What's Your Worst Fountain Pen Shopping Experience

[Bibliophage]

 

except of course for getting the call from PayPal to make sure it was a legitimate purchase and not someone having hacked my account, that is.... "Why, yes, yes I DID make that payment. Thank you for calling...." ("Oh (bleep), I really DID just spend that much money just on two pens, didn't I...?")

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

I've actually called Paypal to confirm a buyer of a very expensive object, because Google street showed it as being a church. They contacted the buyer for me (while I was on the phone, no less) and confirmed it.

[Misfit]

I tried twice to buy a Pelikan white tortoise from an Amazon Global Seller UK. The first time amazon.com replied to my query that the pen was damaged, and that was why it was returning.

 

They offered free expedited shipping if I tried the order again. But it turns out they cannot offer updated shipping, so I was offered 15% off.

 

The tracking showed the pen shipping and returning to the seller on the same day.

 

I never received it, but was credited each time. It has put me off Amazon Global Seller UK.

[inkstainedruth]

Good to know. I had considered getting an M600 Violet and White because Amazon Global UK had the best price I'd ever seen, plus I had a gift card that my husband won at a company picnic and then gave me for my birthday. But when I contacted Amazon, it turns out that they treat Amazon Global UK as if it was just another 3rd party seller. So, instead I used the the gift card to get a couple of DVDs that were both available directly from Amazon; they are movies that I've been looking for for years, but no TV channel ever seems to play either of them (five HUNDRED channels, and there still is nothing worth watching on Saturday afternoon a lot of the time; back when I was in college, when there were maybe 10 channels and nothing on TV on Sunday afternoons except basketball, golf, basketball, basketball, PBS pledge drive, basketball, bad Spaghetti Westerns and PBS pledge drive, is when I learned to like bad Spaghetti Westerns; and that was with getting both NYC and Western Connecticut stations on my little 12" black and white TV in my dorm room). Nowadays? You'd think SOMETHING would be worth watching on TV on a Saturday afternoon. But no, not really, except for reruns of old episodes of McMillan and Wife....

It will be slightly weird to see the one movie (an animated film) because the narrator for the video/DVD version is NOT the same person as the one who did it originally, when I first saw it on TV as a kid (and apparently there is a version with yet a THIRD person doing the narration floating around out there... ).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Misfit]

Hi Ruth. The person who bought a Pelikan white tortoise before I did got his. I’m not sure why I never did. The price did go up after I placed the second order.

 

It certainly soured me on Global Seller UK because they are hidden behind that label.

[sandy101]

Delivery, always delivery.

 

I've ordered pens from E-bay and other firms and then the pens get sent via one of those courier companies that have sprung up over the last few years to compete with nationalised mail firms.

 

I live in a block of flats.

 

This means the courier can find the block, but not always the right entrance or mailbox. So they "leave a card" wedged in the door that gets taken by the wind. Then the pen gets "sent back" to the sender and disappears.

 

Roayl Mail knows where i live, the other comapies can't find my place.

 

Three pens have gone missing by this method. Vendors have been helpful, but when the website tracker says the pen is in the delivery firms office, and the person on the phone says its not - it gets rather frustrating.

 

 

[Joe124013]

I purchased a Pineider La Grande Bellezza Honeycomb last year in September. However, when it arrived I noticed that the cap had a crack. As I liked the pen and inked it up, I didn't really want to return it-I had heard of others with similar issues who were able to get them replaced. So I contacted the seller who put me in contact with the distributor (Yafa). And so started the issues. Initially, they seemed very responsive, and asked that I send in the defective cap which I did. I then heard nothing for a couple months, when I called again and was told that they received my cap, and would be getting a replacement. Another month and nothing. I called again and was told that the company was waiting to replace all defective caps at once and were working on making more (as an aside, they released a couple different trim options for the pen in the meanwhile). I called a couple more times and was told the same. It ended up being May when I actually received the replacement lid in a simple mailing envelope-no apology for the long wait, or anything (all the while the pen was unusable). And to top it off the new lid they sent doesn't fit properly-it closes but it's much too tight for me to feel comfortable with. Since I've decided I'll never order either a Pineider nor anything distributed through Yafa. I really wish I had just returned it initially.

