Servicing Of Agatha Christie Piston

[Thaikie]

Greetings,

This is my first post here and will seek your advise/help.

I have a Agatha Christie fountain pen where the piston was not smooth when turned after being left in the drawers for several years without regular use.

The pen set was dear to me as it was a graduation gift from my dad and therefore I decided to send it in for servicing via Montblanc Taiwan.

Montblanc Taiwan feedback that due to the age of the pen the servicing has to be done in Hamburg which I agreed.

After being checked by Hamburg, I was quoted by Montblanc Taiwan NTD16,900 or equivalent of Euro 500 for:

1. Cap repair
2 Body repair
3. W1_Service Flat rate 1

At this point I have asked for the reasons and pictures for the quote. First response was there are hairline cracks on both the body and cap but the hairline crack on the cap is too fine and cannot be captured on picture. They therefore re-quoted me at NTD10,100 or USD300 for the last 2 items on their own accord.

Montblanc Taiwan's mentioned that the piston will need cleaning and greasing to resolve this issue, However what puzzles me is to do the cleaning and greasing on the piston, the body of the fountain pen has to be replaced with a new one as they are designed as one unit. I have read that Montblanc encourages their customers to send their pen in for routine servicing and think that it is silly to have the body replaced each time to get the piston cleaned and greased. Please share your experience on the servicing of this fountain pen to help me make my decision.

All the correspondence so far was done via Montblanc Taiwan and do you have experience with contacting Hamburg for direct answers?

Thank you so much for reading and looking forward to your comments,

[penmanila]

i have a couple of agathas so this thread might be of personal relevance to me at some point in the future. neither of my agathas has failed yet--one has been a daily user for three years now, the other is near-mint, but i lubricate it now and then with water, just to make sure the piston still works smoothly.

 

my one big montblanc repair had to do with an oscar wilde. like you, i live in asia, in the philippines, and so my wilde had to be sent to hamburg; it had begun to leak from the piston. it took about six months before i got it back. it was fixed, and the bill came to about $200, but i don't think they needed to replace the barrel to fix the piston.

Edited May 31, 2017 by penmanila

[zaddick]

You do not need to replace a body just to lubricate a piston. However, if they are claiming there are cracks, then MB is really ypur only option for repair as there are no spare parts around, and the price seems fair to me for basically a new pen. If there are cracks and you do not replace the body and cap, you are just waiting for failure.

 

I don't see why they could not take pictures under magnification to show you the issues, but MB service is not always the easiest to communicate with.

[dubhe]

You can send the pen direct to Hamburg with a covering letter and they will mail you a quote. When the pen is returned it is sent cash on delivery by UPS (or was for me in the UK earlier this year).

 

You can call them, but their English isn't great, emailing is easier but I did not always get a reply.

[BrandonA]

You can send the pen direct to Hamburg with a covering letter and they will mail you a quote. When the pen is returned it is sent cash on delivery by UPS (or was for me in the UK earlier this year).

 

You can call them, but their English isn't great, emailing is easier but I did not always get a reply.

 

I would contact MB too if I was the original poster.

 

My Proust has recently come back from a servicing at MB and the level of work exceeded my expectations. My Wilde is now currently with them.

 

Instead of contacting Germany direct though, I went via my local boutique.

[Ron Z]

Given the street value of the pen, I would have the pen restored by Montblanc. They are worth at least 2-3 times their original price.