Twsbi Experience From A New Owner

[hari317]

I agree with the OP that the shipping plays a major part. from what one reads on FPN, many folks have had to ask for replacement parts more than once. Most of the excellent TWSBI CS reviews we hear are from folks for who TWSBI has a local service centre and local shipping is no issue.

 

anyway i hope they just refund your money if that is an option you would like to take. I don't see how you can be happy with the pens after having gone through such hell even if the pens do end up repaired by TWSBI, was it worth the hassle?

[mikehodgman]

Man, this TWSBI experience bums me out. I've purchased three, a Mini, 540, and 580 and all are stellar performers. You must have some bad luck!

[msolok]

Yeah, i get the feeling i am just cursed. I finally have TWSBI responding to my emails again. Hoping for reasonablecome which doesn't cost me even more money. It looks like they are finally understanding me paying postage back would cost the same asbuying 2 brand new 580 nib units.

 

It's a pitty that this experience was taken the shine from the TWSBI pens. I can see these pens as being reasonable with nice nibs. Certainly not up to the standard of many other pens (such as Sailors or Lamys) but still good large capacity daily writers.

[stevekolt]

Sorry to hear about your predicament. Hopefully TWSBI will rectify the situation for you without additional cost to you. I guess I've been pretty lucky, my 2 Mini's have been great from the start, broad and extra fine nibs. Tempted to order the 1.5 stub nib for the variation.

 

Hope everything works out for you.

[msolok]

So I have heard back from TWSBI again.

 

I did as Speedy told me and I contacted the TWSBI Taiwan support email. After not getting a response for 2 days I contacted them again. I then got a response (and the response was for the US email as the Taiwan support had passed me back to them. Nice pointless running around there TWSBI) saying that they had somehow responded to the wrong email address (no idea how) and told me they would send me a replacement 1.1 Stub nib. I then asked about the other nibs and I waited for a response, which didn't come.

 

So I emailed them again yesterday asking what was happening. I then got another response from the US based email. In this email I have been told:

 

'A lot of times, there isn't anything wrong with the unit, just needs a slight tweak'. Sorry TWSBI, but if it needs a slight tweak there is something wrong.

 

'It is near impossible for one person to have issues with three pens from us'. So, I'm a Liar? I have pictures in my review of the TWSBI pens that indicate otherwise.

 

'We check and double check each pen before leaving the factory'. Uh Huh, a fair few people around (on both this forum and other forums) report issues with your nibs out of the factory. So your QC is not good, and your checking and double checking seems to be failing fairly consistently.

 

'At times someone might land a pen that might've slipped out of the factory with a finicky nib, however, for someone to get 3 pens with nib issues, that's lower than 1 percent'. Interesting. These figures are based on what? Sounds like one of the many stats that are simply made up on the spot to me.

 

Now, in fairness to TWSBI they have offered to pay for some of the shipping costs, but I honestly have no desire to deal with them after these emails. The emails I have gotten from them have been, at best, poor. I am apparently the bad guy for receiving poor quality goods. I have received a lot of poor service in my time, but TWSBI's has got to be some of the worst.

 

So, clearly TWSBI have no desire to rectify the issues they have, so I have decided to take a look myself. I used my Digital Camera to zoom in on the nib and what I found was each nib seems to have a bit of a baby's bottom. The nib on the VAC700 had the least, and the M nib on the 580 was the worst. I then got each of the nib units and filled a sink with hot water. I then submerged the nibs in the hot water and kept them there for a couple of hours.

I then dried the nibs, put them back on the pens and made sure ink was flowing. I then got some very fine sand paper (being in Aus with such a low percentage of FOuntain pen usage, tools for fountain pens are VERY hard to get a hold of) and gently rubbed the nibs on it, a couple of times in each direction. I would then test on paper.

 

After doing this for each of the pens, I now have pens with nibs that work far more in a far more reliable manner. Now, I have not had a huge amount of time to test each of the nibs, but from my testing so far the hard starting and skipping is totally resolved. The nibs are nice and smooth on the paper, although the 580 M nib has more feedback than the others.

 

So, after this entire rigmarole with TWSBI I finally have working pens. I had to fix them myself, and TWSBI support was pathetic, but at least they are working.

 

Are the pens worth everything I have been through? Not in a long shot.

[mhguda]

Thanks for sharing this adventure. Since I am also in a so-called out-of-the-way destination, shipping costs are important considerations, and shipping pens back for after sales service usually defeats a nice balance of the cost of a pen.

I currently have a TWSBI VAC700 in my shopping cart at a certain website. But your story, and especially this last turn of it, have convinced me to remove it. What a hell to go through, and for something so relatively easy to resolve - but of course you could only do it once you had decided you were not going to return the pens to them...

[maskull]

I, too, had a bit of trouble with my new VAC 700 and 580, and the same kind of trouble: hard-starting, skipping, unreliable flow, etc. It took a number of email exchanges with TWSBI, as well as nib adjustments done by both me and them, to get things worked out.

 

My current theory is that the new Jowo nibs are slightly flexy, just enough that the feed can't keep up when more flow is required. The old Bock/Schmidt nibs were nails, so this wasn't an issue. Although it's a bit of a last resort, you might try using an x-acto knife to widen the feed channel a bit.