[cunim]

My experiences with buying used pens have been fairly poor, but one stands out. A well known pen collector was selling a costly vintage Waterman on a very reputable forum. Price seemed a bit high so I made an offer that was 25% lower and he accepted. Stupidly, I sent the money without protection so what happened next was my fault. On receiving the money, the seller became outraged that I did not pay his asking price and insisted on additional payment before sending the pen. I said no and asked for a refund. He refused and kept both the pen (I doubt it existed) and the payment. Worse, he started sending me long and obscene tirades about my low character and general unworthiness. After doing this for a month or so, he sent a Bic and suggested that I tell the post office that someone had stolen the real pen during shipment. Again, this was an individual with a long history of collecting and selling pens. How could I know he had lost it?

 

I had the fellow banned from the forum and have a small claims filing all ready. It is a pain, though, and the seller is obviously batshit crazy so I don't know how much moral satisfaction I could get from a lawsuit. I will probably treat it as a lesson learned and am very cautious about used pens these days.

[dan in montreal]

My experiences with buying used pens have been fairly poor, but one stands out. A well known pen collector was selling a costly vintage Waterman on a very reputable forum. Price seemed a bit high so I made an offer that was 25% lower and he accepted. Stupidly, I sent the money without protection so what happened next was my fault. On receiving the money, the seller became outraged that I did not pay his asking price and insisted on additional payment before sending the pen. I said no and asked for a refund. He refused and kept both the pen (I doubt it existed) and the payment. Worse, he started sending me long and obscene tirades about my low character and general unworthiness. After doing this for a month or so, he sent a Bic and suggested that I tell the post office that someone had stolen the real pen during shipment. Again, this was an individual with a long history of collecting and selling pens. How could I know he had lost it?

 

I had the fellow banned from the forum and have a small claims filing all ready. It is a pain, though, and the seller is obviously batshit crazy so I don't know how much moral satisfaction I could get from a lawsuit. I will probably treat it as a lesson learned and am very cautious about used pens these days.

Yikes, that is BAD. It's one thing to be stiffed by a seller, it's quite another being asked to implicate yourself in fraud. I hope you do get your money back if you go ahead with the small claims suit.

[Addertooth]

Criteria: A bad experience is one which is so severe, that it changes your behavior.

 

I am constantly searching for overlooked pens online. To that end some amazing steals have ended up in my group of pens which I refuse to call a collection.

There was a "steal" I ran across and purchased on e-Bay. I posted the Seller's photos and text for the item Here in this forum (I was happy with the purchase).

The seller kept stalling sending the pen, longer and longer.... Then they eventually ended up cancelling the sale a month later (they never shipped it).

They DID end up posting the same pen back online for sale a couple months later, with the details from my posting HERE, which defined it as a higher value pen.

 

Behavior changed... Now, I do not post anything about my vintage pen purchases, until AFTER they are safely in my hands.

[corniche]

Greetings Everyone,

 

Compared to some of these stories, I don't have much to complain about, but the worst experience I've ever had where it was the store's fault and not a manufacturer's defect was with a NYC pen store that kept hanging up on me when I was asking questions about a couple of pens.

 

After the second hang-up, I opted to buy elsewhere and haven't been back. When I called back the next day to complain, the guy I spoke with told me, "Oh, yeah,... so&so does that."

 

 

Sean

[Addertooth]

Sean,

 

Your WAHL / Eversharp influence is showing

 

Addertooth

[corniche]

Sean,

 

Your WAHL / Eversharp influence is showing

 

Addertooth

 

Sean

Edited January 5, 2020 by corniche

[Tom Kellie]

~ To date there's never been any bad fountain pen shopping experiences.

With regard to ink shopping, a sales assistant in a department store insisted that only black ink was useful.

In her view, ink with colors were “for little kids”.

Waaaah!

Tom K.

[corniche]

 

 

~ To date there's never been any bad fountain pen shopping experiences.

With regard to ink shopping, a sales assistant in a department store insisted that only black ink was useful.

