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Is It Me Or Is Kenro Industries The Worst?


Doug C

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I sent off my Omas Arco Milord to Kenro at the first of October. I didn't get an email response when it was delivered (I used delivery confirmation) despite my repeated attempts to email them so I called them.

I got a guy on the phone who acted like I was interrupting his day and said he didn't know what I was talking about.

 

He said 'hold on' about five times, and finally came back and said 'yeah, we got it and it is going out tomorrow'.

 

It is now January, and I have sent numerous emails to them checking on the status. Once again, nothing.

Today, it gives me an error when I try to get into their site.

 

Is this typical for this company, and if so, why are they in this business?

 

 

the Danitrio Fellowship

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I sent off my Omas Arco Milord to Kenro at the first of October. I didn't get an email response when it was delivered (I used delivery confirmation) despite my repeated attempts to email them so I called them.

I got a guy on the phone who acted like I was interrupting his day and said he didn't know what I was talking about.

 

He said 'hold on' about five times, and finally came back and said 'yeah, we got it and it is going out tomorrow'.

 

It is now January, and I have sent numerous emails to them checking on the status. Once again, nothing.

Today, it gives me an error when I try to get into their site.

 

Is this typical for this company, and if so, why are they in this business?

 

 

Within 15 minutes of my last email, I got a call from Neil at Kenro. He was very gracious, and said that some of the people were out but he would follow up on this.

 

I am the first person to blast companies for bad service, but I also want to let folks know when a company is responsive.

Edited by Doug C

the Danitrio Fellowship

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Worst I've ever encountered is Lamy. After sending emails to a couple of different addresses and getting no reply, I sent a letter in mid-November to the customer service address I obtained here at FPN. Since the letter was not returned, I'm guessing that address was good. To date, no reply!!

None of us can have as many virtues as the fountain-pen, or half its cussedness; but we can try. - Mark Twain

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My experience with LAMY was excellent when they were located in Connecticut...since the move to Texas they have been awful...simply awful.

 

I was so frustrated with Lamy Texas that I ended up communicating with Lamy Germany, who was helpful, and they gave me 2 email adrsses for employees i Texas...then finally I received a response, although it was slow.

 

I have found Pilot in Florida to be very good.

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I had fairly terrible service from Parker (aka Newell-Rubbermaid) with an Urban. After the converter *they* sent me got stuck in the barrel (a broken twist converter was the the first time I sent it in for warranty repairs and they were snotty about it, and returned the pen -- with a slide converter -- in a fairly nice mailing tube but in a bubble wrap manilla envelope while they had *required* me to send it Priority Mail, with insurance), they got a earful about their lousy QC and CS; I told them they should be more concerned with the mouthy American broad with access to social media (specifically "an internationally read pen forum" -- meaning of course FPN) than all the pens they could possibly sell to the Chinese market. Also that the brand name USED to stand for quality.... They sent me a Priority shipping box, and then eventually just replaced the pen, and gave me a leather pen case and a new converter (actually two, because I didn't realize that one had already been installed in the pen) and a pack of cartridges. Only that one the top end of the nib leaks from somewhere inside the nib unit, in spite of how many times I flushed and soaked the thing. :angry:

At this point the thing might be out of the extended warranty period (which of course did NOT reset with a new pen). IMO it's not worth giving away. And I'd feel guilty about selling such a lemon. But it's definitely making me gun shy about buying a NEW Parker, even though I sort of like the look of the IM "Vacumatics"....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

"It's very nice, but frankly, when I signed that list for a P-51, what I had in mind was a fountain pen."

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In France, Omas situation is catastrophic. They have lost almost if not all their loyal retailers, even Mr Mora is dropping them due to several problems of after sales service and due to the fact that there is no more Omas representative visiting him.

