Has anyone here dealt with Visconti in Italy for any repair work? I'm just curious as to how good the service is.

I seem to have bad luck with Visconti pens, of the 5 Visconti pens I have owned/own only one has no issues -


1. Copernicus - perfect and 100%
2. Divine Proportion - faulty nib unit, sent back
3. Divine Proportion - poor construction quality - sent back again and waiting on third replacement.
4. Wall Street LE silver - Ink view window crazing and absorbing ink, now has a blue tint and cloudy crazing.
5. Wall Street LE burgundy - rubbish quality clip with letters missing from the visconti logo on both sides of the clip.


So, out of 5 Visconti pens, 4 have faults. Thats an 80% failure rate and all these pens are Limited Editions with high RRP.

With this sort of experience I am now wanting to deal with the head office, Visconti Italy as this is just poor.

IMO Visconti pens tend to spend more time in transit between warranty issues and cause little pleasure in owning them. Very nice materials, boring bock nibs, poor quality construction.
Nice looking designs - poor implementation.

I'm gutted with my experience for pens I held in high esteem.


Anyone here experience the ink view windows crazing/clouding and (Potty Mouth) quality clips?

Why do you keep buying them, Jay. Damn, 4 out of five your not happy with, and all expensive pens.

I've never had experience with Visconti repair/customer service but I would expect it to be the same as any other European pen maker. Shipping them back almost always involves a 6 to 8 week wait. And that's from the US. That wouldn't be bad but it's hit or miss if the problem is solved. Everything you listed is cosmetic and it would be a shame to wait that long and still not be happy with what you got back.

I'd just write a nice but firm letter to corporate asking what they are going to do about it.

Good luck on this. I do feel your pain.

i never cared for Visconti pens and sold the 2 that i tried. It is amazing that 4 out of 5 pens had major issues...a sign of problematic quality control. I hope you get your Divine Proportion sorted out soon, even though it is the 3rd attempt. Pens at this sort of price leven should be perfect

Good luck Jay
Nikolaos

About half of mine have worked out of the box. However those weren't LEs. I'd definitely expect the reliability to be worse with the LEs. Where have you sending them back to, so far? The service center in the US has been good for me so there has never been a need to send one overseas.

I am waiting for my FPH LE to return. The piston came off the rod and I have noticed some window clouding/crazing. I am hoping that they have fixed it as it's been gone since the end of August. Don't know what I will do if they have not.


Kurt

I sent an Opera Master back recently that wouldn't fill.

I sent Visconti an e-mail, they told me it sounded like a dodgy seal on the filler.
Visconti contacted the distributor here in Switzerland to expedite it. I took it to the retailer who managed the process.
Now it is fine.

The only issue (as with any Italian company) is that I sent it in August when most factories close down, so it took over a month to get it back.

Actually I have 5 Viscontis and this was the only one with a problem.

Good luck
Roger

I guess I got all the "good" Viscontis. I've got 6 at the moment, none LEs and all are perfection. Looks like I need to stay with the midrange and leave the high end alone.

I have contacted Visconti directly for a fix of the cap/body seem on my Pericle. It clicked bat the cap turned and they fixed it without expenses.
They were very kind (contacted Danila - trovatelli@visconti.it - at the service center). It took 2 to 3 weeks to get it back.

All of my Viscontis are older - Voyagers and Anniversary Voyagers. All have functioned perfectly out of the box so I have no experience with visconti warranty service. I have no Viscontis of recent manufacture.

Four out of five bad?! I can't imagine. Maybe it is time to try some Stipulas.

I have 8 Viscontis, and only one needed repairs, but then 5 of these are rollers, and 2 of the three FP's are converters (sounds like the power filling system might be the source of some of these problems). The one I had problems with was also a Copernicus, and actually it was one of the cresent filling fountain rollers. The cap cracked because, even though at the time they sold this, it always showed it posted, I don't believe it was meant for this (VERY tight fit). They replaced it with another cap that has wavey celluloid but it almost adds to the charm. I use this pen every 2 or 3 months, and it (knock on wood) has been perfect for the last few years.

I also have one of the first Van Gogh maxi's that has the 3k locking system instead of a screw on cap, and a different clip. It has a very weird nib that must be uneven since it will dramatically change the line with pressure (and I am not talking about the tines spreading due to the flexibility of the nib). Tough to describe, but it writes okay.

I've never had to deal with Visconti for any repair work. However, I purchased a Visconti Ragtime II (blond celluloid) from someone who had it serviced in Italy before selling it. When I received the Ragtime, it was in tip-top shape. It looked like it was brand new and never inked.

I have 14 Visconti pens to date, and I've not had any problems with any of them. I think it's the luck of the draw. Of the 14 that I own, 12 are considered "vintage editions" on Visconti's Web Site and are no longer in production.

We've got two Viscontis, two Opera Clubs. While mine is alright, my gf's cap doesn't line up when closed. At this point, I am weary of sending stuff in and writing letters in which I state what is wrong with the pen.

You're right about the good yet boring Bock nib! I cannot see those anymore (unfortunately, my favorite company, Omas, has switched to Bock as well). That is why I prefer to pick up old-stock without Bock nibs.

I love Visconti's older designs (Voyager) but none of their newer designs really thrills me. All you hear about the double-ink chamber is that people have difficulties with it (cleaning and the like). Oftentimes, the high-end pens have cosmetic faults (I know about a friend of mine whose silver elements came loose on the Divina). While I don't think that they are worse than companies like Omas, their designs just don't thrill me enough to buy a second Visconti. Their celluloids are lovely, though. I secretly wish that the Divina celluloids would be available as old-style Paragons! Man, what a great pen this would be!!!

I love Omas but have had a lot of issues with leaking (which I can now fix myself). The only thing that made me adhere to Omas is that I love their designs/materials so much. So, if you really love Visconti, then don't give up. If they make the pens of your dreams, then be persistent. But if you're just fed up with the company and you like other pens equally or even better, then kiss Visconti goodbye.
I hope Visconti is gonna be more approachable than Omas. They owe this to their pens, and I hope they'll make things right for you.