Heritage Collectables - Had Some Website Problems But Now Sorted.

[Alex2014]

Very good experience with Barry Martin: Shipping was fast, quickly delivering, A very nice vintage FP with a fair price, as described. I'd buy again from him at any time.

[Rauhbutz]

I recently bought a pen from Barry and Heritage Collectables. Email communication was a little slow but he did reply and I received the pen I ordered in fine style and quickly. He notified me when he shipped it and it arrived exactly as presented in the posting on E-bay. I have read some of the other posts on this and his reply. I think the man is honest. He has asked for the opportunity to make things right and I think we should afford him the courtesy.

 

It should also be known that when I bid on the pen I failed to notice his request to contact him prior to the bidding for including insurance on the purchase. After the auction closed I emailed him about the cost of insurance. He shipped the pen - insurance at his expense. I am sending him a note of thanks with a money order for the insurance cost. He seems genuine to me.

 

Rauhbutz

Oklahoma City

[Rauhbutz]

I recently bought a pen from Barry and Heritage Collectables. E-mail response was slow but he got back with me. I have read the other posts about him here. I think the man is honest. He has asked for the opportunity to make things right and I think he should be extended the courtesy. My purchase arrived as presented on E-bay and it arrived quickly.

 

It should be noted that I failed to see his request to contact him before bidding about insurance. I e-mailed him about the insurance. He shipped the pen, notified me of the date he sent the package, and insured it on his dime. I am sending him a thank you note with the cost of the insurance. He seems genuine to me, and he has asked for the opportunity to make things right. I hope he is afforded the chance.

 

Rauhbutz,

Oklahoma City

[mohamedelegipcio]

Good afternoon,

I would like to share with you my horrible shopping experience with Barry from heritagecollectables.com

I placed my order SIX WEEKS before on 14 of July so I will receive the pens by my birthday on 26 of August.

Normally shipments from kingdom of Great Britain to Mexico via The royal mail arrive in one month.

*I wrote to heritagecollect3@aol.com to know my order status or the shipment tracking number but I didn't receive an answer.

*I wrote to Barry's fountainpennetwork account on 1st August 2016 and this was his answer:

"Your pens have been shipped, I will send over the tracking number tomorrow" but I didn't receive any shipment tracking number.

*I RE-wrote to Barry's fountainpennetwork account on 09 August 2016 but I didn't receive an answer.

*I called the seller number 0044 1428 260150 but I didn't receive an answer.

*I opened a PayPal case on 18 August but I didn't receive an answer.

Yesterday I received an e.mail from Barry telling me "I have just moved house and we were in quite a muddle, Would you allow me to send your pens on Monday as we still have your parcel"

Really words can't describe my disappointment and frustration.

I bought those pens for myself as a birthday gift and now the pens don't matter because my birthday itself lost its meaning.

Some screen shots as a proof

http://imgur.com/a/94KzY

http://imgur.com/a/cJIQS

Edited August 22, 2016 by mohamedelegipcio

[Ian from North Lincolnshire UK]

Hi mohamedelegipcio

I have bought a couple of pens and a propelling pencil from Barry at Heritage Collectibles. It was about two years ago now. I did have an issue with a Mont Blanc Meisterstuck fountain pen which I returned and eventually I did get a refund. I think that the guy is genuine - for what my opinion is worth. I got the impression that he has full time work and his pen business is secondary to this, but again this is only my opinion, I don't really know. Like you I sent emails which didn't get a response for some time and he always offered apologies and there there were again more delays which I couldn't see a real reason for other than he became involved in other things and plain old forgot about me. However, I do not believe that the guy is 'a fraud' as some have suggested on here or that he is a scam artist in any way. 'A little disorganised' would be a better description in my opinion. I would advise that you keep emailing him and express your concerns. I'm sure he will come through. I'm only writing this to try and give you some perspective on your situation as I do know exactly how you feel - for what its worth until he made my refund I was convinced that I'd been scammed and worse had returned the item which I'd paid for. Be persistent and polite if a little forceful, express your concerns and I'm sure you will get the outcome you desire. I hope this goes a little way to assuage your distress.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Ian from North Lincolnshire UK

[mohamedelegipcio]

My worst online purchasing experience ever.

I just got lies, After one month and half I had to open a PayPal case to recover my money back.

Think twice before buying from them.

