Pelikan Changing to Non-translucent Binde

[Waverly]

I have downsized my fountain pen collection 90%, and my Pelikan collection was the first to feel the ax.   Between the sky high prices, limited availability of their basic product line, and the new non-translucent binds, I will concentrate my pen interests elsewhere.  I kept the M405 blue striped and the M200 Smoky Quartz but the rest flew the coop forever.  

[marlinspike]

11 hours ago, Waverly said:

I have downsized my fountain pen collection 90%, and my Pelikan collection was the first to feel the ax.   Between the sky high prices, limited availability of their basic product line, and the new non-translucent binds, I will concentrate my pen interests elsewhere.  I kept the M405 blue striped and the M200 Smoky Quartz but the rest flew the coop forever.  

 

Wouldn't new high prices and unavailability of product be a reason to keep what you had from them? 

[Karmachanic]

Change is inevitable and constant.

[Waverly]

1 hour ago, marlinspike said:

 

Wouldn't new high prices and unavailability of product be a reason to keep what you had from them? 

 

Nope not for me.  I am a user of fountain pens, not a collector.  I got rid of all my vintage pens, some Indian Pens, Pelikans, and a couple of Pilot VPs.  I now have about 11 daily writers which I will rotate between until I am no longer able to journal due to death, advanced age, or infirmity.   Its been a fun 12 year journey but I have other interests as pursue as well.

[WestLothian]

What next - cartridges instead  of piston filling system?

[Karmachanic]

35 minutes ago, WestLothian said:

What next - cartridges instead  of piston filling system?

 

How you say P200?

[WestLothian]

16 minutes ago, Karmachanic said:

 

How you say P200?

P1000   

 

[JulieParadise]

2 minutes ago, WestLothian said:

P1000   

 

Why not. Alas, all those bigger "make-believe-piston-filler"  fountain pens with their laughable captive converters are not too far off from that. 

[WestLothian]

41 minutes ago, JulieParadise said:

Why not. Alas, all those bigger "make-believe-piston-filler"  fountain pens with their laughable captive converters are not too far off from that. 

The modern pen that discards its development pedigree of functional features and market advantages will soon become extinct or an unused collectors' item. 

 

[Karmachanic]

1 hour ago, WestLothian said:

The modern pen that discards its development pedigree of functional features and market advantages will soon become extinct or an unused collectors' item. 

 

 

Don't worry.  Moonman and other Chinese manufacturers are stepping up to the plate.

[Mercian]

13 hours ago, Karmachanic said:

Change is inevitable and constant.

Indeed 👍

 

In fact, change is the only constant.

[JCC123]

So, rather than complain here to people that can't do anything about the situation, why don't one of you start a petition on change.org and post it here for folks to sign? If the number of customers is high enough, you may be able to convince Pelikan to reverse course. After all, they're a business and money talks.

 

Speaking of money, I think I brought up this point on another thread before which is that Pelikan really needs to increase their prices if they want to remain a viable business. The fact that they have to cut corners like this tells you that they can't maintain their current price point along with their quality. Something's gotta give. You people have caviar taste with McDonald budgets. The world doesn't work like that. Either put up with the higher cost or take the hits with lower quality. You can't have both.

[Mercian]

1 hour ago, JCC123 said:

You people have caviar taste with McDonald budgets. The world doesn't work like that. Either put up with the higher cost or take the hits with lower quality. You can't have both.

Nobody here is asking for ‘caviar on a McD’s budget’.

 

It is very much worth noting that Pelikan is pushing its prices up while it is also reducing the ‘customer value’ of its ‘offer’.

 

Pelikan is trying to push up the prices of its ‘Souverän’ pens in to Montblanc territory, while simultaneously removing some very basic ‘utility’ that not only Mb’s ‘Meisterstück’ pens do offer, but which is part of Pelikan’s ‘USP’ in that they invented it, and in that it has long been firmly-associated with the Pelikan brand.

 

This is, IMO, a good example of what happens when any ‘specialist’ manufacturer - whether it manufactures pens, cars, cycling components, aircraft, or anything else - gets taken over by a large company that then foists on to its newly-acquired subsidiary some very-well-remunerated new executives.

Incomers who are members of the ‘charmed circle’ of transient executives who know nothing at all about the market for the products that their current employer manufactures, and know only the dogma of slashing the wage bill, reducing the ‘head count’, and cutting production costs while also increasing prices.

Such people are experts at causing a brief jump in the stock price, cashing-in their ‘options’, and then moving on to their next employer just before their ‘insightful business acumen’ causes their previous one to implode.

 

Traditional companies that want to operate sustainably over the long term often offer well-made high-end products that provide a ‘halo effect’ for their brand.

The charmed circle of transient executives couldn’t give a monkey’s about any of that ‘long-term sustainability’ nonsense - after all, they’re off to their next host soon enough.

Crashing the company (with no survivors) is, after all, often the easiest route to generate maximal short-term income.

[stric75]

Well said @Mercian. It couldn’t be more true. 

[Uncial]

On 4/2/2023 at 11:03 PM, Mercian said:

Nobody here is asking for ‘caviar on a McD’s budget’.

 

 

Actually, I can't say I'd be averse to this.

[WestLothian]

Ironically, this month we will see the "Green Demonstrator Special Edition" being released by Pelikan. It is a Souverän M800 due mid-late April.....

I won't be ordering. However, it does offer the technical benefit of letting you watch the gold ring on the end of the section as it corrodes away (even with Pelikan 4001 ink).  

[JCC123]

On 4/2/2023 at 6:03 PM, Mercian said:

Nobody here is asking for ‘caviar on a McD’s budget’.

 

It is very much worth noting that Pelikan is pushing its prices up while it is also reducing the ‘customer value’ of its ‘offer’.

