

[Honeybadgers]

now I'm waiting on another sailor 1911 realo - the seller accidentally sent me a medium nib. He offered to repl;ace it at no charge, but in japan, it'd take weeks. Instead of the $70 shipping, I just asked if he'd take $50 off of another one, so I just paid $170 for a black realo F.

[A Smug Dill]

@Honeybadgers, ha, you're spending big on the Realos, aren't you?

[Honeybadgers]

@Honeybadgers, ha, you're spending big on the Realos, aren't you?

 

 

I really like the ink window

 

 

I think this will be my last pen purchase for some time. I may be forced to quit my work due to a new shift schedule, so I can stay in school, so my income is potentially going to drop from "low" to "poverty line"

Edited January 9, 2019 by Honeybadgers

[biancitwo]

I need to stop looking at the USPS tracking site every time I get online. My Visconti Homo Sapiens Bronze Lava full size, with stub nib, left Vancouver 6 days ago! There has been no word from USPS since it left San Francisco 4 days ago. Apparently, the package is taking its leisurely time. Or, I’m being ridiculously impatient. I think it’s taking its sweet time. And, I don’t appreciate it. The moment I ordered the pen, it was time for it to arrive.

After 6 days of disappointment, I was notified the Visconti arrived in Louisville early today, quickly left for Lexington, and in plenty of time, headed to my post office. Tomorrow morning, I shall be cleaning and inking my new Visconti Lava Bronze Age full size. Now that it’s arriving, the 6 days in the wilderness are forgotten.

[miwishi63]

I am "waiting" for a Jinhao 51A ! I can not find a U. S. dealer who plans to carry this pen. Don't like to order from over seas dealers. Can you help?

c. Skinner

 

Seller AHAI006 on Ebay has them available. I've done business with him in the past and never been disappointed.

 

-Mike

[Runnin_Ute]

A pair of Pelikan Jazz Elegance pens from Massdrop. The $29.98 price for the pair includes two six packs of cartridges. One White and one Black pen. ($14.99 ea)

[truthpil]

 

 

I think this will be my last pen purchase for some time. I may be forced to quit my work due to a new shift schedule, so I can stay in school, so my income is potentially going to drop from "low" to "poverty line"

 

Sorry to hear about the work situation. The bright side of cutting new pen purchases if that you'll have time to further enjoy and analyze the ones you already have. Always looking forward to your detailed comments!

[truthpil]

This lovely pen finally arrived today! It's a mint Parker 45 Custom made in the UK. It still had a tiny bit of dried ink under the nib from dib testing at the factory! Even without ink, the nib slides like butter across the page and has that classic vintage UK Parker softness I really enjoy. This is the first vintage pen I've acquired that is so pristine I'm afraid to ink it haha. For the time being, I'll probably just put the nib into one of my other 45s and let this pen keep its minty-ness.

 

 

[BaronWulfraed]

Pilot Custom 912 with "Falcon" nib

Pineider La Grande Bellezza with "Hyperflex" nib

 

I really shouldn't have -- as the pair are practically equal to my monthly medical insurance premium AND I've bought too many pens since September (OTOH: at least five of those pens only came up to <$200 -- pair of Platinum Carbon desk, Monteverde Monza, a few Noodler's, low-end Platinums...)

[biancitwo]

After 6 days of disappointment, I was notified the Visconti arrived in Louisville early today, quickly left for Lexington, and in plenty of time, headed to my post office. Tomorrow morning, I shall be cleaning and inking my new Visconti Lava Bronze Age full size. Now that it’s arriving, the 6 days in the wilderness are forgotten.

It is out for delivery. My granddaughter and I may just pull up a chair by the front door. This is great timing. I am babysitting at home this morning instead of going straight to the office.

[biancitwo]

I love my new Visconti HC Lava over size, with stub nib. It is quite heavy, but the balance and feel offset the weight this is very comfortable. Writes so smooth. Not sure Asa Gao is the best ink for it, but with very few slight skips, it writes beautifully.

[Pen_Padawan]

Just received my Conid Kingsize with titanium EF nib, my Grail pen! Late Christmas gift to myself!

[Says]

I love my new Visconti HC Lava over size, with stub nib. It is quite heavy, but the balance and feel offset the weight this is very comfortable. Writes so smooth. Not sure Asa Gao is the best ink for it, but with very few slight skips, it writes beautifully.

Mine writes slightly wetter on Asa Gao compared to other pens, but it really does bring out the colour

[Says]

I have totally fallen in love with my new MB Heritage 1912, with EF nib. it was a SUPER expensive buy and I am still hurting from this buy.

 

However, in the long run, it might save me money, because it will take quite a lot to measure up to this pen!

 

It has this understated elegance that make me look at it again and again.

The mechanism works perfectly without a hitch.

The nib is Phenomenal! Its about the same as a pilot F nib, but it has a bit more softness. The only thing tempting for me now, is to get the same pen in a OBB nib! This is nuts