Edited September 3, 2016 by mohamedelegipcio

[praxim]

That is what you told us already on 23 August. It is not new information.

 

My order on 1 August arrived in two weeks. There was a flaw in the pen, almost indiscernible until you filled and used it, easily fixed (and I did).

 

Some repairers / sellers as a policy do not fill repaired pens with ink so will not pick up such problems. Barry is not the only example of this in my experience so I do not count it for or against.

Edited September 3, 2016 by praxim

[H3NK3L]

Sortof new here, bought (an payed) a pen from HeritageCollectables a couple of days ago, I noticed it remained for sale 2 days later, never got any confirmation or anything other than the paypal-receipt,..and now getting worried...the entire heritagecollectables site seems down for some reason. Thats kindof how I stumbled upon this forum which I must say is not the most re-assuring place ^^.

[praxim]

I too noticed that the web site has been down the last 24 hours. There was a pen I was considering. I have written to Barry asking wassup?

 

Regarding the lack of notification, I also bought two Onotos from Barry / HC at a negotiated price in mid-September. After over a week of hearing nothing, and seeing also the items were still up, I wrote to ask for the tracking number. A couple of days later he marked them sold and e-mailed the tracking number, which was La Poste in France rather than Royal Mail. That same morning the post office notified me a (his) package was waiting for me, posted ten days before. So, communication is not ace even when things are being done.

 

I noticed in that package that he had an address in France, South-West of Caen, to speak of a general region. He has moved operations there? This could account for web site management issues.

 

If you paid by paypal then you are fairly well protected. If you lack his e-mail address and want it then PM me.

[praxim]

It seems my guess was correct. HC has been migrating its web site. What with actual changeover time and then time for DNS changes to propagate, it is unsurprising that a small business site might be unavailable for a while.

 

Welcome to the forum by the way. For what pen are you waiting?

[H3NK3L]

Thank you for your reply,

 

follow up :

 

I received the pen today (which is actually way better than receiving a reply to an email), bought on saturday, received wednesday (I live in France and shipped from France). Packing is definately LaPoste-proof !

 

in answer to your question : I Ordered a Conway Stewart 366, inked it up and it writes like a charm, is exactly as described/pictured. Very happy with it and I probably will buy again from Heritage Collectables (if my wallet allows me to ^^).

So for a first experience I'd say : Great ! Have to admit I worried for nothing...

 

So if Barry is reading this : many thanks !! and you have one more happy costumer.

[PaulS]

quote ............... "Some repairers / sellers as a policy do not fill repaired pens with ink so will not pick up such problems. Barry is not the only example of this in my experience so I do not count it for or against.​"

 

I'm fairly new here so maybe I'm out of step with trade practices, but very surprised at this comment. Surely it's essential that a seller write tests the pen before sending out to a buyer, and not just a dip test - a variety of problems potentially might exist which would prevent the pen writing and cause the buyer headaches, not the least of which would be having to return the pen. You might expect this from some ebay sellers, but not an outfit like Heritage Collectibles, and I'd imagine most folk would say such a habit would definitely count against the seller.

[CAG_1787]

quote ............... "Some repairers / sellers as a policy do not fill repaired pens with ink so will not pick up such problems. Barry is not the only example of this in my experience so I do not count it for or against.​"

 

I'm fairly new here so maybe I'm out of step with trade practices, but very surprised at this comment. Surely it's essential that a seller write tests the pen before sending out to a buyer, and not just a dip test - a variety of problems potentially might exist which would prevent the pen writing and cause the buyer headaches, not the least of which would be having to return the pen. You might expect this from some ebay sellers, but not an outfit like Heritage Collectibles, and I'd imagine most folk would say such a habit would definitely count against the seller.

 

In my experience, very few sellers test their pens before selling (in fact, nibs.com is the only one that I know of that does it every time). Most will test it for you if you let them know.

[H3NK3L]

I may be very new to this, but I tend to agree with PaulS...

it seems somewhat unlogic to sell pens as "fully restored and working" if the seller only seems to judge on the esthetics.

Seems contradictory to me

If I buy just about anything that a seller claims "fully operational" how can one (as a buyer) NOT expect it to have been fully tested ? Even more so as most sellers don't state "tested by dipping", they just claim "fully working and restored".

What's the inconveniance for a seller ? having to clean the pen out after testing if it fills and writes and flows properly ? Is it presomptious to expect that's implied in the "fully working" "writing" "fully restored" ?