In her view, ink with colors were for little kids.

Waaaah!

Tom K.

 

I guess my new nickname is Baby Dumpling.

 

 

Sean

[Uncial]

Thankfully I don't think I've ever had a bad experience of sellers in regards to new pens but sadly I've had plenty of awful experiences with vintage sellers. Lots of flexible nibs, some that are even marked manifold, lots of junk described as perfect and with carefully decietful pictures and pens with cracked sections and broken levers etc.

 

But there was one that really stood out because I was stung by this UK based ebay seller three times due to the fact that they kept changing their name and by sting three it was obvious that much of their feedback was fabricated. They sold Swan Mabie Todd's and Conway Stewarts. I doubt any of them were without very significant problems. The three purchases I made were a complete disaster. I initially thought that a reasoned approach might be a good route for something significantly misdescribed but the polite, forgiving route was met with a level of agressikn and rage that was very peculiar. Sting two and three were greeted with the same rage and tirades of abuse when I simply returned the pens for a refund with minimal contact. Both had to be pursued through a Paypal dispute that went on for a very long time. Ive never touched nor even looked at Mabie Todd's or Conway Stewarts since.

[markofp]

My bad experiences invariably occur at pen shows, where sellers try to pull the "urgency" game. When I go to a show, I usually spend a couple of hours checking out what's available, and then make all my purchases in one swoop before leaving. There's this one dude who I encounter once in awhile who always says to me: "this pen is $375, but if you buy it RIGHT NOW I'll let you have it for $300." I don't go for it, but then if I go back a few hours later, it's always "that price was for then, NOW it's back to $375." I detest people who pull that and I find the sales tactic repugnant. If you could sell it to me for $300 an hour ago, you can sell it to me for that now.

Edited January 6, 2020 by markofp

[inkstainedruth]

If you could sell it to me for $300 an hour ago, you can sell it to me for that now.

 

OR -- they can go home with the pen unsold.... [shrug]

I've gotten some deals on pens on Sunday mornings at shows -- not huge discounts, but enough to make me say "Yes, I'll buy that." It's one less pen the sellers have to pack up for the next time.

Of course the flip side is that if you DO see a good deal, and wait to see if someone has a better deal, you then go back to the first table only to find the pen has been sold already.

This is why I'm usually walking around with pen and little notebook in hand, keeping notes on where I saw X pen. Sometimes it's "so and so's table" (I've been to enough shows at this point -- at least on the East Coast -- that I kinda know who "the usual suspects" are to look for specific things. But a lot of times (especially with bigger shows -- and a must at really huge shows like DCSS) it's "3rd row on the left, small ballroom, three tables over from X".

Of course, I'm not generally looking at $300+ pens -- at shows or otherwise -- other than the occasional sigh of "Oh, when I win the lottery...."

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[MuddyWaters]

Mine is nothing major but it still bothers me. When I was a newbie and trying out pens at the local stationery store, I bought one or two pens based on the performance of the demos in the store. Both times, the pen that I had bought was writing finer and dryer than the demo was. It took me awhile to realize that the demos had probably been broken in x1000 by other newbies exerting too much pressure on the pain while testing it. It would have been very helpful for the salesman at the time to warn me of this phenomenon and suggest that I buy one nib width higher than I did.

Edited January 6, 2020 by MuddyWaters

[aimi]

I once had an individual who had a high number of sales on a second-hand pen forum upsell me a pen they had acquired from another individual there by nearly 200$. Granted, this was my fault for not doing enough due diligence, but when I asked for a return and agreed to let them keep the fees (and I would pay for shipping), they dragged their feet on having the cash for over a week and then finally I gave up and took a trade with them for a different pen that I still have to sell. I am pretty sure they have tried to dramatically upsell me other pens as well since then as we are now friendly, and I wish they wouldn't since they are otherwise very pleasant to talk to. They probably will recognize themselves in this comment lol.

[sirgilbert357]

As I am still basically in the middle of what I would call the worst buying experience in recent memory, I will withhold comment or telling the story until it is over with -- which I hope will be by the end of this week.