Chartpak Will Not Service Pelikans Purchased Outside Of North America

July 9, 2014

Slightly off topic:

Pilot's warranty service is amazing, and they will honor warranty on pens purchased from dealers outside the US and do work on out of warranty pens. For free in both cases.

I purchased a Pilot Fermo in Dark Green (Japanese market only, for some bizarre reason) new from eBay for shipment to the United States. Someone damaged it quite severely: somehow they detached the green resin portion from the brass body so it spun in place. I also had an old resin faceted Vanishing Point (about 15 years old at least) that needed service on the trapdoor and or nib.

I sent both pens to Pilot Pen USA with a letter explaining what was wrong with them and what service I was requesting. Both were repaired without any fuss or complaint for free. I didn't even have to show a receipt. I was more than a little shocked I wasn't at least charged for the old VP. The Fermo may have still been in warranty.

So far I've dealt with Pilot, Yafa, and Kenro for service on pens made outside the US. Pilot's been the best, hands down. Yafa is also excellent; they completely replaced a pen that had a bent crescent-filler press bar at no charge that I'm pretty sure was out of warranty.

+1 Pilot Pen USA has been amazing the two times I've sent pens for repair. One was a Metro that had an awful nib and they sent a new pen with a box of carts, a Varsity, and a G2 as an "apology for the inconvenience". In my mind that's enough to stick with Pilot.

I spoke with consumer services (Pilot customer service) yesterday asking why my new VP came in the same cheaply box a Metro came in and was told all Pilot pens will be shipped in that box from here on out. Namiki will of course be the exception. I know many don't care about boxes anyhow but I find the nice ones quite useful transporting pens to and from the office.

July 13, 2014

Sorry to bump that thread but you forgot that Mottishaw is a pen repairer and also an official Pelikan dealer and same goes for Joel Hamilton and Sherell Tyree so why not asking them if your pen can be fixed?

Edited July 13, 2014 by georges zaslavsky

July 18, 2014

Sorry for your bad experience stevejk13. I can't comment much on your experience other than to say...

-What you describe has been Chartpak's standing policy since around 2008. Love it or hate it, that's the way it is. Most of my purchases are overseas so I get no support from Chartpak regarding the warranty. They have serviced my foreign purchased pens out-of-warranty for a fee so that will be an option for you in the future.

-I've found the most economical, timely, and trackable shipping from the US to overseas to be USPS First Class Package International. After having looked at all the options, this is the way to go for shipping. You can get a quote on USPS' site. It's often overlooked because the site buries this option for some reason.

Good luck.

Abi must love me then. I've sent her 3 different Pelikans in the past year. She knew they were bought from Germany and Malaysia (via the receipts) and she fixed em right up. Two M400s even needed new caps and the other was a nib exchange. I will say that they insisted on getting receipts. So if you buy from eBay, I'm pretty sure they won't touch them.