Penfriend in London

[zerobuttons]

I would like to share my experiences with Penfriend in London. There have been a lot of postings in these fora with remarks about their prices (too high) and the shop (too posh). Some of the posters making these remarks have even admitted to not having visited Penfriend ever....

 

From postings here, I knew before going to London recently, that the store in Bush House Arcade is a workshop-like store with quite a few offerings on pre-owned pens, and that the store in Burlington Arcade is the store with the most pens and with the weight on new pens.

I visited the store in Burlington Arcade Wednesday this week to ask for a few models that I already knew that I could not necessarily expect that they had in store. I happened to talk to Amaya Cerdeirina, who was extremely helpful and friendly. She had to turn me down on most of my requests, but investigated whether or not she could produce a Pelikan M625 in blue before I left London again. After making a telephone call, she told me that she could have it ready for me the very next day at shop opening time.

To make a long story short, I turned up the next morning, dip-tested the pen and bought it at a price that was 78% of what Danish dealers want me to pay.

 

I didn´t visit the store in Bush House Arcade, so I´m unable to describe that, but the store in Burlington Arcade was - as it has been pointed out by other posters here - very small. I guess two customers at a time would be the limit. Three maybe, if one of them used the nice old writing desk with test paper and ink in one side of the store. The store is equipped with nothing new and shiny - the only modern items I saw were the phone and the credit card reader.

If I visit them again, I will investigate ahead which days Amaya is at work, and I will try to be there at the same time of day again - at store opening time (09:30). Both days I was there at this time, there were no other customers, and I had the store to myself.