Pens are like watches , once you start a collection, you can hardly go back. And pens like all fine luxury items do improve with time

 

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I had fairly terrible service from Parker (aka Newell-Rubbermaid) with an Urban. After the converter *they* sent me got stuck in the barrel (a broken twist converter was the the first time I sent it in for warranty repairs and they were snotty about it, and returned the pen -- with a slide converter -- in a fairly nice mailing tube but in a bubble wrap manilla envelope while they had *required* me to send it Priority Mail, with insurance), they got a earful about their lousy QC and CS; I told them they should be more concerned with the mouthy American broad with access to social media (specifically "an internationally read pen forum" -- meaning of course FPN) than all the pens they could possibly sell to the Chinese market. Also that the brand name USED to stand for quality.... They sent me a Priority shipping box, and then eventually just replaced the pen, and gave me a leather pen case and a new converter (actually two, because I didn't realize that one had already been installed in the pen) and a pack of cartridges. Only that one the top end of the nib leaks from somewhere inside the nib unit, in spite of how many times I flushed and soaked the thing. :angry:

At this point the thing might be out of the extended warranty period (which of course did NOT reset with a new pen). IMO it's not worth giving away. And I'd feel guilty about selling such a lemon. But it's definitely making me gun shy about buying a NEW Parker, even though I sort of like the look of the IM "Vacumatics"....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

Parker has gone to c r a p litterally after they were bought by Newell Rubbermerde

Edited by georges zaslavsky

Pens are like watches , once you start a collection, you can hardly go back. And pens like all fine luxury items do improve with time

 

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I find that Ryan, the US (maybe NA?) brand mgr for Omas at Kenro, is accessible, and sympathetic. He confirms that my pens have been received and that they've been dispatched to Omas and that Omas confirms they have them. And he tells me that Kenro has sent emails of mounting urgency requesting attention to those that have been there for longer than anticipated. He told me that Omas service techs take the easier projects first, so the more difficult repairs languish in a bin. And the Italians seem to be either on holiday or preparing to be on holiday. I guess I figure it's just the nature of the beast. I know people who've sent watches off to their Swiss manufacturers for service and have had to wait 18 months for them to be serviced. My experience with Delta service through Yafa hasn't been much better than with Omas through Kenro, FWIW. We're all at the mercy of the euro work ethic which is, IMO, and to be polite....peculiar, and not very appreciative of the folks whose purchases pay their salaries.

Edited by aardvarkbark
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Ultimately, their service is good, BUT they can use some help in the area of people skills in the repair department. What I do is track other people down from other departments and they are usually helpful!

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I've sent an Omas into Kenro for repair, and it went fairly smoothly. I did have to inquire about the status, but the response was courteous and prompt.

Looking for an Omas Arco Verde...the one that got away.

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NO it is NOT "just you!"

I sent a pen in for a nib exchange after being told to ship after the August Italian holidays. It went as directed without any acknowledgement of receipt & after five phone calls & several unanswered voice mails I asked to be copied on the email being sent to Aurora inquiring about my pens "status." I did receive the series of emails both inquiry & response & it was illuminating. Aurora was emphatic that they had provided status updates & that the pen had already been received by Kenro. After receiving same I called & spoke with the same person in repair who said my pen had recently been sent.

Several days later I received a package "rattling" when picked up! If you have waited over three months for a pen's return you do NOT like to hear a rattling sound before opening the box..........BUT if you merely ship a pen in the small envelope (that documented it's travel, receipt & service performed) inside a fairly large box it is understandable. NO bubble wrap, synthetic "peanuts" nor paper exclusive of the one small envelope. Unbelievably my pen was fine but it was an unusually "robust" bodied pen so that was the only reason it was still intact. The nib exchange was as requested & I am grateful for it's return.

Having had the same service performed by Pelikan, Visconti & Krone I think there is a marked difference in the service I received from Kenro. I will not send another pen to them nor will I purchase a model that would require their service. I can purchase a pen from Italy & send it back to the dealer there if required BUT I would not want another experience with Kenro's "service." I realize I am old & still of the belief that a dealer is only as good as the service they provide for the product they are selling. Buying a "new" pen from a B&M establishment & utilizing the service offered from same for that product should not be like this. To conclude their "service" by shipping the pen in such a manner is sending a "clear" message to the customer. AND I "got" the message.

So I have to say it is NOT "just you!"

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I have two modern OMAS pens, the Arte Arco HT and the Bologna in Burkina.



