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Let me preface this by saying I am a newcomer to this forum. In my short time on this board I have gained an amazing amount of knowledge by researching the posts of those who have shared their experiences and knowledge. I thank you all for sharing, and totally blame you for causing the re-occurrence of my once-dormant OCD addiction for fountain pens. After 28 years of fairly constant use, my beloved MB146 developed the dreaded collar leak. For the purposes of this story we shall call my MB 146 Penelope. On August 19 I sent Penelope off to MBNA in Fort Worth for a spa treatment. The following day I subscribed to FPN and read both good and bad experiences by MB owners regarding the quality of MBNA repairs and the time those repairs required. I began to wonder if I had made a wise decision. So this is me beginning a thread to communicate my experience with an MBNA repair. Your mileage may vary. Yesterday, August 29, 2013, I received my estimate from MBNA $53 for parts and labor, including piston replacement and nib adjustment. $10 for return shipping and handling. In my opinion, $63 total cost is a reasonable price in 2013 dollars, if the work is done well. It took ten days from the time I sent the pen (shipped UPS Ground August 19 from Southwest Florida) until I received the mailed written estimate. In my world that is an acceptable response time for a multi-national company's repair service, given that at least half of those ten days may have been time-in-transit by the USPS and UPS. Yesterday afternoon, the same day I received the estimate, I called MBNA to authorize and pay for the repair. The young lady at MBNA who took my credit card information was very knowledgeable and pleasant. She may or may not have been in Fort Worth, but this was obviously not her first MB fountain pen repair rodeo. She went through the repair process with me and advised repairs would take one week and I should have the pen back in my ink-stained fingers within two weeks. (OK, she didn't really say "ink-stained fingers".) Stay tuned, boys and girls, for the further thrilling adventures of "Penelope at the Montblanc Spa"...