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Fountain Pen Customer Service

Seeing Syngent's post about the end of Conway Stewart as we have known it reminded me of the customer service issues that both Brianw and Isaac complained about at different times over the last year or two.

Does anyone else have any good or bad things to say about the customer service of the fountain pen companies that we talk about around here?

I'll start. I have had very good customer service with Pelikan's U.S. distributor, Chartpak. There is a woman who seems to run the customer service department there named Abi. She has always been very helpful when I have worked with her on replacement parts and nib exchanges.

As much as I like Lamy products, I have only contacted their U.S. customer service once; their U.S. distributor at the time was Filofax I believe. That was to try and make an nib exchange. I was the original purchaser of the pen, had all of the paperwork saying so, and had bought the pen from a licensed distributor. The gentleman I talked to at Filofax was not very helpful to say the least. However, it is my understanding that Filofax is no longer the U.S. representative.

Finally, I have had my Mont Blanc 149 serviced once in the 10 years I have owned it. About a year ago I sent the pen to their Chicago boutique to have it repaired. It had gotten a bunch of scratches, gouges etc, and for about $80 or $90 they completely rebuilt and serviced the pen for me. When I got it back it looked brand new. The turn around was about 6 weeks I believe. I was happy with the service from the Chicago boutique and with the end result (I believe the Chicago boutique actually sent it to Texas or somewhere down south to service it). I felt the price was fair for the service I received.
 
Edison Pens has great customer service! I had a problem with my cap on my Beaumont Stealth. Brian Gray responded quickly I sent the pen in and they took care of it.

Tom
 

strop

Now half as wise
I needed a new section for a Waterman Phileas. Called the US service center for info. Even though no longer made and not a real expensive pen when I got it, they still had replacement parts and I had it in hand in less than 10 days.

On the other hand Mont Blanc was a disaster. I have an entry level pen, 585 I think, that I purchased in 1979 or 1980. Used for many years, and until recently I thought it had been the only pen I ever lost. When I found it I remembered why it had been tucked away 20 + years ago. It had cracked in half. I took it to a local dealer who shipped it off. Ended up going back to Germany. I was told they "no longer support this pen" and would not even touch it.:mad3::sad:
 
I used Lamy's customer service in Germany a few times, and each time I am blown away by their outstanding customer service! They don't go the extra step for the customer, in my experience they go an entire marathon!
 
Franklin-Christoph supplies superb customer service. Every experience I've had with them revolves around "the customer is always right".

Goulet Pens is a great sales outlet. They have figured out that happy customers buy frequently and often. I am a repeat customer.

Pendleton Brown is extremely easy to work with and stands by his work. My Lamy 2000 bold nibbed pen, purchased from Goulet Pens and modified into a .8mm stub by Pendleton Brown, is easily the best writing instrument I've every held. It has been in constant use since July. I just corrected/graded over 100 Venn Diagrams with this pen and it wrote on every imaginable type of cheap paper there is.

Scheaffer customer service took a picture of a pen I've had since the early 80's and figured out what it was. It took a lot of looking through their old catalogs but they kept at it.
 
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I needed a replacement nib and section for my Sheaffer Prelude. It was stainless and gold plated. It cost $35 and they were amazingly helpful and I had it in 3 days. To boot, they included an extra, so I have a spare.

I have to send a pencil to Montblanc for repair. Hopefully that will be just as good an experience.
 
I used Lamy's customer service in Germany a few times, and each time I am blown away by their outstanding customer service! They don't go the extra step for the customer, in my experience they go an entire marathon!
I have heard that dealing with Lamy directly is the way to go, unfortunately, here in the U.S. I was led to believe that I had to go through Filofax because I was in the U.S.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
I have very few experiences to draw upon. I can say good things about Goulet and Edison ... and haven't run into a bad experience yet.
 
Great service by the Goulets, always a fast and friendly response, and they haven't forgotten the "small business" touch as they've grown.

Franklin-Christoph, again fantastic, always go the extra mile to ensure customer happiness.

TWSBI, great customer service. Have called on them a couple of times now, fast response and near instant shipping of replacement parts.
 
I have had great service from both Waterman and Cross. No complaints on either.
I was dissapointed with the Waterman service, but that was almost 30 years ago. They replaced a nib on my pen, and the replacement was even worse than the original. No further cooperation from their part.
 
Brian Gray at Edison Pen Co. is incredible. He'll bend over backward to make things right.

Also TWSBI has first-rate customer service. I've had some cracking problems with the early generation 530-540s, and Phillip at TWSBI sent out replacement parts suprer-fast, at no charge. They are great.

I have great loyalty to both companies.
 
Franklin-Christoph supplies superb customer service. Every experience I've had with them revolves around "the customer is always right".

Goulet Pens is a great sales outlet. They have figured out that happy customers buy frequently and often. I am a repeat customer.

Pendleton Brown is extremely easy to work with and stands by his work. My Lamy 2000 bold nibbed pen, purchased from Goulet Pens and modified into a .8mm stub by Pendleton Brown, is easily the best writing instrument I've every held. It has been in constant use since July. I just corrected/graded over 100 Venn Diagrams with this pen and it wrote on every imaginable type of cheap paper there is.

Scheaffer customer service took a picture of a pen I've had since the early 80's and figured out what it was. It took a lot of looking through their old catalogs but they kept at it.
+1 on Goulet!
 
Chatterly Luxury's/Pen time Bryant was introduced to me by Dave258, that guy is something else, amazing to do business with.

Deltaf (I hope i remember that right) at the DC show was a great guy as well. Bittner.com is his website both will have future business from me again

i got it won't, its Detlef, if he ever stops in, sorry about that
 
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