I have actually had two of the Bolognas.... The first one i sent back because it leaked at the section. At the time, LV owned them. They said they couldnt repair the Bologna and sent me the Arte in exchange (a pen with a $400 MSRP over the Bologna). After a year, i bought another Bologna thro standard retail channels because the cellulose is SOO beautiful!! I never used the Bologna as i came to not like how it was designed with metal threads on the section and on the cap the threads were just in the celluloid. Now, three months ago i decided "Hey, you should use the damn thing..." so i filled it... this was its first filling in essence. Guess what? The pen leaked in the same place. I have sent it back to OMAS to see what they say THIS time....



Now, the Arte.... as i said, i recieved it in exchange for my first Bologna. I set it in my case to stare at for a couple years. It is a very heavy pen. My case contains 39 other pens of various manufacture and age. JUST SITTING in the case, the cellulose became pitted and shrank. I have vintage pelikans and MBs in the same case and nothing happened to those pens, but the modern OMAS took a dump.... With the cellulose declining, I decided to use the Arte one day to see HOW heavy it was and atleast get SOME use out of it. I filled it and used it about a week, then I accedentally pushed the arte off a desk one day onto a carpeted floor, the pen hit at about a 15 degree angle with the section down. That force broke the inner sleeve that keeps the entire pen together. The internals of a pen with an MSRP of $1,000 has an injection molded ACETATE inner sleeve that is the back bone of the entire pen! I was disgusted. After i calmed down, i sent the pen to Kenro. 5 weeks later, the pen arrived back in my hands. If you are famililar with the Arco pattern, you will know that, when new, the pattern lines up AND the facets of the pen line up. When i received the pen back, not only did the pattern not line up, but NONE of the facets on the body lined up. The pen now has the appearance of a kit pen in my opinion....



I wrote to Kenro and OMAS about my dissatisfaction.... guess what.... neither has responded to my expierence.



I am on month 7 of waiting for the Burkina to return... the last three times i have phoned them, the response is "it is on it's way from Italy"


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NO it is NOT "just you!"

I sent a pen in for a nib exchange after being told to ship after the August Italian holidays. It went as directed without any acknowledgement of receipt & after five phone calls & several unanswered voice mails I asked to be copied on the email being sent to Aurora inquiring about my pens "status." I did receive the series of emails both inquiry & response & it was illuminating. Aurora was emphatic that they had provided status updates & that the pen had already been received by Kenro. After receiving same I called & spoke with the same person in repair who said my pen had recently been sent.

Several days later I received a package "rattling" when picked up! If you have waited over three months for a pen's return you do NOT like to hear a rattling sound before opening the box..........BUT if you merely ship a pen in the small envelope (that documented it's travel, receipt & service performed) inside a fairly large box it is understandable. NO bubble wrap, synthetic "peanuts" nor paper exclusive of the one small envelope. Unbelievably my pen was fine but it was an unusually "robust" bodied pen so that was the only reason it was still intact. The nib exchange was as requested & I am grateful for it's return.

Having had the same service performed by Pelikan, Visconti & Krone I think there is a marked difference in the service I received from Kenro. I will not send another pen to them nor will I purchase a model that would require their service. I can purchase a pen from Italy & send it back to the dealer there if required BUT I would not want another experience with Kenro's "service." I realize I am old & still of the belief that a dealer is only as good as the service they provide for the product they are selling. Buying a "new" pen from a B&M establishment & utilizing the service offered from same for that product should not be like this. To conclude their "service" by shipping the pen in such a manner is sending a "clear" message to the customer. AND I "got" the message.

So I have to say it is NOT "just you!"

You are scaring me Barkingpig.

 

I will hope for the best...

the Danitrio Fellowship

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And I hope your pen will be shipped more securely than mine. But that is why I joined in to your post to give a "bit of forewarning........."

I was tempted to call & protest (I even saved the box & envelope) but figured that it probably isn't the first time it has happened & if this is the way they allow their employees to "manage" the process then they probably aren't very concerned. It is a shame & I am only glad I had sent them an "extra sturdy pen." But after this happened & I purchased a new Omas I called NIBS.COM to inquire about purchasing a broader nib. Sad that it seems more sensible to pay a lot of money to avoid disappointment. BUT I wouldn't take a chance with them again. The strangest part was that each time I spoke to the repair person he was quite pleasant. Never seemed to know what I was calling about but nice enough & each time left me with an expectation that everything was "on track."