This untesting just turns buying (especially vintage) pens even more into a lottery in my opinion.

 

Follow up on heritage collectables :

- site is up and running again

- but I noticed I did receive a 336 Scribe (conway stewart) having bought an advertised 366 Universal. Concidering the price nothing to make a fuss about, writes great so I m quite happy with it.

[praxim]

Perhaps the import of my #27 comment has been misread a little. I agree that testing of restored pens should include the filling mechanism and writing while filled. My point was that a practice of not doing so is not uncommon, therefore a failure on the part of seller X to do so does not distinguish them.

 

I am not so optimistic that fill-testing will remove all complaints. The leak to which I referred above was so slow that it was not found until I had used the pen for a while, I think the second or third time I had picked it up. The same was true of a similar problem from another seller (also fixed easily).

 

While I support fill-and-write tests, how diligently should the seller pursue testing? Also, should they always use fresh ink, to avoid cross-contamination? Further time and materials add to cost so there is a trade-off for buyers and sellers.

 

Meanwhile, I bought another pen from Heritage Collectables recently. It arrived promptly, looks good, not yet fill-tested by me.

[DAF365]

On September 3 of this year, I paid for a pen, received the notification that my payment was received, and as of yet have not gotten my pen. Emails from Barry assured me that the pen was in the mail, and that he would send me the tracking information. I have yet to receive any of these.

 

David Frankel

[bmartin854]

Barry from Heritage Collectables here - Well I accept a lot of what has been said re these recent posts. I know it is no excuse but moving house and then being told, by the existing website hosts that they no longer wanted to carry on in this business, has meant the last month has been an absolute nightmare. Not only have we relocated but I then I had to rewrite the entire Website. It is all done now but a few orders have not been dealt with correctly. I can make a cast iron promise that no one will lose any money. Any orders not processed properly will be refunded in full - in addition if I have let anyone down over these last few weeks then I will certainly make it up to them by offering a 25% discount on anything at the site.

 

We are now back to normal and, I hope, everyone will agree that the new site is much better but, once again, I am truly sorry for the poor service over the last few weeks

Edited October 23, 2016 by bmartin854

[phaus]

Barry,

 

I haven't bought anything from you yet, however, I just wanted to say that your new website is significantly easier to browse than the old version.

Edited January 3, 2017 by phaus

[Nethermark]

I've bought three pens from Barry at Heritage Collectables this year, so I wanted to share my experience.

 

Because of the postings here and on other sites, I was rather concerned about buying from Barry, but I gave it a try anyway.

 

First, the positive side: all purchases went though without any complications, and I received the pens in good order. The pens were as described and I must say they are some of the best vintage pens I have. So I have no problem with the quality of the pens delivered.

 

On the negative side, Barry did not send a mail, saying my order was sent nor did I get a tracking number, so I could see where the pens were on there route to me. Also, Barry does not necessarily reply to all mails. Given the discussions here, that makes me rather nervous, since one is left totally in the dark about whether the purchase has gone through, until the pens arrive. Another point, as mentioned by others, is that pens stay listed as available after purchase. I gues this is because Barry has to change that manually. I was irritated by that too, but I have not experienced problems with that (Actually, this is a common problem with vintage pen sites). However, I do sent a mail asking about availability of pens before purchasing them to avoid paying for non-existing pens.

 

To conclude: In my experience it is safe to buy from Barry at Heritage Collectables, and I will certainly consider bying from Barry again, but I hope he improves on his information level in the future.

 

Jan

[BlottDoc]

I suppose I should add my experience with HC here in the hope of letting others waste their time and money as I have.

 

I ordered two sheaffer pens on 28 march. Paid via PayPal, I heard nothing and the pens remained up for sale. An email via PayPal and via the website went unanswered. After a couple of tries I managed to get Barry on the phone. He promised to look into it and call me back in half an hour... guess what, no phone call.

 

I called him back a couple of days layer and there was a problem with one of the pens and they would both be sent when fixed.

 

Then hear nothing again for a week. On calling back was told both would be sent the next day as they had been busy. Nothing arrived so I escalated the PayPal dispute to a claim and lo and behold an email and refund one month after the order.

 

So the promises that the pens would be sent was a lie on top of numerous others.

 

My advice would be to not bother ordering from this company. The time spent on phone calls and the frustration of no communication make it not worthwhile.