Shameless Pilot Plug

[poorplanning]

So my older son got interested in my fountain pens and wanted one for his birthday. Having tried my small collection, we decided a Pilot Metropolitan would work well for him with a medium nib. He picked a color and gave me an idea of what ink color he wanted, and I ordered it in good time before his party. It arrived, I cleaned and wrapped it, so far so good. Within 24 hours of opening the present, he managed to lose the cap. Leaving it capless with ink in it worked about as well as you might imagine. Being an inexpensive pen, retailers aren't stocked full of replacement parts, it seems.

 

On a chance, I called the Pilot USA customer service number, expecting to pay about the cost of the pen to replace the cap, and that would only be if they could sell me a cap. I don't know if they took pity on me because of the story or what, but they sent me a new (refurbished) cap. It was free. I didn't even pay the shipping.

 

So a big Thank You to Pilot. Great customer service even on one of their inexpensive pens. Some days just calling politely, even with a big company like that, can fix a world of headaches.

[OCArt]

That's customer service!

[KKay]

Great story. I'm glad your son got a pen for his birthday. Pilot went above and beyond here. They saved the day. May your son love his pen, and take excellent care of it. This could very well be the start of something wonderful for him. :-)

[Tinjapan]

Great story indeed! Thanks for sharing.

 

 

P.S. Are you sure you really want another afflicted person in the family?

[Chrissy]

It's always nice to hear about good Customer Service. So often we only hear about it when it went wrong.

[Maurizio]

Good story though I'm not too surprised. I've had several good customer service experiences with Pilot USA though not dealing with a pen at the price level of a Metro. Bet you were dealing with Holly Lile (formerly Holly Hauser). I hope Pilot pays her well because she certainly helps the Co. enjoy a good reputation for customer service.

 

Pleased this worked out for you at the beginning of your son's fountain pen experiences.

[joehill]

I just had a not-so-good customer service experience with Pilot. I have 3 Custom Heritage 92s, the last two purchased from shop.j-subculture.com in order to get the FM nib that I prefer. I bought the last one in November of 2016. One (with a fine nib) is for grading student work on non-fountain-pen-friendly paper, one FM nib lives on my desk at home, and the newest one is my daily carry. I have never dropped it and I carry it in my shirt pocket. Late one morning in the middle of June, I looked down and I had a big asa-gao colored spot on my arm. Looking further, I saw a big round blue stain on my shirt. It turns out that the body of the pen had suddenly developed a 2-inch crack. I contacted Pilot USA and got a nice email from Holly Lile offering to send the pen to Japan. So I shipped the pen to Pilot USA, and they sent it to Japan. About 3 weeks later, I heard from Ms. Lile again saying that Pilot Japan had decided it wasn't warranty work and would replace the body of the pen for $81. Since I can buy a new pen for a little over $100, I declined. They will return my pen, and I'll have a spare nib.

 

There's obviously no way I can *prove* that the sudden crack was a manufacturing defect and not something I did to the pen. But when I compare this response to the way TWSBI responded to cracks (and to any other problem with their pens), I have to say that I'm not too impressed with Pilot's customer service. I can't blame this on Pilot USA in any way; Ms. Lile was helpful. But I can't say I'm a big fan of Pilot's customer service, either, and I'll be looking more at other pens in the future.

Edited July 27, 2017 by joehill

[amberleadavis]

I've had self induced problems with my capless but Pilot has been awesome.

[InkedPages]

Thanks for sharing a solid customer service experience!