 

Let us hope that your pen has a safe & prompt journey "home."

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Just a few correspondences with them via email has made me leery to send my wife's Aurora Mini Sole into them for a nib exchange. She wants a fine nib rather than the EF it came with, but I don't like their policy of charging me just to have them handle the pen (in other words, act as a middleman to send it to Aurora/Italy), when I should be able to do that myself. She said she'd live with it as it is.

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They didn't charge me for an Omas nib exchange, but Yafa has charged me for Delta nib exchanges, so I wonder if it's the manufacturer's policy rather than the distributor's.

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I just sent my Aurora 88 (modern) because when I went to fill it, the body came apart at the ink window. It's about 2 years old and maybe has been used for 3 months after I received it. I hope my Kenro experience is a good one or better than what has happened here.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Reading this I feel less alone. I won't even get into my OMAS experiences, but I want to share that the celluloid undergoes interesting decay processes ...

I have very good experiences with Aurora, except the Demo which developed cracks in the cap and then broke apart at the ink window.

In both cases, I sent the pen to Kenro. I'm used to not hearing back from them but after my 35.00 processing fee cleared, I took that as a sign that all was going well. After a few months (about three) I received the pen back from Aurora - in a paper envelope inside a cardboard box (as has been noted here).

I have quite a few Auroras, and thankfully, whenever I think of getting another and am shocked at the price (equal the down payment of a car, or a plane ticket), I remind myself that the company itself doesn't seem to hold its pens in that high regard.

That said, Aurora pens actually perform almost as well as Pelikan, and I commend them for actually trying to make a decent writing instrument in a small, family-owned factory.

"If you can spend a perfectly useless afternoon in a perfectly useless manner, you have learned how to live."

– Lin Yu-T'ang

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Factor 1: Pen quality

Factor 2: Quality customer service in my home country with good turnaround time and communications .

 

I don't buy brands that that lack either factor.

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I have two modern OMAS pens, the Arte Arco HT and the Bologna in Burkina.

I have actually had two of the Bolognas.... The first one i sent back because it leaked at the section. At the time, LV owned them. They said they couldnt repair the Bologna and sent me the Arte in exchange (a pen with a $400 MSRP over the Bologna). After a year, i bought another Bologna thro standard retail channels because the cellulose is SOO beautiful!! I never used the Bologna as i came to not like how it was designed with metal threads on the section and on the cap the threads were just in the celluloid. Now, three months ago i decided "Hey, you should use the damn thing..." so i filled it... this was its first filling in essence. Guess what? The pen leaked in the same place. I have sent it back to OMAS to see what they say THIS time....

Now, the Arte.... as i said, i recieved it in exchange for my first Bologna. I set it in my case to stare at for a couple years. It is a very heavy pen. My case contains 39 other pens of various manufacture and age. JUST SITTING in the case, the cellulose became pitted and shrank. I have vintage pelikans and MBs in the same case and nothing happened to those pens, but the modern OMAS took a dump.... With the cellulose declining, I decided to use the Arte one day to see HOW heavy it was and atleast get SOME use out of it. I filled it and used it about a week, then I accedentally pushed the arte off a desk one day onto a carpeted floor, the pen hit at about a 15 degree angle with the section down. That force broke the inner sleeve that keeps the entire pen together. The internals of a pen with an MSRP of $1,000 has an injection molded ACETATE inner sleeve that is the back bone of the entire pen! I was disgusted. After i calmed down, i sent the pen to Kenro. 5 weeks later, the pen arrived back in my hands. If you are famililar with the Arco pattern, you will know that, when new, the pattern lines up AND the facets of the pen line up. When i received the pen back, not only did the pattern not line up, but NONE of the facets on the body lined up. The pen now has the appearance of a kit pen in my opinion....

I wrote to Kenro and OMAS about my dissatisfaction.... guess what.... neither has responded to my expierence.

I am on month 7 of waiting for the Burkina to return... the last three times i have phoned them, the response is "it is on it's way from Italy"

 

Still waiting for the Bologna to return..... During my last phone conversation, i asked if i get a special award if they keep my pen to the one year mark... they were not amused.... too bad...

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