 

Pelikan is trying to push up the prices of its ‘Souverän’ pens in to Montblanc territory, while simultaneously removing some very basic ‘utility’ that not only Mb’s ‘Meisterstück’ pens do offer, but which is part of Pelikan’s ‘USP’ in that they invented it, and in that it has long been firmly-associated with the Pelikan brand.

 

This is, IMO, a good example of what happens when any ‘specialist’ manufacturer - whether it manufactures pens, cars, cycling components, aircraft, or anything else - gets taken over by a large company that then foists on to its newly-acquired subsidiary some very-well-remunerated new executives.

Incomers who are members of the ‘charmed circle’ of transient executives who know nothing at all about the market for the products that their current employer manufactures, and know only the dogma of slashing the wage bill, reducing the ‘head count’, and cutting production costs while also increasing prices.

Such people are experts at causing a brief jump in the stock price, cashing-in their ‘options’, and then moving on to their next employer just before their ‘insightful business acumen’ causes their previous one to implode.

 

Traditional companies that want to operate sustainably over the long term often offer well-made high-end products that provide a ‘halo effect’ for their brand.

The charmed circle of transient executives couldn’t give a monkey’s about any of that ‘long-term sustainability’ nonsense - after all, they’re off to their next host soon enough.

Crashing the company (with no survivors) is, after all, often the easiest route to generate maximal short-term income.

I think you're forgetting the fact that Germany is one of highest wage countries in Europe. While I agree that a lot of companies are gouging their customers, I don't think that's the case with Pelikan as declining demand and higher cost structure pretty much require that they raise prices. You can tell that they're barely surviving from the news out last year about strikes at their plant and other signs of financial trouble.

[Harold]

On 4/4/2023 at 4:41 AM, JCC123 said:

I think you're forgetting the fact that Germany is one of highest wage countries in Europe. While I agree that a lot of companies are gouging their customers, I don't think that's the case with Pelikan as declining demand and higher cost structure pretty much require that they raise prices. You can tell that they're barely surviving from the news out last year about strikes at their plant and other signs of financial trouble.

You can't raise prices and remove features at the same time, people just won't swallow it. We can debate endlessly(without having any of the relevant data) whether or not Pelikan needs to do any of this, but it's just a bad look that never goes down well.

[Mercian]

On 4/4/2023 at 3:41 AM, JCC123 said:

I think you're forgetting the fact that Germany is one of highest wage countries in Europe. While I agree that a lot of companies are gouging their customers, I don't think that's the case with Pelikan as declining demand and higher cost structure pretty much require that they raise prices. You can tell that they're barely surviving from the news out last year about strikes at their plant and other signs of financial trouble.

No, I am not.

But nor am I forgetting that the company ‘asked’ its workforce to take a cut in their working conditions.
And then, after the workforce had accepted this, and done so, the company then ‘asked’ them to take further cuts (including, iirc, pay cuts).

These actions by the Executives triggered a lengthy industrial dispute.

This combination of actions ‘strongly suggests’ that the Executives are either so incompetent as to be unable to do their basic calculations before negotiating with the workforce (you know, the people who do the actual work  - or, if you prefer this jargon, ‘perform the value-add’), or are not negotiating ‘in good faith’.

It is of course entirely possible that both of those things are true.

 

I note that you are also failing to take account of the fact that Pelikan is not just a manufacturer of Souverän fountain pens - it is a large company that makes all manner of office supplies and school supplies.

Artists’ materials, disposable ballpoints, paper, stamp pads, stamp ink, glues, modelling clay, sticky notes, carbon paper, rollerballs, Parker-G2-compatible ballpoint refills, etc
The part of the company that manufactures Souverän fountain pens is only very small component of the company, and its products do provide a ‘halo effect’ for their ‘more-affordable’ stationery products.

Why are you not mentioning the large range of products that Pelikan manufactures?

Has Pelikan ‘had to’ hike the prices of all of its stationery products at the same rate at which it is hiking the prices of its Souverän fountain pens?

Has Pelikan made cuts to the quality/‘customer value offer’ of all of its stationery products of a similar nature to the cuts that it has made to the quality/‘customer value offer’ of its Souverän fountain pens?

What do the answers to those two questions tell us about the ‘necessity’ of increasing the prices of Souverän fountain pens?

 

The combination of the Executives’ treatment of their mere underlings the workforce and their reduction of the quality of the product while simultaneously pushing its price upwards seems to me to suggest that, to borrow your phrase, the Executives not only expect the workforce to ‘manufacture Beluga caviar for McDonald’s wages’, but also expect customers (sorry, consumers) to stump-up ‘Beluga caviar prices’ for ‘McDonald’s products’.
 

Edit to add:

For clarity, I don’t particularly object to the company ‘repositioning’ Souverän prices to make them comparable with Montblanc Meisterstück prices. The two ranges have, after all, historically been products of comparable quality.

But I do find this act to be completely unjustifiable/insupportable when it is combined with reducing the utility/quality of the Souverän pens.

And I aver that reducing the quality of Souverän pens is not only not ‘necessary’ to the survival of the company (look at the proportion of its total manufacturing costs that goes on making Souveräns), but also is actually detrimental to the company - because it makes former customers feel ‘betrayed’, and potential customers feel that the company is attempting to rip them off.
Doing both things simultaneously therefore actually reverses the ‘halo effect’ that producing these pens provides for the company.

[Karmachanic]

In case y'all haven't noticed, every day prices are going up for everything everywhere, and will continue to do so until POP.  Stay tuned.  The reason for the demise of the transparent binde was covered on page 3 of the thread.

 

OK.  Carry on complainin' and have a nice day! 🤪

 

P.S.  Prices of MB, Sailor, Pilot etc have also increased.  Must be Pelikan's fault.  Off to find my asbestos undies.