[Gloucesterman]

On another thread (don't recall which one) someone recommended the use of the thin silver metal strips which are usually found inside packages of electonics as an anti-theft "device". These strips are inside a small white "stick-on thingy" about 1.25" by 3/8" (estimated). I have one from an HP ink cartridge box. (Sorry, I dont have any of the packaging to show.)

 

The author in the other thread recommended that you use the little metal strip as a super fine sandpaper substitute. I used it this morning running it between the tines to fine tune them - on a Nemosine Singularity with an extra fine nib. Worked like a charm. Before the tweaking, VERY dry writer with an occasional skip. The dryness was the real issue. After the tweak a nice medium wetness line using Iroshizuku Kon Peki ink. Yes, I know, the ink cost more than the pen :excl: Sometimes I like it that way.

 

Good luck with the tweaking and if you use an X-acto, be very, very careful of everything including your fingers.

-S-

[Fabienne]

...

My current theory is that the new Jowo nibs are slightly flexy, just enough that the feed can't keep up when more flow is required. The old Bock/Schmidt nibs were nails, so this wasn't an issue. Although it's a bit of a last resort, you might try using an x-acto knife to widen the feed channel a bit.

That is very interesting. I found that the Bock nib is a flexier one and the Jowo was slightly stiffer but not a nail. I think that the nib on my Mini is a Jowo and is the least flexy of all.

 

i also suspect a slight baby bottom with the 580 nibs. But that is just a suspicion, I can't prove it.

 

I have to say that once my 580 got fixed (Broad nib) it's a gem. I got a 1.1 stub and flushed the hell out of it and it writes like a dream.

[hsianloon]

Hm, sorry to hear that you've been having such misfortune with your TWSBIs seeing that you bought 3 at a go (wow by the way....) , My 1.1mm and medium wrote smooth from the start though it has a tendency to run dry throughout the day (even with unscrewing the filler cap at the back as advised), but otherwise good.

 

Who did you buy it from? TWSBI ? I bought mine from gouletpens

[RLTodd]

Fountain pens are fussy, which is why they ballpoint pen drove them out of the consumer market.

 

The Vac 700 is of a rather old and very fussy design. (I think the first fountain pen was a eyedroper.) If it didn't have an excellent nib, a modern feed, and the valve mechanism, no one who knows anything about fountain pens would touch them. BUT, with these technical inovations it is a very usable fountain pen. You just have to get use to it.

 

Several, not just one, flushes with soapy water usually gets the show going for a new pen. Sometimes a little pinching or spreading of the tines is necessary.

 

From what I have seen, this manufacture is doing a better job than average at turning out a quality product.

[Lynn Teague]

I have just gotten a TWSBI 580 with the 1.1 mm stub nib from Goulet pens. Usual Goulet service -- instantaneous and excellent. The pen works beautifully. I did a quick flush with weak mild detergent and then rinsed it thoroughly. It ran a bit dry with Rohrer & Klingner Salix (a notoriously dry iron-gall ink) but with Pilot Iroshizuku Tsuki-Yo it is perfect. Excellent flow and an extremely smooth writer. It shows off the shading of Tsuki-Yo beautifully.

[bullet08]

i got my 580 from amazon, which it seems, is from TWSBI. before purchasing the pen, i read extensively about it. first thing i did was making sure there was no major issue with nib. i noticed that the nib and the feed wasn't aligned properly. nothing major, just slightly off. reset the nib and the feed. made sure nothing else was wrong with the nib and how it was tuned. then flushed with soap and water. filled it with Noodlers Black Swan in English Roses.

 

the darn thing worked so great, i was shocked. only been using it for last 3-4 days..it's not too dry, nor is is it too wet. it's perfect.

[Algester]

I also have a TWSBI mini but the nib is EF so I had to work with it at first it was fine I was using black ink after all Sailor Kiwaguro but then I decided to temporarily retire the pen to test out my tuned Lamy 2000 then I decided to retire the Lamy 2000 (it was working very wet and good) went back to the mini loaded a Pilot Iroshizuku ink Ina-ho and surprise it was very dry so back to the table and loupe I decided to open the tines a little and it's now quite a wet pen smooth no less but the smoothing was also another battle since I had to smooth the nib but my Vac 700 will be different I'll grind a M nib to a stub and hopefully I can give it some flex... so an Angel Wings mod will be at work but I will decide that from further inquiry will a flexy stub be worth it or should I stick to a normal flexy nib

[Kyburo]

I have to say that either I got lucky or you were very unlucky. My Twsbi 580 writes like a beauty and is easily one of my favourite pens, but I've got it with a F nib and generally am using drier pelikan inks in it at the moment. Despite this, I've never had any problems with it at all, in fact it's also probably the most consistent pen I own!

[GUNGA GALUNGA]

I have corresponded with TWSBI, as well, and I also have the sense that they tend not to be very customer friendly.

[Jamerelbe]

I have corresponded with TWSBI, as well, and I also have the sense that they tend not to be very customer friendly.

 

I'm not entirely surprised to hear you say that - but only because I've seen similar comments elsewhere on FPN. My own experience has been very different, though: I crunched a nib (through carelessness) on my Diamond 580, reached out to TWSBI and told them what I'd done. They offered to fix the nib for me, if I shipped it back to them - then, when they realised I lived halfway across the world, they simply sent me a replacement, at no charge. The whole interaction was conducted by email, they were very kind and understanding - and helped me out even though I had made it clear the fault was mine. I'd call that more than customer friendly - I'd call it customer service above and beyond the call of duty!