I had lusted over a Renaissance Art cover for a long time. What put me off was the price of shipping to the UK. From $34-$42 was well above what I thought was reasonable, but my attempts to elicit a reply to the question "can it be shipped by a cheaper method" had gone unanswered. I bemoaned the lack of response publicly on FPN and a kind soul from the US offered to buy one n my behalf and ship it over.

This FPN'r placed the order for me, paid for it, received it and dashed to the Post Office to repackage it and get it into the first possible post and then I had to fight to get a PayPal account from them. I credited the account straight away with enough to cover the goods, the postage and the PayPal fee with a little bit of rounding. I don't think the sender and I have ever spoken before so this sort of action goes well above and beyond the call of duty and is one of those things that makes FPN and its users stand out in the world of internet forums.

The postage from the US had cost $11. Ok it's not as fast as Fedex or EMS, but sometimes cost is more important than speed. We are not talking life-saving drugs here. We are talking about a journal cover. The (unnecessary) shipping to the US buyer had added a further $7.50. I had the cover within a week of the buyer sending it to me.

The cover arrived. I had chosen the plain brown cover as it came in under the duties threshold. This one fits a large Moleskine. The first thing that I did was pick up one of my Notables notebooks. These are basically Moleskine copies. It just wouldn't fit in the cover so I took it out to compare it with a proper Moleskine and there is a notable difference in size. The proper Moleskine notebook slipped in and the fit was like a made to measure suite.

The leather is very thick but flexible. Although the cover is brown the stitching is black and runs the whole way around the outside in what I am told is backstitch, a very secure way of stitching. The corners have been rounded which is a nice touch. The rear of the cover is deeply stamped with the Renaissance Art logo and the company name and location. The leather has a nice grain to it and the tanning process smell is not unpleasant, but not one that I naturally associate with leather.

I had a local craftsperson knock me up a cover some years ago to my design for a large moleskine and where mine is better is where I had an elastic enclosure fitted.


A better idea?

So would I recommend Renaissance Art's products? I have only seen one of their products and this is fine. I was a bit peeved with not hearing back as to whether the product could be shipped by a cheaper method. Once could be a simple accident, but twice? I have been assured by people that have bought from the company that they are customer focused, so perhaps I have just been unlucky. It's not unusual to be ignored as a Brit when you want to buy from overseas. I think that some sellers are either scared or don't want the added work.

One of the Renaissance Art products that I did like was their equivalent of the Levenger Briefcase. Certainly a better thought out product than the original. Have a look and see what you think.

YIKES... I am so sorry you did not get an email response. This is Arthur of Renaissance Art. I am pretty fanatical about answering emails quickly. In fact, I check them throughout the evening till I go to bed, usually about 11pm and thru the weekend as well. So, if I do not answer an email within 24 hours tops (usually more like a couple hours) or one of our other people do not answer it, it may be that we have not seen it come in. We do filter our emails for spam pretty heavily so maybe it got dumped into that folder. It happens sometimes. I came home from a 2 week trip this weekend to find almost 5000 messages in our spam folder... too many to go thru.

Once again, my sincere apologies. I do not know what happened but I do know that when I get no response from companies I email it greatly frustrates me and reduces that companies credibility in my eyes.

An alternate email we have is titlepages@msn.com. I see that email only on weekdays from 9-5.

Question about shipping... an inexpensive but uninsured shipping method is a single rate envelope. Whatever can be fit into the envelope costs about $11 - $15, depending on where it is being shipped. We do not show it on our site because many of our products are too large to fit into it and a customer would never know which. So when people inquire about alternate shipping methods we offer that to them. But it is not insured and not trackable in many cases. We receive a 65% discount from FedEx for our International shipping. That discount is passed on to our customers.

If you order again from us please contact me thru email, re-acquaint me with this situation, and I will see what I can do to make it up to you.

Thanks a lot for the response Arthur. I too am plagued with spam, but mine is down to about 50 a day so I consider that I have little to complain about!

I am really pleased with the cover and have been stroking it all weekend! It really does fit the Moleskine like a glove.

I hope to be able to buy something from you in the future and if I don't get a response I will be extra persistent!!

Edit to fix punctuation

Andy,

'Sorry to hear that you had trouble getting started w/ RA. I had the exact opposite experience: I called them after hours w/ a question about a "custom leather book cover" for use w/ my Clairefontaine notebook. I was surprised when someone answered (Arthur, I think), then straightaway cleared up my question; I ordered on the Internet that evening (Friday) and had my product on Wednesday w/o any special shipping.

Nice people, nice products, nice service. No affiliation, just happy. 'Glad to hear that you found someone to help you out, as well.

John

I like a happy story early in the morning!
I have the same problem as you Andy, I am on the far side of the world and shipping is a pain!

Same here - there is a NZ company that has a small range of Rhodia and Clairefontaine - www.zany.co.nz I haven't tried them.

I have bought a selection of Rhodia, Clairefontaine and Apica from US sites direct or via ebay band am enjoying using them. You just have to pretend the freight didn't happen. With the aussie dollar standing strong against the US dollar at the moment it is a great time to grab a few treats from the US.

Some US prices really surprise. I have been keen to acquire a Parket 100. Here in Australia they are $480 retail and I can get one for around $400. They are available from several US pen shops online at $160. Add the conversion and they are around $180 - add $20 freight and they land here about half price.

Go ahead and treat yourself - the quality makes it worth the effort.

Pete

Well,

I had a very good experience with Renaissance Art. I had two custom covers made for Clairefontaine notebooks I use. I found the mail exchange prompt (if that is an english word), efficient and warm. Options (including shipping) are proposed and discussed. (Too) Many options, making it sometimes difficult to choose ;-).

I had them shipped to Belgium "Flat Rate mail" (not insured) by Renaissance Art in seperate envelopes to keep them below Customs franchise. It worked well. Thow, shipped at the same time, they arrived nearly 5 days appart (thought for a while that the second was lost).

I am very pleased by the quality, look and fit of those custom covers. They really met my expectations (and above).

I would definitely recommend Renaissance Art for the look and quality of their product and their high customer attention.

I am convinced you had bad luck in not receiving an answer.

I am maybe spoiled but I have this same sensation of warmness, quality and service with several other american suppliers: Richard Binder, Atelier Gargoyle and Pendemonium. (And on german seller, "missing-pen.de"). I don't think that this is a general rule. Maybe the type of goods (and buyers...).

Jmm